Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #150 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-10-26
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 7
• Running time: 981 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
A show that continues to go from strength to strength, Bones is based around the character of forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan (a creation of author Kathy Reichs) and FBI Special Agent Seely Booth, who between them must use forensic science to get to the bottom of some particularly gruesome crimes.

Season four of Bones finds the show in particularly rich form. Brennan and Booth have a variety of different cases to tackle, as you’d expect, backed up with exposition about earlier events and many interesting new developments. It’d be remiss to spoil them here, but Bones, to its credit, manages to be as fresh and as interesting as when it first arrived.

What helps gives the show a distinction is its marriage of genres. At its heart, it’s a hard-nailed crime show, but it effortlessly weaves in comedy, romance and some very impressive twists, with an undercurrent of unpredictability that serves it well. The writers clearly had their thinking caps on for season four, too, and while there are one or two lulls, they’re easily compensated for by some very impressive episodes. The relationship between Brennan and Booth clearly sits at the core of the show, and even that--appreciating that television has taken us down similar roads in the past--is interesting to watch, and well realised.

Bones might, at first glance, be easy to dismiss as just another crime show. But there’s genuinely impressive work going on here, and some very smart writing. If it’s at this level of quality four seasons in, then Bones has a very bright future ahead of it. --Jon Foster

Synopsis
The television series BONES is a crime drama that mixes elements of forensic science, romance, and comedy to excellent effect. Centered on the relationship between forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan (played by Emily Deschenel) and FBI special agent Seely Booth (played by David Boreanaz), BONES is a hard-hitting, action-packed show marked by fine writing, acting, and direction. The episodes of the fourth series are collected here.

Customer Reviews

Bones- the heart of the matter
The fourth season of Bones gets us in touch with the characters on a deeper level than previous seasons, with many more serious episodes than the previous seasons, but also a lot more funny ones. It generally follows the same formula as the previous seasons, Booth and Brennan working together on cases, solving murders and such like, though there isn't a 'main' plot point such as Gormogon or Max Keenan in this season, instead it focuses more on the main characters and their relationships, though it does feature an episode with a return from the Gravedigger from the second season.

This season shows remarkable the growth of Brennan as a character, and she has become a lot less two dimensional compared to earlier seasons, and whilst this could detract from her charm slightly, I find that it makes her all the more endearing. We get the rare insight of the vulnerable nature of Booth in a couple of episodes which also shows his growth as a character, and it's refreshing that the characters haven't become caricatures of themselves as happens in other tv shows.

The lack of a certain character from the previous season is disappointing, though the writers make up for it by including several interns, each with their own quirks, all of whom feel like part of the team by the end of the season.

Overall, this season of Bones is both dramatic and amusing, in a perfect blend to get the right amount of viewing pleasure. Though it isn't tied together with an underlying plot point in this season, the 'will they, won't they' of Booth and Brennan keeps us guessing enough to want to keep watching to the end, and for a finale the twist in this season is as entertaining as it's ever been. The best season of Bones so far.

Still live and kicking
I've always loved this series for its humour, mystery, the chemistry between Booth and Brennan, and the way it expertly treads the line between treating the viewer like a child who needs all the science dumbed down and treating them like a Ph.D

Season 4 doesn't disappoint. There is some needless repetition of episodes which were already included on the Season 3 boxset, but once we get into the new stuff you get a very emotionally rich season which adds greater depth to the existing characters. The relationship between Booth and Brennan is kept simmering nicely, and I applaud the writers for managing to keep that up without overcooking it and driving the viewer to the annoying "won't they just get a room already" point. The progression of each character feels real, and every insight gained is entirely believable in the context of what we know about the characters so far. There's also a welcome return from Stephen Fry.

That, however, is the old; this season brings plenty of the new as well. There are zany new experiments, some truly disgusting new scenarios with the bodies, and an excellent array of supporting characters as new interns keep popping up in the lab vying for their place as Brennan's new assistant. House did something similar in its Season 4 by bringing in new job applicants, but unlike that show Bones only gives us one to deal with at a time so we get a much more in depth look at them. They're all very different, but each brings a new and interesting dynamic to the lab - the comic possibilities are ruthlessly mined without the show ever feeling like it's becoming parody.

Intelligent yet amusing television is getting increasingly difficult to come by, so long may these bones continue to shake, rattle and roll

Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones
First of all, just a note of caution. If you've already bought the box set for season three with the first four episodes on it from season four, they're repeated here. So that's one disc you really don't need, and it made me annoyed when I realised. As for the rest, it's a great combination of humour, gore and scientific terminology (how do the actors remember it all? But then again, would we know if they got it wrong?). The UST between Bones and Booth is growing, but it's the stories that capture the imagination. A good buy (apart from the first disc!).