Rizzoli and Isles: Friends or Lovers?

If you are a true fan of the show, you know exactly what I am talking about. Are Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles really just good friends or is there something a little more going on behind the scenes? Whether or not you are a part of the Rizzles fan base, you have to admit that Jane and Maura have a very close relationship. So for this post, I thought we could explore both sides. Are they BFFs or LLBFFs?

It is no secret that Jane and Maura are really close friends. They are together in over half the scenes in every episode, but then again, the show IS called Rizzoli and Isles. The weird thing is, they aren't partners or anything.  They have two completely different jobs within the BPD. Yes, Jane is a detective and Maura is the Chief Medical Examiner, but is a homicide detective really going to spend that much time down in autopsy? Also, Maura spends a lot of time with Rizzoli, Korsak and Frost in the squad room, helping them with research and profiles. It all seems a bit odd, don't you think?

Jane and Maura spend a lot of time together, not only at work, but outside of work as well. Jane seems to spend more time at Maura's place then her own. Then again, Jane's mom, Angela, is staying in Maura's guest house. That alone gives her a reason, other than Maura, to spend time over there. Angela treats Maura like she is part of her family, which is sweet since Maura doesn't get to spend much time with her family. Maura didn't get to have the childhood that Jane did. She didn't have siblings and her parents weren't around since she went to a boarding school. Spending time with the Rizzoli family gives Maura that sense of the close-nit family that she didn't have growing up.

There have been some scenes in the series that make the argument that these two are more than just friends pretty strong. Take the very first episode for example. When Jane goes over to Maura's after her mom shows up at her apartment, Maura climbs into bed with Jane, and lays pretty close to her. Also in season one, in the episode "I Kissed A Girl," Jane and Maura are in Jane's bedroom. I don't know about you but my best friends and I don't lay on her bed when we have a perfectly good living room couch to sit on. Jane and Maura also have convinced Giovanni that they are more than just friends. Is that just to get him away from Maura or is there some truth behind that? That is up to you.

Jane and Maura could just be really close friends and nothing more. Jane has two men in her life that she really cares about. Agent Gabriel Dean has been in Jane's life since the very first episode. He knows what her job entails. He understands how dedicated to the job she is and he supports that. She obviously has some feelings for him, they were in bed together in the season two finale. She also clearly trusted him enough to tell him about Patty Doyle, but we all know how that turned out. There is also the man with the name of Casey Jones in Jane's life. Casey graduated with Jane, and there was obviously something between them in high school. In the two episodes that Casey has been in, there is definitely some chemistry between the two of them. Jane also seemed to change whenever Casey was around or whenever they video chatted. She seemed softer, more of woman than a cop.

Lets not forget Ian, Maura's man from Africa. They definitely are more than friends and they both care deeply for each other. That may be from spending so much time apart, but they are definitely friends with benefits. Maura was devastated when he had to leave. Maura was also dating Jane's trauma surgeon in the first episode, which means they had to of been dating around three months, shortly after Jane shot herself. Maura also had a thing for Giovanni, but we wont get into that.

So are Jane and Maura just really close friends or more than that? No one really knows for sure. In the books, Jane is married with a child, but who knows what way the TV series is going to go. It is really up to you on whether or not you are a Rizzles fan or Jane and Dean/Casey and Maura/Ian fan. I wont tell you which side I am on, I will leave that for a later discussion. We will just have to see how this upcoming season is going to turn out. Since the ladies are fighting, who really knows for sure?

Until next time,

J. Cavanaugh

Please leave comments below. I would love your feedback!



P.S. I do not own any of the photos you see in this post. They have been taken from various websites and Angie and Sasha's twitter pages. 

Sasha Alexander

Since my last post was all about the fabulous Angie Harmon, I thought this one should be all about the other half of the fantastic duo, the equally fabulous, Sasha Alexander!

Before Alexander was cast as the super smart medical examiner Maura Isles, you might remember her as Gretchen Witter in Dawson's Creek and as Caitlin Todd in the first two seasons of the still popular CBS show, NCIS. Along with numerous movie roles, and some guest appearances in television, Alexander's acting credits are impressive. As Special Agent Kate Todd in NCIS, Alexander got to show her funny bone alongside Michael Weatherly, Mark Harmon, and the rest of the cast. NCIS was the first time I had ever heard of Sasha Alexander, and I was impressed with her work. After she left the show, it just wasn't the same.

I had been a fan of Tess Gerritsen's books, staring Jane and Maura, before it was announced that there was going to be a television series made out of it. Alexander plays the part of Maura perfectly, even though the character in the show is vastly different from the character in the book. Sasha puts her own little spin on the character and it fits perfectly with Harmon's take on Rizzoli.

Alexander is married to director Edoardo Ponti, son of actress Sophia Loren. They have two children, Lucia and Leonardo.  Alexander has stared in her husbands films, including the most recent one, Coming and Going. Alexander is still acting alongside Harmon in Rizzoli and Isles which is in production for its third season.

Alexander is a phenomenal actress with many projects under er belt, but I think Rizzoli and Isles might be her best one yet. Don't forget to tune into Season 3 on TNT starting June 5th!

Until next time,

J. Cavanaugh

Please leave comments below. I would love your feedback!

P.S. I do not own any of the photographs in this post. They have been taken from various sites and Sasha's twitter page.

Angie Harmon

For the topic of this post, I though it would be appropriate to talk about Angie Harmon. There are many things to talk about when it comes to Harmon. From her style and her shoes to the love she has for her family and fans and even that deep, husky voice that anyone can recognize, the possible things to discuss in this post are endless. Who knows where this post will end up in the end, but lets just see how it goes.

Angie Harmon. Whats not to like about her? For starters, she is one funny individual. Anyone with a personality like hers has to have a lot of friends. If you follow her personal account on twitter (yes, it is really her) she says some pretty funny stuff, often followed by a lot of "emoticons" at the end, which just adds character. She also tends to post photos from the set of Rizzoli and Isles, which most of the time deal with what she is wearing. Usually titled "outfit of the day" or "shoe of the day", I, along with many of her followers, cannot wait to see what she has on. Her style is impeccable. 

I have been a fan of Angie Harmon's for a long time, ever since her days as Abbie Carmichael in Law and Order. Its not uncommon for her to be cast as a character involved in law enforcement: Abbie Carmichael, Lindsay Boxer, Jane Rizzoli, and let us not forget her days on Baywatch Nights as Ryan McBride. And that is just her TV roles! She plays these roles, well, very "bad-assly" (and yes I know that's not really a word), and lets face it, Harmon is pretty bad-ass herself. Her deep, husky voice alone works for these roles. And she plays a cop very well, and seems to enjoy her prop guns too! For any role she plays, she brings her own personality into the character. 

From a newspaper editor in Good Advice to a CIA Agent in Agent Cody Banks, her movie roles are pretty diverse. One of my favorite movies that she is in was TV movie. Video Voyeur: The Susan Wilson story, is a true story of one woman's horrific journey involving her peeping-tom neighbor. Harmon, as Susan, portrayed this woman pretty flawlessly. This woman's life was turned upside down when she found out her neighbor had installed cameras in her house and was recording her every move. I can't even begin to imagine what that must fell like, but I got a glimpse of it with Harmon's portrayal of this woman. After watching this movie the first time, I researched Susan's story online and saw what an impact she made. She wasn't afraid to tell her story, no matter how horrific it was, so she could prevent it from ever happening to someone else. Her bravery changed peoples lives, changed the law. Harmon really brought Susan and her story to life and I applaud her greatly for that. If you haven't seen this movie, please do, and you will see what I mean.

Moving on to her family. You probably remember her famous proposal on the Tonight Show. How could you forget it?! It was absolutely adorable and you couldn't help but saying "aww" when Jason Sehorn got down on one knee. (If you haven't seen it, check it out here ---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJmwASdf-BE ) Harmon and Sehorn make such a cute couple too, and their three little girls are just adorable! Harmon and Sehorn recently moved their family to Charlotte, North Carolina, far away from the set of Rizzoli and Isles, which means Harmon has to spend time away from her husband and kids just to shoot the series. That is dedication right there. I can't imagine what that must be like. 

Harmon has a name for her fans, she calls then her Twangels, or her Twitter Angels. It is a pretty big fan base. with people making videos dedicated to her, made by her Twangels. Its really sweet and shoes her fans dedication. I, myself, have a Twangel banner on my twitter profile, showing all of my followers I am a proud Angie Harmon fan. She often answers her fans on twitter, and there is nothing more exciting than getting a personal tweet from someone you admire. 

Angie Harmon is an all around fantastic person, dedicated to her family and her work and also to her fans. I really have only just begun with this post, but I fear it is long enough already, I mean, I haven't even talked about her love as NASCAR, or her music video debut, and much much more.  Maybe I will just have to continue this on a later date. We will just have to wait and see. 

But for now, go out and, as Harmon often says on Twitter, make the world a better place. 

Until next time,

J. Cavanaugh

Please leave comments below. I would love your feedback!

*I do not own any of the pictures in this post. These have been taken from various sites and Angie's twitter posts.

Rizzoli and Isles: An Overview

Rizzoli and Isles

Rizzoli and Isles. What's not to like? This show is phenomenally written. It's a police drama with a little comedy, a touch of sarcasm, and a whole lot of sexy. And I'm not just talking about the leads! This whole show, originally meant to just be a ten episode summer series, had been transformed into a hit summer show with a five episode winter season. I have been a fan of Jane and Maura since Tess Gerritsen first created them.

The TV series is so much different than the books. Jane is beautiful in the TV series and a regular tomboy in the books (with Angie Harmon playing that character, it is physically impossible to make her look bad). Maura is a sexy, stylish Forensic Pathologist with an interesting choice of vocabulary and a slew of random facts but in the books, she is somewhat goth like and hard to get to know. The show and the books are so different that you can be a fan of both and not get them confused yet similar enough in the way each are written.

Janet Tamero and her writers and production team have done great things with this series in the last two seasons. The writing keeps improving and the characters keep growing from episode to episode. There are so many police procedural's on TV right know that the audience pretty much knows how exactly the crime is going to be solved and how it is going to play out. With Rizzoli and Isles, you have that element, but you also have the characters personal lives and how they have to deal with the crime personally, like Jane and Hoyt for example. This show incorporates so many elements into each episode that the hour block of time seems like five minutes.

With Rizzoli and Isles going into it's third season, I can;t wait to see how the writers portray Jane and Maura's relationship and the relationships they have with their families. This season is bound to be better than the last. I can't wait to see what happens next.

Don't forget to mark your calenders for June 5th and the season 3 premiere!

Until next time,

J. Cavanaugh

Please leave comments below. I would love your feedback!