Rizzoli & Isles Final Season Hits DVD

Tess Gerritson's crimefighting duo reaches the end of the line of their television capers, with the impeccable Dr. Maura Isles (SASHA ALEXANDER) dealing with a head trauma injury that seems to have activated a genetic brain disorder that manifests in dizzy spells and forgetfulness. For the woman who is used to always being the smartest person in the room, this is a little more than unsettling, and several of the early episodes follow Maura's personal path as she pursues treatment options. Meanwhile, Detective Jane Rizzoli (ANGIE HARMON) is offered an opportunity to pursue a career with the FBI.

The season opens with a lot of promise, as Detective Vince Korsak's (BRUCE MCGILL) wedding to Kiki (NASHVILLE's CHRISTINA CHANG) is interrupted by a shooting. The shooter is the elusive Alice Sands (SCANDAL's ANNABETH GISH), a police academy dropout who carries an old (and possibly imaginary) grudge against Rizzoli, and who uses her preternatural charisma to get others to do her bidding while she methodically dismantles Jane's life. The Alice Sands case had the potential to be a season-long subplot, but ultimately gets wrapped up quite early in the season, bringing the series back to it's "murder case per episode" structure.

But the cases are at least interesting, if inevitably solved by luck or a gift from the scriptwriters. The characters seem to have a near perfect memory of all the cases in the Boston PD backlog, including cold cases from forty years past. But the key thing here is the entertainment value, and that is something the series never fails to deliver. "Cops vs. Zombies" is an episode that was just fun to watch, when a murder happens at a zombie convention, and the best witness is a pre-teen expert on the undead.

The thing that has always driven the show, however, is not the forensics, but the relationships. The series has shifted away from the subtle and subversive tension that seemed to exist between besties Maura and Jane, and have given both of them more heteronormative relationships to explore, Maura with her assistant Kent Drake (ADAM SINCLAIR) and Jane with FBI agent Cameron Davies (MARK DEKLIN). Not to be left out, Jane's brother Frankie (JORDAN BRIDGES) gets involved with his co-worker, Nina Holiday (IDARA VICTOR), a relationship that's only a secret in their own minds.

This seventh and final DVD release comes on three discs in a snaptight case and slipcover. There are no bonus features save for a gag reel on the third disc.