Overview: Angie Harmon (Law & Order) and Sasha Alexander (NCIS) return to solve Boston’s most complex murder cases in the fifth season DVD release of TNT’s top-rated series.

DVD Verdict: I have to fully admit that when I first started watching this show I thought it was going to be just another cop drama like the other 500 on TV. But no, somewhere amidst pile of scripts that is good drama they found one that shines above the rest. That, and the fact that the delicious Angie Harmon is lead cop here just kinda now makes this solid, and highly addictive TV viewing each week that it runs!

'Rizzoli & Isles' is a cop drama that doesn't follow the typical cliché as in establish good guys here, insert bad guys there, make snitch talk, show ends. Finally someone realized that its much more interesting to create two interesting characters and give them lives around which their job revolves - and not the other way around. Rizzoli (Harmon) is a headstrong cop whose Italian upbringing shows through in spades. This is the type of woman you can see growing up with three brothers and kicking their asses around the house the whole time!

Isles (Sasha Alexander), on the other hand, is a socialite, and one more impressed by the complexity of the world and enjoying every second of the mystery around it. Together it's brains and brawn with just a nice dash of sexy, and the back and forth is right on point to keep pace. The two of them are FUNNY together in EVERY scene they get to play that side of their characters and it's an absolute joy to hear Harmon's low, gravely tone playfully provide the undercurrent of tone for Alexander's own perky octave.

I won't give too much away here as trying to write an episodic rundown for these 18 episodes will ruin the entire season of curiosity for you all, BUT I will touch on a few points. Such as, from episode 1, we get sucked into the world of a just pregnant, not showing Rizzoli and her quite unexpected pregnancy. Will she keep it, will Casey still have a chance to be in both their lives? Also, the late Lee Thompson Young (Detective Frost), who sadly took his own life mid way through filming this fifth season, is honored in some quite spectacular ways. One, especially, is VERY emotionally appropriate and hits all the right feelings within us, as viewers.FYI: Sharon Lawrence who plays Dr. Hope Martin, the mother of Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander), is only 12 years older than her "daughter"!] This is a Widescreen Presentation (1:85.1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:

Stepping Through the Stunt: The Burden of Proof Bridge Sequence Featurette
Unaired Scenes
Gag Reel

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