Rizzoli & Isles season finale: a gritty chick flick?

I never watched Rizzoli and Isles before (but you can see Jeff’s review of the finale from the point of view of a regular viewer) but I thought I’d enjoy it due to my love of Drop Dead Diva’s season 1. When Keith unleashed word that we had an advanced copy of the season finale, I leapt on it. I never quite understood why, upon reaching the established pinnacles of NCIS and Law and Order, both Sasha Alexander and Angie Harmon walked away (OK, I could, I just don’t want to). Considering I continue to see them through their ’90s TV starts, with Sasha in Dawson’s Creek’s final two seasons and Angie Harmon as the woman from Baywatch Nights, I wanted to see what show they eventually ended on. And, as I slowly viewed their career choices as parallel, it seemed fitting they should appear on the same show together.

Yet, upon turning on the show, I had another blast from the past with one of the guest stars, Bokeem Woodbine. Back in my high school Amnesty International/Model U.N./N.A.A.C.P. Jr. president days, HBO took advantage of the burgeoning urban-awareness film market and released Strapped, directed by Forest Whitaker, while providing advanced screenings to socially minded organizations and local youth throughout the country. Although I was lucky enough to interview the woman who played his girlfriend, Kia Goodwin (yes, I was a pop culture geek even then), I continued to watch the careers of the actors from that explosion. While actors such as Omar Epps (Juice) have gone onto other things, Woodbine’s career seems stuck on gangster. From the villainous brother on Jason’s Lyric threatening Jada Pinkett Smith to the mobster on New York Undercover, if he isn’t the bad guy, he’s trapped in the life of one. Between Christopher Walken and half the cast of the Sopranos, playing to type shouldn’t surprise me, but every now and again it does. Woodbine’s played other roles and he’s currently in M. Night Shyamalan’s Devil, but I only remember his baddies. So, despite his channeling of of his ’90s characters, I found myself happy to see another pre-millennial figure.

Since I wrote notes while watching it, below find my thoughts as the show progressed. You will notice I used ‘really’ every time I hit a moment of disbelief. I tried to control it, but, really, I couldn’t:

• How ballsy are the gangsters to walk into a precinct and kill off everyone inside? Is it really that easy to take over a precinct in a major urban area during daylight? Apparently it is.
• OK. Is Rizzoli really foolish enough to leave the witness unguarded, considering the vigilance of the attackers? OK. Yes.  Yes, she is.
• Didn’t it seem like there were too many hands in the kitchen? I know, the top dog called for all deck hands on port. However, wouldn’t that many people eventually trample evidence and/or step on each other?
• I’ve only visited Boston once. I’ll assume it’s peaceful, but, really, calling all cops to the crime scene for the next 4-6 hours? I understand his pain, but, really?
• I found the crack addict believable when wordlessly cradling the pipe – but when speaking the ‘street tough’ dialogue? Not so much.
• Really? All of the primary characters made their way to the stairwell and only suffered healable injuries while almost everyone else, the villains shot to kill, typically in the head?
• Both Rizzoli and Isles have great Pantene hair.
• Hmm, Isles is basically Angela and Bones in one.
• Lee Thompson Young is very pretty.
• I tend to hate shows where the main characters are trapped inside a building – it always feels claustrophobic (Yea, I know, that’s the point).
• Isles has great taste in footwear.
• Really? No one noticed armed gun men standing atop police headquarters and didn’t call it in? No one heard the gunfire earlier and didn’t think to call the front desk or the press?
• Really? Isles runs out the front door when the building isn’t secure into the middle of a gunfight?
• Rizzoli pulls a pretty bad-assed move in the end.

I thought I’d like the show, but the show’s pacing felt off. It went from an incredibly gritty opening with the crack addict to the banter of the leads to the action-packed building takeover to the odd lull where Rizzoli cries over her brother to the ending. Maybe it’s because I’m new to the show but is it usually that gritty? Also, does it tend to include more banter?

I felt like a lot of the cast phoned it in. I love Lorraine Bracco (and her new hair). She did a great job showing a mother’s pain, but I didn’t really feel her connection to her character as I did in The Sopranos.  I didn’t buy Rizzoli’s anguish over her brother. While Harmon did her best, I felt I had seen it all before: the behind enemy lines freedom fight, the MacGyver-like surgeon, and the deathbed loved one. However, the ending blew me away.

So, let me know. Is this typical for Rizzoli and Isles? Is it normally that gritty or is there more banter? I’m assuming the season finale focused more on the drama, but I’m wondering what other people thought. Also, what did people think of the ending?

Clacked by An Nicholson
on Sep 15, 2010 @ 10:00 EST5EDT