The Closer Season 7 Episode 7

The Closer Season 7 A Family Affair

Sound plays a large role in creating the proper atmosphere on both the sliver and smaller screens. The right background music, background noise, footstep, whatever it may be makes the scene come alive. Without these essential steps, the scene can seem flat. This week’s episode of The Closer deals with this in an above average way, but soon falls back into the show’s normal playbook.

A detective from Phoenix shows up and asks for Major Crimes to look into her daughter’s death in LA. Her daughter died from a drug overdose and was a prostitute on the streets of LA. The mother is shocked and upset by this news but keeps her composer. The atmosphere in the first fourth of the episode is very reflective of the mother. There is little to no music in the background. There is a feeling of importance in these first few scenes, an off-putting stillness that is ever present while the team is in the first stages of investigating the murder.

This stillness is there until Brenda has an interview with the owner of the escort service. There is a slight twang that The Closer uses as one of their go to sound effects, but still not the full blown thing. The team then goes to a drug house, where things heat up extremely fast. Gunfire rings out, Brenda is almost shot and the team is forced to defend themselves. When the dust settles, Brenda must quickly interrogate the suspect before he bleeds out. She doesn’t get the answers she is looking for and is visibly upset.

The episode is only half way over and already The Closer has played with the duality of the use of sound and the rhythm of action within the episode. The eerie stillness is outdone by the extreme amount of violence and sound that is used within a blink of an eye. This first part of the episode was different, exciting and captivating. Then it quickly drops back into familiar territory, what a shame.

Rating: Watch (the first half at least)

Original Air Date: 8/22/11

On TNT Monday’s at 9/8c

The Closer Season 7 Episode Six

The Closer Season 7 Home Improvement

Let me get the only good thing from this week’s episode of The Closer out of the way, always great to see Mark Pellegrino in anything. Pellegrino is well known for his stents on LOST and Supernatural (some of my personal favorites). He plays Brenda’s lawyer, who is defending her in the civil case against her for the wrongful death lawsuit.

Now for everything else that fell short this week. The premise wasn’t bad, mediocre at best, but nothing was flawed with the concept. The execution however was short of anything worth watching. At some points I felt as if I was watching Rizzoli & Isles (ouch). A body is found when a contractor’s unauthorized construction is ripped down, exposing a trash bag with a dead body inside. The body of a local neighbor who happens to be a sex offender. The squad then goes on a lack luster investigation into the death, that doesn’t take any chances in the creativity department.

On the home front, Brenda cuts back to save money for the lawyer she can’t afford but needs for the impending law suit. This scene went on too much, especially after the second or third thing she has cut back on and watching her husband’s reaction. Painful to watch, but not the most painful thing in this episode.

In procedural cop shows, half of the acting weight falls on the shoulders of the actors that come through the revolving door each week. Only half of the cast is constant, which causes a demand for actors who can become a character for a short amount of time and pull this off successfully. This week on The Closer, this was the most painful thing to watch. Actors who are just run of the mill acting on such a subpar level that SyFy movies are almost award winning compared to this level of mediocrity. The Closer normally doesn’t have this level of laziness when it comes to the cast, and cannot fall to this level again in their final season.

Rating: Pass

Original Air Date: 8/15/11

On TNT Monday’s at 9/8c 

White Collar Season 3 Episode 10

White Collar Season 3 Countdown

Did Neal pull off the perfect crime? More about that later, but this was one of the best episodes of White Collar. Neal and Mozzie are on the offensive to recover the painting that Mozzie sold last week to afford a hit on their arc nemesis Keller. The two scheming thieves quickly recap the story of the treasure up to this point and what they have to do to make sure that the FBI doesn’t trace the painting back to them. Peter introduces his mentor, a master art crimes expert who doesn’t trust Neal. Peter then gives Neal a working deadline on the FBI’s pursuit of the painting.

Mozzie then gives Neal an exact deadline, a 48hr hourglass. Mozzie will leave regardless of Neal’s choice. The investigation heats up, but Neal and Mozzie are able to stay under the radar, though Peter is still keeping Neal in his gaze during the investigation. The painting ends up in the hands of an affluent arms dealer. Peter and Diana go in to secure a buy, by waving rare guns in the arms dealer’s face. When this idea is introduced, Diana’s face lights up about the prospect of handling such a rare gun. And to make the deal even sweeter, the gun comes incased in a suitcase and can fire while concealed. Nice. Keller finds Mozzie and asks once more for the treasure, and as always Mozzie says he doesn’t know anything about anything and refuses. Keller doesn’t take this lightly and swears Mozzie will regret this.

All that is left is the little matter of Neal swapping the real picture with the counterfeit he made and getting back into place before Peter knows he was gone. This was amazing to watch, since White Collar normally doesn’t do an Ocean 11’s thing, but they pulled it off nicely. Neal knows Peter too well and was able to set up the scenario in which the entire paint switch hinged on. Well one of the many things the switch hinged on. Neal was a master thief again, something that is nice to see since he has been playing the fence. The only complaint I have was that Neal was on the balcony looking at Peter and Diana too long. I might have been yelling at the TV for Neal to jump already.

Before I get to the end of the recap, some random observations:

It seems that everyone is now referring to NYC as Gotham City. I always pictured the big apple as Metropolis in the DC world. And is Peter Batman? That would have to make Neal a villain but which one?

Nice to see Neal wrap up his romance arc with the agent from DC. Neal was very classic Neal the entire time and he knew that she couldn’t go to her boss about their talk over drinks that lead to Neal knowing about the list. Very clever Neal.

In the end, Neal stayed in NYC and Mozzie kept up his end of the barging and left town. Mozzie feels that Neal is lying to himself about his change in lifestyle. I have a feeling that Mozzie will turn back up, especially for what happens next. Keller makes his move, which I felt like would result in someone’s death, but Keller kidnapping Elizabeth did change things up. The entire White Collar office with be changed. I think that Peter and Neal’s relationship will change since Peter will probably blame Neal for his wife being taken from him.

 Rating: Watch

Original Air Date: 8/9/11

On USA Tuesday’s at 9/8c 

White Collar Season 3 Episode 9

White Collar Season 3 “On the Fence”

Neal’s arch nemesis returns for vengeance and to claim the treasure for himself is too long to be the title of the episode, but ultimately what the episode is all about. Keller, who has been a thorn in both Neal and Peter’s side, has returned from hiding. And during his absence Keller has been hard at work pillaging Egypt. This works into the case of the week, since Neal is sent undercover to find Egyptian artifacts that are being smuggled in to the county and to ketch the Egyptologist who is in on the smuggling. The said Egyptologist played by Eliza Dushku (known for her many roles on Joss Whedon shows does an excellent job playing a sexy smart slightly deadly thief in the underworld that Neal is accustom to.

In a twist, Mozzie puts a hit out on Keller. The main that Mozzie goes to put the hit out is a shadowy figure that doubles as a priest. Mozzie is taking the fight to the streets without Neal’s knowledge, a possible rift in their friendship? Interesting. Especially since the painting that Mozzie sold is on the list that Neal lied about getting from the previous week. The summer season is wrapping up, and with only one episode left, Neal seems out of options in regards to the treasure.

Other observations: this week there was a lot of gunfire at the end of the episode. White Collar normally tends to shy away from violence, but not in this episode. Those swat guys were very trigger happy. Also, the almost whimsical attempts to shove Elizabeth Burke (Peter’s wife) into each episode it getting out of hand. That phone call in the middle of the episode, really? But it was funny to see her face when Peter told her she was on speaker phone, since she was talking about ways Peter could make up being late to her. *wink*

Rating: Watch

Original Air Date: 8/2/11

On USA Tuesday’s at 9/8c 

The Closer, Season 7 Episode 4

The Closer, Season 7 “Under Control”

This week’s episode made up for the misstep that last week’s episode was. This week tackles the stomach churning issue of the death of a child, which isn’t new to crime shows but is brought out every once and a while, and The Closer used this theme to the best of its ability this week.

A child is found dead and quickly turns into an investigation of the divorcee’s parents and the mother’s boyfriends, which has to be one of the nastiest divorces portrayed on TV in a while. The show stets up one of these three to be the killer, and not as a shock who the killer was, his or her reasoning were down right chilling. Equally as chilling was the scene between the medical examiner and Chief Jonson. The chilling part was how forgone the medical examiner from preforming an autopsy on this young victim. The bathroom that he was sitting next to helped bring this emotion home.

This episode added more emotional strings by having Tao and his son work out their issues (though they aren’t that series) it added character to Tao and gave the episode that something extra to help it balance out the extremely bleak case that the unit had to solve this week.  There was also some progression in the lawsuit against Chief Jonson, who finally realized that she needs to get her own lawyer. It only took her the entire episode to realize this. Get it together.

The case this week is probably the standout for the season and for very good reasons. When The Closer does a case well, it excels in doing so. Now only if every episode could be a stand out one.

Rating: Watch

Original Air Date: 8/1/11

On TNT, Monday’s at 9/8c