The Closer, Season 7 episode 1

The Closer, Season 7 “Unknown Trouble”

The Closer really should think of making music videos as a side job, since this is one of the few times on TV that you’ll see a music video on TV. This was really a cold open, I had to make sure at least twice I had TNT on, but when Brenda Leigh Johnson came walking down a hallway in a blood spattered house, I knew I had the right show on. The last season premiere of The Closer that will star Kyra Sedgwick, and we were made well aware that she has the thought of leaving on her mind.

The case of week involved the seven, plus the pizza boy, deaths that was wrapped up in the rap / drug world in L.A. It was a large murder to be solved so neatly, but that was only the major flaw in the episode. Wrapping up an eight person homicide never seemed so easy. At one point, I felt like I was watching a stripped down version of The Wire. Drug trafficking, murder, wire taps really did feel like a less ruff show in comparison. The Wire will always be better, but I don’t think that The Closer was trying to be The Wire, but never the less there are comparisons between the two shows this week.

The show also started its finale seasonal story, as this is the last season to have the title The Closer (the theme of the show ending feels like it will never end on this show). It is interesting that the main cause of distress for major crimes involves a wrongful lawsuit that stems from last season’s finale where major crimes drops off a suspect (that got away with murder due to a plea agreement) and ends with him being surrounded by his fellow gang members. Chief Johnson had a feeling something could happen to him, but it wasn’t her problem. It was a dark, slightly disturbing end to the last season and it is nice to know that the show hasn’t let this slip into nothing.

This puts Captain Sharon Raydor and Chief of Police Delk as the opposition against Chief Johnson, applying an extreme amount of pressure on her to act within her means of being in charge of major crimes. On top of the lawsuit, Delk has restructured the police hierarchy, placing Pope in a dead end position and promoting Taylor as the Assistant Chief, above Johnson. The episode set the conflicts for the season, and added another twist at the end of the episode; Chief of Police Delk falls over at the end of the episode as he is giving a speech to Major Crimes. Things are going to change again, and like before there is no way of knowing what is coming next.

Rating: Watch