TV’s Smartest New Team: Rizzoli and Isles

Dynamic duo: Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander star in the new Monday-night drama "Rizzoli & Isles."

Having given us great female-centric series like The Closer with Kyra Sedgwick, Saving Grace with Holly Hunter and HawthoRNe with Jada Pinkett Smith, TNT is doubling our pleasure with Rizzoli & Isles, about Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli (Angie Harmon) and medical examiner Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander) who team up to solve crimes. The series reminds us of Cagney & Lacey and Harmon’s last series Women’s Murder Club on the procedural end, but it also refreshingly celebrates the friendship between two women who aren’t catty, bitchy or fighting over a guy.

Not longtime BFFs, “They met through work and they’re learning a lot about each other, and we’re learning about the friendship as we’re shooting it,” Alexander says. “I find that unpredictable and organic and why the relationship works. It’s natural.” Both stars consider the show’s implied message empowering. “These are two women with different points of view and different backgrounds who can express all sides of themselves — silly, vulnerable, sexy, strong, angry,” Alexander says. “The show puts it out that women can do anything we put our minds to and that’s what I teach my daughters,” adds Harmon.

Harmon, the mother of three girls, and Alexander, mom to one daughter, became fast friends; they’ve already vacationed together. Both find the five-month shooting schedule ideal. “It’s heaven. I get to take the rest of the year off and be a mommy while [husband] Jason [Sehorn] does football,” Harmon says. “The silver lining is my girls have a wonderful relationship with their father. That hopefully will set up what kind of relationships they have and how they’re going to want a man to treat them when they’re older.”

Based on the Rizzoli & Isles novels penned by physician Tess Gerritsen, the series boasts a stellar supporting cast, including Lorraine Bracco and Chazz Palminteri as Jane’s parents and Bruce McGill as her partner, with Billy Burke in a recurring role and guest appearances by Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Donnie Wahlberg as possible love interests for Maura. Her attempts at dating balance the murder plots with some levity. “It’s fun,” says Alexander. “We get to talk about it over a dead body.”

Who’s your favorite female TV character?

Photo credit: Gerri Miller

Tags: Angie Harmon, Billy Burke, Boston, Bruce McGill, Chazz Palminteri, detective, Donnie Wahlberg, Fiction, Gerri Miller, Harmon, Holly Hunter, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jane Rizzoli, Kyra Sedgwick, Lorraine Bracco, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Maura Isles, physician, Rizzoli & Isles, Sasha Alexander, Saving Grace, Tess Gerritsen, The Closer, TNT, Women, Women’s Murder Club