10 Best Running Shoes For Women Over 50

Best Running Shoes For Women Over 50 in 2023

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Kyra Sedgwick in TNT's The Closer

TNT's cop drama The Closer stars Kyra Sedgwick (Door To Door) as Brenda Johnson, an Atlanta transplant now running the Priority Murder Squad for the LAPD. She uses brains and southern charm to take on killers and in-house discontent.

In the case of TNT's series The Closer, the claim to standing out in a very crowded crime drama field is the show's main character, Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson, a CIA-trained former Atlanta PD detective who comes to the LAPD to run it's Priority Murder Squad. Johnson's known for having knack at nailing people in the interrogation room, getting confessions. Thus the show's title. Starring Kyra Sedgwick as the Deputy Chief, The Closer is a sharp, interesting drama with a a strong, multi-dimensional main character. The series, like Johnson herself, manages to solve crimes with a twang that sets it apart.

With Johnson, The Closer gives viewers a main character who is at once in and out of her element. This is what she does- she catches killers, gets confessions. She's hired by Chief Pope (JK SImmons) who is in fact her ex-lover, because she's such a talented detective. She's a woman adept at reading criminals and witnesses and figuring out the best approach to get that confession: act tough or flirtatious or bewildered or sensitive. She'll put on whatever face is required to take care of business. However, at the same time she's doing her job, Johnson's acutely aware of the fact she's not in Kansas - or Atlanta - anymore.

Season One finds Johnson running a squad of cops whose responses to her out-of-town hiring range from unsure to outright belligerent to covertly conniving. Her most obvious adversaries are the street tough blockhead Flynn(Anthony Denison) and the politically ruthless Captain Taylor (Robert Gossett) who wanted Johnson's job. And we're also not allowed to forget Johnson is a woman leading men (save one female cop). In an interesting twist on the typical, the cops of The Closer aren't all gender-blind. This isn't Olivia Benson, the saint of SVU loved by all her colleagues. This is a woman in charge of men who sometimes resent her and sometimes just don't get her.

An out of towner, a female leading males, the new girl on the block: Johnson's both a fish-out-of-water and a fish in water trying to swim upstream. This reality adds complications to her crime solving and depth to the show. She's not stopped by annoyed colleagues or doubting subordinates; but watching how she deflates the conflicts is part of viewer's fun and The Closer's tension.

For instance, when a subordinate goes over her head to stop an arrest, Johnson grabs her purse and says "I guess I'll go get him myself." So there. This mix of defiance and disappointment is followed by her agreeable right-hand man, level-headed Sgt. Gabriel's (Corey Reynolds) suggesting Johnson take him along so the news copters covering the case don't film her getting lost on her way back to the station. That's funny.

Johnson's personal life is giving some shades of color. She's got an FBI boyfriend (John Tenney) with whom she's serious but whom often keeps at bay when she's immersed in a case. Unless he can be of assistance. There's also remaining tension between Johnson and Pope, her ex who is (and was during their affair) married. We also see Johnson likes to eat. She's very concerned about her cat. She dresses less than chic. And keeps in touch with her parents in Atlanta. It's maybe not the most interesting of personal material, but it built over the course of the first season and gives the show material to play with in the future.

All the elements of this main character, professional and personal, are handled by the able and likable Sedgwick. She powers the show. Reynolds, Simmons, Gossett and Denison are part of The Closer's capable and ethnically diverse supporting cast (very diverse- two Black guys, one Latino, one Black woman, one Asian, four white guys and Sedgwick). But it's also a very large supporting cast that may take you a few weeks to get straight.

One of the standouts is GW Baily (from all those Police Academy movies) as the grumpy veteran detective Provenza, a guy who initially dislikes Johnson but comes to appreciate her. One amusing scene in Season One involves Provenza doing a dead-on impersonation of Johnson's drawled "thank yoooou" catch phrase.

If there's a complaint to be made about The Closer, it's that the crimes Johnson and her team solve, though complex and twisty, too frequently involve the same ending. In so many episodes that you notice it, the first person they interview, the person who starts out being helpful or at least crossed-off the list, turns out to be the killer.

It's really weird. Another issue is that The Closer like a lot of cop shows, focuses in on the crimes of the rich and sometimes famous, high-end stuff. That's what the Priority Murder Squad apparently handles. Yes, sometimes, these cases lead to more down-to-earth killings, like of hookers or gangbangers, and even the rich cases offer variety. But all the mansion crime scenes and politically charged, rich guy cases can get a little tiring.

The Closer is a good cop drama with character power following more than just procedure. Sedgwick and her crew are worth watch. It's worthy of the future TNT has promised it, and lives up to the promise of originality TNT offered its viewers.

Another complication is