What I’m Watching: Rizzoli & Isles

Rizzoli & Isles: Season 1, Episode 9 “The Beast in Me” (B-)

Apparently, no small crime happens in Boston. No accidental deaths, no petty killings. Everything has to be connected either to a serial killer or the mob. Not just that; it also happens that Maura is able to almost instantly identify a dead guy as her half-brother, and it just so happens that his father (and hers!) waltzes right into the morgue to identify himself. The ridiculous amount of coincidences and unikelihoods is just staggering, and I think this is the point where I officially start grading the episodes of this show less favorably if they just don’t cut it in terms of logic and believability. Maura’s kidnapping by her own father seemed more than a bit dramatic, and these cops seem to have no sense of good security. When Frankie came over to ask for help fixing the pipes, it could easily have been one of those previously mentioned serial killers or mobsters coming to assassinate Maura, and Jane would hardly have been in a position to do anything about it. That’s now at least three episodes out of nine that one or both of the lead characters has been in serious danger of being abducted by someone desiring to harm them, which seems a bit drastic. I suppose that’s what’s necessary to ensure that this show isn’t perceived as just another procedural (note the helpful presence of the young newbie who vomits at the sight or thought of blood and the veteran who is old enough to have been around to know everything about the mob). While stretching the boundaries of plausibility doesn’t make me want to stop watching, it does dishearten me a bit about what I had thought was a great new show.