Warner Home Video
Release date: May 22nd, 2012
MSRP: $39.99
Based on the characters of NYT best-selling author Tess Gerritsen, RIZZOLI & ISLES features Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli (Angie Harmon) and medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander ). While best friends, the two are total opposites: Jane is a tomboy and wears her emotions on her sleeve, while the very stylish Isles is more clinical and looks at situations from a more detatched position.
In the second season, Jane’s ex-con brother Tommy (Colin Egglesfield) shows up and hits it off quite well with Maura, her mother (Lorraine Bracco) struggles with her divorce. Jacqueline Bisset appears as Maura’s adoptive mother while John Doman returns Patrick ‘Paddy’ Doyle, a notorious crime boss that happens to be Maura’s biological father.
The strengths and weaknesses of the show remain the same. Casting is great (I totally see Harmon as Jane) and the chemistry continues to develop and strengthen. Most of the cast do a solid job, with Bracco really shining as a mildy neurotic, naggy mother that just wants what is best for her children…at least what SHE thinks is best.
R&I is your basic episodic series. Each episode features a crime that is generally pretty straight forward and wraps things up by the end of the hour. There is little character development, which is fine if you are looking for familiarity, and only the occasion subplot spanning multiple eps.
Audio: Subtitles are available in English (for the Hearing Impaired), French, Spanish, Japanese and Hebrew.
Extras: The set features a series of featurettes ( In the Room: Writing Rizzoli & Isles, Pre-Production, Production With Rizzoli & Isles, Ready to Air: Post-Production) that cover the process of creating an epsisode. Also featured are Deleted Scenes and a gag reel.
RIZZOLI & ISLES is a television form of comfort food. Nothing changes too much and it certainly does not go in any direction that might upset anyone. But the cast does a nice job with what they have and make this more entertaining than it should be.
Jeremy Lynch
