Now looking forward to Season 9, the theme of "Bones" is "scientific investigation versus murders." The plot-theme is "a team of brilliant scientists work together to solve crimes." The plots do not always live up to the promises, but generally do follow forensic anthropologist DR. TEMPERANCE BRENNAN and her "crush" (never acknowledged and not yet certain) FBI agent Seeley Booth -- and the team of "squints" intelligent, intellectual specialists. When an FBI agent brags about having bachelor's degrees in both criminology and forensic criminology, Dr.Temperance Brennan replies that "nothing less than a Ph.D. carries any weight here." "Squint" is the label given to the scientists by FBI agent Seeley Booth, but, of course, he comes to respect them for their skills...

TV has many crime shows. Most are garbage. I have a BS in criminology.My wife's degrees are analogous in computers. Unlike the hokey "CSI" fanchise , we find this show interesting, and passionate, an example of nothing less than what Ayn Rand called "bootleg romanticism" and arguably much more.

We cannot ignore the holes in the plots, but we excuse them as the cost of weekly television production. The real draw is the integrity of the characters.

In The Fountainhead, Howard Roark has a brief dialog with Gail Wynand about integrity. Most people, says Roark, think that integrity is not putting your hand in your neighbor's pocket. But integrity is much deeper than that: it is being integrated in your values and actions. Bones delivers that integrity.