‘The Closer’ Season 6 Preview
TNT’S POPULAR TV SHOW ‘THE CLOSER’ BEGINS ITS 6TH SEASON, by Kim Potts (tvsquad.com)
LOS ANGELES – There’s change — actually, quite a few major changes — afoot for Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) as ‘The Closer’ kicks off its sixth season on July 12 (9PM ET, TNT): a new, state-of-the-art police headquarters and a new LAPD chief. And we know how Brenda deals with change … let’s just say that as she grows more and more frustrated with trying to navigate her way through the complicated new building, with its many high-tech, though unfamiliar and sometimes unreliable, gadgetry, the one bit of comfort she can find comes from the moving box full of assorted candies she’s brought to the new office.
In fact, the sugar junkie has managed to bring only one box from her old workplace; she has to park far from the new digs and can’t lug all her things from her car, or so she tells hubby Fritz (Jon Tenney) when he complains about tripping over her work boxes at home. But she also doesn’t want to embrace this new and different office, either, which is the real reason the Reese’s cups, Kit Kats and Rolos are the only things that initially make it into her desk drawer. Not that everyone else is embracing the change, either. Lt. Provenza (G.W. Bailey) bought his old desk from a police auction and has had it installed at the new building. “This desk is the longest relationship of my adult life, and I’m not giving it up,” the, ahem, mature ladies man tells boss Will Pope (J.K. Simmons).
And speaking of Pope, the LAPD assistant chief is at the center of the other change that’s going to mess with Brenda’s world this season: Current police chief Edward Thompson (played by ‘The Closer’ consulting producer Gil Garcetti) announces his retirement, and Pope can barely contain himself as he assumes he’s next in line. But the vetting process for filling Thompson’s position will not only turn up another, a surprising, candidate, but it also leads to the return of Mary McDonnell’s Capt. Sharon Raydor, the internal affairs cop (and Brenda nemesis) who pops up in episode two to investigate Will as a candidate and bring up his past with Brenda.
And, as if that weren’t enough drama for the first two season 6 episodes of the number one ad-supported cable TV series of all time (which averaged 7.7 million viewers an episode last season), Brenda and her Major Crimes Division crew have their hands busy with the murder of a contractor who had a habit of getting frisky with his clients’ wives. Well, with other mens’ wives in general … Also on tap for Golden Globe winner (and Emmy nominee) Sedgwick and company in ‘The Closer’s’ sixth season:
- Lt. Provenza’s tomcatting ways once again spill over into the job, when he and pal Lt. Flynn (Tony Denison) go on a double date with a pair of young flight attendants. Cut to the end of the one-nighter, when a dead body turns up in the flight attendant’s bathtub.
- Pope’s ambitions to become the new chief not only bring up his past with Brenda, but spark conflict with the Major Crimes squad when he takes over a high-profile case.
- Det. Sanchez (Raymond Cruz), the lonely gang expert cop who still deals with the death of his wife and the murder of his brother, is going to get fatherly with a young abused boy who factors into one of the squad’s cases. The compelling storyline will create a riff between Sanchez and one of his fellow cops, who doesn’t approve of Sanchez getting personally involved with a witness.
- Her former lover, Pope, isn’t the only man in Brenda’s life who’s up for a promotion. FBI agent husband Fritz is also in line for a career boost, and it’s one that would mean he’d have a lot more time to spend with his new wife … will the workaholic consider that a good thing or something that sends her straight to the candy jar?
- A promotion for Pope would also likely mean a promotion for Brenda, which forces her to evaluate her own career ambitions.
- Among the other cases Brenda and her colleagues tackle: A serial rapist who uses a stun gun on his victims; the disappearance of a nanny who works for the BFF of Los Angeles’ mayor; a series of murders that indicate a new drug cartel has invaded the city; and the murder of a parole board member who’s on a phone call with Sgt. Gabriel (Corey Reynolds) at the time of the murder.