Bones returned after a three-month hiatus, bringing back everyone’s favorite crime duo and their lovable team. But were the signs of fatigue beginning to show? We discuss!

Being on the air for more than one season is a feat to be celebrated these days. Being on the air for 10 seasons? You join an elite club that has members like Cheers, Fraiser, ER, Friends, and CSI, which isn’t a bad group of shows to be associated with. The question now becomes: will there be a season 11? Or rather, should there be?

I personally checked out emotionally on Bones at the end of season 6 when it was revealed that Booth and Brennan finally did the deed, off camera, and it was revealed she was pregnant in “The Change in the Game” finale. After waiting six years to see these two get together, it was like a gut shot to have missed them dating, let alone have their first real kiss.

Steadily throughout season 6 the show seemed to want to backtrack all of Brennan’s emotional progress that she had made throughout the series. It was frustrating for a viewer who has been with the show since the pilot. And then to not even get to see the two characters blossom into a normal relationship but to be thrown into a pregnancy, (brought on by Emily Deschanel’s real life pregnancy) was just more than this viewer could handle. So, I checked out emotionally, but stuck with the show for the other characters, mostly Sweets.

And then the unthinkable happened. They killed Sweets in the opening of this season. I had already decided to close up shop on the show, there really wasn’t a reason to watch anymore. Then I got this writing gig and was assigned Bones. Oh, the irony! So I plugged on with the show, enjoying it but not getting invested.

The show isn’t locked in for another season; contracts need to reassessed and deals need to be made. But after watching this most recent episode, it seemed that the actors were tired. The material seemed to be more recycled than usual. The fact that an upcoming story arc for the show has Booth going back to his gambling addiction doesn’t seem like something that his character would do, especially if Sweets were still there. And maybe that will be part of the point; he doesn’t have Sweets to be the Jiminy Cricket on his shoulder.

As I have watched this show for 10 years, I will probably see it to its end. But will that end be sooner or later? I am a fan of closure, so if that means the show needs one more season to wrap up its storylines and give our characters some kind of happy ending I’m ok with that. But past that? You can’t go on forever, and these actors clearly don’t want to.

Check back Thursday for news on the next Bones episode!

Bones season 10, episode 12 airs Thursday, April 2nd at 8 p.m. eastern/pacific on Fox!