Boston Detective Jane Rizzoli (Angie Harmon) and her best friend and the city’s chief medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander) solve a variety of cases while also dealing with the former’s overprotective mother Angela (Lorraine Bracco) and the latter’s difficulty relating to people on a personal, some would even say human, level.

CRITIQUE

I’ve never read any of author Tess Gerritsen’s novels on which the character of Detective Jane Rizzoli is based and from which a number of plots of the first season of “Rizzoli & Isles” are pulled from. I did not know that this was the most watched cable television debut of all-time for a series with 7.6 million viewers tuning in to watch the pilot. In fact, I knew nothing about this show until the press release for it happened to run across my inbox, and if not for the fact I felt in a particularly good mood and this one for whatever reason struck my fancy it is highly unlikely I’d ever have requested it for review.

Can I just say how glad I am I did? “Rizzoli & Isles” may not be great, may not be even close to perfect, but it is damn entertaining and features two strong female characters unlike almost anyone else on network or cable television. This program is about them, revolves around Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles in every way imaginable. It is about their friendship, their working relationship and how it evolves with each case they face. For the first time since arguably “Cagney & Lacey” we finally have two multifaceted, three-dimensional women working together in a way that feels honest, true and believable, and I for one couldn’t be happier about that.

Not that the show breaks the mold or does anything all that new. It’s “Cagney & Lacy” crossed with “Bones” with a dollop of “C.S.I.” thrown in for good measure. It follows the crime procedural handbook with a cast of irregular regulars who are all interesting and different but handled poorly could all look like they just stepped out of central casting. The majority of the mysteries don’t exactly break the bank in regards to originality, and the reliance on a semi-central villain nicknamed ‘The Surgeon’ (creepily played by Michael Massee) can get a little annoying.

But the strength of the show, ran and created by Janet Tamaro (“Bones,” “Trauma”), is the writing of the characters themselves, writing that gets richer, deeper and downright better as the season progresses. The relationships, not just between Jane and Maura but between all the regulars, grow in power and depth from episode to episode, and watching it all evolve is on the show’s true unabashed delights.

It helps that the show boasts an amazing supporting cast led by Bracco but one that also includes notable characters actors Bruce McGill (as Janes’ former partner Detective Vince Korsak) and Chazz Palminteri (as Jane’s father Frank Rizzoli Sr.). But it isn’t just them. Both Lee Thompson Young (Jane’s current partner Detective Barry Frost) and Jordan Bridges (Jane’s police patrolman brother Frankie Jr.) are also quite good, everyone working together to craft a winning ensemble that’s easy to root for and like.

But it are the dual efforts of Harmon and Alexander who ultimately put this show over the top. Their chemistry is golden, and I love the fact that the series drops viewers in the middle of their friendship and just takes the fact that they’re so close and personal with another for granted. They talk and act like real women, now television women, they way they relate one to the other as genuine and as honest as anything television has offered in ages. Both are simply fantastic, and while the show sometimes asks them to do some seriously silly things (the episode regarding Maura’s parentage particularly so) by and large I loved spending time with the both of them and never once felt annoyed or upset by anything that happened.

Everything culminates in a final episode that had me on the edge of my seat, and as silly as the scenario is (the police precinct gets overtaken by an elite team of thugs looking for some key evidence to a cop’s murder, Jane, Maura and Frankie, Jr. trapped inside fighting for their lives) the execution is absolute nails. The last moments had me nearly frothing at the mouth, and when it was over I almost wanted to scream at my set eager to know what was going to happen next. It’s episodic cliffhanger television magic, and come July 11 I can almost guarantee my DVR will be set to record the first episode of season two so I can find out the outcome.

So by all means make sure and watch “Rizzoli & Isles,” it’s very good, and in a television world overwhelmed by police procedurals here’s one thanks to its premise and the strength of its cast manages to stand out from an extremely crowded field.

THE VIDEO

All 10 episodes of the first season of “Rizzoli & Isles” are presented on three DVDs in their original 1.78:1 aspect ratio.

THE AUDIO

“Rizzoli & Isles” comes with an English 5.1 Dolby Digital audio track with optional English, French and Spanish subtitles.

THE EXTRAS

Nothing too extraordinary or out of the box. There are bunch of Deleted Scenes on a number of episodes, while the requisite (and highly unfunny) Gag Reel is also included. There are two featurettes, Rizzoli & Isles: Bringing the Characters to Life and Rizzoli & Isles: Chicks in a Bottle, the latter by far being the one people are going to want to check out (at just under 30 minutes, it’s actually pretty solid and gets into the workings of the show fairly nicely).

FINAL THOUGHTS

“Rizzoli & Isles” is a good show that is perfectly cast and gets better and better as it goes along building to a final season-ending cliffhanger episode that got me to gasp out loud. I’m curious to see where it goes next, and am very happy to add this program to my DVD television library.