In the world of Brenda Leigh Johnson in THE CLOSER, life is simple:  there is a crime and someone is going to pay.  Intriguingly, making the punishment fit the crime has become an underlying theme.  For is it enough to put away the bad guy if the legal system cannot guarantee that he will never see the light of day again? 
 
In this final season, the unorthodox tactics employed by the Major Crimes Division to get the confessions they need to put away criminals has been called into question, especially if they cannot use the confession to obtain justice. After the state court threw out the case against Brenda in the wrongful death suit of a murderer and the big reveal that the same case was now going to be brought in federal court, the issue of a department “mole” has taken on new meaning and ramifications.
 
In a recent conference call with press, Kyra Sedgwick and creator/executive producer James Duff shared their candid thoughts on the journey of Brenda Leigh Johnson and what lies ahead.
 
You left us with a whopper of a cliffhanger! As we go into the holiday episodes, can you speculate as to what some of the motivations are of the person who may be considered the “mole” in the department?  What he or she might be kind of motivated by — whether it might be political aspirations, altruism or personal payback towards Brenda?
JAMES:  No, we can’t. I can’t give you any of that information, except to say that everybody on her team really loves her. So you have to think about it in terms of that. There’s no one on her team who’s bad.
 
But somebody’s giving away good information.
JAMES:  Yes, good information is definitely leaking out of Major Crimes.
 
Alright, on a safer subject, maybe you could talk about whether or not Mark Pellegrino who portrays Gavin might have a continuing role as the case continues in the federal court?
JAMES:  Yes, he’s in several of the back five episodes of our bridge episodes between this summer and next. So you will see him, I think, twice more at least. He’s become a really almost like a member of the company. He and Kyra really do like working together.  Their work together is fantastic.
 
Kyra, could you talk briefly about how you enjoy working with Mark as Gavin?
KYRA:  Well, I just think that it brings out another side of Brenda and that side is someone who is really — I mean she’s incredibly vulnerable around him because she is in such hot water and he really is her ally in this. Even though sometimes she gets frustrated with him and sometimes his alliance with her seems to be slightly shifting there sometimes. He really is the one who’s hopefully going to be her savior in all of this, and at this point when she really doesn’t know who to trust at all and feels like she can’t trust anyone.
 
As we get closer to the ending of the series, is it going to focus more on Brenda and how things are going to resolve with her or are we going to see her working more cases and are there any really cool cases coming up?
JAMES:  I will tell you that for sure we are going to be focusing more on Brenda. I want to write the end of THE CLOSER and she is “The Closer.” And anyone who has this much time to spend with Kyra Sedgwick and doesn’t maximize their opportunity is out of their minds. So my primary role is to focus on the end of THE CLOSER. And I think they will have some really cool cases. There are some that are a bit lighter than before. We have a couple of frothy ones, including our 100th episode where Fred Willard plays Santa Claus and what may be the first case of Santa-cide that we’ve ever investigated. But for the most part, they are darker, more serious crimes and I’m afraid actually I’m taking Brenda through some very dark places in her own heart. And hopefully giving something for Kyra to do which makes this last year as interesting as our first year together. That’s my goal.
 
Will the series wind up in a way that viewers will be satisfied or are you thinking of leaving it open-ended for la possible future movie for TNT?
JAMES:  Well, I’m not thinking about anything beyond.  What I’m thinking about right now and what you would be thinking about too if you had been sitting here since January and working through 21 episodes is:  I’m thinking about how to best end this show for this character for right now, and to explain why she’s suddenly going to be leaving. Well, not suddenly, I mean it’s beginning to get really difficult for her to do her job. I will say this:  that I think the biggest problem we face as adults is how to balance our professional and personal life, and that this character has not done that as well as she could have. She’s never learned how to balance her personal and professional lives and she’s going to be forced to figure that out.
 
What’s the hardest part when you see the end of this show that has been such an important part of your life for the last few years?
KYRA:  I think I can partly answer that question because I think that there are many unforeseeable feelings that are going to come up for me at the end of this show and this character and working with these people. I know that I will miss my fellow players — and that includes the cast and the crew and the writers and the executive producers and all this family that we really have created. I know I will miss Brenda’s complications and her struggle and her successes and her triumphs — you know, the loss of someone I’ve been so deeply intimate with for such a long time, like this character. And in some ways through this character, with James as well, as more concrete and the fact that we have a good relationship. I will miss both of those things deeply. And I’ll miss as an actor the constant challenge of the workload, even though — I mean I’m in Boston right now and I can’t think of anything better. But I know I will miss that.  I’m very much of a sort of work-horse actor and I really love acting and having those kind of demands on me. That many hours out of every day, I find it exciting. So I will miss all those things.
JAMES:  I will vouch for that.  If you want a marathon-running actor, Kyra Sedgwick is the person you want to hire. She is 100% committed, 100% of the time. But I will say, and maybe she will agree with this, that if you do have to end your show, ending it after 21 episodes is probably easier than ending it after 15.
KYRA:  Absolutely.
 
This role is iconic.  Do you think it changed women’s roles in television, and has it changed your life in any way?
KYRA:  Sure, I mean I think that the success of the show has made me feel confident in a way that I don’t know that I would have for many years to come.  In a short of amount of time, relatively, I feel like the success of not only the show materialistically in terms of the ratings and all of those things that we can point to – also just in terms of getting through a day and feeling really good about the scenes that we’ve done and feeling really good about the show. The episodes that we’ve done and feeling like we really served the piece has really given me a confidence. And also working as an executive producer with writers and giving notes and seeing things come together through some of my influence has been really a good feeling.  So you get confidence in that, like I have good instincts around this and maybe this is something that I can do for future. I think that that’s been wonderful.
JAMES:  And I would also say that she occasionally tries to arrest people, which is also a big change — she never did that before she started doing THE CLOSER!
 
For Kyra, if you could comment what you think that Brenda sees when she sees herself currently in the mirror.
KYRA:  Oh, well, I’m sure like all women her age, she probably sees her mother.  You know, I don’t think that Brenda’s a very self reflecting kind of person in any way. I mean I’m sure she does look in the mirror to put her makeup and get her hair done, but in terms of really looking inward, that has never been her strong suit. And, in fact, it’s been something she’s avoided like the plague. So I think that she probably sees the superficiality of what one would look at when one looks in the mirror.
 
Do you think recent events have caused her to kind of take a pause and look at what her decisions were in situations that she made?
KYRA:  I think for moments, she’s had moments. But only moments.  I think they sometimes come in overwhelming bouts, but I think they’ve been moments and then she gets right back on the: “I haven’t done anything wrong” and has a very sort defiant stance, almost a feeling of self-righteousness.
JAMES:  I think she probably tries to avoid looking in the mirror for too long. That would be more like her, I think.
 
James, are you afraid as you’re trying to wind up THE CLOSER and working on MAJOR CRIMES that there might be some hesitancy about tarnishing the legacy of Brenda Leigh Johnson as you go down that path?
JAMES:  No, I’m not because I feel like we’re going to do a really good job. I really do feel like we’re going to do a good job of the last three episodes that we have for THE CLOSER and that’s what I’m most concerned about.  As to the other issue, MAJOR CRIMES, I don’t know. I can’t tell you exactly what I’m thinking will happen or what will go on there or anything like that. It’s just being afraid of something, isn’t a good way to approach it. And so I’m not being fearful, I’m trying to say goodbye to this character, as well as Kyra is. This character is so much a part of my soul and it’s very hard to be thinking about what comes next when you are dealing with loss. I feel like the loss has to be absorbed and I have to fully approach that and fully grab hold of it before I can move on to something else. So I haven’t really done that yet to be frank with you. I don’t know if Kyra has, I don’t think she has. I have not fully.
KYRA:  We don’t have time for that.
JAMES:  We don’t really have time, that’s actually the truth.
KYRA:  That’s the way Brenda feels about everything, we don’t have time for that.
JAMES: I promise you, I have not dealt with my emotions on the end of the show. I haven’t dealt with how I feel about it, me James, emotionally, not the showrunner or not the executive producer or anything else. But, just me by myself, James, how I feel about it and I don’t think I ever refer to myself basically in the third person, so don’t take that too seriously, but I haven’t dealt with it — that loss yet. So it’s impossible for me to really even think about MAJOR CRIMES or what it will do. It’s not going to do anything to THE CLOSER legacy. At the very worst it could do is make THE CLOSER look better.  And at the very best it will be a place where the people who like THE CLOSER can come and hang out and still see some of the people they’ve grown to love and care about.
 
For the MAJOR CRIMES, will Kyra play any role in that at all? Is she going to be any kind of producer on it, or guest star?
JAMES:  Well she has agreed theoretically to guest star, and I think we have a three episode deal.  But I don’t think we have times or ideas nailed down and to bring her back, it needs to be something special.  Also I were her, I would want to have some time to put the character down for a while. Seven years is an extraordinarily long time to play a role of this size. It’s one of the largest speaking roles in television and for the first two years she was in every scene. And as much as I would like to have her back and as much as it would be great to end THE CLOSER and in the first episode of MAJOR CRIMES, guest stars Kyra’s Brenda Leigh Johnson, I don’t think that’s right and I feel like it would be not honoring the end of THE CLOSER. So I feel like we have to establish something new and we have to get that something new going properly. And then we have to see how Brenda would fit into that something new and it really does have to be something extraordinary. You don’t want to ask Kyra to come back and reprise something that she’s already done brilliantly unless you have something new to go with it. And I feel like that’s the answer she would give you too.
 
Are most of the cast members from THE CLOSER, you know the LAPD staff, going to still be there with the show when it becomes MAJOR CRIMES?
JAMES:  Most of them, yes.
 
While Kyra and James were cautious in giving away anything that may spoil the upcoming storylines or reveal how the show will end next summer, they did share some wonderful reflections on a show that has made all other procedurals look pale in comparison.  THE CLOSER returns with more on the traitorous “mole,” more quirky and possibly heart-breaking cases, and more thorny ethical issues while trying to balance the needs of police procedure, human rights and justice on Monday, November 28th. Be sure to tune-in for the first of five new episodes at 9:00PM on TNT.

The long running TNT series about a uniquely persuasive police investigator who “closes” cases simply by eliciting confessions, THE CLOSER stars Kyra Sedgwick along with her charming and more often than not hilarious castmates who make up the sterling ensemble, which includes Jon Tenney, Corey Reynolds, Robert Gossett, G.W. Bailey, Tony Denison, Michael Paul Chan, Raymond Cruz, Philip P. Keene, Jonathan Del Arco and J.K. Simmons.  New to the series and taking over the spotlight as Kyra exits the series is Mary McDonnell, who will helm the spinoff series MAJOR CRIMES, which debuts next year.

In a television landscape bursting with police procedurals, what distinguishes THE CLOSER is not only its razor-sharp writing, but also its ability to imbue its characters with loving detail that elevates and compliments the stories without become fully immersed into their private lives.  The delicate balance of crime and companionship makes it addictive.  Being the highest rated cable series for five years in a row, averaging more than 8 million viewers, THE CLOSER is a proven success and fan-favorite.  When it first debuted with Kyra Sedgwick as its focal star, it was unprecedented, but a risk that paid off handsomely and one which other networks have tried to emulate.

Now in its 7th season and making its way towards its series finale, which airs mid-summer 2012, the show took time out to celebrate its upcoming 100th episode and its phenomenal success.  On August 27th, the cast, producers, writers and other select guests celebrated at the Universal Sheraton where they took a few moments to chat with the press and pose for pictures.  Being invited to such a wonderful event, theTVaddict.com had the opportunity to talk with a few of the show’s stars, including Kyra Sedgwick, Corey Reynolds, Robert Gossett, Tony Denison, Michael Paul Chan and Jonathan Del Arco.

After touching briefly upon the current hot-button mystery of who is the leak or “mole” within the Major Crimes Division who is giving information to plaintiff’s counsel in the civil suit brought against Brenda Leigh Johnson and the Los Angeles Police Department for the death of Terrell Baylor, the cast also briefly discussed the new spinoff series MAJOR CRIMES.  As can be seen, each was reluctant to spoil who the department snitch is or when that particular storyline will be resolved, but they were more candid about their hopes to be a part of the upcoming series with Mary McDonnell, whom they all raved about. 

Mary McDonnell, the Oscar-nominated actress for her portrayal in “Dances With Wolves” and who won critical praise for her portrayal as President Laura Roslin in BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, took a 3-episode guest appearance arc on THE CLOSER and quickly expanded it not only into a recurring role, but also then nabbed the opportunity to helm its spinoff MAJOR CRIMES. Given her popularity in both genre and non-genre television and her impressive array of theatrical performances, Mary is a great coup for the series.  However, as beloved as Kyra is by the cast and crew of THE CLOSER, not to mention the stalwart fans, it is a daunting task for any actor to try to replace such a popular and successful actor.  But using their time wisely, the producers and writers have crafted a character and storyline for Mary’s character Captain Sharon Raydor which has won over hearts both on and off the show.

With the department leak storyline hanging over them and not wishing to reveal who it is prematurely, it is hard to say whether all the remaining cast will be appearing in the MAJOR CRIMES series next year, but each seems to be vying heavily for the chance to continue their desirable roles in the new series.  None is quite ready to say goodbye and is eager to reprise their characters.  So not only are the cast going to miss the heart of their current series in Kyra, but they have fallen in love with Mary and do not hesitate to share their admiration of these incredible women spear-heading such difficult and thorny roles.

As any fan knows, the character Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson may look disarmingly tiny and frail and talks with a charming Southern accent, but underneath that deceptive exterior persona is a calculating investigator who relentless pursues criminals and will use any tactic at her disposal to get them to confess to their dastardly crimes – thereby, closing the book on their case.  A confession is nearly tantamount to a guilty plea.  It’s a slam-dunk.  But with the addition of the newly created character Captain Sharon Raydor who acts in a quasi-internal affairs capacity, investigating possible police misconduct, Mary McDonnell has had to assimilate into a different kind of character.  Captain Raydor is not so much a “closer” as much as she is a blood-hound, albeit a much more gentle and soft-spoken one.  She also has a heightened awareness for social and political ramifications, for which, more often than not, Brenda is oblivious. 

So the different approaches and different ways of perceiving how to solve a crime and ensure that justice is obtained, MAJOR CRIMES will undoubtedly seek to be a show that high-lights the different skill sets of Captain Raydor.  Mary was the first to laughingly admit that she is not yet privy to what may be Captain Raydor’s “secret weapon” – the tool she uses to capture criminals, but she is confident that the show’s producers and writers are hard at work at coming up with just the perfect tactic to employ.  So with changes afoot and a new show to launch seamlessly on the heels of Kyra’s departure from THE CLOSER next year, there is much to look forward to and we are sure to be surprised and pleased when MAJOR CRIMES debuts.

In the meantime, THE CLOSER continues to ramp-up its story about the civil suit and the inter-department leak, we will be breathlessly awaiting the fates of all the characters as the clock ticks down.  The one thing everyone did agree upon was that they are confident that their fans will love where both shows are going and they invite everyone to be a part of this amazing journey. 

THE CLOSER airs Monday nights at 9PM on TNT.  It will air its mid-season finale on September 12th, returning November 28th for 5 more episodes and then returning in Summer 2012 to conclude its final season. Stay tuned to theTVaddict.com later in the week for more great video interviews from THE CLOSER’s 100th Episode Celebration.

Tiffany Vogt is a contributing writer to The TV Addict. She has a great love for television and firmly believes that entertainment is a world of wondrous adventures that deserves to be shared and explored – she invites you to join her. Please feel free to contact Tiffany at Tiffany_Vogt_2000@yahoo.com or follow her at on Twitter (@TVWatchtower). Tiffany also writes as a columnist for NiceGirlsTV.

Summer television is all about the girl. Correction: all about the cable girls. Yes, cable has found itself a reliable refuge for film actresses to find work that is ostensibly of the caliber they are used to – thus Holly Hunter as a spry, hedonistic Oklahoma City detective, Kyra Sedgwick as a master interrogator, and Mary-Louise Parker as a suburban pot dealing widow. This month Edie Falco – whose film career is outsized by the grandeur of her work on THE SOPRANOS – and Jada Pinkett Smith – wife of Will and of The Matrix trilogy – join the throes as nurses predisposed to be snappy and impassioned to help their patients.

Our attention is first turned to simply suthun’ Kyra Sedgwick on THE CLOSER (returns tonight at 9 pm est on TNT), where she plays “Depewty Cheef Brendalee Johnson,” of the LAPD. If hadn’t already been implied, her character is from the south, which somehow demands such a drawl that half of what she says can hardly be taken seriously. Twice as befuddling is how Brenda is venerated for her ability to elicit a confession that holds up in court, because the cases are so easy, a children’s program with slimmer plot workings would be more challenging. In the fifth season premiere, the humdinger of a homicide hinges on street addresses. Other plot points of the season include Brenda’s cat falling ill, Lt. Provenza (G.W. Bailey) gets a girlfriend, and Mary McDonnell guest stars as a internal affairs officer. It has thankfully scaled back Brenda’s junk food addiction (I couldn’t handle another sensuous bite into a Ho-Ho), but by a fifth season, you’d think it would’ve have progressed to something more than outline of an actual TV show.

SAVING GRACE (returns next Tuesday at 10 pm est on TNT) quite oppositely has become more realized in its third season: Grace (the slick, sinewy Holly Hunter, who looks she’s having a thrill of a ride), reeling from Leon Cooley’s execution last season (who shared her last chance angel Earl, played by DEADWOOD’s Leon Rippey with palpable zest), she’s in search of girl who shares her prophetic visions, while her partner (THE SHIELD’s Kenneth Johnson, so rightly deserving the role) finalizes his divorce. Like THE CLOSER, GRACE’s crimes are so straightforward that they’re irrelevant, but this – and even the cosmic, religious undertones – are shaken aside by Hunter and the stellar cast, who seem so passionate and willing to play the part of law skirting, sometimes drunken hooligans who fight crime, that it’s just a great show on its own.

And where good intentions turn into seemingly inescapable traps: the fifth season of Showtime’s WEEDS (returns tonight at 10 pm est), where Nancy Botwin has uprooted her family – and her marijuana business – from the posh digs of suburbia to a border town overrun with drug and arms trafficking, and where Nancy has found herself pregnant with the Mexican mayor who happens to be the drug lord she screwed over with the DEA. Last season’s locale change was appreciable – you have to give it credit for at least trying to shake things up after seasons of steady, comical work. But now it seems to have been for not: Nancy has become so turgidly unlikeable, she makes Meredith Grey’s naval-gazing seem like charity work. The supporting cast (including Kevin Nealon’s continually stoned Doug and the two perfectly competent actors who play her sons) are no longer integral to the overall plot, and Elizabeth Perkin’s Celia may have finally crossed over into story line too overwrought for TV territory with a offensively unfunny hostage situation. What’s worth seeing (at least in the first three episodes made available by Showtime) is Nancy’s stoner-cum-lothario brother-in-law Andy (the great Justin Kirk) bubbling relationship with Nancy’s sister Jill (a surprisingly funny Jennifer Jason Leigh) – they’re drawn together for their love-hate of Nancy’s behavior.

As for the new girls, Jada Pinkett Smith mostly goes for staid coziness on HAWTHORNE (debuts next Tuesday at 9 pm est on TNT) where Edie Falco goes for a dark and druggy mix on NURSE JACKIE (debuts tonight at 10:30 pm est on Showtime). Both play health care professionals in hospital dramas that rely on comedic diversions to move them along – at which NURSE JACKIE excels and HAWTHORNE mostly stumbles over. As Christina Hawthorne, Pinkett Smith is supposed to be a tough, compassionate, don’t-f—-with-me Chief Nursing Officer, but so far her face hasn’t quite shown the emotive range to be anything but the latter, hanging on blurry screen overlays to seem “pensive.” Her supporting cast is dull, dull, dull, and actually say things like, “I’m damaged goods. You don’t wanna go out with me.” But besides the aforementioned groaner, the pilot is steady, a minor feat worth applauding.

Edie Falco, with her short mannish hair, is like a sharp blade of pragmatic cynicism; as Jackie Peyton, a nurse at All Saints Hospital in New York City, she doesn’t have time or the desire for the uplift and earnestness of typical medical shows. “I don’t do chatty. I like quiet. Quiet and mean. Those are my people,” she explains to Zoey (the wonderfully screwy Merritt Wever), the new nurse with pink bunny scrubs. Jackie, anti-heroine with a knack for healing people, is the latest in the Showtime cadre of characters with premium cable problems: she harbors a deep addiction to prescription painkillers (a casualty of working on her feet all day, her back is constantly killing her) and is sleeping with the pharmacist who doesn’t know she’s married with two kids.

Of all the shows that boast they are not what their banal premise entails – hospital drama, cop comedy, procedural – but are actually about the characters, NURSE JACKIE is the only one of this bunch that actually succeeds. In effect, it’s one giant character study, if a little murky in its ambitions: it tackles addiction, marriage, family, and morality, but isn’t quite sure what it’s tying to say about any of them. Really, we have no idea what drives Jackie to be who she is. The first half of the season (Showtime sent six of 12 episodes) goes great with caustic humor and smart writing; the second half is where the storytelling will (hopefully) start moving.

The Closer: C-; Saving Grace: B+; Weeds: C; Hawthorne: C+; Nurse Jackie: B+

Starring the multiple award–winning Kyra Sedgwick as one of television’s feistiest and most provocative police women, this DVD will showcase all 15 episodes from the series’ fourth year, as well as bonus material in a four-disc collection. All of which can be yours (for free!) should you be able to answer this ridiculously challenging skill-testing question: How many degrees is Kyra Sedgwick away from Kevin Bacon and why?

One winner will be chosen at random and notified via email on June 3, so be sure to enter using a valid email address. Not a winner? THE CLOSER Season 4 is now available on Amazon for only $25.99.