Bryan Cranston
Send questions and comments to askmatt@tvguidemagazine.com and follow me on Twitter!
Question: I've seen a lot of debate in the last week since Breaking Bad aired its midpoint finale of this terrific split final season. Much of it focusing on whether Walter White would be obtuse enough to leave Gale's signed copy of Leaves of Grass lying around for anyone ...
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Gordon Ramsay; Savannah Guthrie
It was a summer that won't be remembered fondly, at least by the broadcast networks. Despite a flurry of new shows, from CBS' Dogs in the City to ABC's Glass House, there wasn't much to crow about — at least until NBC's Summer Olympics ratings juggernaut came along. Cable fared better, launching new hits like A&E's Longmire and TNT's Perception and opening events like History's Hatfields & McCoys to big numbers. Here are some of this summer's highs and lows.
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Mary McDonnell
Question: Let's play armchair programmer. While I am enjoying Major Crimes, it does feel a bit like we're just waiting for Brenda Leigh to show. Do you think they could have benefited from holding Major Crimes until the traditional December run of The Closer to let us get a little distance? Or is it purely a creative question? Major Crimes looks just like The Closer. Could the show benefit from some slight visual tweaks? Perhaps a slightly different opening sequence? — Steven
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J.K. Simmons, John Michael Higgins
Men at Work's boss is back, and this time, it's for good.
The Closer's J.K. Simmons, who first appeared last season as the intimidating owner/publisher of Full Steam magazine and Amy's dad P.J. Jordan, will return in a recurring role in Season 2, TVGuide.com has learned exclusively.
Exclusive first look: Bones' Joel David Moore joins Men at Work
This upcoming season will see Simmons go head-to-head with John Michael Higgins (Best in Show, Happily Divorced), who has been cast as...
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Jon Tenney and Kyra Sedgwick
The Closer went out with a bang.
The series finale of the Kyra Sedgwick show drew 9.1 million viewers on Monday night, just 100,000 viewers shy of the series high set by the Season 3 finale. The finale was also up over last week's penultimate episode, which drew just 6 million viewers.
The Closer postmortem: Brenda gets her final confession
The Closer spinoff...
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Kyra Sedgwick
[WARNING: The following story contains spoilers from the series finale of The Closer. Read at your own risk.]
When it came time for The Closer's Brenda Leigh Johnson to get her final confession, she didn't even want to hear it.
TNT says goodbye to The Closer, hello to Major Crimes
The groundbreaking TNT drama's series finale found Brenda (Kyra Sedgwick) once again squaring off with the elusive defense attorney/serial rapist Phillip Stroh (guest star Billy Burke) — only this time, Brenda had an eye witness in the form of orphaned teenage hustler Rusty Beck (Graham Patrick Martin). One problem: Rusty wouldn't identify Stroh unless the Major Crimes Unit located his mother, who had abandoned him....
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Kyra Sedgwick
One of the things I'll miss most about Brenda Leigh Johnson is her sweet tooth: that secret compulsion and most shameful addiction indulged by the Deputy Chief of the LAPD's Major Crimes Division whenever she reaches for that overstuffed top desk drawer, a Pavlovian response to the nerve-wracking stress of her high-profile job. In a more typical L.A. crime story, the hard-driving boss reveals a weakness for booze. With Brenda, it's the soothing waft of chocolate when she peels back the foil from a Ding Dong, savoring the guilty pleasure.
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Kyra Sedgwick, Mary McDonnell
On Monday, The Closer's Brenda Leigh Johnson will hear her final confession. But TNT's Closer spin-off Major Crimes should be able to keep you from grief-eating a dozen Ding Dongs.
The Closer winds down: Who can Brenda trust?
The Closer's series finale finds Brenda (Kyra Sedgwick) trying to put away slippery defense attorney — and suspected serial rapist —Phillip Stroh (Billy Burke) once and for all. And although the climax of the Stroh storyline heavily impacts Brenda's future, it's the introduction of another character — an orphaned teenage hustler named Rusty (Graham Patrick Martin) — that may ultimately prove to be most important. So much so that he'll also be a focal point of Major Crimes...
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Usain Bolt
Our top moments of the week:
13. Funniest Name: On Bachelor Pad, the contestants have to run through an obstacle course called "The Hot Sludge Fundae." As hilarious as it is to watch the players fumble through foam that looks like ice cream and a chocolate syrup-soaked slide, it's the last leg of the race, which host Chris Harrison informs us is called "The Nut Sack," that makes us laugh the hardest. (Yes, we're 12.)
12. Most X-Rated Christmas Carol: Countess LuAnn tries to mix things up on...
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The Newsroom
Send questions and comments to askmatt@tvguidemagazine.com and follow me on Twitter!
Question: It seems that many TV critics (you being a notable exception) are coming down hard on The Newsroom, and I was wondering if you have an idea of why this is. Yes, it's preachy, but every Aaron Sorkin show and movie is. Successful, intelligent career women are portrayed as being driven mostly by their hormones, but that's true of every woman character on TV that's written by a man (unless played by Julianna Margulies or Connie Britton). And some of the plot contrivances (the wayward e-mails, the Bigfoot obsession, the cute blonde assistant who is smart when the plot needs her smart and dumb when the plot needs her dumb) are cringe-worthy. On the other hand, you've got a talented, likable cast ably delivering some of the snappiest dialogue on TV, which right there puts it ahead of 95 percent of everything else.
I'm not saying it's not flawed, but the pluses outweigh the minuses by quite a bit, and the show is wildly entertaining. So why the heavily negative reaction? Is Sorkin held to a higher standard? Are journalists taking more shots because the show is set in a milieu they know (a newsroom) rather than the White House? Curious on your take on this. — Rick
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