A Look Back at Rizzoli & Isles’ Unique Relationship and Ensuing Fan Theories, 15 Years Later

When Rizzoli & Isles debuted 15 years ago, on July 12, 2010, it seemed like a typical cable TV procedural — albeit one that set a record for cable’s No. 1 ad-supported series launch of all time. Based on mystery novels by Tess Gerritsen, the TNT drama starred Angie Harmon as Jane Rizzoli, a Boston detective, and Sasha Alexander as Maura Isles, the medical examiner with whom she teams up to catch the city’s most notorious criminals.

By television standards, though, Rizzoli and Isles were atypical partners-in-crime-solving. From the jump, viewers suspected that the relationship between the lead characters wasn’t just professional. In a review of the pilot episode, The Washington Post critic Hank Stuever noted “faintly lesbian undertones” between the two lead characters. Those undertones, of course, became less faint as the show went on.