Fox Home Entertainment

I began watching Bones as a fan of David Boreanaz. The life and work ofKathy Reichs inspired the show, but viewers may be better off not knowing the Temperance Brennan from Reichs’s books. TV’s Brennan (Emily Deschanel)works at the Jeffersonian Institute in Washington DC, occasionally lending her expertise to the FBI. Brennan is ultra-professional, adept at identifying human remains, less than perfect dealing with the living. Her FBI contact, Special Agent Seeley Booth (Boreanaz) would rather trust his intuition and experience than wait for absolute scientific proof.

Almost right away I enjoyed watching Boreanaz as a layman among scientists,departing from his supernatural role as Joss Whedon’s Angel. I did not find Brennan immediately likable, and I think that was by design. Brennan’s team at the Jeffersonian, along with Booth, let her charms show gradually over the course of the first season.

Brennan’s team includes Angela Montenegro (Michaela Conlin)–a graphic artist who helps put names, faces, and bodies to sets of decomposed bones–Dr. Jack Hodgins (T.J. Thyne), “a dirt, bugs, and slime guy” andpart-time conspiracy theorist–and Zach Addy (Eric Millegan), Brennan’s super-intelligent, super-naive grad student. Over time, the characters developed their own quirky dynamic, and I came to know how each would reactto events, a familiarity that makes watching the show more fun.

The DVD set includes 22 widescreen episodes on 4 double-sided discs, two audio commentaries–on the Pilot by exec producers Hart Hanson and BarryJosephson, and on “Two Bodies in the Lab” by David Boreanaz and EmilyDeschanel–character profiles, and three featurettes.–

Gerald So