It’s a double whammy tonight for TNT crime drama fans as two favorites return to the lineup.
Rizzoli & Isles is back for 15 episodes of Season 4 at 8 p.m., followed by the second season of Perception at 9. These are two of the summer shows I got the most e-mail about asking when they would be returning.
Rizzoli & Isles is a sort of mismatched buddy cop adventure, except only Rizzoli is a cop. Isles is a medical examiner, a staple on crime dramas ever since Jack Klugman entertained us as the title character on Quincy, M.E.
That was way back in 1976. The series ran until 1983 on NBC.
Older viewers also might recall that Quincy initially aired on Sunday nights in rotation with Columbo, Mc-Cloud and McMillan and Wife. Those are three classic shows that’ll take you back to good times.
Quincy’s adventures (we never actually learned his first name, although it began with R) were so successful, Quincy got its own weekly spot halfway through the first season. It was the beginning of the forensic element in police procedural programs.
Sasha Alexander walks in Klugman’s shoes now, only her shoes are always expensive designer heels for the impeccably dressed Dr. Maura Dorthea Isles, the adopted child of a wealthy family.
Isles is Massachusetts’ chief medical examiner and a forensic expert working at the Boston Police Department. Isles is also a font of information, able to spout out facts, regardless of whether they are relevant to a case.
Her phone ringtone plays Chopin’s famous “Funeral March.”
It’s all the more remarkable, then, that Isles is best buds with blue-collar tomboy police detective Jane Clementine Rizzoli, played by Angie Harmon.
Rizzoli’s character biography describes her as “tough-as-nails, brash, brilliant and often prickly, but also a confident and independent woman.”
Rizzoli is also highly competitive, especially with her younger brother, Frankie (Jordan Bridges). Frankie is also a Boston cop. Lorraine Bracco plays their overbearing Italian mother, Angela Rizzoli.
There you have them, the Oscar and Felix of the Boston Police Department.
That, kids, is a reference to the 1970-1975 ABC comedy The Odd Couple, also starring Klugman, alongside Tony Randall.
Rizzoli & Isles has enjoyed a steady core audience for three seasons, although total viewership has fallen from 7.55 million during Season 1 to 5.62 million last season.
That was the mismatched crime-solvers formula. With Perception, we have a twist on the deeply flawed, but brilliant crime buster formula.
Eric McCormack, who has been a fan favorite since his turn on Will & Grace (1998-2006), plays Daniel Pierce, an eccentric neuroscience professor with paranoid schizophrenia who is recruited by the FBI to help solve complex cases.
Pierce has a masterful understanding of the way the mind works and an uncanny ability to see patterns to uncover what lies beneath.
How damaged is he? Pierce struggles with hallucinations and paranoid delusions, but considers some of this to be a gift even though they sometimes lead him to behave in irrational, dangerous ways.
When he feels overwhelmed, Pierce retreats into his favorite music and a crossword puzzle.
Of course, any psychologically damaged crime solver needs a fairly normal partner. In the case of Perception, she’s Rachael Leigh Cook (Into the West) as FBI agent Kate Moretti. Moretti is Pierce’s former student, so she’s able to look past his eccentricities.
Also on hand is Pierce’s teaching assistant, Max Lewicki (Arjay Smith), who has the unenviable chore of keeping Pierce on task.
Kelly Rowan (The O.C.) portrays Pierce’s imaginary best friend, Natalie Vincent, and another character. LeVar Burton (Roots, Star Trek: The Next Generation) has a recurring role as Paul Haley, a dean at the university and also Pierce’s friend.
Season 2 will have 14 episodes.
Copper is back. Oops. Copper returned at 9 p.m. Sunday on BBC America. Make a DVR note of it now before you forget, as I did.
Never fear, Season 2’s first episode encores at 10 p.m. Wednesday. Watch it and catch up.
Copper is a period police procedural set in 1865 New York and stars Tom Weston-Jones as Kevin Corcoran, a detective in the notorious Sixth Ward, which includes the infamous slums of the Five Points.
Season 2 opens a year after we last saw our hero. America is on the brink of Lincoln’s assassination and Corcoran is struggling with the betrayal of his wife and best friend.
Donal Logue, Alfre Woodard, Lee Tergesen and Eamonn Walker (as abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass) join the ensemble for the new season’s 13 episodes.
Program note: Two haunted (or not) Little Rock Quapaw Quarter properties owned by Amber Jones will be featured in an encore episode of Syfy’s Ghost Hunters at 8 p.m. Wednesday. Spoiler alert: no ghosts were found. Surprised? The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. E-mail: mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Style, Pages 28 on 06/25/2013