In the US: Second season, Wednesdays, Fox, 8/7c
In the UK: Not airing at the moment. Sky One and Five (probably) for the second season. Nothing official yet.
Characters re-cast: 0
Major characters gotten rid of: 0-1
Major new characters: 1
Format change percentage: 10%
I didn’t take to the first episode of Bones. It all seemed just a little bit too silly compared with CSI (which is saying something). I’ve watched a few episodes of the first season since, and it’s still pretty ropey.
So I went into this with low expectations. Was I justified? Pretty much. I won’t say it was awful, but it’s still not a fantastic piece of television.
In case you’ve missed out on Bones, the plot is very simple. Really, really simple. Dr. Temperance ‘Bones’ Brennan (Emily Deschanel) is a forensic anthropologist who works for the ‘Jeffersonian Institute’. She puts her scientific knowledge – as well as that of her research team – to use for the FBI, by investigating the bones and bodies of murder victims; the FBI, in the form of Special Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz from Angel), spends its time insulting her in return, usually by pointing out her social skills are rubbish. There’s also a strange sub-plot about whether her dad got someone murdered for killing her mother as well.
So far, so ordinary. Season two sees an addition to the cast, a new boss for Bones at the Jeffersonian, Dr. Camilla Saroyan (Tamara Taylor,) who has a history of some sorts with Booth. The actual boss of the Jeffersonian is on sabbatical for a couple of months, which either means he’s gone from the cast or will be back at a later date, probably the former.
Other than that, things are pretty much the same. Booth spends all his time having a go at Brennan for having no social skills (has she really not got the message yet? And why doesn’t she tell him to sod off and learn some manners if he has such great social skills?), Brennan just wants to prove how great she is as a scientist; and there’s a rather rubbish attempt at sexual tension between the two, the sort you’d expect from the last man and last woman alive on Earth if they were both gay and realised they were the only ones left that could keep the species going. The injection of Saroyan appears to be an attempt to crank the tension up a notch, but you’d probably get more sparks by rubbing together a set of posable action figures.
If you’re an existing Bones fan, there’s really nothing new to spoil what you already love. If you’ve not watched Bones yet, don’t regard this as your chance to get into it, because it’s still a pile of pants. Maybe if CSI is after your bedtime or if you’re a romantic, convinced that brainy girls who just work hard enough will be able to turn the heads of handsome virile men, you’d enjoy it. If not, there are better programmes to idle your hours away with.
