TNT’s latest new series, the crime drama Rizzoli and Isles, finished its season a few days ago with another variation on the network’s formula of providing programs in popular genres but with slightly grander aspirations. Following a strong trend among current crime dramas, the show combines downbeat elements with more lighthearted moments based on character quirks. The visual tone is relatively dark and deliberately not pretty, and the stories often involve young murder victims.

As is also the norm for crime shows today, the characters’ personal lives are mined for both humor and suspense. The show’s title characters are, respectively, Jane Rizzoli, a tough but sensitive female detective on the Boston police force, who is from a blue-collar background and worked hard to make her way through the police hierarchy to become a homicide detective; and Dr. Dr. Maura Isles, a polymath genius medical examiner from a privileged background (though she is in fact adopted). The two, though of very different backgrounds, are close friends and highly effective investigators.

The show, set in Boston, tends to have interesting story elements, such as exorcism, voodoo, marathon running, the Boston Strangler case, the exorbitant cost of higher education, and the like. A common theme in the show is the way that differing levels of wealth end up straining personal and social relationships. Another recurring theme is personal identity, as issues of adoption, family relationships, childhood experiences, and people’s genetic makeup arise regularly. The show tends to convey a “both nature and nurture” point of view, suggesting that both genetics and one’s upbringing have powerful effects on a person’s behavior. Not exactly a controversial position, and I’m sure a highly defensible one.

The show doesn’t shy away from controversial content, however, while refraining from taking explicit political positions. Although episode three, “Sympathy for the Devil,” deals with race and religion, the issues are handled in a fairly sophisticated manner, and the writers predictably suggest approval of tolerance regarding both.

Episode six, “I Kissed a Girl,” is rather cheekier and even a bit daring. What initially appears to be an anti-homosexual “hate crime” turns out to be a case of a same-sex marriage gone bad. In addition, Rizzoli reacts with open disdain toward a suitor who, though she finds him handsome, is not manly enough for her: he talks about his feelings, is emotionally needy, likes to cook, and aspires to be a stay-at-home dad. The issue of same-sex marriage is indeed brought up in the dialogue, and the main characters accept it as a legal reality, but the show doesn’t take a stand on the issue. Overall, the episode rather amusingly explores sex roles and the different ways the two sexes see things.

As I noted earlier,  however, the show does adhere to the major formulas of contemporary TV crime dramas. Among these are the mandatory continuing secondary story lines involving  problems in the lead characters’ lives. In Rizzoli’s case, these are her wacky family (overbearing mother, irritable father, and hardworking but emotionally vulnerable brother), and the mandatory serial killer subplot, in which a brilliant, imprisoned madman who nearly killed Rizzoli (and vice versa) manages to manipulate outsiders to murder for him and throw a big scare into Rizzoli every few episodes.

This latter situation is far too obviously a rehash of the central story line of Silence of the Lambs, and it would be a jolly good thing if the writers would commit a mercy killing of it in the next season’s first episode. He could, for example, be killed in prison or have a lasting religious conversion. Either would be both plausible and a dramatic release.

The mandatory personal story line for Isles is her relationship with her biological father, whom she has only recently found out is one of the top mobsters in the city. Given the eerie similarities to the back stories of central characters in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Leverage, Justified, Bones, and probably a dozen other contemporary crime shows, one suspects that the writers could have done a good deal better. Perhaps they are just setting the audience up for a double reverse and will soon reveal that Isles’ father is actually a deep undercover officer for the Boston PD, and then later reveal that he’s actually an FBI agent investigating corruption in the Boston PD’s undercover operations, and then some further twists later. But perhaps not, alas.

Still, for all of its formulaic hoohah, the show is enjoyable, and the cast does a fine job of making the characters interesting. Angie Harmon expertly conveys Rizzoli’s combination of determination and personal anxiety, and Sasha Alexander provides a good deal of comic relief through her deadpan depiction of Isles’ cluelessness regarding other people’s emotional states. Other standout cast members include Lorraine Bracco (as Rizzoli’s mother), Bruce McGill (as Rizzoli’s ex-partner), and Chazz Palmintieri and Donnie Wahlberg in recurring roles.

Rizzoli and Iles is definitely not deep, and it doesn’t always make much sense, but it’s entertaining in its way. If the writers would put some new twists on its overly formulaic elements, it could be even better.

Episodes can be viewed on TNT’s Rizzoli and Isles website here.