I know, I know — there’s been an awful lot of news related to The Closer lately. But this has been a pretty big week for series star Kyra Sedgwick.

Yesterday, June 8, the same day as her show’s very successful fifth-season premiere, Sedgwick made her way to California, where she received the 2,384th star on the renowned Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Even better, her brand-new shiny honor is located right beside that belonging to her husband, film star Kevin Bacon, which is just too cool. What a great way to start a new season for her!

Follow the jump to take a look at the festivities in a few choice photos, the second including Bacon and the first featuring the cast of The Closer, who apparently turned out in full force for their leading lady (I believe Tony Denison, aka Lieutenant Andy Flynn, is the one you can’t see immediately to the right of Sedgwick). That speaks volumes about their regard for her as a person, which is good for fans to know.

The Closer airs Mondays on TNT at 9pm ET.

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The first new episode of 2009 for TNT’s hit drama The Closer is January 26th’s “Good Faith.” When we last left Team Brenda, they had just taken out a demented bomber at a crowded shopping mall, but not before Detective Julio Sanchez was seriously hurt during the bloody rooftop standoff. “Time Bomb” was the name of that adrenaline-filled, thrilling episode, and it lived up to its name in every way.

Next, the crew takes on an investigation of what looks like a suicide until the medical examiner rules it a murder. In the meantime, Brenda has to cope with the expected anxiety that comes whenever her parents are in town for a visit. Tension for the ace detective, good times for the rest of us who appreciate her quirky but lovable ma and pa.

Check out an advance preview for the episode after the jump. Then, count down the remaining days until we get more of one of the best detectives on TV.

The Closer will air Mondays on TNT at 9pm.

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Now called the Major Crimes Division instead of Priority Homicide, Brenda’s team investigates a dead teenager’s connection to a suspected plan to murder hundreds of people. And, yes, if the title didn’t give it away, a bomb is involved.

A sneak peek at the episode follows the jump, complete with one of those handy yet weird-looking little bomb robots.

The Closer airs Mondays on TNT at 9pm EST.

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Brenda gets in deep you-know-what during “Tijuana Brass,” the September 8 episode of The Closer, when reporter Ricardo Ramos’ article on Priority Homicide is published and the you-know-what hits the fan due to its negative depiction of Team Brenda. Yes, the boys and two girls can come off as an abrasive bunch to the uninitiated, but who in their right mind would argue they don’t get the job done?

Of course, Chief Pope gets pissed about the potentially damaging publicity, which is almost as dramatic as the central case revolving around two cops from Tijuana, Mexico, found dead in a stolen vehicle. The prime suspect? An FBI snitch.

Check out Pope pitching a righteous fit in front of Brenda because of that newspaper article in the sneak peek after the jump. I don’t think J.K. Simmons is capable of ever turning in a bad performance, and somehow I still have to stop myself from calling him Skoda whenever I see him. That reflex probably won’t ever go away, which is why it’s weird to see him so angry when Skoda was always so darn calm. Good stuff.

The Closer airs Mondays on TNT at 9pm EST.

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Now that all of the (unnecessary and undeserved) hype over The CW’s tepid 90210 has (finally) subsided (I hope and pray), here’s some news that’s actually worth going ga-ga over: TNT is in the beginning stages of producing a spinoff of its hit Kyra Sedgwick crime drama The Closer. Can you hear me screaming with joy?!

According to reports, the network has issued a script order for the potential new series. That means a chosen team of writers — in this case Closer creator and executive producer James Duff, Closer co-executive producer Adam Belanoff, and Closer writer Michael Berchem — are currently working on a script for an episode.

After it’s finished, relevant network executives will review the script to determine the proposed spinoff’s chances of success. Given The Closer’s consistent excellence from episode to episode — admittedly, there have been occasional weak installments, but never any outright duds — we can pretty much predict a spinoff would have a comparable level of quality.

So, excellent move TNT. Let’s get this series on the tube, stat. And since I love all of the characters on the original show, a rarity for me, I won’t mind who stars in the spinoff if there’s any character overlap or crossover.

NOTE: Reviews of the first two underwhelming episodes of 90210 are coming up — I bravely overcame the rush to publish since the show really doesn’t warrant that kind of obsessiveness.

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Although definitely not the best or most riveting episosde of The Closer so far this season, “Split Ends” does have its moments. Many of them, in fact, are comedic, which is a nice counterpoint to the very grave and extremely depressing topics the show has tackled in recent weeks.

The main murder of the installment involves a 33-year-old Hollywood hairstylist named Rachel Hughes, whose viciously beaten and bloody body is found underneath a trailer on the lot of her popular TV show Trauma Unit. It’s easy enough to determine where Hughes works since the crime takes place practically on the set, but not so much when it comes to where she actually lives when she goes home.

A little basic detective work reveals Hughes has made several trips to the hospital, thanks to her physically abusive husband, a struggling actor with severe problems controlling his anger. After the last treatment session six months ago, she filed for divorce and a restraining order, in addition to moving out of the house that she, as the breadwinner, owned.

So, then why did she have an appointment with her husband the night of her murder to cut his hair? Is he lying about that little detail and totally faking his shock when Brenda informs him Rachel is dead?

No, it turns out. Yet more investigating leads Team Brenda to the hospital, where an employee confirms that not only did Hughes visit a recommended battered women’s shelter, which advised her to hide her new address, but she also took in another abused woman out of a desire to help others. When Brenda notices Hughes’ almost ex-husband highlighting his lines in a script for an upcoming role while he’s in the interview room, she remembers seeing a similarly marked script in the dead woman’s apartment.

Solving the case is as easy — and uninspiring — as pie from there. The highlighted lines point to recent Trauma Unit guest star Callie Rivers, who just happens to be held hostage by her abusive boyfriend Mark when Team Brenda shows up to question her.

Proof of the crime in progress is the still bloody head wound that matches the blood and blonde hair on a lamp in Hughes’ apartment, as well as the bruise on her collarbone the terrified woman quickly shows Brenda as she stands at her front door and tries not to openly give away that Mark is right behind her inside the house. The team members, all on the scene, go through the back and front doors simultaneously to save the day and the actress.

Highlights from the episode, which the central crime definitely isn’t, include the arrival of Brenda’s overbearing yet loving parents, who take a detour to California in their RV during a road trip to Alaska. Fritz lies to Brenda about a fake bomb threat at the airport just to get out of spending the day alone with them.

So, how satisfying it must be for him when a nervous Brenda finally stands up to her father at the end and tells him to stop meddling in their wedding plans. But Fritz is determined to be married by next January or February, which means after the show returns from hiatus (only two more new episodes left before the hiatus begins).

Another interesting subplot was the revelation that Los Angeles Times reporter Ricardo Ramos is still making waves about how Priority Homicide decides which cases merit attention. His insinuation, of course, is that “special” people get the special treatment, such as rich, white, and/or famous people. I can’t wait to see if this recurring and tense storyline leads to an eventual blowout for Brenda, who stubbornly remains focused on just doing her job uninhibited, and/or her team.

As I said earlier, “Split Ends” is enjoyable enough, but it rates fairly low on the memorable, exciting, and intriguing scales, making it seem like The Closer, Lite or what happens when the writers get tired of churning out all of the intense stuff. I hope next week’s installment is better.

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On this “hair-raising” installment, Team Brenda investigates the murder of a hairstylist for a TV show who also has a disturbing background filled with abuse. And if that’s not enough — an abused woman — to irritate Brenda, then how about another visit from her wonderful but slightly meddling parents? You can just predict the detective’s overwhelming anxiety already.

Check out a sneak peek for the episode after the jump.

The Closer airs Mondays on TNT at 9pm EST.

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The moment I read the description, I knew this episode of The Closer, directed by Kyra Sedgwick’s husband, actor Kevin Bacon, was going to be one of the best I’ve seen. It didn’t disappoint either.

“Sudden Death” opens with the apparent drive-by shooting of Detective Julio Sanchez’s brother, Oscar, practically right outside the cop’s house and in broad daylight as he works on his motorcycle. The 19-year-old dies soon after he reaches the hospital, which is no surprise considering he was shot four times. Sanchez’s response afterwards in front of his colleagues, all of whom show up with their spouses or significant others, is unexpectedly strange, however.

Instead of the huge wave of anger I was expecting given his notorious temper, Sanchez is more concerned that his fellow cops have some pizza and understand how much he appreciates them coming. When someone asks if he wants them to contact his family, Sanchez says he’ll do it himself later since all of his family members are at work. Everybody has a different reaction to grief, I guess, especially in the early stages.

Of course, Brenda sends Sanchez home to get himself together and to keep him from interfering with the top-priority investigation. And, of course, Sanchez does neither. When Tao shares details about a possible suspect, a paroled gangbanger nicknamed Puppet, Sanchez arrives on the scene before Priority Homicide. Brenda has to force him to back down from scaring the bejesus out of the ex-con, who’s hiding on the floor behind a couch. Now that’s the Sanchez I know and love, even if his actions are ill-advised.

Eventually, an undercover ATF officer and acquaintance of Fritz’s helps crack the case when he buys the murder weapon, a .40 caliber gun, from an overly eager seller, another gangbanger and ex-con named Juan Guzman, aka Gooz. Here’s what happened:

Oscar was bringing his girlfriend of three weeks, Elena Contreras, to meet Sanchez, one of his six siblings, before starting college in the fall. At the same time, Gooz was out with his 14-year-old brother Tony hunting for any member of the rival gang East 18 to shoot in retaliation for another member of the same gang ratting him out while he was serving eight years in prison recently for another drive-by shooting. Yes, it boggles the mind, and even more so if you realize this kind of nonsense happens often in real life.

Gooz and Tony couldn’t find any East 18ers hanging outside, though. So, stupid yet scarily hardcore Tony settled on messing with the only guy they did see — Oscar. He ordered Sanchez’s brother to let him check out his baseball cap because apparently some cowardly/smart gangbangers put their gang’s number underneath the bill in lieu of proudly being walking targets by wearing gang-colored clothing. Oscar refused to hand over his hat for Tony’s inspection, so Tony shot him four times.

Brenda gets a confession out of the brat — and nabs his brother Gooz, too, since he was driving Tony around at the time a felony was committed — when Oscar’s girlfriend Elena has a panic attack in the hallway. This scene was so clever and fantastic, you have to see it to get the full impact.

Elena leaves the camera room after she informs Brenda’s team Gooz isn’t the guy she saw shoot Oscar from the car. But she goes crazy with fear in the hallway when she sees Gooz’s mother and brother Tony, who accompanied the gangbanger to the station. Her terrified exclamations about “him” seeing her makes Sanchez, who’s there to observe the questioning of the suspect everyone thought was guilty, realize exactly who the shooter is.

After the case is closed, the episode ends with the most touching scene I’ve viewed in The Closer’s four-season history. In the dark and empty squad room, Sanchez holds the bloody hat Oscar was wearing as Provenza enters. He finally breaks down and cries for the first time while revealing to Provenza that what happened is his fault because the hat Tony murdered his brother over was his gift to Oscar on his 19th birthday the previous month.

Oscar probably also never thought he’d get shot because everybody in the neighborhood knows his older brother Julio is an LAPD cop, and a very, very mean one at that. The only problem was Tony and Gooz weren’t from that neighborhood.

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First of all, actor Kevin Bacon, the real-life husband of series star Kyra Sedgwick (as I’m sure we all know), returns to direct this episode, marking his third year in a row contributing to the series behind the camera.

Second of all, and most important to me, the episode focuses on Detective Julio Sanchez (Raymond Cruz), which is the first time the show has given us an entire plot revolving around his volatile character. Sanchez, whom I find impossible not to admire for his stony-faced tenacity, always looks like a volcano patiently waiting for the perfect time to erupt. I love him.

Unfortunately for the Priority Homicide detective, his brother is shot on “Sudden Death.” Then again, on the good side for both siblings, Sanchez’s colleagues have his back all the way and refuse to stop trying to close the case until it’s, well, closed.

A two-minute sneak peek follows the jump, courtesy of TNT, and it makes me even more eager to see the entire installment.

The Closer airs Mondays on TNT at 9pm EST.

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Brenda must decide whether a missing teenager should be handled as a runaway case or something more ominous, the last of which is possible thanks to the boy’s gruesomely violent history.

The sneak peek after the jump shows Brenda, her Priority Homicide team, and the FBI as they make a chilling discovery at what looks like a typical, normal suburban home.

The Closer airs Mondays on TNT at 9pm EST.

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