TV on DVD Buzz

This week’s TV on DVD Season I am going through and doing wrap ups of is the four disc The Closer Season 1 set. I will post a wrap up of one disc per day finishing the set on Thursday. I do not think I started watching this show on television until Season 3, but I think I have watched at least part of Season 2, as my mom owns that set. I rented Season 1 because I thought it would be nice to finally see the beginning of the show.

“Pilot” - The title gives this episode away as being the start to the series. The show begins at a crime scene where a body is found in a doctor’s (PhD, not medical) house. At the crime scene Brenda Johnson is introduced after the medical examiner asks who she it. Part of the introduction clarifies that she is new to the LAPD as Deputy Chief as part of a special unit (priority murder squad) and that she is from Atlanta. She upsets a lot of people working the scene because she bosses them around. It shows them all being males and kind of sexist. In the episode it is also revealed that Brenda is a CIA trained investigator and known for getting confessions that lead to convictions (i.e. a closer). She deals with the whole new squad wanting to transfer back to the robbery and homicide unit. She is determined to stick to the job and not making them get her to give up. The guy whose house the body was found in ends up being missing (on the run) and they also discover that he has been impersonating someone who died at age 19 in 1989. This episode has a few interesting scenes about Brenda feeling like she should not eat something because she does not look as good as the other women in LA, such as passing up a doughnut in the office and the frozen treats at the hotel gift shop. Near the middle of the episode a guy named Fritz is introduced as an old acquaintance of Brenda’s who she did not know was living in LA and who works for the FBI. He delivers the information on the ID for the body and they discover she had been wanted for murder and eventually realize that the person was actually the doctor and ended up killed when the person who loved him discovered he was really a woman.

“About Face” - This episode begins with Brenda lost driving in LA with a very country “Drive” song. A model is found having apparently having slipped and died while showering. Brenda ends up embarrassed when she discovers she was questioning the model’s husband with the agent present and not the lawyer, who ends up showing up and breaking up the questioning soon after it begins. There is a pretty funny moment with Brenda showing the Priority Murder Squad’s (PMS) new stationary to her boss. Brenda takes an interesting approach to interviewing people related to the victim by having them help her supposedly prepare to go to the funeral and at the same time tried to find out where and who the model was supposed to meet for lunch the day she died. Fritz appears this time to give her the toxicology results over dinner at the restaurant that model was planning to go to to confront a woman that was having an affair with the model’s husband. It turns out the model was poisoned by nicotine through her scalp, as it was in her leave in conditioner. It ends up that the hair stylist killed the model because she was just another one of the hurt lovers that her husband had an affair with.

“The Big Picture” - This episode begins with Brenda going through bodies in the morgue trying to find a body based on the toe tag number. This case is a three day old one about a dead hooker that becomes a priority murder squad case when the woman’s client list is found. Brenda finds out who the woman’s boyfriend is by pretending to be the hooker, ordering Chinese, and asking if the card on file was hers or her boyfriend’s. She ends up learning her was with the FBI during the time the hooker was murdered and thus a reason to get in touch with Fritz to confirm the alibi. The next potential suspect is a guy that works for immigration and was the woman’s first and last customer. The FBI ends up taking over the case, but near the same time Gabriel finds out about a six month old case that was similar that Brenda turns to looking into. Both of the victims were pregnant. She has the immigration person make an appointment with the FBI and then ends up showing up to meet with the FBI and show them the connected case instead. She soon realizes that the FBI is falsely giving the boyfriend an alibi because he was an FBI informant. She ends up drawing a confession out of her boyfriend who killed both the women because they were pregnant with his children. She does not arrest him, though, because she cannot break the alibi from the FBI and he ends up dead. In the end of the episode Brenda ends up buying the house where the murdered body was found.

Special Features: The Police Files for episode “About Face” includes “You Owe Me Dinner” and “What Did I Look Like Before?” and for episode “The Big Picture includes “No More Rats,” “Proper Protocol,” and “No Cell Reception at the Cemetery.”