The series' backstory is inspired by The Surgeon. Boston detective Jane Rizzoli (Angie Harmon) was investigating a serial killer named Charles Hoyt (Michael Massee) some time before the series began. Hoyt, who was banned from medical school for fondling a corpse, used his vast medical knowledge to systematically torture and kill people, usually couples so he could induce the most fear into his victims. Rizzoli is able to find where Hoyt is, and as she is searching for him, she is hit in the back of the head and knocked unconscious. She is pinned to the floor by scalpels, and as Rizzoli is waking up, we see Hoyt preparing to cut Rizzoli's throat. Vince Korsak (Bruce McGill), Rizzoli's partner, finds where Rizzoli is and shoots Hoyt before he can slit her throat, saving Rizzoli's life. Rizzoli reasons that, after seeing her so vulnerable, Korsak would never trust her as his partner and decides to apply for a new partner.
The series pilot, "See One. Do One. Teach One", is largely based on the novel The Apprentice. Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander) investigate a killer with Hoyt's modus operandi, plus an interest in necrophilia. Rizzoli and Isles discover that the copycat was a soldier named John Stark (Brendan McCarthy) who met Hoyt in medical school, had his identity erased for CIA black operations, and mimicked Hoyt's MO in a killing spree during said operations. Meanwhile, Hoyt escapes from prison and rejoins his apprentice. Later Rizzoli's home is broken into and she was told by who she thought was part of BBT that her neighbours had been killed, she rushes into the van to see the bodies but finds Hoyt instead. Hoyt and his apprentice knock Rizzoli out and kidnap her. When she wakes up they attempt to kill her, but she manages to disarm them by tasing them and impaling Hoyt in the eye with a flare. In self-defense, she shoots the apprentice to death and when Hoyt reaches for Rizzoli's gun, she shoots him through the hands, giving him injuries similar to the ones he gave her.
New twists are introduced when Rizzoli and Isles discover that a recent murder victim is actually Isles's previously-unknown half-brother, resulting in her discovery that her father is notorious criminal Patrick Doyle.
Hoyt returns eighteen months later through another apprentice, Lola (Scottie Thompson), in "I'm Your Boogie Man". Having murdered Lola's abusive husband two years earlier, Hoyt uses her Stockholm syndrome to his advantage, and uses her to stalk Rizzoli. Lola seduces and captures Frankie Rizzoli (Jordan Bridges) before tying Jane up. She plans to kidnap Jane until Hoyt can escape from prison, but Rizzoli manages to distract Lola long enough for Frankie to kill Lola with her own revolver.
Hoyt returns again when he arranges for another inmate to be stabbed while he is dying of cancer, luring Jane into the prison so that he can taunt her about another unsolved murder he committed. Although Jane manages to find the bodies of his victims- the family of an old college professor of Hoyt's who was unaware of his expulsion-, Hoyt, aided by a third apprentice, manages to capture Jane and Maura, only for Jane to beat Hoyt and then shoot him when he and his apprentice tried to kill Maura.


Rating: 80/100
PS: Jane and Maura together they made a killer team.....