TV is the New Reading

‘The Closer’ is off and

running with usual brilliance

The third-season opener of “The Closer” this week featured the attentions of Los Angeles Police Department Chief Brenda Johnson, interrogator extraordinaire, tautly divided between a grisly murder, her home life and the realities of bureaucracy – in this instance, budget cuts in the LAPD.

One of the cool things about the writing in this show is how intricately interrelated all of these things become.

First off, the murder itself. We as an audience experienced for the first time in the run of the show how Brenda’s Priority Homicide Division documents a crime scene for a jury. It was a great way to start the new season. It introduced her team for new and returning viewers and the work they were doing, and got into some of the details other procedurals skim over.

Because the murder is discovered in the early morning hours of a Saturday and Brenda’s trying to track down a murderer, she’s deployed her entire team in direct disregard to a shrill memo that’s gone out declaring emergency budget cuts and no overtime.

And her boss, Will Pope, is trying to rein her in, but when the budget cuts get in the way of her determining ownership of a cell phone found on the scene, she begins spending extravagantly, up to and including deputizing the Lompoc police force and commandeering the LAPD jet.

This could all be going a lot more smoothly if her boyfriend, Fritz, an FBI agent, were to help her out, but he’s disinclined. Despite having technically moved in with her, none of his stuff fits in her tiny home. It’s all still out in the garage. But she never wants to go with him to look for a new place so the situation isn’t changing. Plus, all of his colleagues at the FBI are making mad fun of him for all of the assistance he gives her already, so he makes her actually fill out the necessary paperwork, frustrating her still further.

So ultimately, her home situation is as stable as it ever is, and Pope is chasing after her to yell at her for every cent of overtime her staff is accruing, and demanding she identify a staff member to cut.

Meanwhile, she gets to the bottom of the murder with all of her usual drive and brilliance. It didn’t seem like the solution would be as complicated as it turned out to be, but the resolution is incredibly satisfying, in the usual “My God, how did she do that?” kind of way. And in the end, one wonders if justice is even possible, which speaks to the subtlety of the writing staff.

One thing that has been commented on elsewhere was how gruesome the crime scene was in this episode. Generally the focus of the show is on the interrogation – the title refers to how Brenda is a “closer,” that when the case goes to a jury, she’s put it together well beyond the shadow of any reasonable doubt. The crime scene itself tends to be secondary. But in this case, I personally think they spent the time they did with it to drive home how motivated Brenda was in tracking down the murderer, since so much of the show was going to be focused on budgets and bureaucracy. And without giving anything away, there’s a nicely satisfying resolution to that storyline as well.

Ultimately, “The Closer” seems like it’s off and running with its usual brilliance as the best summer show on any channel and I personally can’t wait to see what she gets up to next.

Features Editor Terry J. Aman compiles the Best Bets for The Minot Daily News.

Back Back to Shows Back to Main Page Next