5. Bones
Creator: Hart Hanson Network: Fox There was a great Euripides struggle in adding Bones to this list. It is a procedural, but early on they really ran with the idea of shooting the procedural in the foot and letting great characters drive the story. Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) aka Bones is a forensic anthropologist who gets paired with FBI hunk Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz). The two playoff one another in a Mulder-Scully dynamic, both sexually and the whole woman of science, man of faith (Booths faith is in Godnot aliens). The science behind the show is fascinating, inspired by real life forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs. There were wonderful season arcs in the early seasons (Bones parents, Gorgomon Serial Killer, The Gravedigger). Fox knows they have a gem and thats why its moving into its ninth season when any cable network would have had a five-year, 60 episode run (Bones currently has 166 episodes- the 100 episode syndication mark is key for network shows). This is also the reason why they dragged out romantic storylines between the two main characters. All that being said, its one of the few network shows I still give my time to each week.