The Closer: The Complete Fifth Season

Since its premiere in 2005, the Emmy nominated series “The Closer” has garnered a rather impressive audience participation and acclaim from critics but, in all fairness how many more series do we need like it that involve unconventional law persons? Maybe it is just me but here is a series whose storyline so tired I find it amazing it still has thrives. As observed on season five, which is now available on DVD, audiences catch another batch of episodes that are plain and simply redundant. That is of course you the reader are a fan of the series.

Starring Emmy award winning actress Kyra Sedgwick, “The Closer” follows Brenda Leigh Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick), a LAPD Deputy Chief who practices the law in rather nonconformist ways. Together with her fellow members of the law including Homicide Commander Russell Taylor (Robert Gossett) and her FBI Agent Fritz Howard (Jon Tenney), Brenda Leign saves the day and busts the bad guys by her own rules.

Perhaps its because I have seen this sort of plot overused so much is why I just couldn’t get into the season five DVD or perhaps it’s because I never watched the series until now. Altogether I have to say I just didn’t care for it. Now season five did have some entertaining episodes but a bulk of the entertainment value was derivative of the series performances most notably J. K. Simmons and Jon Tenney, who also pulls double duty on the series starring as [Kyra] Sedgwick’s characters husband. Performances alone made the series worthwhile and though I will admit Kyra Sedgwick’s performance to be sufficiently decent considering up until the series has really given a performance worth considerable praise.

Season five Episodes including “Walking Back the Cat,” “Tapped Out” and season five finale “Dead Man's Hand” illustrate [Kyra] Sedgwick’s great commitment to the series and her continually evolving performance but at the same time, aside from these episodes, I still can’t find myself getting past its continually cast-off plotlines. As a whole the series is average and does poise some form of entertainment but only enough if you can be satisfied with a series that barely presents and real originality. The approach to the characters is top notch and I do love characters like Brenda Leign who take matters into their own hands. But in all honesty do we really need another one?