Bones: The Complete Series (The Flesh and Bones Collection) - DVD Review

[Michael Scott]

Bones: The Complete Series (The Flesh and Bones Collection)

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Final Score:


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Movie

It’s kind surreal to go back through a series that is just finishing up. Especially when that has been a show that you started out with on day one and is a long running program. It’s easy to forget just how fast time can flow when you’re not paying attention, and going back to the beginning of something that has spanned over a decade is especially surreal. That’s the case with this mega “Flesh and Bones Collection” from Fox as I JUST got done this week watching all of the series’ last season and have been chewing through the original years for this complete boxset. Seeing how people age and change, characters that were written off or died off coming back, and the easy comparison how actors adapt and mold the characters from the early iterations on to how they become in later years (the very first episode you can tell that Emily Deschanel hadn’t really figured out how to play Bones just yet in comparison to how she is in later episodes of the same season even). Still, it’s a blast to chew through all that material and re-watch the show with new eyes and a new vigor.

Bones is actually nothing that special if you think about it critically. There are a million (well, maybe not a million, but there are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many investigative CSI style crime dramas out there) crime dramas out there and Bones doesn’t really make itself THAT unique in their gimmick. The biggest gimmick being that they use CSI evidence from the remains of people who can’t be identified through anything but their bones. It’s kind of cool, but the novelty really wears off after a while (as do most of the crime drama gimmicks), leaving the real attraction behind. That is, the characters and their interactions. I’ve said this in prior reviews, but the attraction of the crime drama show is never really about the gimmick or the crimes. It’s about the characters and how they interact and grow on you. Like a sitcom you’re not sitting down to watch some giant overarching serialized plot, but rather sitting down to watch your favorite characters grow. The same can be said for Bones.

The show has had its ups and its downs, but I still firmly stand behind the analysis that the show really hit its stride in the 2nd or 3rd season and didn’t slow down until about season 7 or 8. At that point the show was starting to feel a bit stretched and thin. Booth had grown and adapted about as far as he could and the show runners were pretty bound and determined to make Dr. Brennan (Bones, played by Emily Deschanel) about as rigid and inflexible in her beliefs as she could be. This created a sort of impasse where she had zero upward momentum as a character anymore and the show runners had a hard time dealing with that. Once she and Booth got into a SERIOUS relationship it became obvious that Bones needed to change a bit so they softened her character with motherhood and she became a much more likable person. The only problem is that it really didn’t come off as very organic. The growth was sudden and sharp, leaving long time fans feeling slightly “off” with the new Bones.

Still, there were some great additions to the show post season 8 as we had Sweets in the field (Dr. Sweets was one of those characters that we originally baulked at, but he became so integral to the show that by the time he left fans were screaming noooooooooooooooooooooo! Darth Vader style), and agent Aubrey made for a great addition. On the downside, these late additions (except for Sweets) were a bit too late to save the show from becoming stale over the last 4 years of the show. With that being said, the staleness is not really a huge negative, as the show was still definitely entertaining week to week. It just lost the forward momentum and plateaued instead of climbing (which is a big plus in my book as I’ve seen too many shows take a nose dive in the last two or three seasons, pretty much killing a great show).

As a whole, Bones is a fantastic crime drama and one of my personal favorites. It’s light, it’s airy, but viscerally one of the most gruesome crime dramas out there as nearly every episode has a maimed and mutilated (or burned beyond recognition) corpse to investigate. There have been several times where I thought they pushed the boundaries of broadcast television for gore, but somehow they kept it all within check. It’s tough to say goodbye to characters we’ve all come to know and love, but just like a book, The Flesh and Bones Collection allows us to go back through time and revisit them as many times as we want.





Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

Going back over the show it's surprising to see how similar all 12 seasons actually look. The filming style and basic set pieces of the show have maintained a constant premise, and besides some authoring issues in regards to compression in the first 3 seasons, they all look remarkably better. The first three seasons had some compression issues and banding that came and went, but as season 4 hit it's groove character wise, Fox also gained a handle on cranking out quality discs as well. the show is brightly lit most of the time,w the Jeffersonian and outdoor shots in bright sunlight making for some great looking viewing. Angela's office and a few darker bits allow for healthy black levels, and colors pop off the screen at just about every turn. I really wish the 5 seasons of Blu-ray had been MORE than just five seasons, but for those of us with the HD discs already, I'm just glad the set is so cheap so I can replace those DVD seasons with the Blu-ray counterparts in the box. the one thing that REALLY made me happy (I'm OCD, I know), but season 1 was originally done on flipper discs (dual sided DVD-18's) and with these set Fox didn't just repress those discs. they gave is individual discs with silk screened art to match all the subsequent years.







Audio:

I’ve said it before, and I will repeat myself for the umpteenth time. If you’ve seen one season of Bones, you’ve seen them all when it comes to the technical specs. Yup that holds true to the entire show. All 12 seasons have maintained a very healthy sound stage that mimics each other almost to a T. Dialog is the mainstay of the show, and that is presented very well in the center channel, with good use of the mains with the murmur and hubbub of the Jeffersonian, or some of the more aggressive episodes of the show. LFE is well represented in the series, with a really heavy low end during the opening theme song, followed up with simple added "weight" for many instances in the show. Slamming doors, bullets impacting, deep down beats in the score when something sinister happens. It's all pretty typical, but well done considering the simplicity of a forensic criminal investigative show. I honestly have a hard time saying if any one season has any "edge" over the others, as the show has a simple formula that it stuck to for a full 12 years, and there's high and low points in each season (audio wise).
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Extras:

• Back to the Lab: A Bones Retyrospective
• Gag reel

Final Score: ​

I’m kind of sad to see such a long running show come to an end, but I’m also kind of relieved at the same time. Bones had been on for such a long time, and no matter how much you love a show it’s better to end on a high note than allow it to drag itself into the point of no return quality wise. Like Castle I felt that it pushed itself JUUUUUUUUUUST past it’s prime, but not enough to where you were begging for the series to “just end it already”! I have greatly enjoyed the series as a whole and think it was a smart idea of Fox to release the boxset right at the end of the show instead of waiting years later to do so like Paramount/CBS likes to do. Like always, “should I get this?” depends on several factors. If you’ve not bought any of the show and want the whole series then this is a no brainer. The boxset is a giant slide out box that allows for all 12 individual season sets from Fox to jus slip in without any hassle. That also means that there are no additional special features discs or “extras” to go with the boxset besides the outer case. If you’ve bought the previous seasons as they came out (or bought the Blu-rays and don’t want to downgrade to DVD only) then completing the series with an individual season for 12 would be the smarter way. But for those holding out (or who only bought a few seasons) then this is a no brainer at under $10 a season! Highly recommended.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: David Boreanz, Emily Deschanel, Michaela Conlin
Created by: Hart Hanson
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 MPEG 2
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Rated: NR
Runtime: 10,560 Minutes
DVD Release Date: June 12th, 2017

Recommendation: Fun Watch​