David Boreanaz

The stars flesh out ’Bones’

Give me Bones over blood any day.

David Boreanaz plays a FBI agent suspicious of scientists; Emily Deschanel is a forensic anthropologist with uncanny insight. Fox

Let other crime shows compete for your attention by growing ever more sick, gory and graphic. Bones is built on a more traditional and solid foundation: the strength of its characters.

That’s not to say Bones doesn’t have the now-requisite effects-heavy show-and-tell tricks - in this case, holographic re-creations of the crime - or that those re-creations may not be more detailed than some would like.

But sadistic mayhem is not the draw here. What sets Tuesday’s Bones premiere apart from the procedural pack are stars Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz, as the season’s most appealing new crime fighters. About the show

Bones Fox, Tuesday, 8 ET/PT * * * 1/2 out of four

Based on the best-selling books by Kathy Reichs, as wittily adapted for TV by Hart Hanson, Bones casts Deschanel as Dr. Temperance Brennan, full-time forensic anthropologist and part-time novelist. Her ability to find homicidal clues in bones puts her into a combative, sexually charged partnership with FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth (Boreanaz).

A lesser show would turn their relationship into a battle between brains and brawn - but not Bones. Brennan is adept at martial arts and Booth is no dummy, despite his habit of referring to her scientific team as "squints" ("You know, you squint at things.").

Where they differ is in their approach: Brennan is better at reading evidence; Booth is better at reading people.

Together, they’re kind of a Nick and Nora for a new century, and the stars seem perfectly aligned for their roles. Deschanel is believably tough when she has to be, and yet brings out the vulnerability hiding behind Brennan’s walls.

As her "buttoned-down" partner with "buckets of sexual confidence," Boreanaz is leaner than he was in his Angel days but even more assured and amusing.

Strong as they are, the stars aren’t being asked to carry the show alone. They have a fine supporting cast behind them, including Michaela Conlin as Brennan’s down-to-earth best friend, Eric Millegan as her assistant, T.J. Thyne as the team’s bug expert, and Jonathan Adams as her boss.

Tonight’s opening case effectively highlights the characters and spells out their dynamic, while working on its own as a well-constructed mystery. The dialogue is almost always clever, but the show itself isn’t glib - it wants us to invest in the victims as well as the criminologists.

Don’t look to tonight’s premiere for any great advances in TV art, because you won’t find any. Bones isn’t the riskiest or most ambitious series coming your way this season. But it may turn out to be one of the most satisfying and entertaining

I don’t know many viewers who would make any bones about that.