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.

Geek Out with Jimmy #18: King of the Final Frontier

     A new Geek Out With Jimmy airs this weekend on HotZoneRadio.  It will play at 7pm Saturday and Sunday.  It’s an hour of television news and reviews by Jerome Wetzel, author for HotZoneOnline.

This week there’s plenty of news, beginning with the death of Fess Parker a.k.a. Davey Crockett.  Sad, indeed.  Also, answers to the following questions:  Which network is interested in 24?  Is Glee not doing 22 episodes next season?  Who else is joining Parks and Recreation?  Which Battlestar Galactica alum is going to be on Castle?  What crazy thing has Paula Abdul done now?  What’s in store for the big 100th episode of Bones?  Who will soon be working in The Office?  Which True Blood star is on another show at the moment, instead of filming the HBO series?  Who is the only original student cast member to appear full time in the final season of Friday Night Lights?  Where has Amy Brenneman gone?

Plenty of shows are also tackled, including Ugly Betty, American Idol, Desperate Housewives, Private Practice, 24, Chuck, Family Guy, Community the return of Flash Forward and South Park, the premiere of Justified and Ugly Americans, and the likely series finale of Scrubs.

Enjoy!

Some series already renewed for next season, others will be left hanging

     It has already started.  Networks have begun announcing which of our favorite television shows will be returning to the air waves next year.  Shows like Cougar Town, Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory, The Good Wife, American Dad, Bones, Glee, Friday Night Lights, Parks & Recreation, 90210, Gossip Girl, and The Vampire Diaries have already been given that green light.  Many more shows will be told to wait, possibly even until summer, for a decision.  Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly keeps this handy score card up to date.  Below are some shows waiting for a decision, what their chances are, and why they should or should not be picked up.

Better Off Ted - Hilarious new show last spring, but wasted many episodes during the summer.  It's considered unlikely to be picked up, but it definitely should be.  Fresh and original.

Scrubs - The show basically had a series finale last year, and is back as a watered down "Med School" version.  It will likely be let go, and probably should be.

V / Flash Forward - One show started strong and got weak, the other did the opposite.  Unfortunately, ABC gave both very long breaks so the audience could forget about them.  Their pick up chances will depend upon their spring showings.

Medium - Moved over to CBS this season, the show has gone on a nice, long time.  Though Ausiello says it could go either way, it's been less interesting this season than in the past.  It may be time to end it.

24 - Many factors will go into the decision to get another year of Jack Bauer or not.  Among them, a film is already in the works for when the series ends.  I could always use another dose of Jack, but he has already saved the world eight times.  Since the character will surely live on, perhaps he should leave the small screen now.

Fringe - In it's second season, the series has failed to get great ratings, but Fox seems committed to keeping it on, and it has stayed mind boggling.  It needs another year.

Chuck - For the first time this show is listed as a 'safe bet'.  After struggling for three years, Chuck has finally found its fan base, and that is a well earned triumph.  Let's hope NBC doesn't wait too long to confirm it.

Life Unexpected - It's good, but is it good enough?  Ausiello says it can go either way, and as far as myself watching it, I could as well.

Smallville - Ratings wise, it's safe.  Creatively, it's also in a good place, yet again.  Question is, can the CW pay Tom Welling enough to stay?

V Vindicated

     Back in November, I was raving about a brilliant pilot for FlashForward and a lame one for ABC's V.  Now the tables have turned.  While Flash Forward suffers along, V has delivered three excellent episodes before breaking for four months.  Stupid to go on such a long hiatus right after premiering a great new show?  Monumentally.  The interim may kill the show, and that would be a shame, because it has really shaped up.

     Why has it improved so much?  Because the aliens are awesome!  In four short hours, viewers have already covered plenty of nifty little twists about our complex Visitors.  For one, there is a movement called the Fifth Column made up of Vs that want to overthrow head honcho Anna (Morena Baccarin, Firefly).  It appears that they were mostly defeated awhile ago, but now they are back, including Ryan (Morris Chestnut), who may have fathered the first hybrid baby.  Equally creepy is the sophisticated way Anna plans to inject the human population with her concoction, and the jackets that spy on people.  Why she had her daughter, Lisa (Laura Vandervoot, Smallville, whom I sincerely apologize to for criticizing her casing) seduce Tyler (Logan Huffman) is anyone's guess, but surely there is more than meets the eye.  Plus, super large fleet of Vs on their way to Earth!

     Back in the human camp, the teamup of federal agent Erica (Elizabeth Mitchell, Lost) with Father Jack (Joel Gretsch) makes much more sense now that we now he is ex-military and can hold his own.  A priest that can stitch up a bullet wound and throw a punch?  Sign me up!  What I really want to know is when Chad (Scott Wolf, Everwood) is going to stop taking orders and start fighting back.  Clearly he is suspicious of Anna and the gang, but since they've given him a stardom, he seems reluctant to question them too difficult.  But that can't possibly go on too much longer.

     If you haven't given V a chance, or canceled the season pass after the mediocre, plot-hole ridden pilot, you still have plenty of time to catch up.  After all, only four episodes have aired.  V will return on March 30th.

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.