Bones

Chicago Sun-TimesDoug Elfman

Boreanaz and Deschanel stir good chemistry as a crime-fighting duo.

USA TodayRobert Bianco

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.

TV GuideMatt Roush

You might think you can't possibly fit one more crime-solving procedural onto an overcrowded calendar, but consider giving Bones a break.

Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin

The show's witty, inventive writing would be fun even in the hands of a less capable cast.

People WeeklyTom Gliatto

Emily Deschanel is well cast as Brennan--she has the right sort of drained, remote presence, as if still working off last night's sleeping pill--and she's also well cast against David Boreanaz. [19 Sep 2005, p.45]

Detroit Free PressMike Duffy

Besides the nifty, repressed romantic dynamic between Brennan and Booth, "Bones" has some fun with snazzy hologram visualizations of the murder victims in each case.

Houston ChronicleMike McDaniel

Like CSI and its offshoots, Bones will take viewers to dark and sometimes disgusting places. So, in one sense, Fox may have come up with a format that will reach both men, who love unappetizing scenes, and women, because of the female heroine.

San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman

Deschanel, who's believable either serious or perplexed -- and adorable in her quirkiness -- immediately becomes this series' most important ingredient.

New York MagazineJohn Leonard

As science and as detection, Bones has a way to go before it’s more than a bug in Grissom’s Vegas eye. But the screwball romance is promising.

Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert

An engaging crime show that borrows plenty from the ''CSI" franchise but adds a layer of light character drama.

Hollywood ReporterRay Richmond

While "Bones" has too much "X-Files" and "CSI" going in the pilot to feel completely original, it's nonetheless a taut, well-constructed, character-rich procedural with genuine potential.

Entertainment WeeklyGillian Flynn

If Bones holds up, it'll be because that old Sam-and-Diane, Maddie-and-David, Mulder-and-Scully opposites-attract stuff never feels standard when it's done right.

New York PostAdam Buckman

In tonight's premiere of "Bones," for example, super-sleuth Temperance concludes from the young victim's bones that she was probably a tennis player -- a nifty conclusion, but one that has no bearing on the case. It's a factoid that leads nowhere, which is kind of where "Bones" goes in its premiere episode.

Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker

Deschanel exudes a luminous quality that elevates this grim, conventional show.

Cleveland Plain DealerMark Dawidziak

There's a fine line between clever and labored, and "Bones" sometimes strays over that line with one-liners about skull fragments, blood samples, X-rays and microbes. That's where "see how cleverly we can banter" writing creeps into the otherwise crisp proceedings.

Los Angeles TimesPaul Brownfield

Rather too slick for its own good.

New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley

The quality of the mystery in the pilot, no better than mediocre, is what keeps this series from starting off with a wider lead at the opening gun.

Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm

It could use a little more dramatic meat on its predictable framework.

The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley

Clings to proven formulas.

The Onion A.V. Club

Boreanaz and Deschanel have nice chemistry... but the script also tends to undermine its brighter moments with dialogue that repeats the exposition and the characters' defining traits over and over again.

VarietyBrian Lowry

Deschanel comes off a little too much like a sorority girl rather than a scientist with missing-parent issues.

Seattle Post-IntelligencerMelanie McFarland

"Bones" probably will remind more viewers of a cross between "CSI" and "The X-Files," except with more humorous banter than the first, and more romantic heat than the latter.

Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen

It's an (occasionally) frothy mix -- comedic moments tumble into serious scenes of forensic examination -- that's not altogether terrible, but neither does it beg to be watched on a regular basis.

Chicago TribuneSid Smith

The scientific setup may be intriguing... But the dialogue, including the contrived sexual tension between Temperance and Seeley, is strictly canned and cutesy.

Kansas City StarAaron Barnhart

A flimsy little procedural that uses logical and technological leaps of faith to hide its central problem: lack of co-star chemistry.

PopMattersRoger Holland

Bones is a very poor cross between the X-Files and CSI with characters stolen from NCIS, plot devices from Veronica Mars, and topicality from Law & Order.

SlateDana Stevens

Memo to network execs planning an all-forensics programming slate for fall: Watching attractive people poke at skull fragments is not inherently interesting.

Washington PostTom Shales

The heroine, unlikely in every detail including her name, Temperance Brennan, goes about reassembling corpses and then divining how they got to be that way. It's precise, tedious work and so is watching this show.

NewsdayVerne Gay

It's as if we've all passed this way (many times) before and could write the dialogue, act the scenes, predict the outcome all in our sleep.