Rizzoli & Isles pilot something special

     TNT is presenting something special tonight: the premiere of their new drama, Rizzoli & Isles.  The show, set in Boston, stars Angie Harmon (Law & Order) as homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and Sasha Alexander (NCIS, Dawson's Creek) as medical examiner Maura Isles, the title characters.  Both characters are drawn from the books of Tess Gerritsen, as this seems to be the summer of television based on the written word.  Rizzoli is tough and tomboyish, Isles is fashionable and worldly, but slightly creepy with her fascination for dead bodies.  Both women seem to be successful professionals who work well together, but are best friends.  TNT is going for the opposites-attract vibe (both women are straight) for a female buddy drama.

      In the pilot, "See One. Do One. Teach One.", Rizzoli is shocked to discover a copycat killer on the loose.  The shock is deep because the killer this newbie trained from is the same one that kidnapped, mutilated, and molested Rizzoli while she was investigating them.  Soon, her tormentor breaks out of prison and joins his apprentice.  Isles took a smaller role, as this episode was all about Rizzoli dealing with her feelings and trying to catch the bad guys.  Lest you think she's soft, wait until you see what happened when heroine and villains collide.  I won't spoil it, since it hasn't aired yet, but it's fantastic.

     One interesting character introduced in the pilot is Agent Dean (Billy Burke, the Twilight saga), whom both Rizzoli and Isles seem interested in, but he appears to favor the former.  However, her awkward social skills around boys make it difficult to gauge whether he registered her return of feelings or not.  For a brief scene, I thought he might be the apprentice, and it scared the crap out of me.  Thank goodness the show didn't go that way, and I hope that he will stick around.  Also starring is Bruce McGill (MacGyver, Animal House) as Rizzoli's former partner and Lee Thompson Young (The Famous Jett Jackson) as her squeamish new one.  Young was smart or lucky enough to get off of Flash Forward in the middle of it's first and only season to do this show.

     The cast is great, the chemistry was set.  The pilot was wonderful because of the personal drama and horror felt by Rizzoli, so I don't know that the show can sustain that.  It wouldn't make sense for her to be so intimately involved in every case.  However, Isles is played by a very talented actress, woefully underused in the first episode, so that element is still a bit in the dark.  It was certainly good enough that I will be tuning in again next week, without a doubt.

     Check out Rizzoli & Isles tonight on TNT at 10pm.

FlashForward shows only flash of ingenuity

    ABC's new show Flash Forward, while starting with an exciting and interesting pilot, has become mostly dull.  Maybe that's why it's rumored to be one of the shows facing cancellation soon.  Don't get me wrong.  There are still moments of excitement.  The show just needs to step it up.

     First, let's look at the plots that are exciting.  Demetri's (John Cho, Star Trek, Harold & Kumar) murder coming up in March, which was starting to drag, got a shot of adrenaline in the fall finale when Nhadra (Shohreh Aghdashloo, 24, House of Sand and Fog) revealed that his would-be killer is best friend and fellow agent, Mark (Joseph Fiennes, Shakespeare in Love).  It was also kind of cool that Demetri's fiance, Zoey (Gabrielle Union), actually saw his funeral, not their wedding, in her flash forward.  The other neat twist was when Al (Lee Thompson Young) committed suicide, proving that what everyone saw was by no means set in stone and could, indeed, be changed.  It was unexpected, and gave a boost to an otherwise boring episode.

     The problem is that the rest of the cast aren't sparking the same interest that those couple of agents are.  For instance, despite their desire to avoid ending up in bed, Olivia (Sonya Walger, Lost) and Lloyd (Jack Davenport, Swingtown) can't seem to stay away from each other, and that was before the kidnapping at the end of the fall finale.  Aaron's (Brian F. O'Byrne) plot involving his daughter has unfolded so slowly that it is hard to keep interest.  Ditto pregnant lesbian Janis (Christine Woods).  Even the much-publicized arrival of Simon (Dominic Monaghan, Lost, The Lord of the Rings) failed to add to the intensity much.

     Flash Forward still has a chance.  Thus far it has allowed itself to get caught up in the too many characters with too much going on syndrome, but Lost escaped it, and so can this show.  If it gets it's act together quick.  It is probable that if it doesn't return from break strong right away, it will not live to see a second season.  More likely, flash forward to the handful of loyal viewers finishing the drama during a summer burn-off of the last few episodes.