Crime TV Heroes: On ‘Bones’ season 11, and in appreciation of Emily Deschanel’s Brennan

With “Bones” coming to an end with its upcoming 12th season, isn’t now really the best time to pay tribute to one of its finest characters? Without Temperance Brennan, there is no “Bones.” We lose one of the great crime TV characters of the past couple of decades, and also one of the most entertaining loves stories.

If you’ve followed some of our other entries in our Crime TV Heroes series, though, you know that this article is not really meant to be about Brennan’s relationship or her family life. It’s more about celebrating her journey so far, and why we look at her as a hero that is worthy of celebration and then some.

Why she’s a hero – The biggest reason is simply because the entire premise of the show is around her solving crimes. She works with Booth and the FBI to take on challenging cases, and puts her knowledge of forensic anthropology to good use. It’s not just about her skills, though; it is also how she goes about using them. While fiercely intelligent and sometimes aloof, she’s established herself as a caring, likable, passionate person. We like to think of Crime TV Heroes as people young viewers should aspire to be like, even if they are fictional. Brennan makes mistakes, but that’s part of what makes her human.

What she can still learn – For Brennan, you can always put things like patience or empathy near the top of the list, mostly because she is at times so devoted to her work and also her own brand of intellect that she cannot always see things from other sides. That’s what the rest of the Jeffersonian and Booth are there to help. Specifically, though, she is probably going to learn a few things about resilience in the journey of Hodgins, who will be still recovering from a devastating injury in the spring premiere.

What we’d like to see next for her – It’s always fun when we can bring in some people who match Brennan’s intellect who challenge her, and with that, we would like to see some more colleagues, work adversaries, or full-on villains who could challenge here in some sort of substantial way. We’re not looking for Pelant 2.0, though; instead, we’d like to see someone take more of a psychological than technological approach in their attack, which will force Brennan to adapt and get accustomed to a new sort of villain interfering in her life.

If you do want to get some more news right away when it comes to “Bones,” head over here for some early scoop on upcoming episodes! Also, sign up over here to secure some other TV news on almost everything we cover, sent right over to you via our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Fox.)