Season 6 of The Closer premiered last night, and right out of the gate they’re trying to address the main problem that a procedural of its age has: how do you shake up the same formula? In The Closer‘s case, the answer was brought about by real-life events: In 2009, the real Parker Center, where The Closer is set, was shut down in favor of a state-of-the-art Police Administration Building.
This, of course, leads Brenda into a tizzy, as we all know that she hates change. Of course, this isn’t the only big change– we find out that Chief Pope is moving on up in the world as well, becoming the new Chief of Police. I’m not sure how much the new building is going to factor into the plot moving forward, but Pope’s new position has to signify a pretty major change in the way things are run in the Major Crimes Division.
Major Crimes has been a pet project of Pope’s, and Brenda can pretty much get away with anything she wants. In this episode, wehn she wired up the wife and subsequently almost got her killed by her crazy husband, Brenda escaped with little more than a beleaguered sigh from Pope. Now that Pope has a more high-profile position, is Brenda going to lose more of her freedom? More importantly, how will Brenda get along with Pope’s replacement?
My guess is that it’s not going to go well. Why? Because that would be boring. Also, I have a feeling that Captain Raydor (Mary McDonnell) may be up for the job. It’s been nice for Brenda to have Chief Pope in her corner, but it’s season 6: they need to shake things up a little bit. So what better way to do that than bringing in Brenda’s enemy as her new boss.
However this plays out, there is one thing of which I am sure: We need more Fritz. He was completely absent from the first half of the episode, and I missed him. Plus, I want to know what’s going on with his job. Kyra Sedgwick has been saying that she’d like to work closer to her home in New York, so it seemed as though Fritz’s potential job move could signify a much larger change for the series.
Even if Fritz stays put (which is, of course, the likely scenario). What do you think about his and Brenda’s future? He’s never been exactly thrilled with her work/life balance, but his frustration seemed to go much deeper at the end of season 5. A Fritz/ Brenda split would certainly be a good way to shake up the new season, but their relationship is one of my favorite parts of the show, so it would be a shame to see him leave.
What do you think? Are the producers going to come between Fritz and Brenda? Is her arch-enemy going to be her new boss? What are your predictions for season 6?
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on Jul 13, 2010 @ 14:52 EST5EDT
Pope does not have the job yet. I think that is why Captain Raedar is back next week, to investigate him to make sure he has no skeletons. Which of course we all know that Brenda is a skeleton in his closet.
I’m most curious as to where Commander Taylor ends up in the whole thing. His lack of an office storyline was surprisingly interesting.
There was a big thing made out in the first season that Brenda had to be hired as a Deputy Chief, and not the (I believe) Commander rank originally slotted for the position.
who is the new captain my dvr cut off thanks