Based on bestselling books by Tess Gerritsen, season One of TNT series Rizzoli & Isles is now available on DVD.  I didn’t watch the show from the beginning but after receiving the box set for review, I’m kicking myself that I haven’t been watching it!  Rizzoli & Isles is absolutely my kind of show. Starring Angie Harmon (Law & Order) and Sasha Alexander (NCIS), this one-hour show blends humor, drama, great writing, and original plot twists into a show I’ve become completely addicted to!

The show is set in Boston, with Harmon as Jane Rizzoli, a tough, working-class Homicide Detective, and Alexander as Maura Isles, a Medical Examiner who grew up privileged.  When the series opens, the two are friends and working together to solve crimes, while also helping each other navigate through life. The two actresses play off of each other perfectly, it’s completely believable that they’ve been friends for years and truly care about each other.

The series’ backstory is inspired by Tess Gerritsen’s book “The Surgeon”. Boston detective Jane Rizzoli (Angie Harmon) was investigating a serial killer named Charles Hoyt (Michael Massee) some time before the series began. Hoyt, who was banned from medical school for fondling a corpse, used his vast medical knowledge to systematically torture and kill vulnerable women. Eventually, he captures Rizzoli and pins her to the floor with scalpels. As he prepares to cut Rizzoli’s throat, her partner, Vince Korsak (Bruce McGill), shoots Hoyt and saves Rizzoli’s life. Rizzoli reasons that, after seeing her so vulnerable, Korsak would never trust her as a partner.

The series pilot, “See One. Do One. Teach One”, is largely based on the novel “The Apprentice”. Rizzoli and Isles investigate a killer with Hoyt’s modus operandi, plus an interest in necrophilia. Rizzoli and Isles discover that the copycat was a soldier named John Stark (Brendan McCarthy) who met Hoyt in medical school, had his identity erased for CIA black operations, and mimicked Hoyt’s MO in a killing spree during said operations. Meanwhile, Hoyt escapes from prison and rejoins his apprentice. They capture Rizzoli and attempt to kill her, but she manages to disarm them by tasing them and impaling Hoyt in the eye with a flare. She shoots the apprentice to death and, when Hoyt reaches for Rizzoli’s gun, she shoots him through the hands, giving him injuries similar to the ones he gave her.

Other great actors in this series include Lorraine Bracco (The Sopranos) as Jane’s mother and Chazz Palminteri (The Usual Suspects) as her father (that is some perfect casting right there),  Lee Thompson Young (FlashForward) as Rizzoli’s current partner Barry Frost, and Bruce McGill (he played D-Day on Animal House!) as Jane’s former partner Vince Korsak.

If you like shows like Law & Order, NCIS, or CSI, you’ll like Rizzoli & Isles. The Complete First Season has all ten episodes plus these bonus features -

• Rizzoli & Isles: Bringing the Characters to Life (Series Developer Janet Tamaro Discusses Adapting Dr. Tess Gerritsen’s Novels)
• Unaired Scenes
• Gag Reel
• Rizzoli & Isles: Chicks in a Bottle (Explore the Dynamics of One of TV’s Most Compelling Female Relationships Via Cast/Creator Interviews and Behind-the-Scenes Footage).