“‘Bones’ is creatively fresh, it’s a rock-solid player every time it airs and this season it has helped us win on Thursday nights for the first time in our history. Hart Hanson and the fantastic cast and crew, as well as the millions of loyal ‘Bones’ fans, make this show really special, and I’m excited to have it on our air for another stellar season.”

So, there you have it, fans of the FOX procedural “Bones.” Enjoy the rest of your day. (HitFix)

I know from previous writing experience that “Bones” fans hate spoilers, yet they love to read about “Bones.” I respect that. I don’t want to ruin anything for you, but I know you want to know about the season premiere, so I’ll be as vague as possible and just try to tell you what’s good so you can look forward to it.

Seeing some different settings in the opening of the show is cool. Fans probably know where the characters have gone off to, but just in case I’ll leave that up to the imagination. Wherever they are, it adds a little epic feel, even if it was shot locally. It adds some action and a chance for characters to bring their unique qualities to a different world. The ladies get a chance to be sexy too.

More after the jump…

It’s still a different sort of “Bones” episode. There’s a case but it’s more about the team. The team is in a different place now and not everyone agrees on where they should be. That creates some good drama and challenges characters to think about their decisions. It’s very equal to everyone on the team so any storyline you’re following gets attention. There’s some stuff you’re really going to like. It goes there, but I won’t spoil who goes there or for where there is.

The dialogue is sharp as ever. The characters don’t avoid the issues left dangling before, and their conversations are whimsical and ironic. I’m always glad when someone takes a cliché literally and thus points out that the clichés we use in common speech are actually not descriptive at all. Thanks for improving the language skills of America, “Bones.” (I mean that seriously. I don’t like the expression “serious as a heart attack” so they should absolutely have intelligent characters point out its absurdity.)

The case itself could be especially upsetting. I mean, if you’ve been watching different carcasses every week for five years, I still think the body on this slab would be more disturbing. The details of it are fascinating. The team is back in top form and they quickly disprove assumptions that professionals made. This mystery kept me guessing, with two parallel questions both of which are surprising. Hour long shows tend to keep investigations simple, but “Bones” can still misdirect and pay it off.

I’d love to talk about more specifics, but if you watch “Bones” you probably already know the general level of quality. This is just to assure you that the season premiere delivers the goods and goes where you’d want it to. I even liked the staging of scenes on the backlot, just little details that make it feel more populated. We’ll talk more after Thursday night.