Led by the fiery Dr. Gillian Magwilde (Julie Graham, At Home with the Braithwaites), an intrepid team of archaeologists finds mud, blood, and death-defying adventure when they start digging. Combining historical mysteries with modern forensics, each episode focuses on a particular period in history, from the Crusades to Joan of Arc, King Arthur, and soldiers fighting in World War I. Set in the beautiful ancient city of Bath, England, the series is full of exciting entertainment.
The series debuted on BBC One in July 2008 and aired on select television stations in the U.S. in summer 2009.
The top-notch cast also includes Hugh Bonneville (Notting Hill, Iris), Adrian Lester (Primary Colors, Hustle), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Doctor Who), and Michael Maloney (The Forsyte Saga), with guest stars Eamonn Walker (Oz) and Burn Gorman (Torchwood). Bonekickers comes from the multi-award-winning team that was behind the series Life On Mars.
The Philadelphia Inquirer described Bonekickers as “Raiders of the Lost Ark meets Masterpiece Theater”. The first episode (Army of God) definitely has hints of Indiana Jones and of course the lilting British accents and English countryside drop right into the scene of Masterpiece Theater. Seemingly enough it also tends to lend familiarity to shows such as CSI and NCIS – where the forensics of the artifacts found at the dig site are examined and pondered, and often have a ‘unique & adverse’ affect upon those who come in contact with it.
I find the episodes tend to start slow – but pick up once the plot has been revealed (meaning the artifact or the significance of it has been identified). There are some good bits of humor to it (like when one of the characters is described as “think of him as Google but with a beer gut”). One tends to notice that there seems to be some strong opinions behind the scripts of the show, wherein the watcher may find it leaning a certain way to the right or to the left, but then I find that to be the case in many a tv show, so it’s certainly not an anomaly however it is noticeable.
Bonekickers only lasted the one season, and the Blu-ray disc set contains 2 discs with all 6 of the episodes on them.
If you have an interest in archaeology, enjoy history with a bit of projected ‘what ifs’ or ‘fantastical’ artifacts thrown into the mix, this show might be something that you would enjoy watching.
You can order a copy of at Amazon.com, it has a retail price of $39.99.
[box]I received a copy of Bonekickers from Acorn Media, in order to write this review.[/box]
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