David Boreanaz

It seems like stereotypes plague the series Bones - there’s a super-brain, a brawn, a paranoid geek, a conspiracy-obsessed freak and a good time gal.

In the pilot, there was even a reference to The X-Files’ Scully and Mulder when the main characters here - a scientist and an FBI agent - agree to become partners in crime-solving. And if some scenes in the lab remind viewers of the CSI franchise, it is probably intentional too. After all, these are successful shows.

Emily Deschanel plays Dr Temperence Brennan in the crimedrama series Bones. About the only thing that sets this series apart from the others is that Bones is based on the life of novelist and forensics anthropologist Kathy Reichs, whose field of expertise is bones.

Reichs’s character in the TV show called Dr Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel), nicknamed Bones by her partner, is somewhat of a superwoman. She is one of the top anthropologists in the world, she has a best-seller crime novel, she’s a sharp shooter and an expert at martial arts. About the only things she’s not too good at are relationships and being sensitive, and she does not have very good fashion sense since she keeps wearing a pair of ugly boots.

While she’s blur about pop culture - probably to allow Special Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz of Angel) to crack some jokes - she knows a lot about a dead person by analysing his bones.

And with that we have another bone to pick - as if it is not enough that everyone kept referring to her intelligence and expertise in the pilot, the writers insist on reminding us from time to time. Okay! We get it. It does take a bit of an effort to get to like this brazen doctor who seems to have no regard for anyone or anything other than solving the next puzzle involving a dead person.

Sadly, the cases are not that interesting either. Now, if she is an anthropologist who is an expert in skeletal remains, why call her in to identify a bomb victim in one of the episodes?

The first thing her team does is to plant some worms to eat up the burnt flesh so they can reconstruct the bones. Erm, wouldn’t a DNA test be easier for identification purposes?

Halfway through the show, they realise the man has been poisoned and they need his liver sample. So they conduct a test on the worms.

“They are what they eat,” says a guy in the lab. Grissom (of CSI) would have told the lab team off - first for not keeping the flesh sample, and two for making the innocent worms pay for a mistake they made.

By episode four, you get a feeling that the whole set up is not about the cases after all. Rather, Bones’ focus is on figuring how Temperance and Seeley are going to embark on an intimate relationship. Oh brother!

Boreanaz and Deschanel do have a little spark when they start bantering on their differences. But we’ve seen much better bantering in Moonlighting and The X-Files.

The scriptwriters give the storyline some interesting twists, with the weekly murderers varying from politician, manipulative students and psychos.

While Bones may not bore you out of your skull, the series unfortunately makes up for average television viewing only. Since it got renewed for a second season, Bones must have picked up its act along the way. The question now is, do we keep watching to see if it improves?

Bones is aired every Friday at 8.30pm on Ntv7.