The Closer: Television’s Top Cop Drama
“If there’s one thing our government has successfully proven it can’t do at all, it’s find illegal aliens.”
So says Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) at a key moment in “Tijuana Brass,” a television episode from the newly released DVD The Closer: The Complete Fourth Season.
“Tijuana Brass” engages big problems like ruthless Mexican drug gangs and official corruption. Tough questions are posed. What if the lofty moral ambitions of the sanctuary movement were put to the test? Can the seal of the confessional be pried open at the edges to prevent an impending murder? Does law enforcement sometimes need to engage its adversaries on their own terms?
Because The Closer is set in Los Angeles, there are also political complications. What sort of PR judo can turn around meddlesome media scrutiny and institutional oversight? How much deference should our police show to the visiting Tijuana commandante or to an earnest barrio prelate? This is all tied together in just over forty-three minutes with a surprising twist ending sure to satisfy justice-seekers on all sides of the immigration controversy.
Well, maybe not the ACLU, but hey, this is a cop show!
The Closer is the outstanding law enforcement drama on television today. Now in its fifth season on TNT, it’s been the top rated scripted show on ad-supported cable since its inception. Much of the credit goes to Sedgwick, as a brittle, vulnerable woman who has slowly earned the respect of her mostly male team of elite detectives. Her specialty is the interrogation room confession scene, hence the program’s name.
Pioneered by shows like NYPD Blue and Homicide: Life on the Street in the 1990s, confession scenes offer up a satisfying blend of moral clarity, certain resolution, and assignment of responsibility. Interrogations by homicide detectives are also a whole lot less expensive that action shootouts and much more realistic than confrontations between criminals and guys who lift fingerprints.
Another reason The Closer rates atop the list of current crime dramas is its faithful portrayal of police as basically heroic, and criminals as reprobates who should proceed directly to jail. For the first fifty years of television, this could be taken for granted. In this decade we’ve gone from one fascinating family of wrongdoers worth watching (The Sopranos) to shows built around a serial killer, a chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin, a housewife dealing pot, etc.
The Closer is one of our favorite shows. Sedgwick is marvelous, and the rest of the cast is excellent also. G.W. Bailey and Tony Denison are wonderful playing a pair of older detectives who know most of the tricks, but who also get afoul of procedure every once in a while. Michael Paul Chan, playing the technically-minded Lt. Tao, is suitably nerdy and pedantic. Philip P. Keene, as Buzz, the video guy who tapes all the interrogations, had the best line of the series so far. In one episode where Brenda’s detectives had to practice disaster response preparedness (and she needed them on a case, not in hazmat suits), Buzz was induced to wear one of the suits and impersonate Lt. Tao (who is of course Asian; Keene’s white). His response was to ask “Do I have to over-explain everything, too?”
It’s a good show. You should try it.
The Closer works because Sedgwick SUCCESSFULLY portrays a woman who can handle the tough jobs without having to surrender her femininity.
She rarely pulls out a weapon.
She does NOT toss 250 pound men around, nor put herself into a position where it would be necessary. She never has to put her foot into some man’s groin to establish her ‘toughness’.
She’s surrounded by competent people and does NOT require a cute, oafish ‘pard’ to juxtapose with her brilliance.
The plots are good, even clever sometimes, but, it’s Sedgwick who makes it work.
“Perhaps if we spent more time following positive stories about law enforcement professionals, it would elevate consciousness and support for crime fighters in our culture.”
Perhaps if real cops spent more time fighting crime and less time being uniformed thugs, law enforcement professionals might have a better reputation.
Nice article on a TV show. However, your opinion on the topic of law enforcement is nothing more than a big steaming pile of excrement.
It’s hard to take PJM seriously when it panders to the social conservatives with articles like this. Come on, you guys are Hollywood insiders! You know how hopelessly cynical the TV business is, was, and always will be. You’re patronizing the flyover faithful pretty durn shamelessly here. Don’t you think they’ll catch on sooner or later?
Love, love, love her and this show. Great ensemble cast. They all have very different but delightful personalities.
For all the reasons mentioned above we love “The Closer”. Kyra Sedgwick as Brenda Leigh is smart, dedicated and relentless as she pursues her quarry and the solid anchor for the ensemble cast. We especially like the officious bumbling of Assistant Chief Pope, J.J. Simmons, who is often hoisted upon his own petard. The shennanigans of Lts. Provenza (Bailey) and Flynn (Dennison) keep us in stitches with their byplay as they and the whole squad display the camraderie, internal squabbles and competition usually prevalent in team dynamics. These are people we recognize and admire as they go about the real work of bringing justice to the victims and putting away the bad guys.
Never seen it and have no reason to ever see it.
Hollywood make believe garbage just has no value.
King of The Hill, now that show has substance …:)
Woh,a little free-floating hostility out there today, huh?
-a uniformed thug in flyover country
LOVE “The Closer!” No moral relativism for Brenda Leigh- and my favorite line, when a bad guy tells her to go to HE**, she says, “You first!”
“The Closer,” “Burn Notice,” “The Mentalist,” and “In Plain Sight” are some of the best programs on these days.
My favorite thought-provoking episode from last season is called “Problem Child” I believe. It deals with a nice, polite (and probably very, very permissive and liberal based on inference) couple who have an utterly sadistic monster of an adopted son and their response.
The episode works well as we see this couple and their spoiled goth daughter (who has her own car depsite her appearance and behavior) and their reactions to their, first missing, and later found dead son.
I was rolling my eyes at the permissive liberal California parents who were “helpless” to discipline their kids.
But soon when the Mom talks in tears about boot camps and pyschologists and drug therapy and all their efforts to control a kid, who was pretty much pure evil (killing baby birds, feeding his hamsters into the garbage disposal etc.) the epiosode makes a dramatic change.
Check this one out.
John:
“Perhaps if real cops spent more time fighting crime and less time being uniformed thugs, law enforcement professionals might have a better reputation. Nice article on a TV show. However, your opinion on the topic of law enforcement is nothing more than a big steaming pile of excrement.”
BZZZZZT! Sorry, “unhinged bigotry” was not the answer we’re looking for. But thanks for playing!
Seriously, WTF would you know about it? I’m a criminal-defense lawyer, which means that cops are on the “other side”- but I’ve rarely run into these “uniformed thugs” you talk about. (Oh, sure, my lovely clients try to claim it, but thenthey also usually try to claim they’re innocent). I have nothing but respect for the professionalism and tough, tough job of the folks in blue (even if I do make their lives hell in the box).
Despite the modern twist of a woman being in charge, The Closer is a good, old-fashioned cop show with good, old-fashioned storytelling. My personal favorite episodes: the pilot (ie episode 1, season 1) and the final episode of season two. But they’re all solid. I’ve never seen a lame or weak episode, not one.
I like “The Closer” too, as a piece of entertainment. I can’t forget though, that all the cops, FBI agents, CSI staff and prosecution lawyers who populate TV programs, are State functionaries.
We can’t have a civilized society without proper enforcement of the law. Unfortunately modern law enforcement seems to be a mixed blessing. I’m thinking of the four Mounties who killed a confused, unarmed immigrant with a taser at Vancouver airport in Canada.
Love the show and the way the characters compliment each other and throw in some humor. Also love the show that follows Raising the Bar! The writers really got a handle on the justice system.
Love The Closer. I never miss an episode. The Blog on her clothes is a hoot (on thecloser.com).
Worst. Accent. Ever.
Sedgwick is detestable and the accent is unbearable. Not in our home, she’s not!
The Closer is great! My favorite episode is the Christmas episode where they went to Atlanta and brought the crooks back cross country in the RV. Willie Mae as driver, dressed in visor, playing Perry Como Christmas album with great cheerfulness was inspired! I KNOW these people!
Brenda Leigh’s wardrobe is atrocious, but she is smart and single minded. (I didn’t care for the shacking up with Fritz, though.) Thought it was out of character, but Brenda Leigh’s deception of her father about her lack of “weddin’” was priceless! Her mother loyally covered up for her too. Funny! I know these people.
I’m so glad you wrote this. Entertainment Weekly did a “review” of The Closer this week and it was painfully obvious the person who wrote it does not watch the show on a regular basis. Each character mentioned, he/she judged solely on the previous weeks episode (the murder of the entire family). Why they even bothered I’m not sure.
I’m glad several comments praised the excellent supporting cast. You’ve read my comments about GW Bailey and his hilarious work in “Dial M”. Tony Denison has been a personal favorite since his memorable pinch-hitting role on Wiseguy. JK Simmons is a very credible top cop, and I also enjoyed his work on Law & Order. Michael Paul Chan supplies depth and texture that raises his Asian techie far above the stereotype. Raymond Cruz as Sanchez got to show off his acting chops in several episodes of season four. Corey Reynolds makes Gabriel very likeable. And let’s not forget to credit the fine work of Robert Gossett as the highly political Commander Taylor, the kind of tough in-fighter you find in the higher ranks of the public sector everywhere.
Phyllis – I’m glad you mentioned the lead-out, Raising the Bar. Last year the show was just too liberal for me. But they began this year with a haircut for the lead public defender Kellerman. It had been too painful to watch Mark-Paul Gosselaar in that role, because I liked him so much on the right side as Andy Sipowicz’ final partner on NYPD Blue. Re-visiting the show this year, I find Kellerman less annoying and sometimes facing the consequences of his liberal arrogance. There are episodes spotlighting a conviction-minded prosecutor’s office, including J. August Richards and NYPD Blue grad Currie Graham. There’s a balance of viewpoints, more or less, much more than you ever got in the Kelley shows or the later years of Law & Order. And best of all, the Bochco production style is still intact. With so many shows amping up the musical score other gimmickry over the last decade, Steven is still strong on the fundamentals: great writing, intelligent adult casting, and production values in support of strong characterization and writing, rather than covering up for their absence.
Love this show! brings back pleasant memories being a son of the south. Her “Thank You” , with a glare in her eye ,just like my favorite aunt, a tough steel magnolia,
Fav episode : the pilot
I have been a fan of the Closer since it began. I love the cast, and Kyra Sedgwick is awesome!