‘Rizzoli & Isles’ season 5: Boss on Lee Thompson Young tribute, writing out Frost character

Jan Nash had a bigger challenge than almost any new showrunner in the business in the past year, as she not only had to get accustomed to a new group of people on “Rizzoli & Isles,” but she also had to figure out an appropriate way to say goodbye to the character of Barry Frost, as actor Lee Thompson Young tragically took his own life last year.

In previewing the fifth season today in an interview with TV Guide, Nash made it clear that addressing this story was the top thing on the priority list for not just yet, but for almost everyone associated with the show:

“It was very daunting knowing what was before me and what I had to do. From the moment that I was approached about this show and started watching the episodes … and [after] I met with Angie [Harmon] and Sasha [Alexander], I knew that doing it in a compelling and respectful way was the most important thing to them for the season.”

Nash also confirmed that when it comes to a situation like this, there really was nothing else that the series could do other than kill off the character so that it makes sense and pays proper tribute to the actor:

“We had to deal with it in a real and concrete way. We couldn’t just say Barry Frost went on vacation and occasionally talk about how much fun he was having or give him a new job in a new city, … That would feel icky. We realized that we had to have the character die so we could deal with that loss the same way the people on the show had dealt with Lee’s loss. What comes with that is we had to make sure we were not being [exploitative] and we were honoring his memory appropriately … and I think we all feel as a collective that we, to the best of our abilities, accomplished that.”

This is a story that will carry on beyond the first two episodes of the season, even though this is when you will see the primary bulk of the storytelling around it.