Bones: The Complete Tenth Season

The long-running crime procedural starring Emily Deschanel as forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan and David Boreanaz as FBI Agent Sealey Booth—partners in crime-solving and in life (they married in season nine)—enters its 10th season with some dramatic changes. Series regular Dr. Lance Sweets (John Francis Daley) is killed in the first episode (Daley left the show to pursue a career writing and directing films) and Booth gets a new FBI partner: sardonic but amiable Agent James Aubrey (John Boyd), who proves his worth by clearing Booth's name after he's been framed. And in the second half of the season, Booth succumbs to a gambling addiction, which makes for a dramatic twist in a procedural that has been remarkably stable and consistent. Bones celebrates its 200th episode here with a fantasy scenario set in the 1950s that features both the regular cast and recurring costars, who take on roles out of classic Hollywood romantic thrillers such as Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief. This season wraps with Brennan and Booth leaving the team for a new life, which seem like a finale but isn't since the 11th season is currently airing. While the show sometimes pushes its recreations of human remains to gooey extremes for the sake of gallows humor, it is built on a solid foundation of easygoing character byplay, nerdy humor, and cast chemistry that has been perfected over the years. Compiling all 22 episodes from the 2014-15 10th season, extras include a behind-the-scenes featurette, and a gag reel. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)