by The Crime Watcher

If you’ve missed out on The Closer so far this season, here’s a quick recap of what’s going on.

The Saga of Sgt. Gabriel. This season is allegedly about the theme of ‘family’ - or at least I read that somewhere and I don’t even know where. The family of course is the detective squad, and the head of the family is of course Deputy Chief Brenda Lee Johnson. In this season, Sgt Gabriel is becoming something of the fallen favorite child or the prodigal son. In one episode, he went ballistic when Brenda pursued a murder charge against a civil rights/community activist who Gabriel thought was doing more good out on the street (the guy had committe fratricide as a youth…). This last episode had Gabriel throwing down when a racist child killer egged him on and then refused to give up the location of a victim (who was potentially still alive.) Gabriel did what they used to refer to on NYPD Blue as "tuning a guy up." I was hoping someone was going to say that on this episode, but they didn’t.

Personally, I’m not overwhelmed by Corey Reynolds as an actor, but at least, as character development goes, it’s a nice change. Gabriel is so nice all the time. Plus, it was good to have a break from the Provenza-Flynn show. Those two are really cool, probably my favorites, but we don’t need to see them horsing around every week. In fact, I think we have seen that when Flynn is allowed to be the cynic instead of the comic relief, and when Provenza, as in the last episode, is allowed to be the village elder, things are more interesting. Not to say I don’t like some comedy or that I don’t like Corey Reynolds…

Here’s another thing, if we’re going to talk family, as in family of detectives, let’s remember this is a biggg family and let’s have more Tau, more Daniels (she’s had some good character bits here and there), more Sanchez, and even a little more Pope.

And you know what, let’s definitely have more Taylor, because he rocked in that moment last episode where he was taunting the pedophile. That was the performance of the night- well, other than Brenda’s overall grilling of the guy. It was cool to see the usually light-on-crime show take on a sort of grizzly feeI. Again, wouldn’t want to see it every week, and I don’t know if it worked all the way through, but there were some really sharply written and acted moments.

What else about this season? I’m waiting for S. Epatha Merkeson, where’s she? I also expect Brenda’s parents, aka, the actual family, to show up sometime, that ought to be laborious. Even though good actors are in the roles, a little of that ‘reduced to a child’ thing goes a long way (witness the earlier episode where Brenda fretted about a letter from her dad…)

What else is going on? Gabriel and Daniels are still a couple - though we haven’t seen too much of it (thankfully…let’s not overdo it.) Brenda and Fritz are going strong (happily, this has not been overdone, either.) Not much else to report. The Closer remains highly entertaining, and the only thing a fan can hope for is more of the same with more of the cast in play. It’ll be interesting to see how this show matches up with the newcomer, Saving Grace