Rizzoli & Isles: Season 6 (DVD) – Series Review
Follow Genre: Drama, Crime, Action
Distributor: Warner Bros. Entertainment
Episodes: 18
Duration: 40 min (per episode) + extras

Rizzoli & Isles: Season 6 (DVD) – Series Review

Site Score
7.5
Good: Interesting new cases, action sequences are upped, solid cast
Bad: Yet another character death
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0
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The unlikely brotherhood of detectives and medical examiners of the Boston police department has returned for a spectacular sixth season. Detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles continue to work around the clock to find those who claim themselves as rightful executioners and serve them justice. Easier said than done while their lives are up-side-down every so often.

rizzoli & isles

The fifth season of Rizzoli & Isles was a dramatic highlight in the show’s running time in terms of personal and emotional troubles whilst the action slowed down to a snail pace. Returning for a sixth season, the show has picked up action once more and the season starts with a shooting in a crowded metro station as Detective Jane (Angie Harmon) and Frankie Rizzoli (Jordan Bridges) chase a suspect. One thing leads to another and before they know it, Frankie is being investigated for the death of a possibly unarmed man. The tight-knit team believes in the innocent of Frankie Jr. and do everything they can do clear him without being caught by Internal Affairs. In the meantime Dr. Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander) is teaching Dr. Kent Drake (Adam Sinclair) the ropes of working at the medical examiner’s office, a task that seems to be easy if it weren’t for Kent’s stubborn behavior. Of course, Maura has less prejudice than Jane when it comes down to judging Kent solely by his looks.

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In the previous season, we already had to witness the untimely passing of the geek-loving and humoristic detective Frost and this caused quite some unbalance to the team. It seems that the team has finally found their spirit once more but it is not long before another hilarious geek meets their unfortunate demise, this time affecting Dr. Isles the most as she is suspended from duty until further notice. Since all cases are always neatly wrapped up, the killer is found and the peculiar friend is being mourned for in an uncommon way. Earth continues to revolve around the sun, life goes on and so does the team but the death of a family member will always be felt.

Each episode brings some new drama to the table but the lives of Jane and Maura are quite steady if you don’t think about the scamming cousin, the total loss of Jane’s apartment, the kidnapping of Maura at a fake crime scene,  the wedding of Korsak and Kiki (Christina Chang) and the shootout at said wedding. In-between cases and the drama, we do learn some new things such as the existence of prosopagnosia which is the inability to recognize faces. This cognitive disorder is giving Jane headaches during one of her cases but we see that she has a softer side that barely comes to light. We also learned that the dog-loving detective Korsak (Bruce McGill) is having trouble accepting the possible euthanisation of a four-legged fur ball but cannot do much since Kiki is scared of Rottweiler’s and he loves Kiki more than he loves the furry companions. These heartfelt filler scenes are actually quite good and add some much-needed balance after the loss of two highly entertaining characters.

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As already mentioned before, the loss of certain individuals is causing a hole in the once-great dynamic and the new characters simply don’t seem to fill up that loss. Instead they are somewhat irritating but the strong bond between the main characters seems to become even stronger. The smaller side-stories, especially that of Angela Rizzoli (Lorraine Bracco) and her meddling personality add some great variation as always.

Performance-wise the re-occurring actors continue to do what they do best; never excel but never falter and in a way, their acting might have gone up a notch due to finally finding their characters voices. The new techie Nina Holiday played by Idara Victor certainly springs to mind when looking at character development. Adam Sinclair who portrays the ex-military medical doctor Kent Drake tries to perform but his character comes across as emotionally detached while the storyline tries to do the opposite which is a hit or a miss, depending on the viewer’s personal opinions.

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The DVD-box of the sixth season of Rizzoli & Isles comes with an all-new featurette that explains why the writers would want to include a shadowy entity that has set their sights on Jane. Unfortunately From the Shadows: A Criminal Revealed is also the only bonus footage the viewer can indulge in and most will miss the comedy found in the gag reels.

Conclusion

After the fifth season, season six feels like it’s filled to the brim with action sequences that may or may not be part of a bigger plot against detective Jane Rizzoli. The smaller side-narratives blend in well with the main storyline and the emotional aspect has been stripped to add more secrets to the characters while the satirical banter is slowing down. All-in-all, the sixth season is a wonderful addition to your library.

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Drydwen


Hi! I'm Jess and I’m a writer, dreamer and gamer at heart since the early ages. I primarily game on PC but occasionally also on PS4 and Xbox One. I have a tiny obsession for World of Warcraft and caterpillars but you may also claim I have a devoted passion for the gaming industry in general. If you want to hit me up, find me on twitter!

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