This refreshingly *different* season of Bones is gearing up to be one of the series' best! It is just the reinvigoration the show needed!

Life has changed at the Jeffersonian since we last saw our favorite crime-solvers. After last season's pregnancy bombshell of an ender, we pick up with forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan entering her third trimester, hormones all over the place as she bumbles in that adorable way that only Brennan can into the frightening role of motherhood. As always, her partner FBI Agent Seeley Booth is there by her side, more loving and more happy than we've ever seen him. Having them together romantically (FINALLY), is a joy I'm still unable to get over :) It feels... natural. It almost makes you wonder, why wasn't it always this way? (Also makes you forget the angsty love triangle of season 6 ever even happened! Hannah who? ;p)

I think David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel slipped into this new relationship quite easily. What's great is that not a lot has changed, and yet, EVERYTHING has. They live together, they're planning on buying a house, they kiss and cuddle on the couch and Booth croons to Brennan's belly in the cutest baby voice you will ever hear... and yet, they're still "Booth and Bones". They still solve murders. They still bicker good-naturedly over everything under the sun. They banter. They get overprotective. They make mistakes- and own up to them after. They're like any new couple expecting a child. But are they normal? Far from it, because at its core, Bones is still the same show: a journey of love between two very different people... one a woman who views the world through utmost rationalism and who is still learning how to open her heart; the other a man who relies on instincts and gut feeling to do his job, and who lets faith and emotion drive his personal life. Both coming from traumatic pasts and both craving a new beginning ("New memories, new life", as Brennan aptly puts it in episode 1) for this new family they've created. And that unchanging dynamic, coupled with a deep satisfaction after six years of will-they won't-they, is what has made this season so very interesting!

That, and the other characters are still as charming and as "comedic gold" as ever. Hodgins and Angela's baby situation juxtaposes nicely with Booth and Brennan's (I'm eager to see Baby Michael and Baby Girl Brennan-Booth growing up together), Cam struggles with keeping the workplace professional, there's a new intern, a new recurring villain, and other familiar faces return! Plus, I have it on good word that the birth of Booth and Brennan's baby WILL. BE. EPIC. Ahhhh!

So yeah. It's funny. It's emotional. It's unexpected. I highly recommend season 7 of Bones! (There's no such thing as a 'Moonlighting Curse'! Bones has proven it WRONG! :D)

The seventh season of "Bones" finds forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan and her FBI partner Seeley Booth adjusting to a significant change in their relationship: the pending birth of a child, conceived late last season in a moment of shared grief over the death of a colleague. Bones remains stoically on the job at the Jeffersonian Institute and in the field despite her advancing pregnancy, while Booth will become increasingly frantic in his often misguided efforts to protect her. Series fans will be treated to the full humor of a lively debate over where to live and how to raise their child. The blessed event itself will have all the suspense that awkward timing in the middle of a tense case can give it.

The changes will ripple through the Jeffersonian forensic lab. Dr. Sweets gets increased field duty as a substitute partner for Booth, and cannot help psychoanalyzing everything. Bones' best friend Angela will attempt to prepare her for working motherhood, while Dr. Saroyan will try to keep the lab functioning while minding an unending parade of interns. The entire Jeffersonian team will be involved in a chilling season-ending cliff-hanger episode.

"Bones" contines to feature a crime of the week, to be solved through a combination of exotic forensics work by the lab rats and Booth's old-fashioned police work. However, the best part of the series is the fun interaction of the Jeffersonian staff and the "opposites attract" relationship of Bones and Booth. The seventh season is highly recommended to its fans.

You get season 7 of "Bones".

While the season was only 13 episodes long, because of Emily Deschanel's pregnancy and Fox's desire to test "The Finder", it managed to cram in some huge changes - and big plotlines - into that short season.

With the start of the season, we saw Brennan and Booth both adjusting to their new life together, awaiting the birth of their child. We also saw them let go of the last vestiges of their single lives and find a ramshackle home (which, with Wendall's FAST off screen help!) to move into. With the birth of their daughter, Christine, came a new sense of family.

For many episodes, the family angle was played up. Some might even say it was played up *too much*, but with tonight's finale, I think there was a point to it, so I can understand the reasoning, even if I felt the season was drama light. Starting with "The Crack in the Code", we meet the likely reason for the emphasis on family. His name is Christopher Pelant, a hacker who had messed with the government and ended up with an ankle monitor for his trouble. But the viewers see that is not the end of his "fun", by any means. He is, very much so, an equal to the folks at the Jeffersonian in terms of brilliance. In the first episode we meet him, he manages to murder a reporter and have the remains cremated before they can be examined by altering government red tape. He also manages to fry Angela's expensive equipment when she tries to scan the bones of another erstwhile victim of his by putting malware inside said bones.

An average criminal, he clearly is not.

In between the Pelant arc, the audience gets a shout-out episode - using Easter eggs and hybrid staff names - as a wink and thank you to the fans, as one of Brennan's novels gets filmed into a movie. We also see how Angela and Hodgins are, themselves, adjusting to parenthood, often with Angela using her experiences to help Brennan deal with her own worries.

Maybe TPTB knew there was limited time in which to really dig deep into the drama, so the fluff was used much more prevalently, in my opinion, than in past seasons, hence four stars instead of five. I like fluff, but the show is ostensibly a dramedy and there was a bit too little "dram" versus "edy". Still, I think that was to make things easier on Ms. Deschanel, and to give the viewers a quiet reprieve from the drama of the prior season.

And, naturally, to really build up the happiness before Pelant made his creepy presence felt once again - in a *big way* - for the finale. In which a parallel between Booth/Brennan and Brennan's own past is made. I will not spoil what happens but, needless to say, echoes of Brennan's past make its way into the present with some heart-wrenching choices when it seems circumstances play against her. Which puts the future of Booth, Brennan, and their baby as a family in jeopardy.

And with those unanswered questions, I look forward to seeing how things resolve in Season 8, which, on the bright side, looks to be a full, regular season come fall, including four "bonus" episodes that were ordered for either the summer or for the new season; recently, it was announced these four episodes would be included in Season 8 as stand-alone episodes (versus the usual episodes that seem to have a continuing arc).

So, the moral is, enjoy the fluff while it is around - even if a bit too much - because the drama will always kick back in. Hart Hanson and Company have proven it once again.

ETA: 06/20/2012: Oddly, while no release date for this set is still posted here, Amazon's Canadian site, Amazon.ca, is also taking orders and has a release date now for October 9th. This should apply as Canada and the US both have Region 1 DVDs and use Region A for Blu-Ray. Also, October 9th is a Tuesday, which is typically when new releases come out in the US. So just a possible update in terms of just when this set may be released!

ETA, Part 2 - 07/19/2012: As you see, the key art for the DVD/BluRay set has been released. TV Shows On DVD has the release date as October 9th, though Amazon does not have that listed yet.