Distributor: Warner Bros. Entertainment
Episodes: 13
Duration: 40 min (per episode) + extras
Rizzoli & Isles: Season 7 (DVD) – Series Review
After being the target of a delusional drop-out of the police academy, the detectives and medical examiners of the Boston police department have no issues facing zombies, ghosts, spontaneous human combustion and a plethora of other homicides in the seventh and final season of Rizzoli & Isles.
After a sixth season filled to the brim with action sequences, the seventh and final chapter of the series seems to be on the down-low once again. The season starts off with a bang, quite literary, as they all stand in the crosshairs of the shadowy entity that has marked Detective Jane (Angie Harmon) as a nemesis. The entire team is under duress when yet another team member is on the brim on death. Still recovering from her injuries Nina (Idara Victor) returns to work and while the team is focusing on catching the delusional yet equally brilliant Alice Sands (Annabeth Gish), Dr. Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander) faces the consequences of a fall during the shoot-out. In the mean time Angela (Lorraine Bracco) is making some life decisions, for better or worse, another ramification from the near-death experience at the wedding party of Sergeant Korsak (Bruce McGill) and Kiki (Christina Chang). The domino stones quickly fall down and the long lasting chase, which felt like a cat-and-mouse game for some time, quickly ends rather early in the season. This left us wondering what else the directors have in store for us.
Where one door closes, another door opens and more interesting cases come their way. One particular case leads the team to a zombie convention, which apparently is a real thing. Another leads them to a postal fraud where we learn that criminal enterprises have mailed the craziest things, such as pheasants. While more cases come their way, Dr. Kent Drake (Adam Sinclair) notices Dr. Isles’ strange behavior as she forgets words that would normally come natural to her. Both Jane and Kent are hounding Maura to take it easy but the stubborn medical examiner won’t have any of it until she is faced with the diagnosis of cognitive impairment.
While the action has slowed down, the science comes forward. An interesting crime scene concerning a fat bomb causes Maura and Kent to perform an experiment, something we rarely see being done in the series but is a nice change of scenery in its whole. Towards the end of the season, we find out that Maura still has some secrets after all these years and the team is dying to find out more but the secret isn’t as intriguing as her father being a mob boss or her mother still roaming the planet. Jane on the other hand continues to be her own reckless self and decides to go undercover in a prison, something that doesn’t sit well with her loved ones. The disapproval of Jane putting herself in possible danger causes her to reflect on where she is going with her life and career, which marks the beginning of the end for many of the team members and the series itself.
The side-stories involving Angela getting her GED or the growing bond between her and Kiki are great fillers but the biggest filler is the romantic relationship Detective Frankie Jr. Rizzoli (Jordan Bridges) is pursuing with one of their own. Frankie has always been portrayed as a soft and loveable character but those traits are enhanced in this newfound connection.
Performance-wise there are some notable changes in the character development. The two newcomers, Idara Victor and Adam Sinclair, have both found their characters voices while keeping the peculiar quirkiness. A fine addition after the loss of Detective Frost and techie Susie Chang. The remaining cast members perform more lightly but as always none of them truly excel, although this is debatable when you compare the first season against the final season.
In the DVD box set of the previous season, we were missing the comedy from the gag reels but luckily for us this has returned. The viewers are spoiled with a blooper reel of 9 minutes, including some older scenes from previous seasons.
Conclusion
After a stellar sixth season which was packed with action sequence front to back, the seventh season feels quite meager and almost as if the season was meant to tie up some loose ends. As always the smaller side-narratives blend in well and the banter is at an all-time high. Towards the end of the season, the show begins to feel like a rollercoaster of negative emotions which is to be expected from the final chapter but it’s not something one would expect from the tough-as-nails detectives and medical examiners of the Boston Police Department. All-in-all, it’s a good wrap-up without leaving the viewers with too many questions or cliffhangers.
Rizzoli & Isles: Season 7 (DVD) - Series Review,
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