corey reynolds

(S02E09) Brenda's wardrobe just keeps getting worse and worse, doesn't it? That black, strapless dress looked okay at first glance, but then the camera zooms out and we see a tule slip underneath. That has to be from somebody's prom in the '80s! And then she wore some horrible, polka dotted skirt with a grey, cowboy-looking jacket and hot pink shoes. To Brenda, clothes are an after thought. It's a wonderful little touch for her character.

*Sorry for the delayed review. I was visiting my adorable 5-week-old niece in Utah and my in-laws don't have TiVo (I know, I know. But what can you do? They're family!).

(S02E08) Wow. What a change of pace from the last few episodes. I was wondering whether The Closer was turning into a comedy... until this episode. Warning: Spoilers in the next paragraph.

(S02E07) Is it me, or is this show getting better and better? There was a lot of humor in this episode. From Det. Sanchez's knowledge of porn stars to Brenda's frustration with the inter-office romance to the master-of-the-obvious coroner, there were a lot of little quirks that made this episode particularly enjoyable.

(S02E06) The opening sequences of this show are getting awfully clever, aren't they? This time, it looks as though Brenda and Chief Pope are meeting at a hotel for an illicit affair. Given the sexual tension between the two, their past relationship in Atlanta, and Pope's recent advances toward Brenda, it's entirely plausible that the two are shacking up. Just not yet.

(S02E05)  I had a hard time with this episode. I never really understood what Brenda's motivation was to help Lt. Provenza and Det. Flynn cover up their major blunder. At the end, she makes it clear that she was protecting her own but it seemed awfully out of character for her. Or did it?

(S02E04)  This week we get back to work and Brenda's personal life is pushed to the back burner-- sort of. It's her 40th birthday and she's a little upset about the number and, as several detectives suggest, she's acting stranger than usual.

The case was awfully convoluted, wasn't it? There were a handful of suspects, each with a motive, that kept sending Brenda in circles to choose a top suspect. She really, really wanted the killer of a restaurant manager to be Dennis Dutton, a man she knows kills women but hasn't been able to prove it. The evidence keeps pointing her to the woman's husband, the owner of another restaurant... everyone but Dutton. It turns out Karen, the victim, slept with each of the men in her life to get things from them: a restaurant, a job, and a good review. Two of the men she slept with knew she was using them, but the naive reviewer thought she loved him. At a fancy lunch, Brenda gets the reviewer to admit he killed Karen. Dutton isn't guilty. This time. And to laugh in her face, he sent her a set of chef's knives, like the one used to kill Karen. Brenda uses one of the knives to cut the yummy-looking chocolate cake that her staff bought her for her birthday.

(S02E03) I loved the beginning of this episode. The editing and the dialogue made it look like we were starting off at another crime scene where a famous person died, but it turns out Brenda was out on a tour of stars' homes with her mama and her beau, Fritz. Great opening.

The show doesn't waste any time getting to the crime. Brenda's called away to a triple murder--an apparent gang shooting--leaving Fritz alone with her mother. The victims are teen-agers and one is the son of a friend of Det. Taylor. I found the monologue where Brenda was telling Det. Gabriel how to notify a family of a death to be riveting. That was very effective storytelling: cutting from Brenda's instructions to the interaction with Det. Gabriel and the parents of the murdered boy. Stirring line from Brenda: "You're about to become the main character in somebody's worst day ever." Remarkable.

(S02E02) I just adore the Brenda character. She is such a disaster in person, isn't she? Even though she rubs people the wrong way, she still manages to get them to talk. Remarkable. I love the irony that she is so socially retarded, yet she can totally read people when it comes to interrogating them about crimes.

The first half of this episode was more about the personal side of Brenda. She's all on edge about Fritz moving in and her mother coming to visit. Her mother, you probably noticed, delivers a similar sugary-sweet 'Thank You' to Brenda's, although Brenda's can mean a million different things. It was an unusual departure for the show and I expected the crime to remain in the background but, at about the 30-minute mark, the focus of the show changed to the crime at hand. Her mother disappears into the background-- only appearing in order to be hit on by Lt. Provenza-- and Fritz completely disappears until the very end when he's properly introduced to Brenda's mother. Bummer about the story shift, because I love the walking wreck that is Brenda's personal life.

(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