By M. Sharpe
This winter season of Major Crimes has been a rough one for Andy Flynn. We spoke to his portrayer, Tony Denison to get the scoop on Flynn’s health (everyone breathe a sigh of relief: he’s going to be OK!), his evolving relationship with Captain Raydor, and what it’s been like filming the biggest season of Major Crimes yet (Hint: Tony is ready for more!)
MCTV: Flynn has had a rough go of it this winter season, with being injured and then the complications from that, and recovering from surgery. Fans have been very worried about him! How is his recovery going? Are there more setbacks on the horizon for him?
Tony Denison: I think he’s on the road to recovery. But like anything else, as human beings when something that happens to you, you develop an attitude about it. It’s like people who have had heart attacks or strokes, they suddenly become more aware about what they need to change in their lives. So when such an event happens in a person’s life they have two choices, they can either be keenly aware of it, or ignore it and wind up maybe having to deal with it again.
I think that Flynn, if he was in his 30s when this happened, I think that he would probably ignore it and insist that he’ll be alright, but the fact that he’s not, and it means that he’s going to be a little bit more sensitive to it. And the other thing that is really cool about this story, and this is where relationships start to have a very interesting or profound meaning in the person’s life, is that your partner-to-be, the person that you’re involved with, suddenly turns around and says, hey, you want to take it easy over there? Which is great, everybody needs someone in their life to say that to them. That’s what relationships are about, and as (Flynn and Raydor’s) relationship builds, I suppose we’ll see more of that, but I can’t say for sure. All I know is what we’ve done, I don’t know what the plans are, or how the relationship moves along, if it moves a little bit more quickly or more slowly, I really don’t know. I’ll be happy with whatever they decide.
MCTV: Speaking of the relationship between Sharon and Andy, we’ve seen a lot of development this winter. How has that been for you?
Tony: I’m not just trying to be polite, but it’s been great, it’s been absolutely fantastic. I love working with Mary McDonnell. I love working on the show period, I have a long standing relationship with G.W. (Bailey) and great relationships with the rest of the cast, but I’ve always been a fan of Mary McDonnell. I think I’ve seen almost everything that she’s done. So when she worked on The Closer and she was basically just reoccurring, it was great to have some scenes with her. I didn’t really have that many, but I still looked forward to them. And then when Major Crimes happened, and when James Duff noticed that there might be something brewing between Sharon and Andy, that meant for me that I would have the opportunity to work even more with her.
The writers have been putting together some really good storylines and making this romance believable because they’re not going to be impetuous, they’re very responsible people, they’re very responsible adults. She’s the Captain of a squad involved in saving lives and in charge of all of us, and we’re all these responsible police officers, and plus, we’re not kids anymore. There’s a certain amount of decorum that we experience, it doesn’t make our feelings for each other any less, it just means that we behave a little differently. The feelings are the same, they’re the same way that they would be if we were in our 20’s, just a little less impetuous.
MCTV: We’ve seen a lot of people 
talk about how that’s one of the reasons they’ve enjoyed watching the relationship between Flynn and Raydor develop – seeing these more mature characters explore a relationship, and how that plays out with their responsibilities in life has really resonated with the viewers.
Tony: Yes, I agree with that. It’s been wonderful to explore.
MCTV: You’ve also had a chance to really explore some evolving relationships with some other people in Flynn’s life this season, from Patrice as Provenza’s significant other to Flynn working to forge a relationship with Rusty. How has that been?
Tony: James Duff was very much interested in really building that a lot and I’m sure that there will be more of that as the new season approaches. It will be great for Flynn and Rusty especially because of the relationship that they each have with Sharon. And of course the other relationships that Flynn has with Provenza and now with Patrice, well you can just see down the road that that’s going to be a lot of fun, especially as it relates to Flynn and Provenza, I just see a virtual goldmine of fun.
MCTV: This has not only been a standout season for Flynn, but also a standout one for Major Crimes as a whole, with having the season extended twice. How has that been going?
Tony: It’s been great! They gave us an additional 5 episodes to do, so we’re doing 23 this season which is unusual for a cable show, very unusual. We’re tearing up the tracks again; we’ve had some stiff competition this winter against three different shows: The Voice, Dancing with the Stars, and Monday Night Football. Despite that we’ve managed to maintain a certain rating – now it wasn’t our usual summer rating however our DVR ratings were tremendous and the minute those other shows finished, our ratings went up by 48% in actual live viewings. There is a definite audience out there for us and we have very loyal fans which, I am sure that I speak for the whole cast and crew, which we so tremendously appreciate. It’s great to have a power base like that and fan’s support and that means that we’ll run, certainly for a while longer. And as an actor I know that I’m looking forward to our 5th year, and beyond.
MCTV: You are in the final stretch of 
production right now, filming the final five episodes of the season that are scheduled to air in February. Is there a big difference as an actor between filming 10-15 episodes like in season 1 and 2, to now 23 episodes in Season 4?
Tony: Well it’s more than usual which I say, yeah, okay, and that’s a problem why? I mean nobody’s complaining. If they said, you’re doing 33, I’d be like, okay! It’s just a different kind of discipline that you have to prepare yourself for, that’s all. I mean we get certain hiatuses and some time away from the show. Most of those hiatuses are really to benefit the writers and the crew, because those people are really working very hard all the time. And yes, while actors expend a lot of emotional energy, the writers and the crew, they’re going non-stop. I wouldn’t care if I worked on 33 episodes a year, it wouldn’t matter to me at all.
This season has been great. I decided a long time ago that, I’ve always been one who enjoys the surprise, and as an actor you try to the best of your ability to do a scene and not know, not play the results. If you read the script and you know that you’re in jeopardy in one scene and because you’ve read the script you know that you’re going to come out of the jeopardy – the key as an actor is to play that jeopardy as if you don’t know what is going to happen. So overall, I don’t talk to James other than to say, thanks for a really good episode, I don’t call to ask what’s going to happen to my character. And they keep me definitely surprised. The stuff that I am doing now with Mary and the injury, and how that all continues to work out, it’s just been grand.
Major Crimes winter season continues through next week, then returns February 15th, 2016 for the final 5episodes of the season. Season 5 of Major Crimes will premiere in Summer 2016.
MajorCrimesTV.net has learned that a new ally will be joining the Major Crimes team for the upcoming winter episodes arc, beginning February 15th.
Major Crimes finished 2015 on a high note, with 3.70 million viewers tuning in for last night’s heart-stopping fall finale. That turn out bests the previous ratings high set several weeks ago for this current batch of episodes, and is a whopping 23% increase in viewers over last weeks episode. It easily won the night as the most watched scripted cable series for the 7th consecutive week.
UPDATED 12/15/15