Temperance Brennan is a serious-minded forensic anthropologist who gets angry when a young assistant refers to damaged human remains as “crispy critters.” She has respect for the bones and reverence for the lab.
She knows the bones have stories to tell. And she’ll camp out in the lab all night reassembling skull fragments so that she can gain clues from the “architecture of a face.”
In “Bones,” premiering at 7 p.m. Tuesday on Fox (KDVR-Channel 31), the character of Brennan is based on best-selling author and forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs, whose books have seen protagonist Tempe Brennan through all manner of international forensic sleuthing.
The science illustrated in the lab – notably holographic images re-creating victims’ faces – is authentic too. “CSI” has nothing on the video tricks and imaginative camera work used here.
Brennan, played by Emily Deschanel, clearly has an easier time relating to inanimate body parts than to living, breathing humans. She slams the door on her ex-boyfriend and builds psychological barriers against the man who could, someday, be a more promising love interest.
That man is FBI special agent Seeley Booth, played by David Boreanaz, with whom she’s teamed to solve cases. He doesn’t have much use for science or her “holographic crystal ball,” claiming the lab geeks don’t know anything about the real world.
Similarly, she has little use for him or his reliance on gut feelings. Their interactions range from toxic to hot. Call it chemistry: Sparks fly with the frequency of the old Scully-and-Mulder days. Once again, he’s the warm and fuzzy one, she’s the toughie verging on cold.
As the prickly scientist insists on following the determined cop into the field, the dialogue rises to sophisticated repartee.
The first episode concerns the discovery of a body that turns out to be that of a senator’s intern. The references to a real Washington, D.C., murder mystery are chilling as the camera takes in landmarks from the Botanic Gardens to Arlington National Cemetery. The clues accrue as usual, but the banter indicates this series aims higher than the standard TV procedural.
Deschanel and Boreanaz are interesting physical specimens on camera, neither classically pretty nor model perfect, each powerful in close-ups. You might say the architecture of their faces is compelling. She has intense, despairing eyes and a hint of a cleft chin; he has that prominent brow, deep set eyes and long face. Together they keep us guessing.
“I hate when you make paranoia plausible. It’s like sliding off a cliff,” she tells one of her eccentric lab geniuses. They’re a well-defined and fun group, even when they’re not drinking cocktails out of lab beakers. And the expansive lab set, lined floor-to-ceiling with bones, is inviting.
Executive producers Barry Josephson (“Hide and Seek,” “Like Mike”) and Hart Hanson (“Joan of Arcadia,” “Judging Amy”) have created a smart, dark and flirty drama that deserves a wide sampling.
“I hate psychology,” Brennan says. She doesn’t approve of what she calls soft science; she’s into the hard stuff. Like bones. Her antipathy to introspection invites us to analyze her further, of course. Orphaned at a young age, she has a bundle of defenses. Did we mention she’s also trained in martial arts and an ace with a gun?
Brennan (“Don’t call me bones”) is going to be one wonderfully tough case to crack.
“Bones” is well paired on Tuesdays with Fox’s other high-end drama, “House.” The second-season premiere, Tuesday at 8 p.m. on Channel 31, features the irascible Dr. House (Hugh Laurie) taking on the case of a death-row inmate, played by LL Cool J in a memorable guest turn. Difficult to say which one is more obnoxious, the doctor or the patient. It’s a typically complex hour that proves, like “Bones,” that complicated, flawed, even off-putting heroes are most interesting.
TV critic Joanne Ostrow can be reached at 303-820-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com.
