Rizzoli & Isles is my newest love. You can’t watch a single episode without taking a tumble into a pile of subtext the size of … the whole Boston Police Department including the morgue. What can I say I am a sucker for police shows.

So who do I ship

Are there people who don’t ship Jane and Maura? I honestly thought that almost everyone shipped them. For the past ten years or so I have been shipping femslash and I have been writing it for almost as long. My mom knows that I write fanfiction and I have tried time and time again to explain femslash to her. But she doesn’t read as much into the subtext as I do, so she has a hard time understanding it. Well that was until the premiere of Rizzoli and Isles. I had already seen these episodes when they where on the television in America, but I was home when they premiered on Dutch television and I told my mom that she had to watch it because it was such a great show. Now there was no reason to mention femslash or anything because no one besides me had seen it yet. When I told my dad that Sasha Alexander was in it was enough to convince him so there we where the three of us sitting  on couch in front of the tv and we are ten minutes into the first episode when my asks me if they are together. Hello! If my mom suddenly sees it the subtext is so over the top that anyone can see it. So I ask again, are there really fans of the show who don’t ship them?

So I ship Jane and Maura and I am almost sure that there is no explanation needed.

The Rules

The rules are fairly simple: one drink/shot of your choice every time one of the following criteria is met. In order to avoid inducing mass liver failure, you can limit the game to a 5 shot maximum. Knock one back every time:

1. Either Rizzoli or Isles tries to forcibly/awkwardly set the other up with a man, usually after spending the evening talk about each other – this also includes nudging each other to date someone of the male persuasion right at the end of a long, intimate scene between them.

2. Engaging in any stereotypical lesbian behavior – including softball, home repair, etc.

3. Friends/parents/relatives of Rizzoli and Isles trying to set them up with people other than each other.

4. Intimate dinners – including restaurant variety, home variety, and in any case where one cooks for the other and there are candles and wine present.

5. Sleeping in the same bed/couch/squad car – bonus, 2 shots.

6. Stares lasting longer than 3 seconds.

7. Adorable bickering which generally relates to sexual tension (use your best lesbian discretion).

8. One of them saying, “I’ll come along,” in a situation where she need not be present, and providing a dumb, unrelated reason for it. Example, “I’m going to interrogate a suspect.” “I’ll come…I’ve always liked the peanut M&Ms in the break room.”

9. Going out for drinks together and rebuffing/eliminating any and all male interaction.

10. Any character telling Rizzoli & Isles they “make a great team” with a straight face.

11. Complaining to each other about their inability to find a compatible mate, all while being completely compatible mates.

12. Rescuing/saving/protecting one another above and beyond the call of duty, especially when it involves excessive hugging and touching.

13. Touching hands for any extended length.

This game guarantees the whole fandom to be drunk off their asses before the episode is even over!

And the fun part about is that with twitter the actresses who are both very active online are more than ever aware of the fandom and our wishes. Last year Angie asked on twitter who should be her next boyfriend on the show and 95% of the tweets she received back said either Sasha Alexander or Dr. Maura Isles. They call Rizzoli & Isles the gayest show that isn’t gay … give them nicknames like Gayzoli & IsLes or The Ambiguously Lez Duo.

A little explanation

I don’t know why but Angie Harmon has always caught my attention, I’ve seen her in several tv shows amongst them Law&Order: SVU and Woman’s Murder Club. Sasha Alexander was NCIS Special Agent Kate Todd. So I was familiar with both of them before this show started. And I had read a couple of books about Detective Jane Rizzoli and Dr. Maura Isles. So I was excited to see these characters come to life on a screen. The two of them are truly hilarious!

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