When The Closer closed up shop last summer, Diane and I were wary of the spinoff, Major Crimes. Could Mary McDonnell replace Kyra Sedgwick (not quite, but it’s close). The familiar cast made the transition almost seamless. I was not fond of the troubled teenager, Rusty, but Diane was. One of the casualties of the end of The Closer was the diminishment of Jon Tenny (Brenda’s stoic husband and FBI agent) role in Major Crimes. So it comes as no surprise that Tenny and the talented Rebecca Romijn launch a new crime drama tonight. I’ve deliberately avoided all the hype about this show. I just want to let it unfold tonight with preconceptions. If you’re in the mood for this kind of diverting entertainment, check the times for these TNT shows in your area.
The NY Times & Daily News gave King & Maxwell good reviews so we’ll be recording it tonight along with Major Crimes on TNT, plus Defiance & Warehouse 13 on SyFy and The Glades & Longmire on A&E.
I always enjoy the Flynn & Provenza episodes the most on THE CLOSER/MAJOR CRIMES.
I liked THE CLOSER but do not like the format of this one where they try to avoid a trial. Not that I enjoy trials every week but…I do like the cast on this one though.
The new one sounds too generic so I will probably skip it. How many crime fighting romantic shows do we want: Elementary, The Mentalist, Castle, Bones, You can shuffle the plots.
Enough.
If Longmire and his assistant start to show signs of a romance brewing, I am off that one too.
Jeff, we enjoyed the Flynn & Provenza episodes, too. They provided necessary comic relief. Some of THE CLOSER episodes were very dark.
Patti, you’re right about the romantic crime couple genre. In addition to the shows you listed, you could add BONES. Longmire doesn’t look like he’s the romantic type.
That’s one of the changes they’ve made (along with the deputy running against him) in moving Longmire to television. In the books there is a relationship between Longmire and Vic, even though she is quite a bit younger than him. Also, the daughter is a lawyer in Philadelphia and is marrying Vic’s brother, a cop. And of course Lou Diamond Phillips is not really suitable to play Henry.
I still enjoy the show, however, but I’d recommend the books. The last episode was yet another novel condensed to an hour, though in this case I thought they did a pretty good job of it.
So how did the birthday celebration go?
Rick, I had a delicious salad, a medium rare New York Strip Steak cooked to perfection, and a generous slice of pecan pie for dessert. Yum!
What I saw of KING AND MAXWELL looked tolerably mediocre, though I’m always happified by the degree to which Romjin isn’t afraid to be unglamorous (you really don’t need to put aluminum siding on the Taj Mahal).
I dunno, the tedium of the romantic crime drama depends on how its handled. I couldn’t abide MOONLIGHTING, with all its misogyny and curdled whimsy, but boy did others eat it up, even when THE TAMING OF THE SHREW episode was thrust in their faces…Shakespeare, some centuries back, had the wit to wink at the audience in a way Caron, oddly enough, didn’t. So, I think such things add resonance to the likes of JUSTIFIED, and I’ll note that the cancelled VEGAS, disregarded in part due to this aspect, still managed to be among the highest rated series of the season (irrelevant except to the degree which CBS feels it can throw away solid successes if they aren’t even bigger hits).
Todd, I felt the same way about MOONLIGHTING. KING & MAXWELL was okay. It’s not must-see TV.