Adventures In Writing

The Closer Shuts Down Crime

I had a rough night tonight. In fact, I get to go to the doctor tomorrow and find out if I broke my foot. Having trouble walking on it now, and it's that kind of pain that feels like it's on fire.

So I took it a little easier after baseball practice tonight. My wife fixed dinner and we watched a few episodes of The Closer Season One.

The show came out last year and starred Kyra Sedgewick as Chief Brenda Johnson, a former CIA operative who's now working for the Los Angeles Police Department. The show is just now airing its second season on TNT.

If you haven't seen The Closer, I'd really suggest buying or renting the DVD set that came out last month. It comes with all 13 episodes from 2005, with not much in the way of extra features. However, the show is so good and the cast is so good, that the set is really worth the price of the purchase or rental if you're into cop shows.

As I've stated before, my wife doesn't much care for the bloodier or more violent shows. The Closer offers scintillating dialogue, realistic characters and situations, and great cases that actually are mysteries. Even the one with the ex-Marine sniper searching for his son who is killing Hispanic gang members in return for his wife's murder had a lost of mystery to it. But the series isn't big on blood or violence. They are mysteries, driven by curiosity and emotion.

Brenda Johnson is a complicated woman. She's there at the LAPD working for an ex-lover who wouldn't leave his wife even though he promised her he would. She struggles with her weight in a town known for beautiful women. She fights with her team, all of whom resent being stuck on her squad. She's strong enough to bust crime, but still manipulative enough to coax her father into buying her an expensive dress.

I love this show. The characters, the dialogue and the cases. They all work well. Get it. Watch it. Thank me.

Now I just gotta find out if my foot is broken.