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Friday, August 31, 2012

What I Am Watching

I tend to latch onto some TV shows late, but I prefer it that way, because then I can watch episodes one after the other without having to wait a week in-between episodes. And it's ad-free, too.

So recently, I started watching Rizzoli and Isles, and I have to say, it's pretty entertaining. It doesn't take itself too seriously (I'm looking at YOU NCIS, CSI, LMAO, WTF), and the cases aren't laughably convoluted. Which is refreshing. There's a crime, there are clues, leads are followed, the crime is solved. Jen is convinced that it's at least partially parody. I'm not sure.

What is particularly interesting though, is the relationship between the two lead characters. I don't have to tell anyone who watches TV that relationships between women are more often than not portrayed as, let's put it mildly, 'competitive'. Often, women are murdered, harangued, or just generally made miserable by other women. That, or they're the stoic, loner type with no friends who ends up alienating their prospective boyfriends after a week. Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles bicker and disagree, but you get the sense that both have a deep admiration for the other. It is exactly their differences that bring them together. It's unusual to see this kind of relationship between women on television (or in films). It's very likely part of why the show is so popular.

In the meantime, Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander are the perfect foils for one another. The writing is funny, but the sometimes serious and brutal nature of the cases involved creates a good and needed balance, stopping the whole thing from slipping into being overtly silly. People's private lives are addressed, something that is often missing in procedurals, and effects a distance between viewer and character that hinders the former from relating to the latter.

Bonus points: Lorraine Bracco plays Jane Rizzoli's mother. I will always remember her from Medicine Man, a movie in which she outplayed Sean Connery. By a mile.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Lorraine Braco is now playing 30 something's mother's?

Boy, now I feel old.

Lynne Jamneck said...

Hah!

Anonymous said...

The depressing thing about the way that you describe the relationship is that if it were man+man or man+woman, there would be no comment at all.

Lynne Jamneck said...

I know :|