JKSimmons, James Duff and Kyra Sedgwick 

The Closer creator James Duff confesses all:

It’s hard to do, after having watched a full season of The Closer, but try to imagine any actress other than Kyra Sedgwick in the role of Brenda Johnson, the junk food-loving deputy police chief who’s the best there is at getting airtight murder confessions. James Duff, the series’ creator and executive producer, says that different casting was a distinct possibility - because he was thoroughly convinced early on that he’d never get Sedgwick to do it. Now try to image the role of Brenda being played by a man. That was an early possibility as well. These are a couple of the things we learned when visiting with Duff in February, on the day of the first table read for Season Two of The Closer. Here’s what Duff had to share about the genesis of the series, about the show’s success and what’s coming when new episodes start playing on TNT in June.
How gratifying has it been to have a series so well-received in its first season by viewers and by critics?   “It’s always nice when people don’t kick you in the teeth. It’s just been a dream job. I’m the kind of person who’s always happy to be working, maybe too happy to be working. So everything that comes after enjoying work is just gravy. And this is more than gravy. It’s like eating and not gaining weight.”
Eating and not gaining weight. What a very Brenda thing to say.  “Well, of all the characters I’ve written for television in the series world, Brenda is the one that most resembles me. Although I don’t look anything like her, I’m not a woman and have no intention of becoming one. I’m very happily male. But she really is an awful lot like me.”
Anyway, the show met or surpassed your expectations almost immediately?  “The reaction from the audience and from the critics was a lot more than I anticipated. I always anticipate the worst, so I find sometimes I’m very pleasantly surprised. And when the cast got a Screen Actors Guild nomination for best ensemble, that just chocked the living daylights out of me.  Not that we don’t have a good cast, because we have a great cast. But we had been on for only a short time, in the summer, and I didn’t feel like people had really even seen it yet. So that, getting the ensemble nod, was a thrill.”
What was the genesis of The Closer? I’m hoping there wasn’t some horrific murder in your life. I’m hoping it wasn’t some first-person experience.  “No, nothing like that. it was TNT coming to Mike Robin, Greer Shephard and me and asking us to develop something that could be used as a companion piece to Law & Order. That was the genesis of creating the show. It was my idea that we should focus on one character and that we should surround that character with sort of a chorus and put that character through a terrific obstacle course in their job, in addition to having a mystery to solve. The idea was that there were several things going on at once, but there was only one story.”
How did you arrive at the premise that our hero specializes in getting the confessions that lead to open-and-shut courtroom convictions?  “When we were putting this thing together, I wanted to do a priority homicide and I wanted to base it on the idea of helping the district attorney get convictions. I asked Gil Garcetti, who was the district attorney for the county of Los Angeles for eight years and served 30 years in that department, ‘What’s the very best thing the police department can do to help you get a conviction?’ And he said, ‘To get an airtight legal confession from the defendant.’ From that moment on, that became what the show was about.”
And he used the expression, a closer?  “No, the title actually was suggested in conference with one of my agents.”
Was the title character going to be a woman from the get-go? “No. We changed that idea. My partner, Greer Shephard, and I were talking about the concept and we started out with a guy who was recovering from a heart attack. And Greer said, ‘Why can’t it be a woman? Why can’t we have a 40-year-old woman, a woman who is not perfect?’ Sort of in counterpoint to the edgy guy detectives on certain shows. Not that we based our show on anything that other TV shows are doing. In fact, we worked very, very hard on authenticity. That’s why we have a detective from robbery-homicide as one of our technical consultants - and why Gil Garcetti is another of our technical consultants. We’ve really tried to stay on the straight and narrow, to keep this show as real as possible.”
Kyra Sedgwick says she initially resisted the idea of doing this series, mostly because she lives in New York and wasn’t wild about living in Los Angeles during the making of THE CLOSER. How did she become the actress on your radar and how determined were you to get her?  “Well, it’s really curious, because we didn’t even consider her in the beginning, because she was so famously disinterested in living in Los Angeles. Our casting director, Bruce Newberg, asked me what I thought about Kyra and I said, ‘Well, of course, she’d be great. But it’s not going to happen.’ I said, ‘You have to be realistic about all of these things.’ And Bruce just ignored me. He went about getting her manager and agent to read the script and convincing them to give it to her and she read the script and she wanted to do it. And I felt like an idiot! I was eternally thankful to Bruce for ignoring me, which he’s been doing for 15 years anyway, because we’re friends.”
Although Kyra carries the show, everybody in the cast gets good stuff to do. Here’s your chance to sing the whole ensemble’s praises, if you want to.  “You’re right. This show really is all about this one character. But all the actors on the show are fantastic. GW Bailey (who plays Det. Lt. provenza) was my acting teacher in high school. I just went to Las Vegas to see him do Inherit the Wind. He’s a fantastic actor and a fantastic human being. I’ve been really pleased to see how well Corey Reynolds (who plays Sgt. Gabriel) has done. It was his first television job. And I pinch myself all the time, because I have JK Simmons (who plays Asst. Police Chief Will Pope) to work with every day. He was in my last show too (The D.A.). JK’s performance in the finale (for season one) was remarkable. It reminded me why I love to write for him. Also, I was really pleased with how well everyone jelled. They just clicked. You never know if that’s going to happen when you put a cast together. But everyone just really clicked, down to the background players, who we consider part of our cast.”
Actually, it’s a nice touch that the background actors have meaningful things to do, that they’re more than just flesh-and-blood background scenery.  “We even go so far as to have the same audio-visual guy in the electronics room every week. It’s important because it creates authenticity in your storytelling. That sort of corroborative detail helps the viewer believe the story and get caught up in it, I believe.”
Aside from Brenda, who’s your favorite character on the show to write for and why? “Each one of these characters lives with us. We don’t have an adversarial relationship with our cast at all. I get a special thrill writing for GW Bailey, since I’ve known him since I was 15. I get a special thrill when I really nail a line for a character. I’ve gotten it right a lot with Flynn, Pope and Provesza. Gabriel is also fun to write.”
During your writer’s meetings, how do you come up with each mystery you’re going to create? Do people come in with ideas? Do you base ideas on current news stories? Do you base ideas on personal experiences? “Most of our stories come from the imagination. While a show like Law & Order does “ripped from the headlines,” we do more “ripped from the heart”. The stories come from our asking, “Who would be a good adversary for Brenda? Who would we like her to interview?” We try to keep our stories related to how real crimes occur, whether they are crimes of passion, crimes of opportunity or crimes related to money, sexual pathology or gangs. Something else my advisors help us do is speak the language of law enforcement and show us how it really looks.”
How much balance do you try to create between each week’s mystery and the overall story arcs for the season?  “Because of our emphasis on theme, it works itself out on its own. Without a thematic approach, it would be very disconnected. The main story is basically how you do your job in a difficult work place and manage your personal life. it’s all about Brenda. She is the show. It’s how she thinks and how she works. In our season premiere this year, we set up the theme for the entire season. Last year we asked what it was like to a woman in a man’s world. In the pilot, we played on that by having a victim masquerading as a man. That set up the season’s theme, which was showing how a woman could use her femininity and still succeed in a man’s world. I think Brenda’s one of the few real women in law enfocement on television.
What’s the reason for making many of your killers characters that the viewer can sympathize with?  “I like it when you have that moment where there is a bit of sympathy for the devil. The idea is that you might see how you might have gotten in that position. I also like it when Brenda manages to find justice in ways that are not always exactly textbook.”
Without ruining the viewing experience for anybody (so no major spoilers, please), where is the show heading in season two?  “Last season, it was Brenda trying to win her squad. It was a 13-episode arc of typing to get these people to work together and work with her and accept her while she was solving these murders. Now it’s going to be her squad vs. the LAPD. And Taylor (played by Robert Gossett) has been promoted, so he wields even more power than he did before. And she is now partners with her squad. Indeed, that is going to be the theme of the season. Last year’s theme was what it’s like to be a woman leading in a man’s world, signaled even by the crime in the pilot, which involved a woman who had lived as a man. This year, it’s going to be about partnerships. That’s the theme of the whole season.”

Are you excited for Season Two? What can we expect?  “There are some interesting thing that happen with Fritz - complicated things - and complications with Pope, who is having some personal issues. There should be some intrigue between all three of us. At the end of Season One, she sort of comes together with her squad, which is great. So there has to be a new problem for her to have, because what fun would it be if she didn’t have problems?”
Why was THE CLOSER so successful last year?  “I’d like to think that we were different, especially in that we are almost a genre-type of a show, but we were different. I also think the audience fell in love with the characters. I certainly am madly in love with Brenda, so it makes me so happy when I see that people like her and relate to her and that they find her accessible. I also think people were impressed with the writing and how smart it was and how it wasn’t condescending.
People have said the show has a “quirky” feel to it. Where do you think those quirks come from?  “One of the great things about the show is that we get to be really serious and then outrageously comic. That’s important because life is funny and tragic, and people can go both ways with these characters and with this show, and I love that we’re able to do that. Brenda is real, so I don’t really see her as quirky. I see her as real. We’re just a bundle of contradictions, all of us, and I think that people like that and see themselves in that.”
Why is Brenda so put together and focused when it comes to work and such a mess in the rest of her life?  “Isn’t that true of all of us? I mean, can’t we just put on a game face for work and then go home and sort of fall apart? I think that is a really fascinating part about her, that she seems so confident and so smart, and when she goes home, she’s confused and really insecure and flawed. These are all things I love about her. And I think in some ways the rules are so simple when we’re at work, and when we go home, there are so many choices of what to be and who to be and what to try to fit into. It’s baffling.”
Why do you think people can relate to Brenda and her relationship with Fritz?  “I think the audience is able to relate to this relationship because it’s messy, and it’s not easy. It needs a lot of work. One of the reasons that Fritz likes her is that she’s messy and unpredictable and that she is emotional and passionate, and I think he loves that about her.”
Brenda uses her Southern charm as a weapon more often that she draws her gun. How does that give her an advantage?  “I think the Southern thing is disarming. People aren’t expecting it, and they aren’t expecting her in that package with that voice, with that accent. And being so powerful but being so kind and polite, I think, is disarming. You don’t really realize that you’re being told to do something until after you’ve said you’d do it. There is something very real about Southern hospitality, and it is rooted in kindness and respect. Though she sometimes tells people where to take it, she does it with respect and say a lot of “please” and “thank you’s” in-between, so I think that it’s pleasantly appealing.”
Last year, Brenda was the underdog. Is that still the case in Season Two? “I think she will always be the underdog becuase she always tells the truth, and she always searches for the truth and demands the truth. She has a clear way. Her rules are her rules. She doesn’t stray from them, and she doesn’t bend them. I think when you are that way, you will always come up against people who will want you to do things differently and want you to change it just for them.”
Does Brenda usually solve the crimes before Kyra does?  “Absolutely. I always used to watch copy shows and mysteries when I was a kid, and I loved watching the characters. I had no clue, not did I every try to figure out who did it. So it’s coming at it from a totally different mindset of trying to puzzle it out. I literally have to read the script three and four times, and even then I have a lot of questions.

The New York Times calls THE CLOSER one of the year’s bet shows. Does buzz like that put more pressure on the cast this season?  “Being called one of the best shows of the season gives you a little pressure. I would have to say it adds more excitement than pressure. Everybody wants their work to be seen, and if the buzz gets more audience tuning in, then that’s what it’s all about. You want your work to be watched, so ultimately this is a good thing.”
Why was THE CLOSER so successful last year?  “The thing that made the show so successful last year was the storytelling. We have really good stories. I always call the show a “character-driven procedural,” and the characters and the storytelling are really the basis of all of it. We pay a lot of attention to that, so I hope it translates to the audience.”
What is it about Brenda that surprises people?  “I think people don’t quite know if she’s on top of things. But they’re rooting for her, which is nice. The audience wants to see how she figures things out. From my point of view and the character that I play, what I like is that, in her personal life, she’s not quite as on point as she is in her professional life. So I enjoy keeping her off-balance.”
People have said the show has a “quirky” feel to it. Where do you think those quirks come from?  “People like to see fully rounded characters and broad stories. They also want something they can relate to, something that’s truthful in all its complexities. You want to deal with the gray area - everything’s not just black and white. There are great pains taken by all our writers and directors to really be complex with the situations and characters, to do the unexpected.”
Why does Fritz see Brenda in a different light than everyone else does? How does the Brenda he knows differ from the Brenda her squad knows?  “Fritz sees a whole different side to Brenda because he goes home with her. It’s nice because he respects her work, but he knows her on the personal side, as well. I like to think that he sees her when she’s most unbalanced, and to Fritz’s point of view, that’s one of the times that she’s most attractive to him, and he knows a lot of different facets to her.”
Is there a side to Fritz we haven’t seen?  “I like to look at Fritz as a work in progress. We’ve seen a little bit of what he does at work with the FBI, but most of the stuff has been on the personal front. I think we’ll get to know more about him in the second season.”

What does Pope risk by defending Brenda, and why does he do it?  “I think Will Pope is a political animal, and, like all political animals, he wants to cover his own behind. But Brenda sometimes makes that difficult to do, and I think he finds himself wanting to cover her behind, as well.”
Pope and Brenda have a complicated relationship, as well as a complicated past. Why are people able to relate to that, and how does this add to the drama of the show?  “The past and future relationship, whatever it may be between Pope and Brenda, is one of the most interesting storyline twists about the show. Whether dealing with our relationship directly or not, the connection is always made, and the past relationship always plays a part in how we deal with one another.”
How is Brenda so put together and focused when it comes to work and such a mess in the rest of her life?  “I don’t know if anyone really understands the issues that Brenda faces in her off-the-job life, but as long as she’s performing when she’s on the job, that’s the thing that’s important to me.”
How does a great story affect you?  “Great stories have universality about them, and I believe this show does, as well. Fiddler on the Roof isn’t just a Jewish musical; it’s a great story that reaches anyone. This is not just a story about cops: It’s a story about people, and I hope our audience is able to relate to it on that level.

Why was THE CLOSER so successful last year?  The brillance of Kyra, the intriguing storylines and a strong, dynamite, diverse cast all made the first season a success.
Is Taylor still going to knock heads with Brenda this year?  Absolutely. Taylor is a police officer who has worked his entire life to be the best cop he can be, and he simply doesn’t appreciate politics getting in the way of solving vicious crimes.
What perspective does Taylor bring to the story?  Taylor brings the perspective of a cop who has come up through the ranks, worked on the street and been in touch with people. He has tried to be the best cop he can be, and as far as he’s concerned, politics has no place in the pursuit of criminals. Every story needs a protagonist and an antagonist to develop it. Commander Taylor certainly holds down the antagonistic side of the show.
Do you like playing the antagonish?   I like playing a character with a purpose and a point of view, and I think all antagonists have a point of view.
What happened with Taylor and Gabriel’s relationship at the end of last season? How will that come in to play this time around?  I think every father likes to see his son or daughter mature and make difficult decisions. In a funny way, the conflict that erupted between Sgt. Gabriel and Taylor helped Taylor gain more respect for Sgt. Gabriel. For Bagriel, who idolized his father figure, Commander Taylor, he was also able to see his flaws. Their relationship has grown to one of respect on the part of the commander, to see his “mentee” take a stand for something he believes in.
Why do unpredictable and flawed characters make for such interesting stories?  That’s life. That’s reality. We’re all unpredictable. We’re all flawed. We’re all interesting, and without that aspect in a drama, it wouldn’t be honest.

The New York Times calls THE CLOSER one of the year’s best shows. Does buzz like that put more pressure on the cast this season?  “That type of buzz lets us know we did the right thing the first season, and these positive comments continue to let us know that people enjoy what we do. As long as we keep doing what we did in Season One, the show will have continued success.”
Why was THE CLOSER so successful last year?  “I think it was a combination of gripping stories and intriguing characters. Combined, those two things automatically create something exciting, and THE CLOSER fell right in that category. The show kept people surprised and on the edge of their seat, and I think that is the main reason it was so successful.”
At the end of last season, lines were drawn. Who can we trust this time around?  “I don’t know. I think Brenda ultimately can be trusted, and I think my character is to be trusted, as well. But I think the audience has to tune in to determine in the end which characters can be trusted.”
What role does loyalty play in a police squad?  “Loyalty is the most important role, because you have to feel that your team and fellow officers are there to support you, have your back and will be there to help defend you if you are in a situation where you need assistance. I think that law enforcement as a department has to have the sensation of feeling as though they have the backing of their officers, especially in the high-stress situations they are frequently placed in.”
What do you have to do to make your character as intense and focused as the real cops?  “I learn from actual Los Angeles Police Department officers. Also, I have actual officers in my family, and I study a lot of documentary television. I just try to find the right flow for the direction I think this character needs to go to find his voice.”
What was the best advice the technical advisors gave you last season that helped you shape your character?  “The best advice given to me by an officer is to do what feels right. I think people have an innate sense of what’s right and what’s wrong, and sometimes our selfishness gets in between that and making the right decisions. My character has learned that he needs to follow his heart in making all decisions. That’s a result of the technical advisors’ guidance.”
How does a great story affect you?  “A great story affects a person in many ways, and it’s a roller coaster. I think it has to leave you guessing and keep you interested. Ultimately, a great story creates a variety of emotions.”
Why do unpredictable and flawed characters make for such interesting stories?  “Flawed characters make for interesting stories because people can identify with them. Everyone knows that no one is perfect and that we all have our quirks and our oddities. Seeing this makes a character more believable and makes it more real instead of fantasy. A good character with a flaw can change the dynamic of anything.”

Why was THE CLOSER so successful last year?  I think THE CLOSER was so successful last year because this show depicts cops in a way that we haven’t seen before. On our show, we are seeing real people solving crimes that are solved in a manner easily understandable for everyone. It’s not slick. It’s not computers. We have dummies that we are sticking arrows into and so forth, so people can pretty much feel like they are solving the crime along with us.
If THE CLOSER is different from other cop shows we’ve seen on television, how is Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson different than other detectives we’ve seen before?  She is a very flawed character. On television shows, for the most part, everybody’s absolutely perfect, and it’s completely boring. Having a real person solving real problems is exciting because it helps the audience make the connection that she is just like everyone else.
Daniels is the only other woman on Brenda’s squad. How are they different?  Daniels has spent her entire career in the city of Los Angeles, as opposed to Brenda, who has functioned with the FBI in the South. Were she to abandon herself as a woman, I don’t think she would be as effective in her career as she has been. In Los Angeles, you have to leave all your femininity aside and you are a woman only to the extent that it is useful.
Is there a side to Daniels we haven’t seen?  She cares as much about finding the truth as Brenda. My character looks up to Brenda because, more than anything else, finding out who committed the crime is of the utmost priority.

The New York Times calls THE CLOSER one of the year’s best shows. Does a buzz like that put more pressure on the cast this season?  The first season was so well received critically and most importantly by the public. It’s really no pressure at all as we enter Season Two. It’s incentive. It’s exciting and really has me eager to get back to work.
Why was THE CLOSER so successful last year?  The obvious reason is Kyra Sedgwick. She is a gifted actress and brought something unique and different that just wasn’t anywhere else on television. People responded to her. Beyond that, it’s a terrific ensemble cast. We all love working together, and I think that shows. And it all starts with a blank piece of paper and good writing.
What makes Brenda Johnson different than other detectives on television?  It is a combination of vulnerability and tremendous strength, because she is so confident and sure of herself in her work and her instincts but so very vulnerable in other parts of her life. The last show of the season was just a wonderful show, and it showed the entire squad coming together to her defense, because they began to see beyond that exterior to some of that beautiful, vulnerable interior that she possesses.
People have said the show has a “quirky” feel to it. Where do you think those quirks come from?  I wouldn’t have used that word. I guess when you see certain things in this medium, you might think of them as quirky.  I think of them as how people are. If you sit at a mall and people-watch for a bit, I think you could end the day by saying you met a lot of quirky people today, when what you met was people. I don’t find these characters particularly quirky. They’re very real.
Does Provenza have a side we haven’t see? What’s his secret?  Everyone says there is a soft side to Provenza. That’s his secret. He isn’t just a curmudgeon. It’s been brought out in a couple of scripts about his family, and I think that, when he is with his children, the audience will see an entirely different human being.
Provenza and Brenda seem to have a nice working relationship now that they’ve had some time to adjust. Is the honeymoon over?  No matter what Provenza says or what pops out of his mouth, he respects competence. He has been doing his job for more than 30 years, so it takes quite a bit to get him to focus on something. When he’s focused, he knows what he’s doing, and I think it’s her competence that impresses him the most.

Why was THE CLOSER so successful last year?  There is a whole list of reasons the show was successful, including the great writing. Almost immediately, we get to know the characters. We are not just dishing out information. The audience has the opportunity to get to know the characters intimately. From the moment I saw the pilot and saw Kyra’s character and how open and vulnerable she was, I knew audiences would love the show.
What makes Brenda Johnson different than other detectives on television? She has so many things going on: intelligence, vulnerability and she is watchable.
People have said the show has a “quirky” feel to it. Where do you think those quirks come from? From the get-go, it was from the writing. Personally, when I saw one of my first speeches, it wasn’t only just passing out information. There were little things - in sentence structure - that helped you figure out who this person is. In the first paragraph that I read about my character, I could sense that he was a little socially inept and that he was shy. There’s a lot of information, especially in the writing, that’s very helpful in defining these quirky characteristics.

What role does loyalty play in a police squad?  Loyalty is important in police department because you have to know that you can trust the guy that is sitting next to you - the desk opposite you - that you’re on the same page and working together for justice.
What was the best advice the technical advisors gave you last season that helped you shape your character?  The best piece of advice that I have gotten from officers about the portrayal of my character is the realism that we bring. They suggest you make it about the real person first and then his job. I think that’s one of the best things about this show is that we have a lot of real characters who have a real job and its believable to the audience.
Why do unpredictable and flawed characters make for such interesting stories?  Unpredictable and flawed characters make for great stories because people in general are unpredictable and flawed. N one is perfect and we examine that to the extreme on the show.
How does a great story affect you?  A great story affects me in the way that it draws me in and takes me on a journey with twists and turns and after it’s all done, I feel happy I have gone on this trip.  To have seen these sights and to be in a different place and experience different things and this show does that very well.

  
What makes Brenda Johnson different than other detectives on television?  She is so impossibly good at her job. For my character, there is certainly a friction. She does her job so well, but, to Flynn, she has this sort of off-putting behavior. The thing that I really appreciate about my character and my interactions with her is that, while he may be somewhat combative or deal with a certain amount of friction with her, he’s still an honest cop. 
Has Brenda won Flynn over?  I think that Flynn has decided to peacefully co-exist with her. Again, there’s that kind of love/hate sort of stuff where you really admire someone who does their job so well, but you’re also sort of annoyed that they do their job so well.
Flynn has become a bit controversial at the end of the first season. What perspective does he bring?  Flynn is always right about the things that he’s saying, but he has a tough time getting people to listen to what he’s saying or waying it in such a way that it makes as much sense as it does when Brenda says it.
Is Flynn misunderstood?  Yes, of course he’s misunderstood. Here’s a guy who is like a lot of men and women in different professions who are good at what they do. Then someone comes along who has a particular talent that either my character or people like him haven’t developed or are short-sighted in what they have to work on in themselves.

Gil Garcetti

Consulting Producer Gil Garcetti Discusses
His Experience Working on TNT’s THE CLOSER

The cast and crew working on TNT’s hit drama THE CLOSER aren’t all actors, directors, producers and artisans.  There’s one person who, despite coming from an entirely different background, is certainly no less vital to the success of the show.  His name is Gil Garcetti, and if that name sounds familiar, it’s probably because he served as district attorney for Los Angeles County during some of that city’s most memorable criminal cases.
So what’s a former district attorney doing on the set of THE CLOSER?  In his own words, Garcetti provides a peek at his special role behind the scenes of this blockbuster series:

Keeping It Real and Legal
By Gil Garcetti

A little more than a year ago, executive producer James Duff came to me and said there was an opportunity to serve as consulting producer on a character-driven police procedural drama for TNT called THE CLOSER.  He recalled a conversation we had once had in which I had told him, “The best thing a detective can do is get a confession that will hold up in court.”  That statement, he told me, planted the seed for THE CLOSER.

First and foremost, my responsibility on THE CLOSER is to keep the show real and legal, to make sure that Brenda and her team operate within California law and follow real police/prosecution procedures.  To meet this responsibility, I sometimes sit in on the writer’s room meetings and give my input as ideas for an episode are thrown out.  Last year I suggested the topic for one of the shows, the attempted rape and murder of a woman who, it appeared, had posted an Internet personal in which she asked to be raped.  We had such a case when I was working as a D.A. for Los Angeles County, though it did not result in a murder as portrayed in our show.

Also during these meetings during which the scripts are being developed, I will give the writers ideas about how they might get around a legal problem, usually involving in-custody interrogation.  For example, I offered the suggestion for one episode that, if our chief suspect wants to invoke his right to remain silent and have an attorney, that is fine, but then the squad could move to arrest his wife as an accessory to murder.

I am also called in when they run into procedural dead-ends.  There’s an episode from last year, “Good Housekeeping,” in which a juvenile kills the maid’s daughter and then flees to Mexico.  The writers had a problem with our murderer fleeing to Mexico, because I had told them earlier that Mexico would not extradite anyone facing a capital or life sentence case. What to do, they wondered.  I then told them that under a Mexican/American treaty, an American citizen who flees to Mexico but is charged with killing a Mexican citizen in the United States can be tried in Mexico and if convicted, sentenced to a Mexican prison, something most criminals would want to avoid.

When I first read the outline for an episode, I look for legal problems. The second, third and fourth times I read the outline, I am looking for other ways to help the writers keep the drama and suspense.  Sometimes the issues we deal with are large, plot complications, as I’ve described.  But sometimes it’s the little details, like the fact that police officers are trained to shoot their guns in bursts rather than a single shot.  These are things that would not be known by the lay person or the writers, but which add greatly to the authenticity of the story and its characters.

Sometimes the suggestions I offer don’t necessarily fall under my official role as a consulting producer on legal and criminal matters.  There are times in which the suggestions I offer merely come from my perspective as a viewer.  This season, Brenda is going to get a visit from her mother.  As the writers were working on the script, I remembered that, frequently in the South, parents and relatives will refer to the children by both their first and middle names.  So when Brenda’s mom visits from Atlanta, she refers to Brenda as Brenda Leigh.

After the writing of an episode is complete and the shooting begins, I remain on hand to continue offering suggestions.  After a take is finished, the director often turns to me and asks if it’s okay.  Invariably it is, since I have already reviewed the script and since everyone working on the show really knows what they’re doing.  On occasion, however, the words are not coming across as effectively as they could.

There are other times on the set when I’m there to help an actor feel the mood of what he or she is doing or saying.  Sometimes the actors will even turn to me to help make a small change in how they’re playing something or saying a line.  It is then that I’m able to tap into my experience dealing with real detectives, real police officers, real lawyers and real criminals and offer a realistic approach, whether it’s a small change in the wording of a line or specific facial expressions or body language.

As a photographer, I’m also extremely interested in capturing what it takes to put on a successful television show.  Kyra Sedgwick may be the top of THE CLOSER pyramid, but it takes more than 150 people to keep her there every week.  So I’ve been taking extensive photographs of who those people are and what they do.  And I hope someday to share those photos with the world, so that everyone can see what a great team THE CLOSER has and how that team puts together what I think is one of television’s best crime dramas ever.