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« Roush Dispatch
Catching Up with the Good (Closer) and the Bad (TMZ)
Kyra Sedgwick in The Closer by Ben Kaller/TNT
This week’s crackling finale of TNT's The Closer was a splendid reminder of why Kyra Sedgwick is so deserving of the best-actress Emmy this year (yes, she'll be getting it for last season, but the character was just as strong a year ago). Being on basic cable, it's possible she'll once again by upstaged in what is one of the more crowded categories — her five other nominees include Sally Field (my second pick), Minnie Driver and past winners (in order of preference) Edie Falco, Mariska Hargitay and Patricia Arquette. But if for whatever reason she fails to score, this season's finale once again puts her at the top of my list for next year's competition.
It was a great two-parter, with Brenda really on the ropes both professionally and personally. First, her case is in tatters after she fails to get a confession from her suspect. Then, midway through the high-profile trial, the defendant’s alibi turns up out of nowhere with rock-solid video evidence that he couldn’t have done it. Even worse, Brenda learns to her surprise that her fiancé Fritz (an above-par Jon Tenney) is an alcoholic with several DUIs on his record from before they met.
The Brenda-Fritz confrontation was powerfully handled, with Fritz tearing into Brenda for her hypocrisy in branding him a liar, given the cavalier way she plays with truth on and off the job. Sedgwick’s silent reaction to his bitter rant, visibly gulping and ultimately unable to meet his eyes, was quite moving. She, and we, worried that she had finally overstepped. All I can say is Fritz has the patience of Job to stick with her and suffer her neuroses, not that she wasn’t right to explode when she learned he had withheld such critical life information.
The twists in the case were nearly as satisfying, taking on a new level of intrigue when the good guys discover the defendant was rolling (so to speak) in dough from a secret second residence he was using (shades of Weeds) as a marijuana grow house. More like grow estate. As usual, if you follow the money, you solve (and win) the case. Well done.
On a side note, I hope I’m finally back in business in filing Dispatches. The last few weeks have been filled with marathon screening projects (most recently the 15 or so hours of Ken Burns’ majestic The War; more on that one in days to come) as well as beating the drum media-wise for fall previews, the new season and the upcoming Emmys.
The official launch of the new season is still almost two weeks away, but bits and pieces of new programming are beginning to show up, and I’ll try to tackle many of these shows head-on as best I can.
By the way, I didn’t think anything could be more pathetic and depressing than Britney Spears’ sloppy, inert nonperformance that opened Sunday’s Video Music Awards on MTV. But that was before I forced myself to sit through the smug, hateful, amateurish and bottom-feeding slime that was the premiere of the syndicated TMZ newsmag (and I use that term very loosely).
Watching media vultures snark and mock about celebrities and pseudo-celebs — and, in one sequence, absolute nobodies (drunken girls clubbing, flashing the camera and vomiting in the street) — is one of the most degrading and worthlessly empty half hours of bad TV I’ve endured in ages.
Shame clearly has nothing to do with putting together this dreadful and tacky wallow in shallow voyeurism. Tuning in, on the other hand, is cause for nothing but shame, and I’d advise washing your eyes out with industrial-strength cleanser afterwards.
On the Web, TMZ is a guilty pleasure for celebrity rubberneckers, I suppose. As TV, it’s pure poison.
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Sep 11, 2007 1:50 PM
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Matt - I can't imagine a more deserving candidate for an Emmy than Kyra Sedgwick. Her portrayal of Brends Lee Johnson is so convincing that sometimes I forget that we are watching fiction! She is fantastic and The Closer is one of the best shows on TV!
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Sep 11, 2007 2:08 PM
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I really enjoy The Coser but in the midst of all the intrigue of thsi great epsiode we get yet another lame product placement. In the electronics room one of the detectives is eating Keebler Pecan Sandies and offering them to the others in the room. During the next commercial break, we get an ad for...you guessed it.
I love this show but this season it has become one of the guiltiest of this practice.
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Sep 11, 2007 4:12 PM
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Why do some people get so worked up about product placement? I barely even notice it. I notice it FAR less than I used to notice those ubiquitous fake magazines with the big "WINTERGREEN" add on the back cover that were used in EVERY sit com in the 80's. Real-world products and brands blend in to realistic television much better than the false alternative.
People need to realize that "free" television is only free because advertisers pay for it. As we go more and more to DVRs and fast-forward through all the commercials, advertisers are having to find new (well, really OLD) methods of inserting their products. No commercials = no The Closer.
Be grateful that it's not as bad as the early days of radio, when Dad would come home and ask Mom how her day was and she'd wax eloquently about virtues of such-and-such a washing powder before going back to the story.
Oh, and Kyra Sedgwick TOTALLY deserves the Emmy. She is my favorite actress on TV these days.
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Sep 12, 2007 9:24 AM
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One of the funniest scenes? When Gabriel leaned on the back of Tao's chair and he banged his head! I laughed and laughed.
I don't even notice commercials because I tape and FF 
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Sep 12, 2007 11:43 AM
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Thanks for being the one columnist to whom I can relate. I'm sure Ausiello is a nice man, but he is too strange for my taste and I just don't get him. You are right about the Closer. It's one of the best shows on TV. I never miss it even when I'm sick and asleep when it comes on I wake up for it. I usually only watch regularly scheduled shows on Sunday (the 4400 and the Dead Zone), Monday, the Closer, Tuesday (Eureka), and Friday (Dr. Who, Stargate Atlantis). As you can see my tastes are eclectic. I watch no so called reality shows because they aren't. Exept occasionally Dancing with the Stars (okay, so only that one with Emmett Smith on it), but maybe this new one I'll watch a little.
Thanks again and I enjoy your column.
Mary Miller
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Sep 13, 2007 4:10 PM
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Matt, I have enjoyed the television viewing this summer mainly because of The Closer. The acting, (I hope she wins) the writing everything about this show is wonderful.
I wish I felt anything but disgust over anything associated with TMZ. Filming and gloating over people's misfortune (no matter who they are) is revolting. In my book, they are vultures with cameras (and I feel like I'm insulting vultures). I wish there was a way to get rid of them both on TV and the internet. They are bottom feeders with no trace of human compassion!!
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Sep 14, 2007 6:11 PM
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