‘The Closer,’ Season One (2005)

After becoming curious by another’s review that compares the lead to Detective Columbo, a beloved television character, I finally “took the bait” and tried this series. All I can say is The Closer, season one doesn’t disappoint.

The Closer, Season One (2005) TNT TV Review

Newly relocated from the quieter streets of Atlanta to L.A., Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) comes to lead a homicide investigative team. Surrounding her is a haze of suspicion after an Internal Affairs investigation. What this new job promises is no problems in her new job which is why she uproots her life to start afresh in California. Told by Assistant Chief Will Pope (J.K Simmons), with whom she shares a past, that she’ll be accepted, Brenda finds herself an outsider. This inspires her to request transfers before she has even had time to become acquainted with her new position. Sgt. David Gabriel (Corey Reynolds) is assigned as her driver. He’s the first who comes to respect Brenda as his commanding officer. This is not true of the crude, arrogant Detective Provenza (G.W. Bailey) enjoys wounding Brenda’s sense of authority.

With little time to ponder what her squad thinks of her unusual procedures Brenda finds herself entangled in the murder of a prominent scientist, and rekindling a relationship with FBI agent Fritz Howard (Jon Tenney). Needing a bit of help on investigations, Will assigns a man from robbery, Lt. Flynn (Anthony John Denison) who perhaps resents Brenda most of all. He and his former division superior (Robert Gossett) disapprove of Chief Pope’s decision regarding Brenda which inspires them to use her past against her.

TNT continues to prove it can produce not only intriguing fast-paced series, but series that have some truly wonderful characters. The Closer combines both aspects, and its greatest achievement is its female lead. Brenda is wonderful. All the little character quirks that make up her character couldn’t be better. From her polite “please” and “thank you” in that thick Southern drawl to her nervous chatter around her FBI agent boyfriend, her flawless detective skills to her attempts to cut sugar from her diet, she’s priceless even in her faults (and believe me, she has many!) and not someone you’ll be likely to forget.

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Not only did writers create a wonderful female protagonist but they strung together an interesting cast of supporting characters. Lt. Gabriel is the first to crack and reconcile, if you will, Brenda’s presence and authority over him and fellow co-workers. Some of the detectives are jerks (one is basically just crude; the other takes “jerk” to a whole new meaning) where as others are easier for Brenda to win over. (By season’s end, you are able to “like” everyone tolerably well – some are just immediately easier than others.) Romance enters in the form of Brenda’s FBI agent friend; their burgeoning relationship is one of the sweetest ever on television. (Seriously, Fritz is wonderful; and only grows more so in further seasons.) the closer season one

The first season comes full circle from the premiere to the finale and is something I rather like about its freshman season. Being a crime show, the aftermath handling of murder is various; both emotionally and tragically. Sometimes nothing can better describe a situation but sick. Apart from Fritz and Brenda’s all too infrequent scenes together, one of my favorite moments comes in the finale when Provenza laughingly impersonates Brenda and she catches him at it. This is one really great show. You’ll hold your breath with anticipation that Brenda will come out of a déjà vu situation just as she had before; fall in love with her calling her cat “kitty”; and be ready for season two as soon as this one ends.

No matter how you feel about the rest of the show, just try and tell me after watching fifteen minutes of The Closer that you don’t like Brenda. It’s just impossible not to. 

Content: the show rating is TV14. There are some graphic murders; some by a gun wound, another drowns, others are beaten to death. One killer has a vendetta against blondes so he murders them by burning them to death. Twice we see naked corpses and sometimes we see the autopsy room. Physical assault cases are touched on [“Good Housekeeping”]. “Batter up” and the pilot both explore homosexuality. “Fantasy Date” involves a sexual desire webpage and Brenda is the victim (nearly) of assault. Profanities are more infrequent when compared to the crime scenes, they bear mentioning though [GD, h*ll and da*n]. There’s gang activity and murder.