• Network: TNT
  • Series Premiere Date: Jul 12, 2010
  • Season #: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4
Metascore
62 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 17 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 17
  2. Negative: 2 out of 17
  1. Expect some equally strong language to reflect the harshness of the crimes, but enough charisma from the protagonists to keep the show from derailing into glorified grisliness.
  2. 75
    What I particularly like about this show (aside from the good chemistry between the leads) is that the women solve crimes the old-fashioned way.
  3. 75
    Their interaction is friendly, if mildly teasing, professional and catfight-free. This allows the show to have the relaxing, unchallenging pleasures of good fluff even when the premiere is actually going a bit heavy on the gore.
  4. Reviewed by: Ken Tucker
    75
    With The Closer and Rizzoli & Isles, you're in the company of smart women who know how to laugh at themselves and close cases.
  5. The good part involves just about any scene focusing on Angie Harmon ("Law & Order") as Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli. The flip side? Just about every scene that isn't centered on her, especially those involving Jane's best friend, medical examiner Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander).
  6. 70
    Though it's intended to be a female buddy show in which she plays off Sasha Alexander's coolly uppercrust medical examiner Maura Isles, Harmon definitely gets the upper hand--at least in the pilot episode.
  7. It jolts along with humor, suspense, insight and a fair amount of oozing blood.
  8. Reviewed by: Verne Gay
    67
    Mostly this show belongs to Harmon, once a key member of the "Law & Order" ensemble. She's likable and intriguing. That salvages an otherwise average cop show.
  9. Rizzoli & Isles features a good dose of humor and a lean style of storytelling that's reflected in the fairly small core group with which we will apparently be working.
  10. 60
    Yes, Rizzoli & Isles is quick with cliches....[But] for all the stereotyping, it's hard to be mad at Angie Harmon.
  11. 60
    It isn't brilliant television, but everyone in it seems to be giving it their all--even the corpses.
  12. 60
    The familiar show, which is set in Boston but too clearly filmed elsewhere, adds in some romantic intrigue, as both Harmon and Alexander appear to be interested in the same FBI agent (Billy Burke). But the dominant theme on Rizzoli & Isles, as on "The Closer,'' is fighting crime and not fighting tears.
  13. In the absence of an arcing narrative, the series wants us to accept as its mission of suspense the mystery of this crypto drag-king-meets-shopaholic friendship.
  14. Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    50
    Aside from the lurid nature of the crimes and some salty language, though, Rizzoli & Isles is just what the title sounds like--a place for second-hand goods at reasonable prices.
  15. Reviewed by: Troy Patterson
    40
    The series' approach to violence against woman is the only complex thing about it. Otherwise, you cannot even call Rizzoli & Isles run of the mill, it being that mills usually run more smoothly.
  16. 37
    Seldom has the byplay been as idiotic or annoying as it is on Rizzoli.
  17. This derivative mish-mash apes countless TV series that have gone before. Badly. It's full of stereotypes and characters who are so fake they're flatter than your average low-budget cartoon.
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 61 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 10
  3. Negative: 2 out of 10
  1. 9
    Lose the gay stories. Two women, great chemistry, fun dialogue, pretty faces, adequate writing, pretty faces, humor and likability, unlimited potential. Bump up the story-lines, add a straight writer, and lose the gay stuff. Add a little more action and keep the pretty faces. Full Review »
  2. Some of the worst writing I have ever seen acted out on the small screen. The dialogue between the two principals is ludicrously corny. I feel sorry for them. They deserve so much better. Full Review »
  3. 8
    Loved the books. The TV series is almost as good and captures some of the clever characters from the stories. I think the actors nailed their characters. Highly recommend the books, the TV show is also watchable and does justice despite the liberties it takes. Full Review »