David Boreanaz

Bones: A Sneak Peek at Season 2

When TVGuide.com caught up with David Boreanaz at last year’s Comic-Con, he had just shot the pilot for the Fox series Bones and was scheduled to film the next batch of episodes as soon as he got back to L.A. At that point, no one had any idea how the show would fare in the ratings. What a difference a year makes. Returning to San Diego a few weeks ago, the former angsty vampire was all smiles, secure in the knowledge that his character, FBI agent Seeley Booth, would be solving forensic crimes opposite Dr. Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) for another season. After appearing at a Bones panel discussion (moderated by TV Guide’s Lisa Chambers), Boreanaz and executive producer Hart Hanson gave TVGuide.com some inside info on how Brennan and Booth will be spending their sophomore year.

TVGuide.com: You must feel a certain confidence going into Season 2, after a successful first season.

David Boreanaz: Well, I felt confident going into the start of last season, too. Being confident is part of the work you do on a show. But going to work this season is very exciting. Hart has made some considerable changes as far as writers and producers that have come on, and [as far as ] the new director of photography. The stuff I’ve seen [from this season] looks fantastic, totally different. It’s good to be in the position we are in, where we have an identity for what the show is. Last year at this time we knew that the show worked overall, but we had to find out what didn’t work. You always do that as the shows progress.

Hart Hanson: We know what everybody can do now, and we’ve seen where the good mixtures are. For example, David and T.J. [Thyne, who plays Hodgins] have a good thing going that we’re exploiting.

TVGuide.com: Has anything else changed for this season?

Hanson: We brought in a pathologist [to be played by Lost’s Tamara Taylor] who is in charge of forensics at the lab, so Brennan now has a boss and they have completely different agendas about what the lab should do. They’ll always have different points of view, and David is stuck in the middle.

TVGuide.com: Last season ended with a major revelation about Brennan’s family. Are there any big surprises in store for Booth this year?

Hanson: We get lots more of Booth’s life this season - he’ll have women, for example. And, of course, as we delve into the onion skin of Temperance’s story, we’ll find that it goes back into Booth and his early days in the FBI. There are also troubles with the mother of his child (The Practice’s Jessica Capshaw). Plus, we’ll find out what some of his fatal flaws are.

Boreanaz: Which is exciting because it all goes back to Emily and her character and what is affecting her in her search for her father. It’s exciting how it affects Bones in terms of how she runs her stuff.

TVGuide.com: Will the simmering sexual tension finally blossom into a full-fledged romance?

Hanson: Actually, there’s so much sexual tension between David and Emily when you don’t write it that you don’t have to write it into the script. In fact, it’s kind of bothersome when she comments on his dates and so on. But we mine it for all it’s worth.

Boreanaz: It’s great to have that interest as far as the healthiness of the character. Is he going to cross a line with her, or is he not? The flirtatious stuff will happen and if the other elements come in, I think it’s normal. This season we’re just more and more at ease with each other [as actors]. There’s a great scene in the first episode where the two of us are on a stakeout and we’re waiting for this deal to go down, and it becomes intimate and flirtatious. Will they kiss, or won’t they?

TVGuide.com: The penultimate episode last season delved into the controversy surrounding the Iraq war. Was that a difficult show to act in, let alone write?

Boreanaz: It was a fine line to kind of walk, politically. Some things you support politically and some things you don’t. That’s the great thing about this character - he always seems to be going back and forth over the line of what’s correct and what’s not. I like that juxtaposition. It was a great episode to work on and it really went to his past. Of course, I’m not into the whole crying thing. [Laughs]

Hanson: You could see [David] wresting with how to do that scene. He takes it seriously. A lesser actor - and I’m not just kissing ass here, David - would say, "It makes me nervous, I’ll skip over it." But David worked at it and what we had in the editing room was great. On the political front we were honestly surprised that people found us to be knocking Bush. We were very careful to knock war, because war is bad!

TVGuide.com: David, have you gotten a little more used to the procedural speak?

Boreanaz: I don’t think about that - Emily’s the damn scientist! [Laughs] I enjoy being able to interpret what they’re saying. I find it fun to be on the audience side, saying, "What the hell did you just say? Let me define it in my terms." Like, "Why don’t you just call a jar a jar?"

TVGuide.com: Are there any specific things you’d like to see happen on the show this year?

Boreanaz: I’d like to see a car chase, like an homage to Bullitt or something like that. And I’ve always wanted to run on top of a train, jumping from one car to the next. I just like fast trains and fast cars.

Hanson: David has a knack for coming up to me and saying, "I’ve got an idea...." And I put all of his ideas in my computer. The last one was, "A body under home plate in Wrigley Field."

Boreanaz: Yeah, Bones goes to the ballpark. For some reason I want to get stuck in a rolled-up carpet. She’s looking for me, and I’m rolled up in a carpet. I’m like, "I’m down here and I can’t get up." I’d like to play a scene like that.

Hanson: He doesn’t stop! [Laughs]