TV on Disc: The Bouncing Baby 'Bones' of Season Seven

"Bones: The Complete Seventh Season" (Fox) came in at an abbreviated 13 episodes, due to the real-life pregnancy of star Emily Deschanel, which was worked into the series.

Season Six ended  with Dr. Temperance Brennan (Deschanel ), aka Bones, announcing to her partner FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) that she was pregnant and that he was the father. The warm smile that Booth gave in acceptance of the news made for one the best season enders ever.

The first half of this split season follows Bones still working in the field through her pregnancy while the happily unmarried couple searches for a house (and Booth's own protective instincts are kicked into high gear). After a break for Deschanel's real-life maternity leave, the second half picks up with Bones as a new mother trying to handle all the illogical biological impulses that motherhood has introduced into her logical way of life and learning to live with Booth in their new family home.

Meanwhile Dr. Saroyan (Tamara Taylor) still struggles as an instant mother to a teenager, Angela and Hodgins (Micheala Conlin and T.J. Thyne) learn to juggle the responsibilities of new parenthood (with a lesson learned from Angela's bluesman father, once again played by ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons), and Dr. Sweets continues his romance with Daisy (Carla Gallo), still the most aggressively annoying "squintern" in the line-up. There's also a new squintern in the rotation: Luke Kleintank as Finn Abernathy, a southern fried former delinquent who becomes the Andy Griffith of forensic anthropology, complete with colorful southern phrases involving critters.

But the big event of the season is genius computer hacker turned serial killer Christopher Pelant (Andrew Leeds), who challenges the team directly by planting the remains of a murder victim right inside the Jeffersonian and returns for the season finale, a cliffhanger where he frames Bones for murder.

Speaking as a fan, the personal sparring matches with serial killers matching wits with Brennan and Booth and the Jeffersonian team are my least favorite of the show (and I mean you, Gormogon, the closest this series has come to jumping the shark). The show loses the playfulness of its defining personality as it cranks up the threat and the "drama." Which is not to say there is no place for serious moments in "Bones," just not an entire episode in the shadow of anxiety and anger. But at least this time around they bring in Brennan's father Max (Ryan O'Neal), who knows a little about being framed and becomes proactive in protecting his daughter and grandchild.

DVD and Blu-ray, with 13 episodes on four discs on DVD and three discs Blu-ray, plus commentary on the season finale by creator / executive producer / show runner Hart Hanson and executive producer Ian Toynton (who tip us to the main titles redesign for the eighth season), a featurette on the most entertaining episode of the season "The Suit on the Set" (where they investigate a murder while a movie is made of one of Brennan's books), mock footage from the red carpet of said film, and two deleted scenes. 

For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs, Blu-rays and streaming video for week  of October 9