The Closer is an American television police procedural, starring Kyra Sedgwick as Brenda Leigh Johnson, a Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, and CIA-trained, Brenda has a reputation as a Closer — an interrogator who not only solves a case, but obtains confessions that lead to convictions and so "closing" the case. Deputy Chief Johnson sometimes uses deceit and intimidation to persuade a suspect to confess. The series ran on TNT from June 13, 2005, to August 13, 2012.

The Closer was created by James Duff and the Shephard/Robin Company in association with Warner Bros. Television. On Monday, July 11, 2011, the series began its seventh and final season, having finished its sixth season as cable's highest rated drama.The Closer 's final six episodes began airing on Monday, July 9, 2012, with its finale airing on Monday, August 13, 2012. Following the finale, The Closer's spin-off Major Crimes premiered.

Characters

The cast consists largely of an ensemble of detectives who make up the LAPD's fictional Major Crimes Division. It is led by Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, played by Kyra Sedgwick. Some observers have noted strong similarities between Johnson and Jane Tennison, Helen Mirren's lead character in the British crime drama, Prime Suspect, with an article in USA Today claiming The Closer to be "an unofficial Americanization" of the British drama. In interviews, Sedgwick has acknowledged that the show owes "a debt" to Prime Suspect and her admiration for that show and Mirren were factors that first interested her in the role.

The Closer is an American television situation comedy that aired on CBS for 10 episodes in 1998. The show starred Tom Selleck as a successful advertising agency executive.

Plot summary

Jack McLaren (Tom Selleck), a successful advertising executive, starts his own agency. The business, the employees in the agency, and his personal life provide the story lines. The characters include a creative director, Carl Dobson (Ed Asner), an accountant, Erica Hewitt (Penelope Ann Miller), and a bored secretary, Beverly (Suzy Nakamura); McLaren's estranged and eventually divorced wife, Claire McLaren (Joanna Kerns), and daughter Alex (Hedy Burress). In the "Baby It's Cold Outside" episode, an old flame, actress Victoria (Bernadette Peters), visits and she and Jack start to rekindle their romance. Victoria and Jack sing and dance in a fantasy musical sequence. (The music and lyrics of the song from that episode were nominated for an Emmy Award.)

Cast and crew

Cast

The Closer premiered on June 13, 2005. Each season is organized around a central theme, which drives both the criminal plot and Brenda's personal storyline. The crime story expands on an element of the theme, and often parallels or mirrors events in Brenda's personal life.

The series concluded with its seventh season. It contained 21 episodes, the final six of which transitioned the show into the spin-off series, Major Crimes, with Mary McDonnell heading the cast as Captain Sharon Raydor.

Series overview

Episodes

Season 1 (2005)

Season 1 opens with the LAPD's new Priority Murder Squad (PMS), soon renamed the Priority Homicide Division (PHD), under the direction of Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson investigates the murder of a technological genius. Brenda has recently joined LAPD after a long career in law enforcement, including with the Atlanta and Washington, D.C., Police Departments. We soon learn Brenda is originally from Atlanta, Georgia, was CIA-trained, and was recruited by her former married lover, Assistant Chief Will Pope. Brenda is resented as an outsider by much of the LAPD and seen as an adversary by Robbery-Homicide's Captain Taylor, who initially persuades her squad to request transfers en masse in an unsuccessful effort to force Brenda's resignation. Brenda soon wins over her assistant, Sgt. David Gabriel, and the grudging admiration of the team when she shows them why she is called a closer; but her battle is far from over. As the season progresses, we see Brenda struggle to establish her authority and earn the respect of her squad, despite the efforts of Taylor and Detective Lt. Andy Flynn to both undermine her authority and hamper her investigations. Slowly, one-by-one, Brenda wins over her team; and, by season's end, she has earned the loyalty of them all, even the hard-boiled Det. Flynn, as they stand united against Capt. Taylor's final attempt to remove Brenda from the squad.