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Mary McDonnell Discusses the Season Finale and Season 2 Renewal

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In a new interview with TVLine.com, Mary McDonnell previews the season finale, and what season 2 renewal meant to her.

TVLINE | Lastly, what did it mean to you when the show got its Season 2 pick up? Because I imagine that for an actress, this was probably one of the most precarious situations to walk into.

Mary McDonnell: I absolutely agree, it was. There was the pressure and the risk factor of taking on this spin-off, stepping in as Sharon Raydor, everything that it implied to just sort of follow the legendary Closer. You had to approach it with a lot of humility and commitment and not get caught up in “success or failure,” any of the externals. But I knew that. I’ve been doing this for a long time, so I know how the horse race is successfully won — you put your head down and you do your best. But then when you get your head up, you go, “Did it work? Have we succeeded?” Because if it didn’t succeed, a great deal of that will land in my lap just because I’m so visible. But I knew it was succeeding on the floor when we were shooting it, so I said to myself, “Calm down. This is working. This is going to work. I know this is going to work.” And it worked so successfully, actually, that it was thrilling. When we got picked up, all I could think about was I’d been granted relief, tremendous relief. But what I really felt relief for was the 250 to 300 people who would continue to be employed. This is a huge production company, and they’ve been working now together for eight years. That’s a lot of families, a lot of mortgages, a lot of lives and their hopes and dreams, and commitments continuing. In this time of recession and unemployment, [earning a renewal] felt fabulous.

Read the entire interview here.

 

 

Episode 1.09- “Cheaters Never Prosper”

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Episode 1.09 – “Cheaters Never Prosper”
Monday, Oct. 8, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT)


A man from Las Vegas is found dead after an apparent overdose, but the facts become unclear as gritty details begin to unfold. Meanwhile, a series of strange events leave Rusty and Raydor wondering if Dunn (guest star Ian Bohen) can be trusted.

Directed by Stacey K. Black
Written by Mike Berchem
Created by James Duff

Episode Stills
(For more images check out the Photos page)

 

 

Mary McDonnell on Major Crimes and Battlestar Galactica

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In a newly released interview with BuzzyMag.com, Mary McDonnell discusses the evolution of Sharon Raydor from antagonist to protagonist, the similarities and differences between Raydor and her beloved Battlestar Galactica character Laura Roslin, and her continuing drive to bring strong female leaders to the screen.

Can McDonnell compare Raydor with Roslin? “I can,” the actress answers cheerfully. “I would say that playing President Roslin helped me get ready for Captain Raydor to a certain extent, in that [what Roslin goes through is] sort of what happens to a woman in power who is a bit of the outsider. They’re both suddenly put in jobs that they didn’t aspire to. So in those two areas, there’s a similar leap made, internally as well. And then I think that things change. Captain Raydor has a very different life than President Roslin. And she’s not the President. They’re both incredibly strong women, and there’s a wonderful thing in being able to continue that journey, because I think we’re living in a time where women who may have been retiring are now taking on even bigger jobs, if we look at Hillary Clinton, one of our biggest examples of that. So the idea of how women begin to expand their professional capability and bring their wisdom to the male paradigm is really a wonderful thing to keep going with, and there are so many women out there who want to keep seeing it [on television]. So I feel very lucky to keep [playing those characters], you know what I mean?”

One of the aspects of the character that most appeals to McDonnell is Raydor continually having to stand up for herself as a woman in a position of power. “Not only is there some of it [sexism] inside the actual squad, which will always ebb and flow, and we handle it in different ways, but in fact, what I’m hoping for is we explore more, knock on wood, in the years to come, the resistance to women in power still is enormous. And that woman [in power] has to have the ability to see through so many situations, anticipate disaster, be both friendly and tough as nails. You have to have elephant hide. So I’m really excited about being able to explore more of that in this.

Read the whole interview here.

 

Ratings: Major Crimes Continues Hold as Basic Cable’s #1 Scripted Program Monday Nights

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With a 4.33 live rating, the penultimate episode of Major Crimes once again ranked as basic cable’s #1 entertainment program Monday night, up more than 100,000 viewers over last weeks outing.  (source: TVBytheNumbers.com)

In addition, the September 17th episode added more than 1.8 million viewers, for a grand total of 6.5 million viewers once DVR numbers were taken into account.

With continued fierce competition on Monday nights, Major Crimes is continuing to hold a steady, loyal audience- we look forward to seeing it dominate in the ratings when season two debuts next summer.

Interview: Tony Denison Talks About Major Crimes and The Closer

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In a new interview with Asssignment X Magazine, Tony Denison reminisces on the end of The Closer, the differences in Major Crimes, and his role on the 80′s drama Crime Story.

ASSIGNMENT X: Has Andy Flynn changed in going from THE CLOSER TO MAJOR CRIMES?

TONY DENISON: No, he’s still the lieutenant and we have more to do on the new show, which is great. It’s great what we were doing on the old show. G.W. and I had an opportunity to have these comic episodes that we would break off and do. We had those opportunities to do those sort of off-kilter [scenes and episodes]. In this show, we really haven’t had a chance to do that much. But we do still have our repartee with one another, looks, rolled eyes and stuff. We also are doing much more procedural work now with Mary. We’re on crime scenes coming up with stuff to do as detectives would.

Read the whole interview here.

Review: Episode 1.09 “Cheaters Never Prosper”

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In a new review from TVEquals.com, the transition from Brenda Leigh Johnson to Sharon Raydor has at last come full circle.

“I was among them, and it kind of threw me for a loop at first that they would even consider giving the lead to McDonnell’s character, who had been such a constant thorn in the side of nearly everyone on the show. Now I get it. The people behind “Major Crimes” went for the long con, and judging from their early renewal, it ultimately worked. The trick was subtly changing the character from the personification of an evil overseer to one who played it tough because she had to. You might not like Raydor’s methods as much as Brenda’s, but they too, get the job done.

“I was among them, and it kind of threw me for a loop at first that they would even consider giving the lead to McDonnell’s character, who had been such a constant thorn in the side of nearly everyone on the show. Now I get it. The people behind “Major Crimes” went for the long con, and judging from their early renewal, it ultimately worked. The trick was subtly changing the character from the personification of an evil overseer to one who played it tough because she had to. You might not like Raydor’s methods as much as Brenda’s, but they too, get the job done.

Interestingly, more than a few have rallied to McDonnell’s defense, pointing out how the character had subtle shades to it that had revealed themselves gradually, trusting the viewer to be patient and hang in there, for ultimately, the reward would be great- when it finally came. Well, friends and neighbors, they may have taken too long for some people’s tastes, but by God, they’ve finally got there, and most importantly, without compromising the hard edge that made some gravitate to Raydor in the first place.”

Read the whole review from TVEquals.com here.