BONES

BONES, a darkly amusing procedural in its eighth season, is inspired by real-life forensic anthropologist and novelist Kathy Reichs. DR. TEMPERANCE BRENNAN (Emily Deschanel) is a highly skilled forensic anthropologist who works at the Jeffersonian Institute in Washington, D.C., and writes novels on the side. When the standard methods of identifying a body are useless (when the remains are so badly decomposed, burned or destroyed), law enforcement calls on Brennan for her uncanny ability to read clues left behind in the victim's bones.

While most people can't handle Brennan's intelligence, her drive for the truth or the way she flings herself headlong into every investigation, SPECIAL AGENT SEELEY BOOTH (David Boreanaz) of the FBI's Homicide Investigations Unit is an exception. A former Army sniper, Booth mistrusts science and scientists - the "squints," as he calls them - who pore over the physical evidence of a crime.