Bones (2005)
Bones is a 2005 crime series created by Hart Hanson and Sean Callery. It stars Emily Deschanel, David Boreanaz and Michaela Conlin.
Temperance Brennan reads the dead the way other people read faces. She is a forensic anthropologist at the Jeffersonian, called in when a body is too burned, decomposed or scattered for ordinary identification, and paired with FBI agent Seeley Booth, who trusts his gut over the lab. Their bickering runs alongside bone fragments, bug evidence and the slow work of the squints. Across twelve seasons the show balances a case a week with a long-building romance and the found family of the Medico-Legal Lab. Emily Deschanel plays Brennan brilliant and socially adrift; David Boreanaz gives Booth warmth behind the badge.
Quick answers
What is Bones about?
Temperance Brennan reads the dead the way other people read faces. She is a forensic anthropologist at the Jeffersonian, called in when a body is too burned, decomposed or scattered for ordinary identification, and paired with FBI agent Seeley Booth, who trusts his gut over the lab. Their bickering runs alongside bone fragments, bug evidence and the slow work of the squints. Across twelve seasons the show balances a case a week with a long-building romance and the found family of the Medico-Legal Lab. Emily Deschanel plays Brennan brilliant and socially adrift; David Boreanaz gives Booth warmth behind the badge.
When was Bones released?
Bones was released on 13 September 2005.
How many episodes does Bones have?
Bones has 246 episodes across 12 seasons.
Who made Bones?
Bones was created by Hart Hanson, Sean Callery and Jamie Forsyth.
Where can I watch Bones?
Bones is available on BBC America, DirecTV On Demand, Hulu, Peacock, Peacock Premium and Philo.
Where to watch Bones
Stream: BBC America, DirecTV On Demand, Hulu, Peacock, Peacock Premium, Philo, Prime Video, YouTube TV
Rent: Google Play
Buy: Amazon, AppleTV, Fandango at Home, Google Play
Official site
Cast
- Emily Deschanel as Temperance 'Bones' Brennan
- David Boreanaz as Seeley Booth
- Michaela Conlin as Angela Montenegro
- T.J. Thyne as Jack Hodgins
- Tamara Taylor as Camille Saroyan
- John Francis Daley as Lance Sweets
- Eric Millegan as Zack Addy
- John Boyd as James Aubrey
- Patricia Belcher as Caroline Julian
- Michael Grant Terry as Wendell Bray
- Eugene Byrd as Clark Edison
- Carla Gallo as Daisy Wick
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A few thoughts on Bones
Bones grew out of Kathy Reichs's Temperance Brennan novels, starting with Deja Dead, grittier and more procedural than the series. For the same forensic-detective itch in a game, L.A. Noire walks you through crime scenes hunting the one detail that cracks a case. Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta books feed a similar autopsy-room curiosity.
Forensic pathologists and anthropologists who read bodies for a living
Bones puts a forensic anthropologist and bone evidence at the center of every case at the Jeffersonian. CSI: NY runs its own lab-coat procedural off physical trace evidence, Crossing Jordan builds its format around a medical examiner who won't let a body go unexplained, and The Chemistry of Death centers a forensic pathologist piecing together what a body can't say out loud.
A genius civilian and a badge-carrying partner solving crimes together
Bones runs on the friction between Brennan's lab-bound genius and Booth's street instincts, two very different toolkits solving the same case. Numb3rs pairs a mathematician with his FBI-agent brother the same way, Forever gives an immortal medical examiner a skeptical detective partner, and Wisdom of the Crowd hands a tech founder's crowdsourced tips to a cop who has to learn to trust them.
Detective work you play or read one clue at a time
Booth and Brennan build a case fact by fact, and that same clue-by-clue rhythm drives L.A. Noire, where reading a suspect's face is half the job. Disco Elysium turns detective work into a wandering, evidence-chasing investigation with a very unreliable narrator, Death Note flips the format into a genius playing cat and mouse with an unseen killer, and The Kindaichi Case Files sends a teen sleuth into locked-room puzzles.
Classic whodunits solved by a brilliant amateur sleuth
Bones dresses a classic mystery in lab coats, a body, a puzzle, and a detective noticing what everyone else missed. Agatha Christie's Murder in Three Acts and The Big Four run Poirot through the same deduction, Crooked House drops the killer inside one family's own house, and The Secret of the Old Clock sends a teenage Nancy Drew after the same kind of trail.