Divisão Criminal

After watching every episode of "The Closer" up to the current one (final episode Sept. 2007), I feel it's time for me to commend every aspect of this series about an elite homicide squad.

Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson (Kyra Segdewick) is consistently one of the most engaging television series characters I've seen in a very long time. She's the star but certainly not alone in delivering quite engaging, excellent characterization, and entertaining performances.

This series goes to show that today's television doesn't have to depict violence, gore, profanity, or much that older children couldn't watch. Yet, for an adult who likes Cronenberg's and Lynch's films, this clean cut show is quite interesting without being too 'vanilla'.

Sedgewick has really come into her character by this third season and I like it far better than "24" which has now become monotonously predictable. There's no guessing what Deputy Chief Johnson will do to protect and close one of her cases!

An outstanding drama that dances on the edge of being a formula cop show and a soap opera. Brenda Lee Johnson is an outstanding interrogator with a background of being difficult to work with but achieving great results. However, her personal life is a mess. She is hired from Atlanta to head LAPD's Priority Crimes Unit for those high profile crimes that need a resolution and need it quickly. Tensions arise immediately. Her brusque style makes her own people want to transfer away, her boss is a former lover who dumped her and she manages to make many more enemies than friends. The crimes are formula enough that you can probably figure out whodunit before you get to the climax but it's the characters and relationships that sell the show and make it worth watching. Not only is Kyra Sedgwick giving the performance of her life in this series but she has a terrific supporting cast that gives the series heart. The ability of the writers to also give us some great comic lines keeps the show teetering at times from comedy to drama. The first season is already out on DVD. Watch it from the first episode to the last, in order, and you can see why this show has become the most watched show in basic cable history.

This series looks like a plain ol' cop drama from the outside but that couldn't be any further from the truth. Deputy Chief Brenda Lee Johnson is the head of a elite detective unit that solves homicides, now here are a few things you should probably know. First this chief has been trained how to interrogate by the C.I.A, secondly her entire squad is made up of detectives(that's right no rookies here), and of course her Husband is an F.B.I. Agent. Still need more? The way that this woman gets the job done is both masterful and incredible, on top of which she controls an entire unit full of men like a school teacher does in a classroom.

This show is a must see, one of the few drama's where the female lead isn't a model and yet the plot is so good that it makes absolutely no difference at all. 10/10 for originality, solid acting, fantastic plot lines.

I didn't see the first episode of this series, but from the first time I watched it I could tell it would be one of my favorite shows. And I wasn't disappointed. There are so many things I love about this show, but most of all it is hilarious to watch the characters interact with each other. Kyra Sedgwick excellently portrays a tough woman who won't let people walk all over her. People complain that Brenda is a b****, but maybe that's the point. What fun would it be to watch a show with nothing but sweetness and joy between the main characters, no conflict whatsoever? The tension she endures and often causes just makes the show all the more entertaining.

What is most irritating, however, is to hear people complain about how the perpetrators in each show is obvious. Anybody who had listened what TNT had been saying about the show before it premiered would know that they said from the beginning that this show would be unlike other crime dramas in that the crime would not be the main focus. This show is ABOUT Brenda Johnson.

So, in conclusion, this is an excellent, intelligent, amusing show, and I am sad to see the season end.

The Closer is a show which has a fairly realistic portrayal of a working environment; there are relationship dynamics which have evolved over the several seasons and which explore the inter-personal connections made between co-workers as they solve cases. From the beginning episodes where Brenda's staff worked against her, sometimes with the expressed desire for her to fail, to the latest season where they appear to be firmly on her "side" there is an interesting dynamic in showing an intelligent and capable woman as authority-figure and the gradual and sometimes reluctant acceptance of her as the officers she works with see for themselves what she is bringing to the dept.

The show brings a lot of elements of the classic mysteries, and uses clever reveals and intelligence as well as past personal experiences and leaps of intuition in solving crimes. The actors who make up the main cast are all very talented and the writing allows us glimpses into the entire cast, though the show is clearly focused on Brenda. Each episode also allows the viewer to see some of the personal drama without being heavy-handed or too soap-opera, keeping a good balance between the police investigation and the people who are doing the investigation.

I find it interesting, however, that most of the people I know who do not like the show are male and love similar stories where a male in the central authority and does the exact same things that Brenda does to close a case. For someone who likes police drama, with realistic characters who are not always perfect, this is an excellent show to watch. The episodes are well paced, the story lines through the seasons are detailed and have a lot of personal touches for the characters