TV Goodness Reports: Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander talk Rizzoli & Isles Season 5 [INTERVIEWS] 

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR SEASON FIVE

The new season of TNT’s Rizzoli & Isles is finally here. And with it, comes some big changes.

• A new showrunner now leads the charge. Jan Nash has some impressive credits on her resume having produced in some capacity on Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, Fairly Legal, Without a Trace, Caroline in the City and Ellen.
• One of Nash’s first priorities was to deal with the death of series regular Lee Thompson Young. The show will specifically tackle this loss in the second episode. (We’ve seen “Goodbye.” It pays proper tribute to the actor and the Barry Frost character in a very touching, emotional way)

TV Goodness recently hit the set of the show that’s beginning its fifth season tonight. We were able to chat with some of the cast as well as the new showrunner. Nash feels there’s a lot to deal with in the first few episodes.

Jan Nash: Coming out of season four with the dramatic elements that were in the finale and the real life elements that were in the show, we’re sort of moving into season five by honoring those things and trying to tell stories that are doing right by those stories. And doing right by all of these characters. We’re moving into season five with Jane being pregnant. Dealing with the loss of Barry Frost. Those, in terms of serialized elements, are the stories we’ll be dealing with at the beginning of the season. And marrying those with really good crime stories. We’ve got some really fun crime stories that we’ve got. We go into some really fun worlds. We’ve got some really good twists and turns. We’re shooting episode ten and I’ve seven completed episodes and they are all very, very good.

Angie Harmon [Jane Rizzoli] feels her character’s pregnancy signals the start of a grown up Jane who ends up making some tough, grown-up decisions.

Angie Harmon: She has to kind of decide. Here [Casey] is, he made the decision to go and be and made the decision based on their conversation. She said to him, I don’t want to be the reason you don’t follow your dream. And he said the same thing to her. So I think they kind of build off of that what they’re going to do. And obviously they’re going to play up the friendship and all of that kind of stuff. But it’s a very grown up decision that Jane comes to. And she’s terrified. Plus she’s hiding it. She doesn’t want mom to know. She doesn’t want work to know. It kind of just becomes a bit of Jane growing up, becoming an adult. And then once she’s made that decision, she just blossoms. And just is like, okay, this is what I’m gonna do. And I’ve always admired women that can do that.

Thankfully, Sasha Alexander’s Dr. Maura Isles will be right by Jane’s side supporting her best friend.

Sasha Alexander: I think that she’s very excited about everything from all the gadgets that you get and all the information and the reading you can do and gather during pregnancy about statistics and stuff and what you can do for the baby. So I definitely think that she’s much more into that than Jane. Jane’s just kind of riding along. [Maura’s] there. She’s just truly a supportive friend. And in this situation, Casey…we don’t know Casey’s situation in terms of being with [Jane] or not. So it’s hard because Maura’s the only other person she can really rely on.

According to Nash, the pregnancy storyline will continue to connect Jane and Maura. Everything always goes back to the show’s key relationship.

Jan: The focus on this show is Jane and Maura and while Jane is pregnant, really the focus of that experience for Jane…the most important relationship in that experience for Jane will be Maura. Jane will have to deal with the impact of that on her life which is, she’s a cop, she’s a single mother. What does she do? Does she keep it secret? What are the right things to do going forward? So she’s going to be dealing with those things. But in fact, with Maura…with her family…And so I think it’ll feel like in the same way in previous seasons, whatever the conflict was, whatever the problems were, those things would circle through Maura and her family; it’s gonna be the same now. The issue just happens to be a pregnancy.

Maura fans don’t need to worry. There’s story coming for the medical examiner in the form of a new love interest.

Sasha: All I can tell you is that he’s a total smarty pants in the right way. And he’s a super wonderful actor named Enver Gjokaj. He’s amazing. He’s just such a wonderful actor but a really great smart kind of…he’s just a cutie pie. So that’s a really fun relationship that is happening now. So I don’t really know how it’s going to end or not end or where it’s going. I haven’t been told. But it’s just nice to see that there’s somebody possibly not a killer.

Jan: [Maura] meets a very nice man. I think it’s in episode five, there’s a very, very funny story that again, Jane circles through because in fact they’re best friends. And that will reoccur over a number of episodes. She’s going to learn a lot of new things about Maura. She’s going to buy a motorcycle. She’s going to teach a class. She’s gonna do a lot of fun things. But I do think because of the things that were left over from season four much of the beginning part of season five is dealing with repercussions and the hold over dramatic elements from season four.

Harmon thinks it’s refreshing that even in season five, the audience still gets to learn new things about their favorite characters.

Angie: I think that’s one of the gifts that Jan has given us…is because it’s a fresh set of eyes. Because it’s a new hand. Now Jane gets to be funny and that kid inside — no pun intended — actually gets to come out. Now Jane is all about practical jokes, being more of a kid herself. And we didn’t have that before. She was always stomping around…why are you so stupid and you…(acting grumpy). You know what I mean? You killed the guy…and okay. It’s just a different level….another level…it’s different eyes and it’s fun to play.

Keep checking back with TV Goodness, we will have more from our visit to the set of Rizzoli & Isles, including an interview with Frankie Rizzoli Jr. himself, Jordan Bridges.

Rizzoli & Isles airs Tuesdays at 9/8c only on TNT.

Clip #1: Nightmare

Clip #2: Morning Sickness

Season Four Romance Recap

PHOTOS
Photo Credit for Following Images: Eric McCandless/TNT

Photo Credit for Set Visit Images: TV Goodness