“Every body has secrets.”
Dr. Temperance Brennan and her colleagues at the Jeffersonian's Medico-Legal Lab assist Special Agent Seeley Booth with murder investigations when the remains are so badly decomposed, burned or destroyed that the standard identification methods are useless.
Where to Watch
Streaming, rent and purchase options
Episodes
1. Pilot
Pilot episode. After returning to Washington, D.C., renowned forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan is called in by FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth to aid an FBI investigation involving a set of bones found hidden in a lake.
2. The Man in the S.U.V.
When a man is killed driving an SUV registered to a Middle Eastern man, Dr. Brennan and her team find themselves tracking a terrorist.
3. A Boy in a Tree
When the decaying corpse of the Venezuelan Ambassador's son is found hanging from a tree on the campus of an exclusive private school, a simple suicide case quickly turns into a web of lies, sex and scandal involving the school's staff and students.
4. The Man in the Bear
Brennan and Booth travel to Washington to investigate a human arm that was found in the stomach of a black bear.
5. A Boy in a Bush
Booth asks Brennan to help locate and identify the remains of a six-year-old boy, Charlie, who went missing from a local park.
6. The Man in the Wall
When Brennan and Angela get caught in a fight in a dance club, Brennan kicks someone into a wall, which causes the wall to break open and reveal a mummified corpse and a meth stash.
7. A Man on Death Row
A death row inmate asks for Booth's help to prove his innocence before he is scheduled to be executed. Booth agrees and asks Brennan and her team to help him out.
8. The Girl in the Fridge
Brennan is about to go out for dinner with her old professor and ex-lover when Booth asks her and her team to help identify the remains of a young woman found in a refrigerator.
9. The Man in the Fallout Shelter
Brennan and her team are brought in to identify the body of a man found in a fallout shelter. While cutting into the bones of the man, Zach accidentally releases a deadly fungus, causing the team to be quarantined over Christmas.
10. The Woman at the Airport
Brennan and Booth investigate the body parts of a woman found near L.A. International Airport. Their investigation is slowed due to extensive cosmetic surgery the victim had done.
11. The Woman in the Car
When a woman’s burned body is found in a car with signs that her child was kidnapped, Brennan and Booth suspect the father, Carl Decker. But things get complicated when Decker turns out to be in the Witness Protection program.
12. The Superhero in the Alley
Brennan and Booth investigate the origins of a decomposed body that's been found in a local alley and determine it's the remains of a shy teen with an alter ego.
13. The Woman in the Garden
Booth and Brennan investigate when a dug up corpse is found in the back of a gang member's car. While being questioned, a drive-by shooting allows him to escape. Booth and Brennan follow the clues, which lead them to an empty grave and another body in a grave at a wealthy senator's house, where the gang member used to work.
14. The Man on the Fairway
Brennan and Zach investigate a small jet crash that was carrying some Chinese diplomats and a woman. At the crash site, Brennan finds some bone fragments that do not belong to any of the passengers, but might belong to a man who has been missing for five years. Although ordered to work only on the diplomats, Brennan and her team go rogue to try to discover the identity of the extra bones.
15. Two Bodies in the Lab
When Brennan decides to give online dating a try, she ends up the target of a shooting at the local restaurant where she's meeting her date. The resulting investigation reveals that the shooter could be connected to either of the two cases she's currently working on.
16. The Woman in the Tunnel
Brennan and Booth stumble upon a subterranean world of homeless people when they find the remains of a filmmaker in the ventilation shaft of an underground tunnel.
17. The Skull in the Desert
While on vacation, Angela's boyfriend goes missing . When a skull shows up, she asks Brennan for help in identification, concerned it might be her boyfriend or the female guide who went missing with him. The investigation leads the team to a violent boyfriend, the local sheriff and ultimately to a counterfeiting ring setup in the desert.
18. The Man with the Bone
A human finger bone found in the clutches of a drowning victim leads to a search for buried treasure.
19. The Man in the Morgue
A trip to New Orleans leaves Bones beaten, bloodied, and suspected of murder while plunged into the world of voodoo.
20. The Graft in the Girl
The team helps Deputy Director Sam Cullen's daughter, Amy, when she contracts a rare form of lung cancer after receiving a bone graft. Booth and Brennan learn she is not the only victim with this rare form of cancer.
21. The Soldier on the Grave
Brennan and Booth investigate an apparent suicide in Arlington National Cemetery, but soon discover it is a murder linked to a military cover-up.
22. The Woman in Limbo
Brennan receives some bones to identify, but is stunned when she discovers that the remains are those of her mother who disappeared when she was 15 years old. The determined date of her mother's death leaves Bones confused and angry.
Cast & Crew
Emily Deschanel
Temperance 'Bones' Brennan
David Boreanaz
Seeley Booth
John Boyd
James Aubrey
Michaela Conlin
Angela Montenegro
Tamara Taylor
Camille Saroyan
T.J. Thyne
Jack Hodgins
Story & Production Details
Reviews & Thoughts
I have mixed feelings about this show. It has its pros and cons. **Pros:** It has highly developed characters you care about them. All of them are unique in their own way. Main character - Temperance ("Bones") used to annoy me at first, but in late seasons she changed, matured, she grew on me and became one of my favorite characters; she is a very classy and pretty woman. Overall, the show highlights great character development. **Cons:** Show suffers from a highly repetitive "body of the week" formula. Literally each episode follows a rigid path: A disgusting decomposed or mangled corpse is discovered (don't recommend watching this show while eating), a specific bone fragment provides a "miracle" clue, and a predictable interrogation leads to a confession in the final minutes. This focus on skeletal remains often feels like a shallow substitute for a compelling plot. The technical jargon and gross-out effects of the forensic lab eventually lose their novelty, occasionally leading to "silly" episodes that lack real tension. Also, I need to highlight that show gets slightly better after season 10 and we get some normal, better episodes instead of this stupid "body of the week" formula. I just wished we had all episodes without it, then I would rate this show higher.
