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 am posting the final wrap up of the set today. If you missed the first three wrap ups you can go back and read Disc 1 here, Disc 2 here, and Disc 3 here.

“L.A. Woman” - The episode begins with Sargent Gabriel driving Brenda to a crime scene and getting frustrated at her squinting, so he stops on the way and buys Brenda sunglasses. In this episode an Iranian and his driver were killed in a parking garage. The wife who witnessed the crime thinks the U.S. government killed them. There is a kind of funny scene with her asserting here authority when two rather suspicious FBI agents show up at the crime scene for no reason. Soon it is realized that the murdered were on the FBI watch list and the FBI is reluctant to cooperate with the investigation. Fritz ends up being the FBI liaison working on the case with Brenda’s team. As part of the investigation Tao finds out that there is a website of a man claiming to have killed the man as part of ridding the America of Muslims, but none of the witnesses recognize him in a line up and his recollection of the attack do not line up with what really happened. This one is one of the most unpredictable ends of the show so far and no I do not mean the part with Brenda and Fritz going to dinner, but rather the finding out who killed the Iranian.

“Fatal Retraction” - A woman named Lisa Barnes was found dead, but a man has been in prison for 3 years for her murder due to a misidentified burned body. It is up to Priority Homicide to now figure out who was the person murdered three years ago and keep the man (Bill Crowlick) in jail by connecting him to the actual victim. There is an interesting situation with the husband of Lisa Barnes including Brenda telling him he was technically still married when he married his new wife and that gets him to agree to swap the bodies to help them reidentify the original victim. She enlists Fritz’s help to get another forensic dentist to the victim’s teeth. Crowlick ends up at Brenda’s house and trying to convince her that he was innocent and framed by the police and the professional witnesses. When the victim is finally identified it appears that Crowlick was telling the truth about being innocent about that crime, although, the crime he had been found innocent before that he appears even more guilty of. It begins to appear Lieutenant Flynn framed Crowlick and the victim might have committed suicide until Brenda learns that there were palm prints on the car. The guilty person ends up being one of the professional witnesses that testified against Crowlick.

“Standards and Practices” - This episode begins with Detective Provenza impersonating Brenda giving the others orders of what they should do at the crime scene. The victim in this episode is a Hollywood producer (male). In the next scene Fritz is making breakfast for Brenda. In this episode Taylor anonymously starts an internal affairs investigation claiming Brenda’s conduct was unbecoming. Her team, especially Sargent Gabriel, stick up for Brenda, though. Pope convinces her it could all be over with if she apologizes to the DA, FBI, and Taylor for not working so well with them and promise to do better. This meeting does take place, but her apologies end up more about apologizing for the others and more for not ignoring their faults than for her actions, which of course does not outright help the situation. Near the end of the episode Fritz proposes that he moves in with Brenda. The whole murder investigation aspect almost takes a back burner in this episode and the interrogation scenes, which are part of best aspects of this show, are almost non existent in this episode. The case ending is a pretty good more informal than usual interrogation, though. The episode ends with the internal affairs thing being withdrawn, her throwing out the resignation letters from her team who were going to resign if she was transferred or let go, and her trying to having better relations with the team by buying them a round of drinks.

Special Features: This disc special features include five police files scenes for “L.A. Woman” and 2 police files scenes for “Standards and Practices.”