Sizzling science appeal
Michelle Byrne talks to David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel stars of Bones, the latest show to be uncovered on TV Land.
The powers that be in the television world have been playing cruel jokes on scientists for years. Letting them think that career benefits in the science world include amazingly exciting jobs, great teeth and colleagues of the opposite sex having an undeclared, brooding desire to pounce upon them, swiping the cadavers and test tubes aside first of course. While saliva swabbing, DNA-dabbling lab analysis equals sex appeal in CSI, Cold Case, and Silent Witness, square-eyed kids with crushes on Kathryn Morris, Emilia Fox or Gil Grissom for that matter have been signing up for degrees in biochemistry, particle physics and microbiology in their droves.
And as if the television schedules weren't already sardine-packed with laboratory life and police procedurals already, along comes another dose of geek chic TV trickery in the form of Bones, where yet another suit-wearing, seductive swat attempts to solve crimes alongside an antagonistic and equally attractive sidekick. While the formula is as secret as the ingredients of Weetabix, in this instance the storyline is based on the real life experiences and best-selling works of novelist-forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs. The sexy scientist in question is the brilliant Dr. Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) who unravels crimes on a weekly basis using, yep, you guessed it bones, while her brawny partner FBI Special Agent Seely Booth (David Boreanaz) runs around scathing about science and getting sweaty for the female viewers.
'It's an incredibly intelligent show and it's character-driven. The script was very ambitious, trying to do so many different things, and I believe it really accomplished all of those things. It crosses genres and it's exciting,' Emily Deschanel offers. 'It's not just a cold, procedural show, it definitely has humour, and it's as much about the relationships between the different characters as it is about the crimes that we're solving, which is an amazing balance.'
Despite pouring over frankly grisly murder investigations where standard methods of identifying a body are useless (where the remains are badly decomposed, burned or destroyed beyond recognition), the onscreen chemical attraction bubbling away between the dichotomous duo is undeniable. Deschanel's onscreen partner, better known for his longtime role as the sulky vampire with the soul in Angel, David Boreanaz doesn't make any pretense about the show's appeal. 'With these two characters, I mean, the potential for their personal lives entering into their professional lives is, I just think, dynamic. We all remember when we would watch Moonlighting, you remembered how they got into bed. You never remembered what crimes they were kind of solving. And to me, that's interesting,' he says.
'When Emily came in the room in the 11th hour there was a spark and you can't really determine that, it just kind of happens. It's like lightning in a bottle. We caught it and we're going to ride with it and we're going to have fun,' Boreanaz continues. But for an actor who's career has been more about sewer dwelling, sword swinging and spin kicking than lets say Shakespearean stagecraft was it difficult learning the technological jargon? 'Oh, I hate it. It takes me a while to sit down and memorise the lines. Sometimes you do it and you don't know what the hell you've done; you feel like it's horrible. But then it comes out really great,' he says revealing exactly where his handsome talents lie.
'I've been reading different books on forensic anthropology and trying to retain that knowledge. The more you read up on it, the more it becomes part of your vocabulary. It's like learning a foreign language,' a more eloquent Deschanel offers. 'We had Kathy Reichs on set and so we got to pick her brain about what she does,' she adds, before we put her newly gleaned knowledge to the test about what exactly can be learnt from someone's skeletal remains? 'Well, you can find out, um, a person's age, height, race, injuries, you know, what sports they liked to play, so many different things, what occupation, if they had an occupation where, you know, maybe they had to kneel in a field all the time, or maybe they had to write a lot. You can tell that from their bones,' she enthuses. 'It's amazing what's written on the bones of a person, or a body. It's pretty incredible, but all of that stuff in the show is real.'
With piercing blue eyes and looks that would be a crime to lock away in a real life darkened lab Deschanel is unapologetic about her character's 'prickly' nature. 'Who knows how the audience will receive Brennan. But I love that aspect of her character. You look at House and the main character (played by Hugh Laurie) in that is kind of prickly and isn't a people person. But he's very good at what he does, and he's a fascinating character,' she says. 'I try and look for the flaws in the character. That's what makes somebody human. You look at Seinfeld and all those characters are totally dislikeable and horrible to each other, but yet you love them because they become endeared to you in some way by knowing them. And you kind of understand their human flaws, which, to me, is just wonderful.'
While Deschanel seems perfectly content to rattle on about the complexities of her alter ego, Boreanaz explains his former army sniper character by saying: 'He definitely is a card shark. I think level to him. He's a simple guy. He likes a cheeseburger, a black cup of coffee. He's pretty simple on the outside, but very conflicting in the inside,' he says and we're glad he cleared up any confusion.
The TV-viewing public are a gruesome lot - murderous crimes and rotting corpses sell almost as much as talent shows for pop song warbling wannabes, and we're not sure whether that's a good thing or not. But one thing is for sure, even if Bones is a formulaic infant spawned from the ultimately superior CSI forensic family, the 60minutes shows pass swimmingly thanks to the cliffhanger crimes, the blisteringly attractive cast, and the comic sight of (we admit the not bad looking) Boreanaz trying to act. And if it gets more real life scientists in white coats that can't be bad either.
Bones, TV Land, Saturdays at 22:00.