“But while McDonnell seems to take great care in showing Raydor’s strong, able leader side, she also allows for moments of vulnerability to shine through—and even a softer side when we finally get to go home with her. She has her own missteps settling into Brenda’s seat (literally), and she certainly isn’t as quirky as Brenda. In fact, the series premiere closes the drawer on that personality type and ends up saying an extended good-bye past The Closer’s series finale with one last sweep of Brenda’s office, revealing some personal effects she left behind for which Raydor has no use.”

Whole article here: TNT’s Major Crimes Complicates Crime Politics Even More

Where Sedgwick’s music was chaotic and bright, McDonnell’s (as it was in “Battlestar Galactica”) is modulated and cool, but with a blue-flame intensity. She seems to be one who keeps her head when all around her are losing theirs (and sometimes blaming it on her), but also sets us see that her feelings are complicated and that her composure is harder-won than it looks.

Brenda could be unorthodox to the point of illegality — her concerns were more moral than ethical, you might say, which created the problems that brought McDonnell’s internal affairs investigator into the picture in the first place. Sharon pays more attention to the Book by Which Things Are Done: “God does she love the rules,” someone says. But she is happy to find new ways to make them suit her needs.

Read the whole review here.

“The Closer was a seven-year examination of the justice system,” Duff said. “We used a single character to refract different points of view. It was a single-lead show. It was a single lead with a really good ensemble, but it was a show with a single point of view. She was interested in the confession, and that was pretty much all she was interested in.

Whole review here.