Your standard network TV procedural, complete with the obligatory will-they-or-won't-they tension between the leads and the usual supporting cast of eccentric-but-endearing-I-guess caricatures. I can't imagine that even its biggest fans thought this show deserved 12 seasons.

The epitome, along with Castle, of a show that just kind of blandly and inoffensively exists.

Not a bad show. Just didn't know when to quit.

My favorite TV show. It has everything.

This is a charming, bingeable show. Some of the writing hasn’t aged well, and the ex-machina science is bs at times, but overall the character growth and relationship dynamics are solid

It’s not as transgressive as it pretends to be at first. But to its credit, Bones never “finds god”. At times, no less, very convenient for the boomer audience, plays it safe so it doesn’t offend any traditionalist housewives bingewatching it. But it does try to mediate cultural differences in a fair & balanced way most of the time, open philosophical debates & incorporate real science. It abridges the forensic processes considerably, to make it shiny. Everyone always confesses melodramatically.

This is one of my favorite series! I have watched it several times.

Bland and formulaic: same setup for every episode.

Formulaic crime tv show, it was ok. I only watch up to the 11th season, couldn’t stomach it anymore, it started going downhill once Brennan and Booth got together circa season 5

For the first 2-3 seasons, this was actually quite good while it was staying true to its characters--brainiacs who solved their cases in the most hyper-intellectual way, while being somewhat dysfunctional when it came to relating to other people. If only that could have continued. But of course it couldn't, or it would be cancelled. It had to become what it devolved into: contrived cases that served as a ready platform for twinkly, warm-and-fuzzy moments--and a lot of shitty acting.

The first 3 seasons are good, but Bones then devolves into bland procedural that forces moments of drama with characters that get progressively more irritating.

It opts to take on serious cases with a more humorous tone and it often fails to generate the laughs and awkward moments it is looking to produce. The actors are great but the plot is very procedural and it hurts the overall narrative flow longterm.

It's okay. The characters are all pretty annoying and don't really feel like real people considering the constant personal drama that occurs in the show. I got into the series as someone who had read the books, and the tone of the show does not really match the source material in my opinion. I do give it props since I personally enjoy it more than any other forensic procedural I've checked out and it is the right amount of TV gore. Oh, and also gets props for the ZZ Top connection.

It's okay, but one major problem. The characters never change. I would call this blah.