David Boreanaz

Rotting human flesh, bug-infested corpses and a little sarcasm go a long way in a television schedule overrun with detective dramas.

"Bones," which airs on Fox on Tuesdays at 8 p.m., is a fun show to watch because it entertains while combining murder, mystery and forensic evidence with sharply written one-liners to lighten the mood.

Dr. Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) is an austere forensic anthropologist at the Jeffersonian Institute, a thinly veiled version of the Smithsonian. She is frequently lent out to the FBI to work with special agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz), a former army sniper who is filled with remorse about his past and trying to make amends.

Brennan works with a team of other scientists, or "squints" as Booth calls them. Nerdy graduate student assistant Zack Addy (Eric Millegan) is constantly picked on by the millionaire conspiracy theory-spouting Dr. Jack Hodgins (TJ Thyne), whose job is to examine the bugs on human remains. Rounding out the team is Brennan’s best friend Angela Montenegro (Michaela Conlin), a flirtatious artist who provides sketches of the victims’ faces to go along with their bones.

The show allows viewers to look at a murder from two different perspectives. Brennan and her team provide the scientific evidence, hard facts supporting their theory. Booth, on the other hand, is more understanding of human nature. He hypothesizes motives for crimes and is quick to pick up on ticks that clue him into someone’s guilt. When speaking to the parents of one victim, he realizes their lawyer was having an affair with the girl. After seeing mementos of a deceased DJ’s life, Booth believes he was murdered instead of having died from an overdose. He is the heart of the operation, which balances out the scientific coldness of Brennan.

Deep commitment to her work leaves Brennan severely lacking in the social skills department, which ends up being the source of a lot of the show’s laughs. She looks at everything as an anthropological study. Her lack of knowledge about popular culture is a running joke. When Zack holds out his fist for her to bump after they receive some good news, she looks confused.

"I’m told it’s a widely acknowledged gesture of mutual success," he tells her.

Whenever Booth makes a reference in conversation to a musician or movie, she gives him an empty stare.

"Just because you say it in that definitive tone doesn’t mean it means anything to me," she tells him.

In a television schedule packed with forensic detective shows, "Bones" sticks out from the rest because the funny quips the actors trade while solving murders help humanize the cold forensic evidence.