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Rizzoli & Isles: No One Mourns the Wicked (2013)
...But We Do Mourn the Loss of Lee Thompson Young
...oh most unfortunately.
Boston police Det. Barry Frost has been with the Rizzoli & Isles TV series since it began in 2010. Lee Thompson Young incarnated his character so well that, like the rest of the main cast ensemble, he came to seem inseparable from them.
Last episode, youngest Rizzoli, Frankie, who'd recently made the grade of Detective of the Boston PD, thought Frost's junior as one, was trying to help Frost get through a bloody murder scene without being nauseated (which has been a rather humorous part of Frost's M.O.).
This time the murder scene's a horrific one that has the potential to trigger Det. Jane Rizzoli's past trauma as a victim of a serial killer. Thus, Frost plays a supporting role to both Rizzoli and Isles as they team up to investigate 'who done it?'. Frost, who is usually instrumental doing computer wrangling like no one else on the team can, does so again.
Tragically, however, on the evening that viewers are watching this 9th episode of season 4, on August 20th, 2013, which is entitled "No One Mourns the Wicked," the end of the episode pays a memorial tribute to 29yo Lee Thompson Young aka Det. Barry Frost. Tonight he is one of the good guys who is mourned after dying the date before this episode was aired, on August 19th, 2013.
The cast ensemble most be bereaved and grieving a truly tragic loss of one of their own. Yet, in homes of masses of viewers, there is also a sense of loss that will, eventually, have to become the absence of ever watching the performances of Lee Thompson Young playing Det. Barry Frost. Distant as this ordinary viewer is to the real human beings who are the cast of a favorite hit TV series, not ever having met the young man, just knowing of his sudden absence and all too brief life's end has opened up a space that was somehow reserved for his presence. A space that feels more like a hollowed out vacancy. Another character will not fill his spot. A sadness is quietly hovering over where his presence used to come alive, time and again for years and seasons. Although Mr. Young was not a member of my family, intimate friends or colleagues, he will always be part of an ensemble of performance artists who viewers came to know as well as their scripts wanted for us to.
Det. Barry Frost was a team player for and with that ensemble and a significant character in an extremely popular TV series. I know that dying is an absolute mandate that goes with living which every one of us must do. However, being more than twice the age of Mr. Young, and having far less public potential to shine as a beacon of a role model for millions of youth viewers, had I the choice I'd gladly given up my own life as a bargain for him keeping his.
It is bothering me terribly at this moment thinking and-or feeling that perhaps this younger man did not know the extent of his influence upon admiring viewers, how well he entertained millions, or that through his performances as Det. Barry Frost, Lee Thompson Young entered our collective consciences as an agency of empowerment working as a good-enough public servant, for the well being of others while striving to improve the quality of living for a city in the US.
Tonight I definitely do not mourning the wicked because I am among those who are feel a loss of an accomplished young man who publicly shared himself by performing as a character who engaged in acts of goodness while also entertaining in the types of ways that made smiles and laughter break out in homes, where, oft time, it was not just welcomed in but also needed.
Rizzoli & Isles: Living Proof (2011)
Yard Sale Action-Figure Symbolic of Relationships
A key to the success of Rizzoli & Isles is the brief but potent moments of comical relief from otherwise serious crime and murder investigation scenarios. Of course, the main relationship alchemy is between Det. Jane Rizzoli and Coroner Dr. Maura Isles: the former being a tough-enough cop and extremely successful Boston PD detective who also happens to be gorgeous; the latter being a scientific expert, M.D. and Boston PD's medical examiner who also happens to be gorgeous. Both destroying stereotypes of tough women and smart ones as being too rugged or geeky, to be sexy.
Writing 3 years in retrospect of the original broadcast of this episode 2 of season 2, I like it's ever subtle focus on the oft times dueling dynamics between pairs of characters. During this episode, I am particularly referring to that of Det. Barry Frost and Officer Frankie Rizzoli (Det. Jane's youngest brother).
Angela Rizzoli (their mother) is having a yard sale. One of the items is what appears to be a 12 inch late 1980's-early 1990's action-figure of Frankie's. When Det. Frost drops by, finds it, and takes a deep $$ plunge to buy it, Frankie has a fit. This amusing moment when two grown men act like little boys fighting over a toy is just the beginning of how this action-figure gains a part as a character in the series for the next 3 years of the TV series.
I'd love to know from any reader what the action-figure really is. The two guys call it "Guardian Chogar King." I've yet to locate it to buy it as a memento, don't know if it was made up for the show or is an authentic action-figure.
Writing the day after losing 20yo Lee Thompson Young 1984-August 19, 2013, who became such a central figure as Det. Barry Frost, the action-figure which is typically standing on his desk to the left of his computer screen, facing him, now holds even more sentimental value. It's difficult to imagine the coming episodes without Frost and the youngest Rizzoli having rifts over the now famous Guardian Chogar King.
I can't possibly imagine how the cast is coping with such a devastating loss to them. Yet, "the show must go on," and will, but without the very charming, clever and way computer savvy Det. Barry Frost.
Interesting too is how such a distant loss of a television personality impacts someone like me: any old ordinary viewer. I feel like someone I'm fond of, have come to know (even at this distance), and like a whole lot has been too suddenly and way too untimely in his own life's span.
I'll hold that absence open where he used to present a bright presence with what promised to become an even brighter future. I'd love to do so in a small way by finding that action-figure and putting by my computer screen on this desk, in remembrance of a younger man who did become a very good role model for even younger people, a handsome guy who didn't seem to have a mean-spirited cell within his being, a lively and on point television actor, and part of a television series ensemble that has seemed inseparable for several years by now.
If the "Guardian Chogar King" action-figure was invented by the writers of the series and isn't already one that can be located and bought, perhaps those who produce the series could find a way to have a batch of replicas made so that those of us who'd like to pay tribute to Mr. Young can do so by buying that figure which became symbolic of Frost's relationship with Frankie. A way for mere fans to express respect for a man's life that ended way to suddenly and soon.