TVSquad

(S02E01) Last summer, TNT put together a few police-themed shows for our viewing pleasure, and while Wanted didn't make it past a freshman season on the air, the Kyra Sedgwick-led The Closer appeared to not only make it through, but showed up as a hit for the cable network. For those of you who are on the West Coast or are DVRing tonight's episode, you might want to go no further, as spoilers or fresh content from the premiere will be enclosed below.

We open Season 2 with what else but a crime scene. However, this isn't just any crime scene, it's one where an off-duty Los Angeles Police Department officer was shot and killed, and he is lying right next to his presumed assailant, who is also deceased. What's worse than the mere fact that the officer had been murdered, though, is the fact that he's still sprawled on the warehouse floor, with the killer. The central division officers, who are being kept outside the warehouse by the priority homicide team, are anxious to move their fallen comrade, but Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson has ordered them to stand down until she has her fill of the scene. Armed with Sergeant Gabriel's knowledge of what the murdered officer had been involved in with relation to Johnson's team and an ability to fight her way through police politics, she manages to get a good idea of what happened a few days earlier, and we get to see how the officers pay their respects to their colleague, pinning their American flags to the sheet covering his body before he is taken out on a stretcher

Further complicating things this season, and creating even more tension between Chief Pope and Brenda is the fact that, unbeknownst to her, his wife has filed for divorce, and is planning on marrying another man. Somehow, Brenda's man in FBI clothing, Fritz, knows about this, and ribs her about it, asking what she does for a living when he breaks the news to her. Of course, he has a vested interest in doing so, given that Pope and Brenda had a bit of a thing back East. Fritz makes his typical guy suppositions about what Pope will do re: his old flame, but Brenda pushes them aside, hurrying to not only close this case but figure out how to fend of Fritz's requests that the pair move in together. Well, either that or he takes another job with the Feds and moves back to Washington.

Creating a strain between her fellow officers, her team, and herself is something that Brenda Johnson seems to either enjoy doing, or is smart enough to mentally move past it to get the job done. Maybe that's why, as the show's title says, she's a "closer." Knowing that the murdered officer had dated Detective Daniels at one point, but only after the slain man's partner had done so creates a potential suspect within the police force, one that not only appears to have a short fuse, but fits the bill. As it turns out, though, it's one thing to randomly be a woman-stealer, but another when it happens regularly. Even Gabriel has something to say about this, and it appeared to factor very well into how she solved the case.

If there's any criticism of this show that I could have is that just like FOX's hit medical drama House, the lead character might actually be too good. I'm always feeling that she is thinking the case through the same way I am, and then at some point, she goes down some random road and ends up with the golden ticket, or golden handcuffs, as it were. Sometimes, like with the case we saw this week that featured a police informant who was not to be named to other law enforcement personnel for fears of his safety, an ex-partner who left the force after his wife died and his son came down with cancer, there are a great many angles to be looked at, but somehow she always "gets her man." Is it any different from other police or law enforcement shows on television? Probably not, but this one seems to stand out in that the evidence she is following isn't always clear to the rest of us, or the rest of her squad, which creates for a super "A-ha!" moment every week, but one that seems too convenient sometimes.

What makes this show tick, also probably just like House, is that you actually care about the characters. That doesn't mean you have to like them, but that you are actually interested in whether they live or die, or are playing a legitimate part in the plot. If Provenza stopped making random jokes, or Flynn wasn't good for an off-color comment here or there, and Fritz didn't seem more interested in getting in Brenda's pants rather than making sure she caught the baddies, we'd miss it. It should be interesting to see the development of the show, however, with the lack of serious tension between the squad and Brenda, now that they all seem to be "in her corner" as opposed to when they all wanted to transfer away from her last year. That added a constant dimension of concern that they could look to do her in, professionally. Now, her biggest issue might be whether or not to have breakfast with Fritz and blow off her mama's telephone calls.

Kudos to TNT for bringing back the excellent cast for a second season, and here's to hoping that the rest of the episodes this year can keep us tuning in.