The Closer: Complete First Season (2005) Review

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(More customer reviews)A great well written show with great performances and direction, "The Closer" focuses on Deputy Chief of Police Brenda Leigh Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) is a fish out of water lured from Atlanta to L.A.by Assistant Police Chief Will Pope (J.K. Simmons J.J. Jameson from "Spider-Man" and "Spider-Man 2") lead an elite unite that tackles high profile murder cases with her unusual approach to solving crimes. Her Georgia accent immediately sets her apart from her colleagues. She's much savvier underneath her down home accent than many give her credit for allowing her, like Columbo to tackle crimes that others might not be able to solve. Like Columbo and Monk she's got her own quirks (an addiction to junk food, she shows up at a crime scenes with her sick cat--named Cat--in a paper back and her southern charm can't quite hide her abrasive personality). It's a marvelous TV show with a terrific supporting cast (Jon Tenney, Robert Gossett among others). Unlike Columbo this show is much harder edged.
"The Closer" is presented in a goofy looking presentation; the show is presented in widescreen but because its not anamorphic when you watch it on a widescreen TV the images are stretched or boxed on the sides, bottom and top. The presentation is rather bizarre and I can't quite figure out why they made this idiotic decision but, again, the show looks quite good despite this flaw. The colors are accurate with accurate skin tones. The show has a significant amount of dark sequences but that's the way the show is shot with lots of use of shadows and moody lighting dominating the look of the series. The audio sounds fine and is presented in 2.0 stereo surround as it was originally broadcast. It's primarily dialogue driven so there isn't a huge amount of surround type of effects.
Unfortunately there are no featurettes on the development of the series, how Kyra Sedgewick became involved in the show, interviews with the supporting cast or a glimpse into the creative process of the show. We get deleted scenes for the bulk of the episodes (they were clearly cut for time constraints) presented with the time code at the bottom of the images so clearly most were cut prior to the final assembly of the show. No commentary tracks which is disappointing but the price is right for the show and it's presented in thin packs making it easier to store the DVDs without taking up much room.
Well written, performed and directed "The Closer" looks solid in its DVD presentation but could be improved significantly for the second season. I'd suggest that Warner present the show anamorphically enhanced and include some featurettes or commentary tracks in addition to the deleted scenes. This top notch show one of the best of the season deserves a deluxe treatment but because it's on TNT and has a smaller audience it's unlikely we'll probably see either one of these improvements for future


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Synopsis: An offbeat personality, a tough-as-nails approach and a track record as one of the country's leading investigators--these are just a few of the traits exhibited by television's next great detective, Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, played by three-time Golden Globe Award nominee Kyra Sedgwick in "The Closer." In her first lead role in a dramatic series, Sedgwick plays a tough CIA-trained detective, with Southern charm, who has been brought from Atlanta to Los Angeles to head up the Priority Murder Squad, a special unit of the LAPD that handles sensitive, high-profile murder cases. "The Closer" is executive produced by the team behind "Nip/Tuck." DVD Features:Deleted ScenesDeleted ScenesDeleted ScenesDeleted Scenes

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