History Series / BodyOfProof

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Megan for sure.

* {{Fanservice}}: Hello, Creator/JeriRyan in 3x06, walking around in BlackBraAndPanties, after a hot hookup the previous night.

[[caption-width-right:301:Megan Hunt examining one of her "patients."]]

Megan Hunt (Dana Delany) was a brilliant neurosurgeon until a car accident caused unknown neurological damage that makes her hands numb occasionally. After she accidentally killed a patient, she decided to switch jobs and become a medical examiner - because, after all, "I can't kill anybody if they're already dead."

Blunt and to the point, she has no problem in butting heads with not only the medical investigator Peter Dunlap and the Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kate Murphy (Jeri Ryan), but also with the police detectives she helps. One consequence of her previous life as a workaholic, though, is her estrangement from her daughter and her striving to make up for the neglect she had in the past.

Not to be confused with the erotic thriller ''Film/BodyOfEvidence''.

!!Tropes found in ''Body of Proof'':

* ActorAllusion: Arriving at the victim's residence in ''Love Thy Neighbor'' Megan mentions she used to live in a cul-de-sac like this, and that there's more to the place than meets the eye. At the end she tells Ethan he couldn't handle a desperate housewife. Delany was on ''Series/DesperateHousewives''.

* AmoralAttorney: The lawyer the victim was sleeping with in the first episode - and the victim herself before she had an accident falling down stairs which changed her.

* BerserkButton: Adoption for Peter, since [[spoiler: he was adopted himself]].
* CaliforniaDoubling: Set in Philadelphia. Shot in California.
* CastingGag: Creator/ChristinaHendricks plays the love interest of Geoffrey Arend's character--her husband.
* {{Catchphrase}}: Curtis has a very particular way of saying "Mmm-hmm".

* DaChief: The Chief Medical Examiner, played by Jeri Ryan.

* DoubleStandard: Mentioned by Megan when she describes how her husband got full custody of her daughter: she claims the court ruled against her because a man who works eighteen hours a day is a "good provider", a woman who works eighteen hours a day is an "absentee mother."

* {{Fanservice}}: Hello, JeriRyan in 3x06, walking around in BlackBraAndPanties, after a hot hookup the previous night.
* FollowTheLeader: Has been criticized as being a copy of ''Series/{{Bones}}'', ''Series/{{Castle}}'', or ''Series/{{House}}'', in that it has an overly blunt know-it-all medical examiner who has a partner of the opposite sex with some {{UST}}.
** Or reaching further back for an even more direct example, ''Series/CrossingJordan'', which even includes the AmateurSleuth element.
*** Reaching even ''further'' back, there's ''Series/{{Quincy}}''.

* FairCop: Peter, who is an ex-cop and now a medical investigator. Megan is a [[FairCop Fair Medical Examiner]].

* HeroicFireRescue:One episode kicks off by having Peter run into a burning house to rescue one of the inhabitants, underlining his bravery credentials.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Megan for sure
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler: Dani Alvarez]]

* NeverSuicide: Subverted, Megan has a ANA (antinuclear antibody) panel run on a suicide - not because she thinks it's murder, but because she just wants to know ''why'' they committed suicide.
** [[spoiler:Megan's father.]]
* NoSympathy: Megan is the character trait variation, although she certainly has her moments of empathy. Her daughter and ex-husband appear to have a certain amount as well: the former lying to their child to make Megan look heartless and badmouthing her when she's actually doing something nice, the latter quick to shoot Megan down any time she makes an effort.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Evidently, it's easy to go from being a neurosurgeon to being a pathologist/medical examiner! The two disciplines are about as far apart as you can go without completely falling out of the realm of medicine. The only unifying subject that both disciplines deal with, neurohistology/neuroanatomy, is interestingly the only subject that the show has yet to touch on.

* PlayingAgainstType: If you are used to seeing Tim [=DeKay=] as the honest and good Peter Burke in ''WhiteCollar'', his turn as the creepy-ass religious fanatic father in 3x03 will give you a start.
** Jeri Ryan's Kate Murphy is pretty much a polar opposite of [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Seven of Nine]]. Subverted in that Ryan has played many roles as professional women.

* TheStinger: In ''Lost Souls'', the "DemonicPossession" turns out to have a perfectly rational explanation, but something the "possessed" person said during the exorcism is still bothering Megan. She asks about it, and the victim says she doesn't really remember much of anything that happened while [[spoiler:she was under the influence of the PCP she'd been poisoned with. Then she says, in a voice that isn't her own, "Now go learn something", which was the rest of the quote that she'd started to say the first time that she was "possessed".]]
* TerribleIntervieweesMontage: Curtis interviewing new drivers. The candidates are mostly unqualified and/or creepy (i.e., talking about how interested they are in dead bodies). There is one one experienced, normal-sounding candidate, and it looks like the montage is over... and then she starts texting in the middle of the interview.

* ActorAllusion: Arriving at the victim's residence in ''Love Thy Neighbor'' Megan mentions she used to live in a cul-de-sac like this, and that there's more to the place than meets the eye. At the end she tells Ethan he couldn't handle a desperate housewife. Delany was on DesperateHousewives.

** Jeri Ryan's Kate Murphy is pretty much a polar opposite of [[StarTrekVoyager Seven of Nine]]. Subverted in that Ryan has played many roles as professional women.

* FollowTheLeader: Has been criticized as being a copy of ''{{Bones}}'', ''Series/{{Castle}}'', or ''Series/{{House}}'', in that it has an overly blunt know-it-all medical examiner who has a partner of the opposite sex with some {{UST}}.
** Or reaching further back for an even more direct example, ''CrossingJordan'', which even includes the AmateurSleuth element.
*** Reaching even ''further'' back, there's ''{{Quincy}}''.
*** [[FightClub Everything's a copy of a copy of a copy.]]

* FollowTheLeader: Has been criticized as being a copy of ''{{Bones}}'', ''{{Castle}}'', or ''Series/{{House}}'', in that it has an overly blunt know-it-all medical examiner who has a partner of the opposite sex with some {{UST}}.

Not to be confused with ''Film/BodyOfEvidence''.

* Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Megan for sure

* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Evidently, it's easy to go from being a neurosurgeon to being a pathologist/medical examiner! The two disciplines are about as far apart as you can go without completely falling out of the realm of medicine. The only unifying subject that both discipline deal with: neurohistology/neuroanatomy, is interestingly the only subject that the show has yet to touch on.

* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Evidently, it's easy to go from being a neurosurgeon to being a pathologist/medical examiner! Considering the two disciplines are about as far apart as you can go without completely falling out of the realm of medicine. The only unifying subject that both discipline deal with; neurohistology/neuroanatomy, is interestingly the only subject that the show has yet to touch on.

* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Evidently, it's easy to go from being a neurosurgeon to being a pathologist/medical examiner!

* CastingGag: ChristinaHendricks plays the love interest of Geoffrey Arend's character--her husband.

What if Dr. {{House}} was a female medical examiner?

* EurekaMoment: As soon as Peter says he has a nut allergy, Megan gets a total {{House}} face. And that's just one of many moments.
* FollowTheLeader: Has been criticized as being a copy of ''{{Bones}}'', ''{{Castle}}'', or ''{{House}}'', in that it has an overly blunt know-it-all medical examiner who has a partner of the opposite sex with some {{UST}}.

* NeverSuicide: Subverted, Megan has a A&A Panel run on a suicide - not because she thinks it's murder, but because she just wants to know ''why'' they committed suicide.

** Megan gets her comeuppance in this regard by a male, Arson Investigator version of her in a later episode.