A few months ago it was announced that an episode of 'Bones' would serve as a back-door pilot for a spin-off series based on Richard Greener's 'The Locator' series. While not a true spin-off of the long-running Fox series, it would fall within the 'Bones' universe, creating possible crossover opportunities.

But this begs a question: Why hasn't there been a real 'Bones' spin-off during its six seasons on the air? There have been numerous guests and recurring Squinterns who have been interesting enough to merit their own show -- Michael Badalucco's role during the early days of the Squinterns comes to mind. Perhaps creator Hart Hanson and his team of writers never found the right angle to promote these folks to their own series.

Or it could be they were looking in the wrong place. If they had turned to Kathy Reichs' latest novel series, they could've found a concept that fit in well in the Fox lineup.

(S05E15) "Go ye forth and live life to the fullest." - Sweets

Starting this week, regular reviews of the hit series 'Bones' return to TV Squad. What better week to resume our reviews of the show than by reviewing the 99th episode of the series? What's even better? The fact that this week's episode is the first of eight all new and uninterrupted episodes of the series!

After weeks of reruns, the series finally returns with a bang! Sweets' life is turned upside down by a dramatic event while a Japanese reporter follows Brennan and Booth around in order to get gossip on the people who inspired Brennan's latest book. Oh, and there's steamy page 187 of the book, too!

A lot of Bones fans were unhappy last season when Zack was revealed to be Gormogon's apprentice. However, thanks to spoilers leaked over the summer, I can tell you we haven't seen the last of him. Want to know if the squints and co. are all back? If Angela and Hodgins will finally marry and be happy ever after? And if Brennan and Booth will truly kiss this season? Answers are coming up!

Beware: Spoilers ahead!

FOX has set up a special MySpace page for the drama Bones, and it's just one of the special promotional ideas the network has for a plotline on the show.

The page lists profiles for 18 characters on the show (regular characters and guest stars), blogs from the characters, videos, and other clues to the mystery of who will be killed (and who the killer is) on the May 9 episode of the show. Fans will actually be able to visit the sites, watch the videos, and read the blogs after every episode to collect clues to see if they can guess the identity of the murder victim and the murderer.

I feel bad about not watching the show anymore. I watched for most of the first season and it was actually pretty good. With this new promotion and the show's growing popularity, I just might try to get back into the show again and see how it is.

I'll admit it, in late July 2005, when I first watched the pilot of the FOX's series Bones, my comments about this show weren't stellar. However, I gave it another chance when it officially premiered on FOX and my opinion slowly started to change. Now, almost two years after the premiere, Bones is one of the shows I try not to miss, especially due to the "relationship" between Bones (aka Temperance Brennan), played by Emily Deschanel, and Booth, played by Angel's David Boreanaz.

Before Bones, I had never heard of Kathy Reichs or her books. Until last February, I had been afraid of reading one of her books featuring the lead character on Bones, Temperance Brennan. This fear was caused by reading countless of books later turned into movies that didn't stay true to the books. This time, I was afraid that the character I love from the show wouldn't be the same in the books (most of them were published before Bones hit the screen).

My fear was right.

(S02E15) I just want to thank FOX and the producers of American Idol for interrupting their 80 hours of programming to slip in a new episode of Bones. I know that it's hard to do this when the ratings and advertising revenues are just skyrocketing, so I appreciate it. Perhaps, in the near future, you'll consider putting shows like House and Bones on starting in the summer so their season's end by Christmas. That way you'll have the 2nd half of the season to air nothing but 24 and Idol.

And yes, I am angry at FOX's idiotic programming schedule.

Enough of this! Let's plow ahead with a review of this week's episode.