Body of Proof
Article by: Belinda Hamilton
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones. Oh, sorry, this one is in fact NOT Bones. It has so many things similar that you might be mistaken for the first 5 minutes of each program, but Body of Proof is mostly standalone. As my hubby says; ‘Same crap; different smell.’
IMDB’s synopsis of the first series, written by KGF Vissers reads… “Having lost her medical license in the aftermath of a family tragedy, Megan Hunt M.D. joined the medical examiners and proved herself a forensic genius. Yet even diplomatic police partner Pete Dunlop can’t prevent her arrogant attitude and total disregard for any authority or social norm to cause grave aggravation all around. Still, as long as the perpetrators suffer most, the bulldozer approach pays off on the balance.” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587669/fullcredits#cast
The program debuted on Aussie channel 7 on Monday the 8th of August 2011. I thought, ‘Hmm, here’s another corpse show. I wonder if it’ll be your standard issue, find the dead body, solve the case with screwed up forensics and autopsies that just ‘happen’ to find the cause of death. Every-Single- Episode.’ Guess what…? Uh huh, it is.
Let’s see, there’s an anti-social expert, a badge wielding handler, dead bodies, and a happy ending… well not for the bad guy, but you get the idea.
The differences; our anti-social expert is a medical examiner and knows little about anthropology, she works in
a hospital and is on retainer with the regular police, not the Feds. She actually has done the family thing, but her ex-husband is a tosser and her kid is a brat. She USED to be a neurosurgeon but due to a couple of accidents, both on and off the operating table, she’s now dealing with the contents of stomachs and diaphragms of the deceased, rather than rooting around in living people’s skulls. This series is shot in and around Rhode Island, not Washington.
With all that being said, on the whole, I found the show to be enjoyably watchable. There were moments of humor and emotion. Onscreen chemistry should keep things interesting at least through the twelve episodes of season one. It is like the diet version of Bones, with less hard boiled forensics and the bodies, at least for the first two episodes were less decomposed looking.
An interesting fact is that Dana Delaney shares a similarity with her scalpel wielding character; being involved in a car accident and when she’s rubbing her hand on screen, it is usually because she is actually in pain. Not so nice for Dana and we wish her a full recovery, however it adds depth to the role.
Cast for the Pilot and episode one “Letting go”
Megan Hunt (Medical examiner / ex-neurologist) – Dana Delany
Peter Dunlop (badge wielding handler) – Nicholas Bishop
Bud Morris (Head detective with a chip on his shoulder) – John Carroll Lynch
Samantha Baker (Partner of the shoulder chipped detective) – Sonja Sohn
Kate Murphy (Hospital big wig) – Jeri Ryan
Curtis Brumfield (Head of the ward Megan works in) – Windell Middlebrooks
Todd Flemming (Butt hole ex-husband) – Jeffrey Nordling
Lacey Flemming (Brat daughter) – Mary Mouser
If you watched Body of Proof, what did you think?
August 12th, 2011 at 12:55 am
I actually enjoyed it too and I’m pretty over all the crimes shows that saturate prime viewing time at the moment. If a show has got something to say other than solving crimes or has interesting ways of solving them – then I’m in. I will tune in next week and see if it still keeps me interested
August 12th, 2011 at 10:47 pm
I’ll give it a few more weeks as well I think. See if the characters develop into something more.