A Big "Thank Yew" to TNT

I know, I know many* of you were hoping you'd get a rest from TV posts 'til September (or beyond)...sorry! TNT's series, The Closer returned this evening with a commercial-free season premier, and I have something to watch again! I don't mind commercials so much--good time to refresh beverages, etc.--but the uninterrupted show helped the urgency of Brenda Leigh Johnson's search for a cop killer. The mystery was decent--the culprit was easy to figure out, but the motive eluded me longer than it should have--but, as with most detective series (print or television), the mystery isn't the important part. It's about the characters. And The Closer shines there.

Brenda's junk-food addiction may have been a cheap way to create a character (think I read Lee Goldberg saying something like that last year), but I think it's become a nice way to display her neurotic-core--her efforts to kick the habit this year should prove entertaining. Kyra Sedgwick's portrayal of the Deputy Chief is really charming and disarming. Can't help but love her--sure, her social skills can make Adrian Monk seem like a people-person--but she makes up for it by getting the job done. Her method of drawing the truth out of people, particularly the final questioning of the suspects (often without them realizing they're being questioned) are always more interesting than the mysteries themselves.

But Brenda's not the only character that draws you in...Detectives Provenza and Flynn are just fun. The background members of her squad: Lt. Tau, Det. Sanchez and Det. Daniels--are really well-played, and while not central add a lot to each scene they're in. J.K. Simmons' Asst. Police Chief Will Pope is possibly my favorite. His role in the stories are incidental at best, but I'm not sure I'd bother watching the show if he wasn't around anymore--perhaps the pending-divorce will give him some more screen time (but I'm so not looking forward to the love triangle they're setting up to go along with that).

It's not the destination, it's the journey--and the people you travel with. And on both of those marks, The Closer more than gets the job done.

*I say "many" mostly out of irony, I know there are only 3 readers of this thing....