I almost never live-watch TV. I’ll DVR shows and watch entire seasons at a time, but I make a point of watching Major Crimes as soon as it comes on. This show sort of snuck into my favorites list and it’s been worming it’s way into my heart ever since.
A spin-off of TNT’s The Closer, Major Crimes was more or less designed to wrap up some story lines after Kyra Sedgwick left. Instead it took off under it’s own steam and eclipsed it’s predecessor in terms of quality.
Major Crimes is a murder-of-the week TV drama, but it’s smart, and it’s cast is stellar. Mary McDonnell plays the boss, Captain Sharon Raydor, of the LA police department’s major crimes unit. Let’s all take a moment here to appreciate the fact that the show runners at TNT decided to make a 63 year old woman the boss. In fact, it hasn’t been since Boston Legal that I’ve watched a show that actually acknowledged the fact that a person achieving a certain level of success in their profession likely wouldn’t in their mid-thirties. Raydor’s two most senior detectives, and leaders of the team, are Louie Provenza (GW Bailey) and Andy Flynn (Tony Denison) who are 70 and 65 respectively. Bailey and Denison have such an amazing rapport that it’s worth watching the show just to see them lovingly snark at each other.
So while it’s addressing ageism and sexism, Major Crimes decided “fuck it, let’s tackle all the diversity, ya’ll.” Three of the regular ensemble cast are people of color (played by Michael Paul Chan, Kearran Giovanni, and Raymond Cruz respectively), and they are not token characters. Each one of them is fully developed in his or her own right, and we get more layers to the characters as the show progresses.
And one of the reoccurring cast members, Assistant Chief Taylor (Robert Gossett), Raydor’s boss, is a black man. Raydor’s adopted son, Rusty (Graham Patrick Martin), is gay. As I write all this out, I can see where someone who has never seen the show might worry that it plays like an after school special, but it doesn’t. In fact I was probably more than half way into the first season before the fact that this show is actually really fucking diverse even hit me. Major Crimes has remarkably talented actors playing interesting characters, and those actors just happen to represent a larger snapshot of the population than we normally get on TV.
Major Crimes is also really smart and engaging. There are some story lines, like Rusty’s arc, that continue season to season, but a majority of the show is a murder/major crime of the week. The show is reflective of actual events, without borrowing as heavily from the news as Law and Order did. It deals with hate crimes, with gang violence, with public shootings. It addresses the fact that rich white people get precedence over poor people of color when the shit hits the fan. That fact makes some of the characters, namely Julio Sanchez (Cruz) so pissed off that it threatens his career. The audience experiences the drama along with the detectives, often from a deeply personal POV, which heightens the adrenaline.
For all that, it’s not a violent show. We don’t actually get much in the way of graphic violence. Much of the mystery is built around unwinding the tangled threads left behind after a crime. Sometimes we know the killer, but not the motivation. Sometimes there is a person in jeopardy and the clock is ticking.
The show tackles tough subjects too, but doesn’t pretend to solve them. It takes a season for the squad to warm up to Raydor, who transferred from Internal Affairs. She’s aloof and cold, initially; she is not a character prone to mothering her staff. Ageism and racism are issues the characters experience and work though. While the team eventually finds cohesion, and generally seems to like each other, they aren’t found family. They are people from diverse backgrounds who work together and might not always like each other a ton, which is basically every workplace I’ve ever been in.
One thing Major Crimes doesn’t do is vigilante justice. I can’t tell you the number of crime shows that I’ve watched where the hero takes justice into his own hands. Hell, that was the premise for Justified. At one point Sanchez lets his anger get the better of him, and while we as the audience felt he was justified in beating the shit out of someone (even cheered it on), he’s seriously in trouble for it. He faces disciplinary actions. His peers and teammates don’t condone it, they don’t respect it, and they’re a little pissed that he put them all in a negative situation.
This anti-vigilante stance doesn’t just apply to not beating the shit out of assholes who desperately deserve it. When the bad guy is caught, or about to be caught, the characters have to go around it the right way for things to be admissible in court. This is one of the few shows I’ve seen–I’m looking at you The Mentalist–that deals with the “well, we can’t do this or it never goes to trial.” The hook with The Closer was that Kyra Sedgwick’s Brenda Johnson would get the suspect to confess via her intense southern accent and/or manipulation. Initially Major Crimes sticks to that theme a little–do NOT fuck with Mary McDonnell–but even as it grows into it’s own show, it shows that 98% of cases are closed in the interview room. Bad guys are not caught by bullets but by really solid police work and sometimes forensic accounting.
Clearly, I love this show. I love the ensemble cast and the fact that even minor characters, like the ME, are original and fresh, and everyone is a little bit dysfunctional and snarky. I will own up to the fact that the Rusty story line is a little crazy. He’s like the team’s Kid Friday, just hanging out in the squad room playing chess, like you do, but I love him so I’m okay with it.
If you’ve ever liked a procedural crime drama, if you’ve occasionally binged on Law and Order, then try Major Crimes. I promise, it’s worth it.
Every time I randomly catch this show I wonder why the hell in not binge watching to catch up. Then I turn it off and forget about it. lol clearly I need to head to Netflix.
I periodically turn this on, because I feel I should like this show, but I just can’t get into it.
I just love this show, and I adore the ensemble cast. Really strong. I still have to watch season 3 though!
Cool post. I like Major Crimes a lot too.
I watched this show at the beginning but it didn’t quite click with me, but then picked it up again last season and it is rapidly becoming one of my favorites. I love it when I see it in my DVR.
This sounds great! We binge watch police procedurals in my house, so thanks for the rec!
I think I like Major Crimes more than I liked The Closer. I love the relationships that are built within the framework of solving the crimes and I love the cast. My favorite is Amy Sikes, but I also love Rusty. It’s such solid writing and acting with the right mix of angst, drama and humor.
I love this post this morning 🙂
Major Crimes is a show my husband and I never miss. It’s so well-written. The actors do a fantastic job bringing their characters to life. And every episode keeps you constantly guessing. I used to love The Closer, but I think Major Crimes is even better.
Your description and analysis of the show is letter perfect. This is the only show I watch “live.” I tolerate the commercials just to be able to see it as soon as it’s on. My favorite character is Sharon Raydor—so complex and interesting.
This is the only drama I’ve seen that handles alcoholism and substance abuse realistically. Season 3 story arc with Sharon’s ex was especially well written
Yay! So happy to see this show getting some well deserved kudos. I also never miss it and this season I’m really excited to see how the romance between Flynn and Raydor plays out. When my mystery shows get mixed with romance it’s like chocolate and peanut butter: ie. it’s delicious!
It never occurred to me that it’s so diverse but you’re right. The show that comes on after, Murder in the First, is also really diverse. So good on TNT.
I’m so glad that there are others that watch this as ritualistically as I do. TNT does up some good programming. This show totally fills my crime procedural needs.
One of the things that I hated about The Closer was that Kyra Sedgwick’s character wasn’t ethical at all and was entirely about vigilante justice. And the audience was supposed to cheer on her lack of ethics and questionable morals because… something police-y.
I don’t always catch this show, but when I do, I appreciate that the central character isn’t a horrible person.
To be fair, Brenda only got that way towards the end of The Closer and I think it was done in order to write KS off the show. I didn’t find her to be a vigilante during any of the prior seasons.
I loved The Closer. I really did. I was sad when it changed but at the same time I felt The Closer had done everything with Brenda Lee Johnson that it possibly could. I also really enjoyed the other members of the team and was glad that the show took off in the new direction and I give the actors credit. They pulled it off. There are recurring minor roles that so very important to the show, yes the ME and the various DAs and lawyers, Rusty’s friends. I really want Sanchez to find love again. And, Elyse, you omitted to mention will there be or will not be a romance between Raydor and Flynn?
I loved The Closer as well, and I thought they Fritz’s substance issues in smart and sensitive ways. There was one episode—where they’ve hauled in the husband of a dead wife and Brenda cannot get a bead on him—that haunts me still.
But I think they also did a terrific job of reorienting the cast to a new series, where the central personal relationship is between a foster mother and son, rather than romantic. I love Rusty, flaws and all.
Fun discussion!
and I thought they HANDLED Fritz’s…
Although… what did happen to Fritz? He had that heart attack and then what?
Mary McDonnell is my fav actress and Battlestar Galactica one of my fav shows. (If you want romance, try it for the Adama/Roslin one!!! It’s the most perfect tv show romance ever!) So obviously I watch Major Crimes for her. It’s far superior to The Closer because of just about everything you said. And yes, I am disappointed that the mass media never makes more of a big deal of how old she was when given the lead role. She has said in interviews how much pressure she felt to deliver, with so many people’s jobs on the line if she failed, so it’s great that the ratings are sufficient for them to keep up the good work.
Hey thanks for this. I love this show and also feel it’s slipping by a lot of folks. Mary McDonnell is an amazing actress.
I started with The Closer from day one, wasn’t sure I would like Major Crimes as much and was surprised and so happy to find that I love it as much for its own ‘self’ as I did The Closer. And no binge watching here. It’s one of only three shows we have never missed and watch live if possible. I love how the characters are fully developed, how the writers handled the initial hate that a couple had for Raydor and the ensuing respect they have for her now…it’s just…dare I use it? Awesome!
I loved The Closer most of the time, and I love Major Crimes even more. I wish Netflix would stream them, because I would binge-watch the shit out of both of them.
Major Crimes is actually my favorite tv show right now and i love that you wrote about it in todays newsletter 🙂 I only started watching the closer because of Mary McDonnell and was thrilled when it transitioned into her own show. Love tuning into Captain Raydor and her team on Monday nights, it really makes Mondays more bearable.
I didn’t think I would enjoy Major Crimes as much as The Closer, but I actually love it more. It’s must see TV in my house every week.
I saw the first two seasons of this TV series. There were some things that were very attractive to me. And I loved the portrait of a strong woman as the main character.
But in the end, I stopped watching it because of ideological reasons. The way they treated suspects goes against everything I believe in. There was something very repulsive -for me- in the way they psycologically put pressure on suspects. And I can’t believe how any of those ‘forced confessions’ could stand in a trial. So although there were great things in this show, I had to stop because there wasa not very nice kind of violence, the psychological one from the police.
My mom and grandmother watch a lot of crime shows, kind of a spectrum. Some I’m ok with and have watched myself (Bones, NCIS) but some I can’t take because of the violence and creepiness (SVU and Criminal Minds). I’m Southern and I couldn’t take Kyra Sedgwick on The Closer. I’ve watched Major Crimes with them a few times and enjoyed it – good show that actually seemed to follow police/legal procedure, populated by grown ups.