Favorite Crime Shows

Crime related shows have been popular for a long time. Something about this type of show has long attracted me. A good one for me usually invites me to put on my detective hat and see if I can figure out who did it.  

Sherlock is a good one. We enjoyed Criminal Minds and Numb3rs. We have not watched NCIS and CSI very much, but I have received many recommendations to try them.

Currently in its twelfth and final season, Bones is a top-30 TV. Over the years, it has helped keep Fox Broadcasting in the ratings conversation, along with American Idol and the NFL.

Bones differentiates itself from the cop crowd with its intelligent emphasis on forensic anthropology and archaeology. Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan, as attractive as she is brilliant, teams with hunky FBI special agent Seeley Booth to turn skeletal remains into murder-scene narratives. Bones is a logical empiricist, meaning she thinks there is a rational answer to everything in life. That is her charm in the show, making her character a forensically brilliant, not particularly faith-friendly and a bit socially awkward. If someone makes any kind of pop-culture reference, she interrupts the conversational flow with her signature line, “I don’t know what that means.”

Although she might not have a clue about slang, metaphors or movie quotes, Bones gets bones. Missing metacarpals point out a crime of marital passion. Half a rib cage is evidence of a tiger attack. A burned skeleton logically reveals the motives of eco-terrorists. We are talking a crazy, weird understanding of bones. However, some bones might stump even Bones.

In case you were wondering: There are 206 bones in the human body. They fall into four general categories: long bones, short bones, flat bones and irregular bones.

Imagine this potential opening scene.

An expansive valley is knee-deep with bones. Loads of human skeletons are mixed with one another, all of them wind-blown and brittle. Bones stands amid the bones, confused. There is no obvious rational explanation. How did they get here? What caused these deaths? Suddenly, the bones begin to tremble around her. Rattling and jostling, they begin to merge. They take on natural, human connections to one another. Bone piles become skeletons. “I don’t know what that means,” Bones utters. 

Well, Dr. Brennan, most of us agree with you entirely. That scene is weird. Irrational. No natural explanation. Moreover, it is the vision God gives Ezekiel in Ezekiel 37:1-14. Explaining the meaning of this vision for Israel can inform a theological narrative for the Christian life, as well.