i'm afraid of that erection
I have some thoughts about tonight's Rizzoli & Isles. I may be the only one in the Rizzles camp who enjoyed the episode, but that doesn't mean I still don't have some issues that I need to address. Let's start off with this...
Janet and everyone else on the show seem to be under the impression that Jane and Maura are strictly hetero. Sasha is pretty much the only one who thinks Maura would be open to women (and I really do think she means that, rather than it just being a pandering answer to interview questions. After all, that's one of her favorite things about the character that she's playing, that curiosity and openness to trying new things.) But we all know it will never happen because that's not Janet's vision for these characters. And that's fine. I think what we saw tonight was Janet's true vision of their friendship. If I were watching tonight's episode as a first-time viewer, I would think it was a ridiculous notion to say these characters just ooze gay chemistry. What I saw tonight was two women who are best friends and obviously love and care for one another, but that love is sisterly and platonic. And that's a great female relationship to portray on TV. If only that were the relationship we had been shown all along.
In season 1, they had a nice chemistry and just a natural domesticity about them that could be described as "best friends who work together and are kind of like work wives and maybe they have a bit of a mutual girl-crush going on but in the same way that lots of straight girls have crushes on Tina Fey." And as a lesbian fandom, obviously we latched on to that and said, "Well obviously this is ripe for fan fiction to expand upon" and went on our merry fandom way.
Then the media decided to jump on the gay bandwagon and every write-up and interview for the show started mentioning this gay element (and I honestly think that's the reason Angie said "not my favorite" the way she did when Sasha said her favorite scene was the lesbian bar. I think she's sick of talking about it, not because she's homophobic, but because it gets brought up so fucking often and she's trying to portray this character who is multifaceted and all anyone ever seems to want to talk about is the gay chemistry between Jane and Maura. Just let the conversation die already. I mean, certainly keep it alive within the fandom with fics and videos and whatnot. But it doesn't need to be a talking point in every interview. Woo tangent.)
Anyway, I think Janet was confused by the mainstream media's fixation on the gay. I don't think she knew how to deal with that reaction, because it seems she got caught up in trying to make everyone happy (let's turn the winks to the lesbians into giant fucking blinks, but then adamantly deny that's what you're doing when mainstream media starts asking questions and branding your show as gay.) Her vision got all jumbled up (like spaghetti, right Hannah? You ever tried to untangle spaghetti?) So you do have those episodes that just scream GAY! and where even your grandma thinks they're "like those sweet girls Portia and Ellen." (Yes, Angie, the Ellen.) And that portrayal of their relationship just makes episodes like tonight scream MANVIL!, which is unfortunate because I thought tonight's was a great episode. I actually enjoyed Maura with Banksy (because I really didn't catch his name lol.) But if I'm going to talk about Maura's Manvil in a positive light, I need to also touch on my issues with Jane's Manvil...
When Casey was introduced in the premiere of season 2, I really liked him. I could totally get on board with their relationship. I remember saying "that doctor that Maura's with makes me want to punch someone, but I think this military guy is actually kind of sweet." But to say that Jane fell in love with him? Okay... when did this happen? He was introduced in 2.01, not even mentioned again until 2.13 when he was gonna drop by for a booty call because Jane was hard up for some sex, but he had to stay in Afghanistan. And then Dean showed up out of nowhere 2 episodes later and Jane's all "there might be someone else, but you're here and I'm still horny so I guess you'll do. Oh, btw, here's a deep, dark secret about my bff that I'm going to trust you with. What could go wrong?" So where in there did she fall in love with Casey? And to get mad at him for being back in town without telling her? She slept with someone else! She doesn't get to play that card! If she thinks he also fell in love with her (which he clearly did if that's still the background on his computer), where's her guilt for sleeping with Dean?
This is where I think you see the drawback of having a show that is equal parts crime and personal relationships. Especially a show that's only a summer season of 10-15 episodes rather than a 22-24 episode season. You have less time to devote to characters like Casey to start off with, and then you also throw in the fact that you've pandered to the lesbians so much that they're starting to say things like "I'm going to stop watching if Jane or Maura get paired up with a man." And when you're a showrunner like Janet Tamaro, who seems to like having things both ways (possibly due to indecisiveness), you perhaps dial down the Casey/Jane relationship in an attempt to not bite the hand that feeds you. But that comes back to bite you later when you try to say that they were in love. It would have been helpful to show them falling in love, but you can't do that without causing a lesbian revolt that you helped to foster. Tangled spaghetti, I'm telling you...
I am really happy that the writing this season seems to have improved greatly. I've really liked all three episodes. And I do love this show. I just wish it would be more consistent in how it presents itself. And those are my thoughts on tonight's episode and the show in general.