Female cops are on the edge as
The Closer starts its seventh and final season and
Rizzoli & Isles starts its second. Kyra Sedgwick’s
deputy chief Brenda Leigh Johnson is again struggling
with internal Los Angeles police politics and
an internal investigation overseen by Capt. Sharon
Raydor, played by Mary McDonnell, who joins the
cast full-time. (McDonnell will star in spinoff Major
Crimes, the name of Johnson’s current unit, next
year on TNT.) Johnson’s former boss and mentor,
assistant chief Will Pope (J.K. Simmons) is easing
out of the department, and new chief Tommy
Delk (Courtney B. Vance) is easing in. It’s all very
transitional. The case, meanwhile, is about a slain
rapper, whose video is shown repeatedly.
In Boston, Angie Harmon’s police detective Jane
Rizzoli is recovering from a gunshot wound suffered
at the end of the buddy series’s huge debut
season. Harmon’s emotive acting is in stark contrast
to her cool, stiff counterpart, medical examiner
Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander). Add Lorraine
Bracco to the mix as Rizzoli’s bossy mom with
marital problems, and it’s a combustible mix. The
producers promise more action in the series this
year. The first two episodes are a credible start,
the first dealing with a female veteran’s murder
and the second with a surrogate mom’s killing.
TNT will premiere the first episode of The Closer on Juyly 11 at 9 p.m., followed by the sophomore season-starter of Rizzoli & Isles at 10 p.m.
