Everyone’s favorite TV forensic anthropologist is back for another exciting season of 24 episodes. As the eighth season of Bones came to a close, fans were left with the question as to whether or not Booth and Bones would ever get married—Pelant had threatened to kill five people if Booth revealed why he called off the wedding.

The ninth season brings more of what the fans love about this series—that signature blend of humor, drama, action, interesting cases, and of course those unique and disgusting opening sequences when the body is first discovered. But most important of all, is that this season finally brings the big moment we have all been waiting for over the past nine years—the Booth and Bones wedding!

The wedding episode is one of the highlights of the season. The ceremony itself is perfect, and longtime viewers of the series will really appreciate the couple’s vows. The episode brings together the entire extended cast to both solve a case as well as celebrate the union of these two characters. It was great to see all of the squinterns working together, the return of Booth’s mother (Joanna Cassidy), and Avalon (Cyndi Lauper) singing at the wedding ceremony!

Some of this season’s more dramatic plots include Booth reuniting with an old army buddy-turned-CIA Agent (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), Cam being the victim of identity theft, squintern Wendell (Michael Grant Terry) getting some very bad news, and the evil Christopher Pelant (Andrew Leeds) returning to torment the Jeffersonian team. There are also a lot of lighter, fun moments like Brennan and Booth once again going undercover as “Roxie” and “Tony”, and the return of Canadian forensic podiatrist Dr. Douglas Filmore (Scott Lowell) with his always-chipper attitude. Some of this season’s other guest stars include John Ratzenberger, Reed Diamond, Charlie Worsham, David Hornsby and Robert Picardo.

The season also has its share of crazy cases with bodies appearing in air conditioning vents and meat grinders (and being fed to school children), a man showing up to his own funeral, the murder of children’s TV show actor playing “Carrot Bill”, and more. The season-wide search for the Ghost Killer leads to an exciting, action-packed finale that could change everything for Booth and Brennan!

Overall, the ninth season is a solid collection of episodes. One criticism I have is that baby Christine seems to get forgotten most of the time. If it wasn’t for episodes like the one where Booth and Brennan are planning Christine’s first birthday party, you’d almost forget they even had a daughter—they are off working on cases all the time.

As for the DVD itself, I was sad to see that FOX has decided to drop the Blu-ray format for many of its TV titles this year. I am a strong believer of whatever aired in HD should be released in HD. That said, the DVD picture and sound quality is quite nice, and looks extremely close to the quality of the HD FOX airings.

The bonus features contained on the discs run about 90 minutes in total, which isn’t a whole lot, but there is a bit of everything, including an episode commentary, behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, some deleted scenes, and a gag reel. That material that is provided is quite entertaining. This is an easy recommendation for fans of the series as well as anyone interested in a fun crime procedural.

What’s Included:

Episodes: (1097 min)

• All 24 episodes of the ninth season (6 discs, 4 episodes each):
  “The Secrets in the Proposal”, “The Cheat in the Retreat”, “El Carnicero en el Coche”, “The Sense in the Sacrifice”, “The Lady on the List”, “The Woman In White”, “The Nazi on the Honeymoon”, “The Dude In The Dam”, “The Fury In The Jury”, “The Mystery in the Meat”, “The Spark in the Park “, “The Ghost in the Killer”, “Big in the Philippines”, “The Master In The Slop”, “The Heiress in the Hill”, “The Source in the Sludge”, “The Repo Man In The Septic Tank”, “The Carrot in the Kudzu”, “The Turn In The Urn”, “The High In The Low”, “The Cold in the Case”, “The Nail In The Coffin”, “The Drama in the Queen”, “The Recluse in the Recliner”
• 480p / Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Surround 2.0
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese

Extras:

• Deleted Scenes (6:37)
  While the DVD liner notes specify deleted scenes for every disc, only three of the discs actually contain them. There are 5 deleted scenes in total:
  • Episode 901, Scene 29A – Angela and Hodgins discuss the wedding being called-off
  • Episode 912, Scene 19 – Dr. Douglas Filmore talks about his power of CANADAR
  • Episode 913, Scene 9 – Cam gives Colin Fisher some instructions
  • Episode 915, Scene 11 – Sweets and Booth discuss how Booth should bring up the issue of church with Bones
  • Episode 918, Scene 10/11 – Booth and Bones question a doctor in his medicinal marijuana shop
• Walking Down the Aisle Bones Style (9:09)
  A behind-the-scenes look at the big wedding episode that includes interviews with cast members T.J. Thyne (“Dr. Jack Hodgins”), Tamara Taylor (“Dr. Camille Saroyan”), John Francis Daley (“Dr. Lance Sweets”), Michaela Conlin (“Angela Montenegro”), Emily Deschanel (“Dr. Temperance ‘Bones’ Brennan”), David Boreanaz (“Special Agent Seeley Booth”), David Hornsby (“Father Harrow”), Pej Vahdat (“Arastoo Vaziri”), Michael Grant Terry (“Wendell Bray”), Eugene Byrd (“Dr. Clark Edison”), and Joanna Cassidy (“Marianne Booth”), and executive producers Stephen Nathan and Hart Hanson.
• Commentary on “The Woman in White” (43:55)
  Executive Producers Hart Hanson and Stephen Nathan, and writer Karine Rosenthal provide a fun and interesting commentary on the wedding episode. They give some behind-the-scenes tidbits, talk about what it was like filming the episode and address the issue of why Christine was not at the wedding.
• Bones at Comic-Con 2013 (29:47)
  Footage from San Diego Comic-Con 2013 as director of the season premiere Ian Toynton, executive producer Hart Hanson and stars David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel visit the convention floor and participate in a Q&A panel. There are a lot of really fun moments including David proposing to Emily, and Emily and David acting out each other’s scenes from the season 8 finale.
• Gag Reel (5:02)
  A fun gag reel that includes crack-ups, forgotten and flubbed lines, and, of course, a music montage of dancing and the cast just having fun on set.

Final Thoughts:

The ninth season of Bones is a solid mix of drama, humor, action and interesting cases, and finally gives the fans one of the biggest moments they have been waiting for. It’s a shame that FOX has decided to drop the Blu-ray format for this release, but the sound and picture quality of the DVD is pretty solid. Only a small amount of bonus material has been included, but what is here is highly entertaining and provides a nice variety of extras.