LAist Watches: Bones

First things first: It is a little weird seeing David Boreanaz walk around in the day time without beginning to smolder and from the first words that came out of her mouth, we were completely in love with Michaela Cronin's Angela Montenegro. We can't help it, LAist has a thing for quirky, brainy chicks that do cool things with computers. Emily Deschanel as 'Bones' is a passable heroine and it seems likely that she is going to quickly make the role her own but, despite the constant pushing of her story, it is Boreanaz who makes the impression. He is comfortable and alive as Agent Booth which gives us hope that we'll be able to forget that for 6 years he was a vampire with a soul.

The show, which is essentially Crossing Jordan: The New Class, is well done but a little paint-by-numbers in the pilot. The answer to the mystery is telegraphed early on and the eventual climax is underwhelming. The science is fun and we like DC as a backdrop for the show but we're hopeful they get a multi-episode or season long story arc to coincide with their skeleton-du-jour episodic style. What works for some crime procedurals doesn't work for all of them and this show seems like it wants to be more Cold Case, X-Files and Profiler than CSI and Law & Order.

One of our favorite local blogs, Totally Unauthorized, spent some time on the Bones set this summer where the author was working lighting. Outside of the city looking too clean, we would've never guessed that the majority of principal photography is being shot in Los Angeles on the FOX lot. Peggy notes in one particularly interesting story about the converting of the FOX commissary into a DC-area Starbucks. We can't wait to spot that scene in upcoming episodes and we hope that her extremely long and trying days were worth it in the end.

LAist's Take: We're a sucker for crime procedurals with compelling female leads and former demons. We've found Crossing Jordan lacking in the most recent seasons so this is a decent replacement. We'll keep tuning in.

Bones airs Tuesdays on FOX.