The Closer

Brenda is the closest thing to a real character we've seen in police procedurals so far. [8 Jun 2005]

Johnson is such a multi-layered character, and Sedgwick plays her so beautifully that you can forgive the weaknesses of the opening episode and hope they get smoothed out in what could be a very long run for this show. [13 Jun 2005]

'The Closer' may be the first TV series to mimic ['Desperate Housewives''] ability to present women with textured, complicated lives. [12 Jun 2005]

Without Sedgwick, The Closer would be a standard-issue police procedural — a decent bit of TV entertainment, but nothing more. With Sedgwick's unforced charm and her witty iron-fist-meets-velvet-glove performance, The Closer rises to the top of TV's summer bill.

By making Johnson a sassy Southerner, The Closer is relying on the charm factor, and the show can be just as manipulative as Ms. Johnson herself. ... Fortunately, Sedgwick's is such a bracing performance, she sweeps briskly past these bumps.

Thanks to Sedgwick, the hour is a distinguished contribution to the cop genre, delving further into a character's personal life than the "Law & Order" procedurals, and avoiding the showy visual effects that are high points of the "CSI" brand. [13 Jun 2005]

A taut new crime drama that's happily more than the sum of its generic crime procedural parts. [13 Jun 2005]

The pilot's mutilated corpse and offbeat clues are intriguing, and Ms. Sedgwick has a compelling screen presence, though her accent is too generic to pass as authentic.

Surprisingly entertaining ... [though] hardly groundbreaking. [13 Jun 2005]

It's all a bit much in Monday's opener, and yet I suspect that, like the $400 shirts and luxury ride of Dennis Farina's "Law & Order" character, which initially came across as contrast run amok, Deputy Chief Johnson's contrived personality excesses will fade with time. And what will be left is a compelling character in a solid show - not a tradition-buster like FX's "The Shield" but probably a broader-based hit. [12 Jun 2005]

It's a fine group, and a good start - although parts of the initial exposition are clunky and Sedgwick's Southern accent seems to fade and strengthen at random. But there's a solid core here around which a good series can be built. [13 Jun 2005]