Five Preview Videos for the BONES Season Eight Premiere, 'The Future in the Past'

Inspired by the real-life forensic anthropologist and best-selling novelist Kathy Reichs, Bones is a darkly amusing investigative drama starring Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz. The series' season eight premiere is scheduled to air Monday, September 17th, only on Fox.

Dr. Temperance Brennan is a highly skilled forensic anthropologist who works at the Jeffersonian Institute in Washington, D.C., and writes novels on the side. When the standard methods of identifying a body are useless (when the remains are so badly decomposed, burned or destroyed), law enforcement calls on Brennan for her uncanny ability to read clues left behind in the victim's bones. While most people can't handle Brennan's intelligence, her drive for the truth or the way she flings herself headlong into every investigation, Special Agent Seeley Booth of the FBI's Homicide Investigations Unit is an exception. A former Army sniper, Booth mistrusts science and scientists - the "squints," as he calls them - who pore over the physical evidence of a crime. But even he cannot deny that the combination of his people-smarts and Brennan's scientific acumen makes them a formidable duo.

This past season, after Brennan and Booth began pursuing a romantic relationship, the two welcomed the birth of their daughter Christine. In addition, the season finale episode brought back evil tech genius Christopher Pelant who mysteriously managed to manipulate the legal system to tie key pieces of evidence to Brennan in a murder investigation, with suspicion now falling on her.

Season Eight will begin with Brennan on the run with her father Max (guest star Ryan O’Neal) as a fugitive both from the law and serial killer Pelant, while Booth is restricted to administrative duties at the FBI. In addition, Sweets has been removed from the case, as has Federal Prosecuting Attorney Caroline Julian (guest star Patricia Belcher). What’s more, due to Pelant's technical savvy, Booth and Brennan will communicate with each other in only the most rudimentary ways, not only to try to prove Brennan's innocence but – with the help of Cam, Hodgins, and Angela – to place the blame where it belongs, on the murderous Pelant.