Updated

I haven't really been hooked on a television series--I mean REALLY HOOKED--since the X-Files. I just don't have a lot of time to watch prime time television, so I miss out on a lot of the shows people are always talking about around the water cooler.

I got my Sweetie hooked on SMALLVILLE and now she is paying me the favor by getting me hooked on a relatively new crime-drama-mystery show. It's called BONES and it airs on FOX on Wednesday nights. But I am catching up on the show after buying Season One on DVD from $20 at Target.

It's a GREAT show! And I find myself unable to press stop on the DVD! Just ONE more episode and THEN I'll clean the bathroom, I SWEAR I will!!

BONES follows the adventures and detective work of an FBI agent who teams up with a forensic anthropologist to solve crimes involving the bare bones, literally, of crime victims. Together they can take a skull found in a ditch or a hand found in the body of a bear and by the end of the hour, they have solved an otherwise unsolved mystery. They often not only know the identity of the victim, but of their killer as well. The show is based on the real life career of a forensic anthropologist and is absolutely fascinating. It touches on things you NEVER think about when it comes to crime fighting...like analzying the larvae and bugs found on a corpse or in the area in which it was found...analyzing bone structure and DNA...the magical science that happens behind closed doors everyday.

BONES is a darned good show and you should treat yourself and check it out. The chemistry between the wannabe macho, yet highly insecure, FBI agent and his intellectually superior female counterpart is believable and always the source of both humor and tension. It reminds one of the relatioship Mulder & Scully had on Fox's THE X-FILES. The supporting characters are wonderful as well as perfectly cast. The stories trick you by always being SEEMINGLY predictable, but they always throw you for a loop by the story's end. Cool stuff.

Speaking of television shows on DVD...more of the great oldies are making it on DVD these days.

How about one of the staples of my adolescence like THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO or WKRP IN CINCINNATI? Or HAPPY DAYS, LAVERNE & SHIRLEY, DIFFERENT STROKES, THE ROCKFORD FILES or LEAVE IT TO BEAVER? Thanks to the magic of DVDS, our children can grow up with SPEED RACER and THE BRADY BUNCH just like we did! And all commercial free. Not bad, huh?

Collecting your favorite shows has never been easier. Get to it and have fun reliving old memories and making new ones. And you can do it on your own time, at your own pace. It doesn't get any sweeter than that.