Rizzoli & Isles (TV series): Difference between revisions

''Rizzoli & Isles'' is a show on [[TNT]] set in [[Boston (useful notes)|Boston]] with two of the department's hardest working women cracking the city's most gruesome murders, based on a book series by Tess Gerritsen. These two friends are as different from one another as can be. Jane Rizzoli ([[Law and Order|Angie Harmon]]) is a no-nonsense cop with an attitude and tomboy inclinations. Dr. Maura Isles ([[NCIS|Sasha Alexander]]) is a brilliant though eccentric medical examiner, much more feminine and milder than Jane. As odd of a pairing as they may be, Jane and Maura are close friends who are always there for one another and have each other's back. Great potential to continue passing [[The Bechdel Test]].

 

* [[Actor Allusion]]: While the detectives are investigating a college murder, Frost asks, "Where did you go to college, Korsak?" Korsak's answer: "Didn't, watched ''[[Animal House]]'' a few times." Korsak is played by Bruce McGill, who played D-Day in that movie.

* [[Adaptational Attractiveness]]: In the books that the series is based on, Jane Rizzoli is consistently described as plain or average looking. This is a significant characteristic, as she tends to have an irrational jealousy and dislike of beautiful women. But here, she's being played by the gorgeous Angie Harmon (though Harmon has played Jane as a little more rough and tumble as time went on).

** It's not as extreme with Maura Isles, who is described as "attractive", but as played by Sasha Alexander, she's far more stunning than one would have imagined.

** Even Detective Korsak. Hardly a male model in his TV incarnation, but still much better looking than he's described in the books.

* [[Bare Your Midriff]]: Rizzoli's workout outfit, particularly in the cold open of "I Kissed a Girl", and ''damn''. You could bounce a quarter off her abs!

* [[Baseball Episode]]: The second episode starts with a softball game between Robbery and Homicide, which is interrupted by the dumping of a dead body from the nearby freeway overpass. Notably, both ladies are ''hilariously'' bad, though Isles is considerably worse; Rizzoli's attempts to teach her how to swing properly set up a [[Chekhov's Gun]] later on.

** [[Batter Up]]: ...And that would be the aforementioned [[Chekhov's Gun]].

* [[Belligerent Sexual Tension]]: Rizzoli and Grant.

'''Grant''': You saw me looking, but [[Longing Look|I wasn't looking at your test]]. }}

* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: According to the show, {{spoiler|many good cops on the Boston Strangler case have died young and/or snapped in an explosive manner}}.

* [[Brains and Brawn]]

* [[Burn the Witch]]: When someone starts murdering members of a coven in "Bloodlines", the first victim is burnt at the stake.

* [[California Doubling]]: The show is so obviously filmed in LA it borders on embarassing.

* [[Call Back]]: Oh, man, "I'm Your Boogey Man" is made of this trope. {{spoiler|Somebody puts a road flare in front of Jane's apartment building, indicative of how she scarred Hoyt in "See One, Do One, Teach One." Later, we find that that somebody is a kidnap victim who Hoyt tortures to the point of suffering Stockholm syndrom (not to mention he killed her abusive husband). Having gotten Frankie, Jr., to fall in love with her, she captures both Rizzoli siblings. While Jane tries to explain to the victim that Hoyt doesn't love her and is just using her to get Jane, she lets her guard down long enough for a struggle to ensue between herself and Frankie, Jr., for the gun. While they are both down on the ground, Frankie, Jr., gets the gun and kills her with two shots to the chest, even though his wrists were duct taped. In "See One, Do One, Teach One," Jane and Hoyt's apprentice were on the ground going for a gun. Jane got to it first and, with her wrists duct taped, she killed the apprentice with two shots to the chest}}.

** [[Like You Would Really Do It|Like They Would Really Do It]]...

* [[Cop and Scientist]]

* [[Da Chief]]: Korsak, though he inspires fear in no one.

* [[The Determinator]]: If the Season 2 premiere is any indication, this trope describes Jane. After watching a soldier get blown up by a car bomb minutes after the soldier was honored for her heroics in Afghanistan, Jane ignores all commands to stay home and nurse her wounds from the Season 1 finale, as well as other roadblocks, to try and solve the case.

** Naturally, the episode [[Homoerotic Subtext|"I Kissed a Girl"]] oozes of this trope. You have Jane flirting with numerous suspects {{spoiler|and being kissed on the neck by murderer}}, Maura wearing a tight waitress dress that allows her to show off maximum cleavage {{spoiler|and a baby bump}}, and Jane and Maura discussing lesbianism (Jane said she would "flip" sexual preferences for front row Boston Celtics tickets) and telling each other that they're [[Blatant Lies|not each others' type]] ([[Sarcasm Mode|riiiiiiiight!]]). Oh, and they are doing this [[Ship Tease|in Jane's bed]]! But there is more than the [[Les Yay]] that qualifies for fan service. There's the yoga scenes. Maura is once again in a skin-tight workout suit, while Jane is in yoga pants and a training bra, showing off abs that you could balance a quarter on ([[Hot Mom|keep in mind that Angie Harmon has three kids]]).

** How many times can Jane and Maura be seen wearing tight clothes on this show? They do it again in "Born to Run."

* [[Fictional Counterpart]]: The Massachusetts Marathon standing in for the Boston Marathon.

* [[Friend to All Living Things]]: Korsak is constantly rescuing animals. In fact, this is how Josephine "Joe" Friday and Jane were introduced before Jane took in Joe.

{{quote|'''Jane:''' I am NOT running as Lady Puke Gaga!}}

* [[GPS Evidence]]: Maura was able to crack a case by determining the poison used in the murder came from a flower native to Boston. Jane was able to track the killer because the flower was growing in the front yard of someone who was interviewed earlier in the episode.

* [[Hollywood New England]]: Mostly averted, but enter Donnie Wahlberg and you half expect him to say, "Chowdah." The weird part is that he's actually ''from'' Boston, but his regular accent isn't nearly that broad. It's more than made up by the extras, most of whom have very thick Boston accents.

* [[Hollywood Voodoo]]: Averted, in they're doing a religion that is similar to real voodoo, but not exactly the same. The practitioners perform exorcisms, and Maura says their practices are consistent with Catholicism in the Cape Verde Islands and other West African nations.

* [[The Not Love Interest]]: Maura for Jane. With levels of [[Unresolved Sexual Tension|UST]] between them that many canonical straight TV couples never reach...

* [[Odd Couple]]: Yup, that would be the titular pair.

* [[Patrick Stewart Speech]]: An odd one in "I Kissed A Girl". Maura explains her love of luxury items by saying that she buys the finer things in life as a tribute to human ingenuity and artistry that goes into making things like her finely knit cable sweater and her couture high heels. [[Truth in Television]], many high-end and bespoke items are made with great care and hours upon hours of effort poured into them.

* [[Handsome Lech|Pretty Lech]]: Some of Maura's remarks can come across as this.

* [[Ship Tease]]: At least once an episode between Jane and Maura, most prevalent in "I Kissed a Girl."

** It reaches new heights in Season 2 episode 3 "Sailor Man", with Jane and Maura pretending to be a couple to get rid of an... unpleasant suitor for Maura. It works.

* [[Shout-Out]]: Already quite a few to ''[[Dragnet]]''. Jane set her phone to use the show's theme song as a ringtone when Frost calls. And in a gender-flipping version of [[We Named the Monkey "Jack"]], Korsak rescues a dog from a freeway and names her Joe Friday (Joe being short for Josephine).

** ''Rizzoli & Isles'' is one of many shows where many of the episode titles are shout-outs to popular songs. See [[Rizzoli and Isles/Shout Out|the page]] for a list.

* [[Typecasting]]: Two series in a row may not be enough, but Angie Harmon's last show had her as a tomboyish cop who is married to the job (the difference between ''Women's Murder Club'' and ''Rizzoli & Isles'' is that her character was divorced in ''WMC'' and single by choice on this show). This is also her third law show, but on ''[[Law & Order|Law and Order]]'', she was an A.D.A., not a cop. Averted for Sasha Alexander, who was on a law show the last time she was on TV, but she goes from a federal agent who can hang with her male counterparts on ''[[NCIS]]'' to a more feminine ME with an advanced degree here. Donnie Wahlberg, on the other hand, seems to be type-cast into the cop role.

** Of course, Harmon played a tomboyish detective on ''[[Baywatch Nights]]''.

** The titular leads. See [[Les Yay]].

* [[Vomit Indiscretion Shot]]: Det. Frost at the first crime scene in the pilot.

[[Category:Dramedy]]

[[Category:Cop Show]]