OVERALL: I have watched this show from the beginning and have enjoyed it thoroughly. I caught the show by accident when I was channel surfing and saw David Boreanaz who plays Seelie Booth. I thought, let’s give this a try ’cause wow that woman with Boreanaz is cool!  I hope Bones never goes off air!

POINTS: The show has a strong ensemble cast with crime and science and lots of humor. Plus enjoyable frank conversations about life including sex and science and cultural relativity. *sigh* Makes me happy.

PITFALLS: Well every now and then Dr. Temperance Brennan, well played by Emily Deschanel, makes me want to bang my head on a wall for her lack of emotional or social intelligence. In a way she is like Sherlock Holmes – another character lacing in emotional and social intelligence. There are also times Brennan does understand situations so sometimes I wonder when they will make her overly intellectual. It is fun though to watch how the other characters react and interact with her. Even better when she grows from her interactions with the other characters.

FEMALE CHARACTER(S): Why did I start watching this show for the science smart female lead character Dr. Temperance Brennan? You bet I did! Plus there are wonderful secondary female characters – Angela Montenegro (Michaela Conlin) and Dr. Camille Saroyan (Tamara Taylor) are fully realized people that are fun to watch.

CULTURAL PITFALL(S): Hmmm… I’ll let you know. Or rather, you tell me.

HIGH POINT(S): Character growth. I love seeing how the characters – all of them – have changed over the years. Plus the science is fun, if inaccurate. (Sorry people, but the speed with which Brennan identifies sex and race from the skeletal remains is not realistic.) It is a good and quirky ensemble. The characters do not all look alike nor do they act alike. I have enjoyed this show since I first saw it.

Also I like the sexual honesty in the show. The characters talk frankly about sex as adults without passing judgment. In short, they talk like adults and not like children. I appreciate that.

BECHDEL TEST (Website): Couldn’t find it on the Website but it is a 3 of 3. We have at least three main women who talk mostly about crime, cases, and science. They also do talk about life and sometimes even men.

RACIAL BECHDEL TEST (Website): 3 of 3. YAY!!! Angela Montenegro played by Michaela Conlin is of Chinese American descent and  Cam played by Tamara Taylor is African-American. Both women also have European ancestry. When the two characters talk, and it is nearly every episode, their conversations are about crime, cases, and science. Though they do also talk about people, especially Brennan, and those people tend to be white.  Cam’s lover, Arastoo Vaziri is Iranian (if memory serves me correctly) and is played by Pej Vahdat. Another African-American intern is Dr. Clark Edison played by Eugene Byrd. In short, although mostly, Bones is not an all white show.

IMDB: Bones (TV Series 2005-)

OFFICIAL WEBSITE:  Bones on FOX

DVD/BLU-RAY WORTHY: Yes. In fact it would be fun to watch this over again from the beginning.

LION PAW PRINTS:  3 of 5. This show is TiVo’d for a reason.