After binge-watching Criminal Minds a few times in the background as I work, I decided to stick on another procedural. I have no interest in NCIS, and I’ve never seen a full episode of Law & Order. CSI is actually how I said my first curse word. There was an episode where there was a bunch of ashes at a crime scene and someone wrote the word bitch in it. I had no idea what that was, so I just read it outloud to my parents and asked what it meant. It was a cute moment. I vaguely remembered enjoying Bones. Moreso, I like Zoe Deschanel in New Girl, so I figured her sister would be similarly fun to watch.
Bones is a really interesting show. It follows Temperance “Bones” Brennan, a forensic anthropologist and author who works in conjecture with the FBI, partnering up with FBI Special Agent Seeley Boothe. Bones strongarms her way into getting to work in the field with Booth, and we stick with the duo as they go about solving cases. Some episodes have some really inventive gore and the mysteries can be quite compelling. Of course, the bread and butter of the show are the characters and how they interact with each other. There’s the will-they won’t-they between Bones and Boothe, the no-nonsense worry of Cam Saroyan, and the constant sass and motherly advice of the best character on the show, federal prosecutor Carolyn Julian.
There’s lots to talk about with the show. You could talk about Boothe’s odd conservatism versus Brennan’s strident liberalism. The two of them also represent faith versus science, heart versus reason, and how those things can intersect and bleed into each other. You could talk about how the show approaches adaptation - it’s technically based on a series of novels by forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs, but Bones isn’t so much based on her namesake character but rather on Reichs herself. It’s a fascinating approach to adaptation.
What I’m more interested in, though, is what the show has to say about the systems we operate under. If you were to take the US government at large and our criminal justice system specifically and lay it out on the examination tables of the Jeffersonian’s medico-legal lab, Bones would find its bones in disarray. The system is broken, it says. And, unfortunately, sometimes it suggests setting the bones wrong for future healing.
First Break: A Cracked and Corrupt Cranium
Dr. Jack Hodgins is a forensic entomologist. When he first shows up, his character is notably an angry little pest. Over the course of the show, like with the other characters, he turns more personable. He finds things and people that bring him joy and he becomes more open about the things that make him happy. His anger still lies there beneath the surface. Sometimes it becomes a coping mechanism, as lovable Dr. Lance Sweets points out when Hodgins says that he hates everyone. In this moment, Sweets points out that they way Hodgins dealt with the world was through believing in and pushing paranoid conspiracy theories. The government is hiding aliens, lying about JFK, committing and covering up atrocities. Hodgins conspiracies are supposed to be lovable quirks.
But then Bones does something interesting. Some conspiracies… start having truth to them. The government is corrupt. Now of course this is presented through fictional lenses so you can just waive it off as prime-time soap dramatics, but I want to take the idea behind these moments seriously.
In Season 5, the members of the Jeffersonian team are locked up in the lab by a government agency. They’re told to determine the cause of death for a set of remains. Through things such as Angela Montenegro’s facial reconstruction, it becomes clear to the team and to us that the remains are most likely President JFK’s. In the world of the show, there’s a second entrance wound on JFK’s skull that came from an entirely different angle. Oswald couldn't have fired both shots. There was a second shooter. The request to exhume Kennedy’s body and publicize the findings fails. This is a mine of dramatics that plays into the American imagination. There are plenty of conspiracies surrounding Kennedy’s death. When I was a kid, I started a document tracking deaths of a bunch of people involved and truly thought I was onto something and uncovering the conspiracy and like, it’s so fun to be young and weird and a bit dumb, isn’t it? This episode suggests a few things. First: some conspiracies are valid. Second: the government was and continues to be willing to cover things up. Third: there must be a reason the government would not want to reveal the truth. We can imagine charitably something like embarrassment or the social trust issues its revelation could bring. We can uncharitably imagine it’s because they do not want the truth to come out. Perhaps they had the lab inspect the corpse unofficially to see if someone could piece together the truth using only the bones. Upon discovering that they could, they had to prevent a proper, named investigation.
That episode builds the foundation for future plotlines on the show. Importantly, it shows a segment of the federal government using force to sequester, threaten, and silence members of the public.
Brennan’s father Max is a career criminal who, along with her mom, had to flee Brennan’s life when she was a child in order to protect her from rogue FBI agents that were after them. Through the storyline with Max, we discover that the Deputy Director of the FBI is a corrupt murderer. He attempts to kill Brennan’s brother. Here we get the suggestion that corruption occurs both on an individual and systemic level.
Both of these instances combine to set the groundwork for the very odd, cool plotline surrounding the Shadow Government. Through a heavy, complicated system of blackmail, the US government in the world of Bones is run by a corrupt, hidden bureaucracy. Special forces members kill their enemies and when those members are themselves killed in self-defense, they’re painted as dutiful FBI agents killed by a rogue criminal. Judges and politicians both are bought by the system of blackmail. Security guards are undercover agents working for the legacy of J. Edgar Hoover.
This, too, is very soap opera. And of course, this is all beaten by chopping off the head of the snake. Defeating one man and collecting slash destroying his stash of blackmail is enough to destroy this form of systemic corruption. Outside of a TV show, we know it’s a bit more complicated than that. Elaborate structures of functional blackmail are going to create hierarchical ladders. Some people will know more than others. Some will be under heavier boots. Blackmail files will have backups, and submitting to blackmail in turn becomes a source for further blackmail. When the storyline gets wrapped up, it almost forces us to question its determination on corruption. Over and over, it also forces us to remember the dark history of J. Edgar Hoover. This is a thing that more or less happened in this country’s history. Reminding us of Hoover, his corruption, and the corruption he spread forces us to wonder about our current government. How susceptible is it to this sort of thing?
Watching this plotline in 2024 brings to mind the Steele Dossier, Trump, and the whole hooker urine thing. Bob Menendez has his whole gold corruption thing. I’m sure you can conjure up at least a handful of politicians in your lifetime who can, at minimum, be called sleezy. Now imagine those same politicians in a world where they cared about being seen that way. How many might have worse secrets? Question the motivations and cleanliness of those at the top, Bones tells us. There might be hairline fractures in the skull. Perhaps the stapes have gone missing.
Speaking of later-season plotlines around government corruption, Bones has an Edward Snowden episode. An anonymous government worker known as The American goes to the press with details of the NSA spying on American citizens. The American infuriates Agent Boothe who views him as a traitor due to the sloppy release of US intelligence agents and assets, putting those lives at risk. That’s a real critique many people have had of the real Snowden. Here the show reminds us that the US government is crafty, creepy, and often cruel. This invasion of privacy likely would have continued unimpeded if someone did not eventually leak some details of its occurrence. Hodgins finds the USB with all the info on it and offers it to Agent Boothe. Boothe tells him to destroy it. This is odd. It has no consequences so it’s presented as a good thing. Is it that no one should have that sort of power? Or is it that some of the damages of the US government should not be revealed? You can assume it’s coming from a good place like you do when Booth says they’ll reclassify all the blackmail materials so no one can ever use them again. But take a step back there. The Ghost Killer’s crimes, and her father’s were part of the blackmail scheme. They were covered up and held over people’s lives in order to get them to do what the shadow government wanted. While plenty of petty crimes, embarrassments, and general secrets were in the blackmail, so too, likely, were plenty of serious crimes: murder, theft, rape. Booth will often go after powerful people if that’s where Brennan points him, but here, with a mound of evidence, crimes are hidden away. This could be to protect the other blackmail recipients. One crime investigated would put a cloud of anxiety over all the others. Or is it Booth, and the show, saying that revealing some crimes, bringing justice for them, does not matter if doing so might truly do harm to the system?
During the NSA episode, a contractor for the NSA captures the reporter who publishes the American’s info. They want to know the source. They want the data. They want her to stop. This contractor then tortures her. When this torture is revealed, the torturer is burned and discarded. The implication is that if Brennan did not discover this action and if they did not manage to connect it to him, the government would have kept this act underwraps. They are fine employing a torturer.
That is not without precedent. The US has a well-documented history with torture, especially in regards to the so-called War on Terror and Guantanamo Bay. Think of the movie Zero Dark Thirty. Do you trust our government to full sail quit the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” because some of its use was brought out into the light? There are plenty of shadows in this world, Bones says. Their version of our world has a whole shadow government. What happens in those shadows?
It’s an interesting yellow brick road for the show to follow. Despite being a murder show with lots of bones and rotting corpses, Bones is an ultimately hopeful show. Its main focus is on its characters and their ability to grow and change for the better, to love more fully, to heal from their hurt and help others heal from theirs. There’s a sort of heavy cynicism here. Yes, we can always assume things are done more for dramatic effect, but we don’t have to examine media purely through intention. Presentation regardless of intention is also valid. In Bones, corruption can be beaten. The Shadow Government is taken down. Max kills the corrupt FBI Deputy Director. Judges and politicians are brought down. But in the world of Bones, corruption is never ending. When you take down corrupt individuals in the government, you find more. Then you find those unwilling to fight it. Then you discover vast conspiracies. There are good people in the government, Bones says. There are Agents Booths… only Agent Booth’s faith in the system can lead to him allowing cruelty to go hidden.
The cranium is cracked.
Lets combine systemic corruption with individual corruption. Doing so gets us to the Gravedigger saga. The Gravedigger turns out to be a prosecutor who took on the case in order to bury and destroy the evidence, especially any that might implicate her. It also allows her to toy with nd destroy the people who might otherwise catch her. Individual corruption. In the episode where she’s caught, though, the show has a guess at its future NSA storyline. Agent Booth’s brother, Jared, hey that’s me, is a high ranking officer in the military. After abusing his power to commandeer a corpse for the Jeffersonian team, he’s the key to getting evidence on Heather Taffet. Jared Booth uses a military intelligence database that the show says has secret data on every American citizen. The show doesn’t focus on this here. This season aired in ‘08. Snowden dropped his album of the summer in ‘13. When it’s a terrifying whisper, the show glances by it. But when it’s a blood-sludging reality, the show magnifies it. The latter seasons recontextualize this moment. The NSA spying saved Booths life. The system is broken, says Bones. Sometimes that brokenness is good, says Bones.
When you watch Bones, do you think corruption is unending? Is our government at large a force for good or a force for evil? As a forensic anthropologist, Brennan has identified the victims of genocides and horrid war crimes. We’re reminded of this part of her history every now and then. She has seen vast horrors. Do not forget the cruelty people are capable of, systems are capable of.
Cracks in the ceiling are how light gets in. Cracks in the cranium are how you strangle and destroy innocent lives.
Second Break: The Fractured Fibula of the FBI
Revelations about the dealings of J. Edgar Hoover broke one of the arms of society while conking it on the head at the same time. Yes, he created cracks of corruption on the cranium. But he also revealed the limits and horrid power of the right hand of the law.
So lets talk about what Bones has to say about the criminal justice system.
In the episode we’re introduced to the best character, Ms. Julian, Brennan is in New Orleans identifying corpses following Hurricane Katrina. One of the men she was working with turns up dead. She’s lost some of her memory with evidence that she was attacked. The locals pin her as their number one suspect, so Booth calls in Ms. Julian to help clear Brennan’s name. Brennan wants to be forthright and honest. That speaks to her general nature and assumptions about the universe: that truth is paramount and people want to seek it out. Booth and Ms. Julian disagree: there is turmoil in this city, and they’ll want to close the case as fast as possible.
When Dr. Saroyan first shows up, she and Dr. Brennan butt heads. Sometimes Saroyan aims to be an arm of the prosecution, finding the evidence to convict so-and-so. In contrast, Dr. Brennan tends to care specifically about where the evidence leads her, regardless of if it helps or hinders any prosecution. Between these two instances, Bones makes an argument that there are plenty of people involved in the criminal justice system who don’t care so much about justice as a concept but justice as a performance.
Speaking of performance. There’s an episode where Brennan serves on a jury. Everyone watches the trial on TV. A famous guy is charged with killing his wife. It’s televised. Dr. Hodgins asks his wife Angela if she’s treating this as one of her soap operas. An OJ comparison is made. Suddenly we’re asked to think about high profile cases. You can probably think of plenty over the course of your lifetime that have been treated more like spectacles meant to entertain the masses than carryouts of justice. We’re reminded in court room drama episodes that, beyond knowing the law and arguing their position, lawyers work as storytellers. It’s a reminder that courts are not simply halls of justice. They’re theatrical stages. Performances matter.
Though she thinks he likely did it, Brennan views it her duty to vote not guilty because there is a reasonable doubt the defendant committed the crime. There’s a solid lack of evidence. Brennan is correct here. If the prosecution fails to do their job, the jury ought to vote not guilty, no matter their personal beliefs. We should hold our government, our prosecutors, to the highest standards. Not because we want the guilty to be beyond us, but because we want to make sure the innocent are not condemned. A witness for the case ends up being the corpse of the week, and it seems like the defendant killed him. Brennan laments that if she hadn’t been on the jury, he’d have been convicted despite the fact that the prosecution did not do their job. She’s set on nailing him for the murder of the witness despite where the evidence might point. Here, Bones seems to say that holding the prosecution to the standards they’re supposed to meet will let guilty people go free, and this is a bad thing. And sometimes being led by assumptions of guilt rather than factual evidence can be a good thing.
A thorough investigation into a man on death row, Howard Epps, stays his execution. Investigating this thoroughly is the correct thing to do. At the same time, the show paints the delaying of his execution, because he is innocent, as a bad thing. He eventually breaks out and causes more harm. If they had not done their job, Epps would not have killed more people. What Booth and Brennan did in this episode, the show says, was undoubtedly the correct thing to do. And yet that the justice system did not turn around and kill Epps, it seems to say, was the wrong thing. Justice, it says, is more important than the system functioning how it’s meant to.
Except, is it? Mistakes by Dr. Addy and the prosecution, as well as a story laid out by Dr. Brennan and the defense, allow her father Max to go free for a crime we all know he committed. He’s a murderer who is willing to kill again if he feels he must to protect his loved ones. Again, the system lets a murderer go free. Here, it is a good thing.
In the episode with Brennan on the jury, we get further into a storyline where Dr. Saroyan has had her identity stolen. The case is not solved by the investigators assigned to it but by Angela on her free time. Law enforcement does not have the time or resources, the two claim, to solve such cases. It makes you ask how many lives stay ruined due to a lack of proper investigation. The arms of justice are too weak to hold all the innocent above water and all the guilty accountable.
Ms. Julian offers a deal to Dr. Addy where they’ll charge him as insane slash incompetent so he ends up in a mental health facility instead of a gen pop jail, where it’s clear he wouldn’t be able to handle himself. Dr. Sweets points out that we know Zach doesn’t qualify for this. Here, Bones says that sometimes the rules of the criminal justice system must be bent in order to allow compassion to come in. It is capable of this. Every now and then the show gives us a highly sympathetic murderer. We watch them cry about what happens. Sometimes, the show has the criminal justice system express mercy for them. Sometimes, it’s taken as a sad necessity that justice be enacted regardless. Is the law meant to bend or would bending break its cold and brittle bones? The show has no idea.
Back to the death penalty. The Jeffersonian and Booth arrest a man the evidence leads them to who seems to be a serial killer. He’s found guilty and sentenced to death. But then they start to doubt. It becomes clear to Brennan he was not guilty. New evidence comes to light. A new victim is found who matches the MO of the original murders. The team continues to bring evidence to a judge hoping to stay the execution to allow for a thorough investigation. She refuses. The show accuses her of using this man’s life as a political stunt. Looking tough on crime could be good for her re-election campaign. This is one of the dangers of an elected judiciary, the show seems to say. She is clearly wrong for this. Yet if the same judge had been on the Epps case, he likely would have been executed. Here, the show says, the cruelty of the system almost killed an innocent man.
A deaf and mute girl is brought in under suspicion of having murdered someone. At the start of the episode, she’s treated coldly by the DOJ through Ms. Julian and by the members of the Jeffersonian. It takes Dr. Sweets sweeping in to make any progress towards treating this child like a child who is innocent until proven guilty. Here, the show says, the criminal justice system is often cruel and uncaring. When Brennan expresses deep compassion for a young boy who potentially murdered his brother or led to him getting killed, she’s denigrated by Booth and the prosecutor. But she is correct. The show continuously shows that anyone is capable of great cruelty if given the right circumstances. It also continuously says that law enforcement is cold and cruel. It asks how many more crimes would get solved and how many lives could be saved from ruin if, say, the FBI and federal prosecutors were more compassionate.
Stephen Fry plays a musician turned FBI psychologist turned chef. He counsels Booth and then Brennan. Though he does help them both and is often a beacon of light, Angela points out that during his psychology days, he works for the FBI. His goal is to get agents in the field. This causes him to paint over Booth and Brennan’s attraction to each other as them leaning into that, as far as he’s concerned, would get in the way of their working relationship. That would be detrimental to the FBI. Here, the show says employees of the criminal justice system often don’t care about people.
And caring about people is what the show really wants us to do. So it argues that the criminal justice system needs to orient itself away from the cold cruelty it often embraces. There are fractures on the fibula of the system. Right?
But then it turns around and it smiles at the idea of violence.
Third Break: Tortured Tarsals
Howard Epps was a really compelling villain on the show. He provided a match for Brennan without seeming cartoonish. The actions of the team directly led to his actions. It’s action-consequence. It makes the storytelling quite good. In his first episode, at the end, Brennan breaks his wrist during their last meeting at the prison. This is a presented as a moment of badassery. Booth, and the show, sort of admire her for this action. When he shows up again in season 2, both Booth and Brennan assault him, using his chains to slam his head against the table in the interrogation room. This is presented as something he deserved, a good action.
Bones, as most crime shows, is filled with moments where it celebrates extrajudicial violence.
More than that, Bones seems to occasionally argue that in those moments where the criminal justice system fails, justice must be taken care of outside the system. If your arm is broken, you can still use your fingers to scratch back something good.
For instance, when Booth is placed in jail for killing those assassins sent to kill him by the shadow government, Bones blackmails one of the corrupt federal judges. Acting outside the system, she forces him to let Booth go. This is a good action, the show argues. Brennan argues that they were hoping for Booth to die in prison. If she didn’t do this, he might have. If you must fight corruption with corruption, then you have an obligation to do so.
Max Keenan kills the corrupt Deputy Director of the FBI, a man who was threatening the lives of Max and his children. The show simultaneously argues that justice was bringing him to trial, and justice is letting him go free.
One of the most disturbing episodes for me comes when an undercover cop is found murdered. After discovering a young woman with her leg amputated, bleeding and in excruciating pain, Booth stops the paramedics from taking her and giving her pain medication. He lets her lie there and scream in agony while he interrogates her. He shouts at the paramedics. How dare they be more concerned with their patient than with letting him try to get information out of her right then and there? It’s a clear abuse of power. He tortures this young woman. Later in the episode, he threatens to throw a suspect down the stairs, to rough him up. In the other room, Ms. Julian pretends not to hear it. The system is corrupt. The FBI is willing to use violence and threats of murder to coerce suspects. This is fine. Booth is not made to introspect on his constant embrace of violence in his pursuit of supposed justice.
A deadly disease kills a victim in one episode. Dr. Vaziri gets infected while they’re dealing with the remains. They bring their primary suspect in to see Arastoo, and, in order to get a confession out of him as well as the location of the antidote, Brennan injects him with saline and claims its the virus. This is painted as a good act by the show. Assault people and make them think they will die if it brings you close to justice. Booth and Brennan both are likely to punch a suspect in the interrogation room. In most cases, this is not seen backfiring on them or the investigation. One time, Brennan is subject to disciplinary hearings from the FBI.
In the Gravedigger capturing episode, the team decides not to go through with torture time on Heather Taffet, it isn’t because the characters stand against torture or because torture is proven to be ineffective. It’s because Sweets points out that it wouldn’t work on her specifically because of her personality type. If she was the kind to respond to it? Well, it would have been fine, the show suggests, because it would have saved Booth’s life.
But it’s bad when Max Keenan attempts to assassinate the Grave Digger. You must work within the system! Except if you’re already within the system. Then sometimes you must work for justice. But sometimes you have to accept the limitations. When Brennan flees after being framed, her fleeing is a good thing. The system is shown as idiotic and cruel. Yet Dr. Saroyan working within the system and following where the evidence leads is presented as good.
What is good?
Fourth Break: Sacred Skeletons
I was planning on fleshing out the third section further for this video. I wanted to note every instance of Booth engaging in a form of police brutality or other less-than-legal actions taken by the characters that are presented as good. But then I started thinking about my video on NSFW art and ContraPoints’ video on Twilight. There’s a lot to discuss and critique the show for. That label of copaganda I talked about in the Criminal Minds essay pops up again here. What does Bones have to say about power, the system, and justice? In many ways, it suggests we must allow certain cruelties in order for good to prevail. Sometimes it suggests justice must be cruel.
But I also want to give consideration to the fantasy of Bones.
One episode leads Brennan and Booth to interrogate a local gang boss. At the elevators, he makes a move at Brennan and she knocks him on his ass. He puts a hit out on her. Booth later misses a funeral so he can track this guy down and threaten him with a gun in his mouth. When I was googling for examples of police brutality in the show, this came up in comments, but not in a negative way. It was often presented as “hot.” Why? It isn’t simply that he’s protecting Brennan. There are plenty of examples of that throughout the twelve seasons. But this specific moments stands out for a lot of people. Perhaps it’s because this is an example of how far he’s willing to go for Brennan. He acknowledges this isn’t an action of Special Agent Booth of the FBI. He makes clear that this threat comes from Seeley Booth, trained sniper who has killed before and is perfectly capable of killing again. He will abandon the system if it means protecting Brennan.
What is the fantasy? It isn’t actually about violence. The people who imagine being Brennan in this instance aren’t longing for someone to stick a gun in someone else’s mouth for them. It isn’t about police brutality or the abandonment of justice. Zoom out a bit. This is someone willing to bring the wrath of a violent organization in order to protect the person he loves. What is it like to be loved so much, that someone would invite such risk for your sake? Zoom out further. This is a person who says he will not only sacrifice himself physically but spiritually for another person. He will give up his principles out of his love for her. He will sacrifice his very self. What is it like to be loved so fully that someone would consume their own soul for you?
So then. What is the fantasy of the show Bones? Textually we have examples of police brutality. We see ineffective and actively hostile government systems and actors. We see how the justice system works and fails and harms people. Zoom out a little bit and you build an idea that some evil actions are good, actually. Sometimes the system breaking is good. Sometimes it must be rigid. There are no purely good or bad actions. It depends on who you are. Are you a good or a bad person? Sometimes it’s good to be cruel and violent. Sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes it’s good to take down corrupt systems. Sometimes it’s best to leave them be. It’s a confusing mess of a skeleton.
But what if we zoom out further?
What is the fantasy?
In Bones, at the end of the day, good wins. Skeletons can be identified. The corrupt can be won over. Bad systems can be defeated by taking down one man. Love conquers all. Even when things can’t be perfect, we still live and survive. The bad guys will be caught. Justice is possible and desirable. Success will come if you hang in there. Love will come if you hang in there. Cancer can be beaten. Explosions can be survived. Financial ruin can be overcome. Life-altering pain will not ruin you. The system can have compassion. We can grow and become better.
In some ways, Bones is a deeply cynical show. Yet at the same time, its central fantasy is one of hope. When you watch Bones, you don’t watch for the forensics. You don’t really watch for the crimes or mysteries or drama. You watch for the characters. You watch to spot the light in the darkness. Criminal Minds was a show thoroughly concerned with empathy. Bones, on the other hand, is concerned with hope. It aims itself firmly at the future. Booth, Brennan, and Sweets were all abused as children. They have to work through the pains inflicted on them. Yet they firmly look to the future. We will live, it says. The fantasy of Bones is that we can be happy. No matter the darkness, no matter the fractures to our skeleton, we can drink the milk of life. Our bones will heal. The remodeling will be beautiful.
I have plenty of critiques of Bones, and there are plenty of modes of criticism I think produce fascinating conversation, but I think it’s important to remember that too. Bones sells the fantasy of a life worth living. It sells the fantasy of good triumphing. Your skeleton is sacred.
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