Bones: Season 4 [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] - Region 1 DVD

Season four of Bones finds the show in particularly rich form. Brennan and Booth have a variety of different cases to tackle, as you’d expect, backed up with exposition about earlier events and many interesting new developments. It’d be remiss to spoil them here, but Bones, to its credit, manages to be as fresh and as interesting as when it first arrived.

What helps gives the show a distinction is its marriage of genres. At its heart, it’s a hard-nailed crime show, but it effortlessly weaves in comedy, romance and some very impressive twists, with an undercurrent of unpredictability that serves it well. The writers clearly had their thinking caps on for season four, too, and while there are one or two lulls, they’re easily compensated for by some very impressive episodes. The relationship between Brennan and Booth clearly sits at the core of the show, and even that--appreciating that television has taken us down similar roads in the past--is interesting to watch, and well realised.

Bones might, at first glance, be easy to dismiss as just another crime show. But there’s genuinely impressive work going on here, and some very smart writing. If it’s at this level of quality four seasons in, then Bones has a very bright future ahead of it. --Jon Foster