Feel that change of seasons? Hard not to notice on this Monday night, as two of cable's best summer series- TNT's popular signature drama The Closer and Showtime's quirky classic Weeds- sign off with life-or-death cliffhangers, a week before the official network season gets underway. ( The Closer's story will pick up again in the new year, with five episodes remaining in this split season.)
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The Closer's (Mondays, 9 pm/ET, TNT) G.W. Bailey and Tony Denison rap about Kyra Sedgwick, comedy and how they're like Felix and Oscar.TV Guide: So, the Aug. 11 episode of The Closer is called "Dial M for Provenza" and features you two — what's it about?Tony Denison: [Laughs] Well, there's more of Provenza in it than Flynn, so right away there's a problem.G.W. Bailey: You find out that [guest star Jennifer Coolidge (Legally Blonde)] has hired a hit man to kill her husband, and the guy she hired went to the police. So they send me in to be the undercover guy. And we lose some stuff that we shouldn't lose. Flynn's there, too, but I get all the blame.TV Gu
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Perhaps in preparation for/contrast to the next episode, which is a dramatic doozy, TNT's The Closer this week served up one of its "lighter" cases, and an always interesting combo of whodunit and whowasitdunto. Me, I just feel for poor Flynn and Provenza, who once again were cold-cocked by their separate and collective colorful pasts.Having cued up this episode before reading TVGuide.com's Q&A with G.W. Bailey, I was prepared for some sort of coffin switcheroo but was not expecting the "uninvited guest" to be sharing the space with Flynn's passed-on pal. That twist almost immediately cast a shadow on the funeral home, allowing us to meet that other "closer," thus offering a superb double-take by Brenda and Gabriel. That the actual culprit turned out to be a blackmailed plastic surgeon to the stars as well as the B-story's bridezilla was, in my opinion, a letdown/egregious cheat, ergo making this episode the weakest of the young season to date.That said, what the hour was really...
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Seemingly not having a first name is just one of the quirky qualities that makes The Closer's Detective Lieutenant Provenza one of the most endearing characters on a show full of them. G.W. Bailey, whose own real first name is George — but don't call him that — may not be a household moniker, but you'd probably know his face. The veteran actor's long career ranges from Charlie's Angels through such series as M*A*S*H, St. Elsewhere and The Jeff Foxworthy Show to a recent gig as a faux Santa Claus. We talked to the Port Arthur, Texas, native about what's happening on TNT's The Closer tonight at 9 pm/ET, why the show's such a hit, and yes, his love (or not) for his childhood buddy Janis Joplin.
TVGuide.com:
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Welcome back to Red Herring Central, aka a new season of TNT's The Closer!For any newcomers to the superb series, we are glad to have you here to break down the week's episode, twists and turns and double-backs included. You’ve chosen a real crackerjack of a show to test-drive, and you shall be rewarded for your expenditure of brain power every Monday night. For the regulars from Season 2... here, have a pastry.Let's start with a show of hands: Who thought the Wallaces' son did it? Yep, my hand is up. I know, I know, it's rare that the prime suspect proves to the be culprit in Brenda Leigh-land, but I thought for sure this was going to be a "he did it/no, he didn't/oops, yes he did" reveal. That is, until they unveiled the secret second family. You know, early on I was pondering, "The dad spends a lot of time with this unseen shrink, maybe they are one and the same?" I see now I should have stuck with that. That whole cell-phone-behind-the-wet-bar clue threw me, too. I thought,...
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