On TV: THE CLOSER series finale recap (Thank yew!)

Saddened though I was to bid farewell to my favorite junk food junkie, I loved The Closer's series finale, which aired last night on TNT.   Thank yew, Brenda Leigh Johnson and company.

In The Closer series finale, episode 7.21 titled "The Last Word" (2012), two men having a moonlight tryst in a secluded, wooded, cliffside section of Griffith Park witness a masked man, clad entirely in black, carrying a naked blonde's body. The trick, who's removed only his jacket at this point (with his cellphone and other personal effects in the pocket), sees this sinister scenario first and takes off running, literally leaving the kid (survival sex prostitute Rusty Beck), with his pants down.  While the boy's yanking his jeans up, the trick's cellphone rings, alerting the killer that he's not alone.  Rusty grabs the phone and flees, with the killer hot on his heels. The culprit catches and struggles with the teenager, who fights back valiantly, and in the process unmasks the culprit. The killer, in turn bangs Rusty in the forehead head with a shovel and shoves the kid off the cliff. Miraculously, Rusty - who (we learn) is a survivor in more ways than one - makes his way downtown and uses his john's cellphone to report the crime.

Thanks to Rusty's call, Brenda and her team find the body and use the clues found at and around the serial killer's burial ground as well as leads generated by the phone call to track down the two witnesses and other important clues. Thusly, they identify the dead girl and tentatively identify the culprit as Phillip Stroh. 

Stroh is a wily attorney who Brenda and her team know is a serial killer, but - until now - he has so deftly covered his tracks that Brenda has been unable to collect the hard evidence needed to close the case.  This has haunted Brenda, who has obsessed over this case for several seasons, even in nightmares that have eerily foretold her and Stroh's final encounter. Unfortunately, Brenda's zealous methods of pursuing Stroh have jeopardized her credibility on that subject and her professional standing.

And then the frantic 911 call causes Beck's, Brenda's and Brenda's real-life bogeyman's lives to collide.

To positively identify Stroh (in a manner that will hold up in court) and close her final case, Brenda must employ nontraditional means that ultimately sacrifice her job and come close to costing Beck and Brenda their lives. First, Brenda lures Stroh to reveal himself as the masked man who buried women in the park by publicizing in the media pictures of a barechested, scratched-up Beck (who left his shirt at the scene when he hastily fled for his life) wearing the serial killer's mask as a hat and phoning 911, along with the call's audio and transcripts and advisement that Sunset Boulevard is Beck's usual stroll. Stroh takes the bait, approaching Beck on the boulevard, and is hauled by Brenda's team into an investigation room at MCD. There, Brenda threatens that she has Stroh's DNA.  He's too wily, however, to confess.  He knows Brenda would arrest him if she had sufficient evidence, but he hasn't consented to provide a DNA sample, which - he sneers - Brenda cannot legally obtain without his consent.  Clearly, he's unclear whom he's dealing with.

Eventually, MCD must cut Stroh loose.  However, cocky about besting Brenda again (and perhaps still high on his latest kill), Stroh can't resist revealing he closely follows every detail of her life, and taunts Brenda about her mother's recent death.  He then turns and cockily struts into the elevator (that symbolic cell signifying the ability to rise or fall at the push of a button, of life's comeuppances and downfalls). 

Thank yew!

Brenda (whose quick-trigger reflexes have frequently impressed me) takes advantage of that opportunity to dive into the elevator, just before the doors lock them in alone together, and attack Stroh, obstensibly (and probably) expending the rage and frustration she has built up toward him over the years and expressing her emotional reaction to his dig about her dearly departed mother. In the process, she also calculatedly and in sangfroid draws blood and skin fragments, that she (and her friend DDA Hobbs, who offers her a new job outside of the LAPD) convince the crime lab to match against DNA taken from Stroh's mask. Of course, Brenda's attack of Stroh - in plain sight of her whole team and upward chain of command - threatens to invite (another) lawsuit, a definite reprimand, and possible dismissal from the force.  But she ultimately sidesteps all of that and resigns.

That evening, after Fritz has left for Washington, D.C. to expedite the case, Stroh (who's been stalking Brenda) breaks into her house, where a homeless Beck is staying overnight.  Brenda recognizes what's happened when she leaves Beck at the table to have a cry in the w.c. and discovers the window wide open, the screen removed, and a Hitchcockian breeze billowing through the bathroom curtains.  (I'm not sure there actually ARE curtains, but you get the picture.) She grabs a low-tech weapon (some sort of bludgeon) and, pretending she's unaware there's a killer in her kitchen, continues talking to Beck while cautiously making her way to the that now scary room, where she left him sitting at the kitchen table (now vacant) and the purse holding her gun on the kitchen counter (which she must inevitably pass by serial killer Stroh to reach).

Sure enough, there's Stroh, all the more nightmarish-looking with his battered face and raccoon eyes that Brenda blackened in her attack, holding Beck at knifepoint. Brenda advises Beck to execute the defensive move he's found successful with dangerous johns.  Beck complies, letting his body go slack and then judo flipping Stroh.  With the attacker flat on his back, Brenda makes a move for her purse.

Thankfully, Beck's more than a pretty face with a pouty attitude; while Brenda goes for her bag, he tackles Stroh. But Stroh slashes the boy in the leg, temporarily incapacitating him, and then goes after Brenda. 

In the ensuing scene, eerily reminiscent of Brenda's struggle with another psychopathic killer who cornered her at a boatyard machine shop (which she displayed poor judgment to enter without backup, just as she displayed poor judgment to think she and Beck would be safe at her home with Stroh on the loose, after all that's recently transpired), Brenda's able to grab her designer bag in the nick of time.  Stroh's poised his huge butcher knife and is practically upon Brenda when she reaches in her purse and shoots him several times, right through the black satchel's leather bottom.  (I have a similar bag, but it's too full of stuff to ever serve me as well in a pinch.)

Stroh, badly wounded and heavily bloodied, falls to the floor, with his back against the counter, unable to get up. Brenda, by now, has removed the handgun from the handbag and aimed it, two-handed, at his kill zone.  Stroh - recognizing that Brenda is tempted to kill him, and hearing Beck's strident exhortations to do so - urges Brenda to instead phone 911.  Brenda rationalizes that she could kill Stroh "in self defense", but the attorney-at-law counters that Beck could blow that rationalization out of the water when questioned as a witness. 

Brenda doesn't heed Stroh's advice, but takes her own counsel.  Scenes leading up to this one reveal that Brenda's career, conscience, and colleagues (especially Sgt. David Gabriel - note his angelic last name)  are haunted by memories of the Turrell Baylor case, and so - after a tense moment of "will she or won't she?" - former Deputy Chief Johnson phones an ambulance, instead. (Brenda's character contrasts with Dr. Melfi's, in that Brenda's actions in the series finale redeem her, while Melfi  - who was tempted to sic Tony Soprano on her rapist after the legal system bungled the evidence chain-of-custody and thus had to free him - would have been irredeemable had she let street justice dispatch with a criminal the legal system was inequipped to deal with) .

Stroh offers Brenda a confession, but "the closer" - who obsessed over this criminal for years -  uncharacteristically does not want to hear it. Clearly, she has reached another, more important sort of closure; her mother's death and Beck's comments and life story (which she closely identifies with) have taught her to focus on the living, not the dead.

P.S. Brenda - assured that the new job she's offered as chief of the DA's Bureau of Investigation will let her bring Det. Gabriel aboard with her (as her LAPD Liaison) - accepts the position and says her goodbyes in the last few scenes.  The team's parting gift is a black leather designer satchel, filled with the silver-foil-wrapped treats Brenda loves. The purse is meant to replace, as closely as possible, that bag Brenda damaged when she shot Stroh (it's now evidence, so the team couldn't inspect it too closely); the team hopes it's an acceptable substitute.

ASIDE: The filmmakers have ensured that viewers realize how important Brenda's bag is to her; she carried one everywhere, throughout the series, frequently leaving it behind and making a big deal about retrieving it.  At the top of the series finale episode, she hefted it after exiting the police van that brought her to the serial killer's burial ground, and the warddrobe department ensured that the oversized black bag contrasted sharply with her short white overcoat and matched her black gloves and tall black boots, so we'd notice it as she tramped around the park.

Touched, Brenda assures the team the gift is perfect; "it's love", she says repeatedly.  Clearly, it's not just the bag, and not just the treats that touch her.  It's the gesture - so antithetical to the cold shoulder and rebellion that greeted Brenda when she began the job.  (Beware, Captain Raydor!) And they'll see Brenda again (after she returns from Atlanta), the former Deputy Chief promises; after all, her new job is just up the block. (There's that up/down terminology, again.) 

No mushy hugs or kisses in that farewell, but it's so touching, all the same, that some of those gun-toting tough guys fight back tears.

Then it's out the door and down the hall, where Brenda steps into the same elevator cell where she'd previously beaten Stroh to a pulp. There's no sign of his blood or gore now.  Brenda contentedly sniffs the silver treat, much as one might enjoy the bouquet of a fine wine, and smiles, as the door shuts.

Bye-bye, Brenda Leigh!  Thank yew so much.

###

P.S. Anyone else wondering if The Closer's spin-off, Major Crimes, will continue to use the down home bluesy music that goes hand in hand with Brenda Leigh's southern roots, and that is so reminiscent of another police series I enjoyed: In the Heat of the Night?

In Print: My fave quote today (from Erik Larson's THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY)

Love this quote from Erik Larson's 2003 non-fiction book, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America (Crown Publishers, ISBN 0609608444):

"At first, most Americans believed that if an exposition honoring the deepest roots of the nation were to be held anywhere, the site should be Washington, the capital. [...] Suddenly New York and St. Louis wanted the fair. Washington laid claim to the honor on grounds it was the center of government, New York because it was the center of everything. No one cared what St. Louis thought, although the city got a wink for pluck." - page 28

On TV: Tough Love: Miami: Ep. 304, "Flirting"

I'm watching a rerun of Tough Love: Miami, episode 304, titled "Flirting". I can't help but wonder: does anyone else find it ironic that the go-go dancer is named Chastity?  Maybe that's her stage name and Soules, Chastity Soules' real name is undercover (like that of SIS Agent 007).

On Craigslist: this lazy-a$$ student's ad emphasizes one dangerous flaw in online education

I saw the following ad on Craigslist.  It's not unlike others I've seen, some of which promise to pay a stooge to write one's papers.  Is it not bad enough that so many colleges have dumbed down their curricula and grading standards?  Apparently not: compounding the problem is the abuse - by many students, in my observation and that of many writers - of those online and hybrid/blended classes which lack appropriate mechanisms to prevent and detect cheating.   Bleh!

The ad was posted under new york craigslist > queens > jobs > education/teaching jobs:



Compensation for taking a 100 (freshman) level online course (Queens)




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 2011-11-04, 11:15AM EDT

Reply to: job-rshnr-2684846084@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------







Me:



I am a 24 yr old college student and i need help taking 18 credits per semester, in order to accomplish my goals, and save time.

were talking about liberal art courses such as art 100, theology 100, science 100, etc. easy stuff i dont want to concern myself with and focus on my double major instead.

i will buy the materials for you

i will give you 35% up front, 35% after the midterm and the rest 30% once the course is over.

starts Jan 20th, 2012 - 1st week of may



You:



Serious Inquiries only.

Have a Bachelors Degree, resume is a plus.

have a lot of experience taking online courses

live in Queens area

agree to get me a B+ or higher

write original essays, must not plagiarize.

MUST have time, dedication, discipline to take this 4 month course!













Location: Queens

Compensation: 400$

This is a part-time job.

Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.

Please, no phone calls about this job!

Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.







PostingID: 2684846084

On TV: Con Air

I'm watching while I work (at home). Here's what's on TV: Con Air. This flick earned both an Academy Award nomination AND a Golden Raspberry Award! (Go figure.)  This best-of-the-good and worst-of-the-bad dichotomy similarly describes the assortment of guys (and gals) associated with The Jailbird - the prison plane after which the movie is named.

The film's not yet over, but I have already adopted a favorite line: "Put the bunny back in the box!" Heh.

here

John Grisham






What I'm (re-)reading now:  The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town by NYT Bestselling author, John Grisham [July 12, 2009 Paperback].  Read a synopsis, reviews, and interview with the author here.

What I'm reading now: Gus Hasford's THE PHANTOM BLOOPER (1990)

http://www.loc.gov/vets/
Happy New Year!

Befitting a Veterans History Project Official Founding Partner/New York, I re-screened Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan this holiday weekend and then one thing led to another.  I read about Gustav Hasford's war novel (The Short-Timers). It's the basis for another fave film - Full Metal Jacket - to which both the aforementioned films give nods. And then I snagged both books, The Short-Timers and Gus Hasford's sequel, which I'm reading now: The Phantom Blooper (1990). 

Both books are highly engrossing, savagely powerful, gripping far past the last page, and highly recommended.  Here's a vivid excerpt from The Phantom Blooper chapter 1, "The Winter Soldiers", which made this pogue pause. I'm using the luxury of being able to call a cease-fire-at-will to blog this post.

Black John Wayne hangs tough, firing his M-60 until the barrel glows red and white. But an NVA flame thrower roars across the trenchline and then Black John Wayne is a black man wearing fire as formal attire and his bulky body jerks like a puppet and he dances as M-16 rounds in his bandoliers cook off, and then the M-60 in his hands blows up, and Black John Wayne is still standing, while advancing NVA troops move around him and out of his way. He holds on to his throat with both hands, like a man trying to strangle himself, or like a man trying to pull off his own head. And he falls.


Whew! The horror. But the violence, blood and guts are not what grab me. 
 
This excerpt can't convey the anxiety-provoking, ominous quiet or the dreadful darkness Private James T. "Joker" Davis inimitably describes at the book's opening.  Nor Hasford's brief but brilliant character sketches and background context. Nor the disturbingly violent and claustrophobic circumstances preceding this paragraph, that only someone who's been there (like this author, or one of Wallace Terry's Bloods, or a Veterans History Project subject), could describe. Nor the reasons why Black John Wayne's loss is, at once, so heroic and so heartbreaking.
 
What is does provide civilian readers, REMFs, and hobbits is a representative sample of Gus' on-the-front lines clench-your-sphincter grit-your-teeth kiss-God's-green-earth-and-naivite-about-war-goodbye ride. I repeat, Pilgrim, The Phantom Blooper is not a read; it's a wild, heart in throat, can't get off 'cuz Gus' taken you POW, ride.  And as you can read for yourself, this book is not for faint of heart or those with IBS.  Rider/reader discretion is advised.
 
In contrast, those concerned with the firsthand Vietnam War experience and its aftermath, for grunts, this semi-autobiographical novel is one must-read.  Two others, of course, are Hasford's Short-Timers and Wallace Terry's 100% true-life, first-person accounts of African American soldiers of a diversity of ranks and backgrounds titled, Bloods: Black Veterans of the Vietnam War: An Oral History.

ON TV: Top Chef All-Stars - Jen's parting is such sweet sorrow

Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow,- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet Act 2, scene 2, 176–185

That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

 

I set out to blog how, ON TV: On Top Chefs All-Stars, episode 2, Jen's parting is such sweet sorrow.
What I found, though, was: Patti Labelle has two titles that aptly describe the first chefs sent packing, Shakespeare eerily predicted Jen's crack of doom, and Jason Sheehan is my new favorite Top Chef blogger.
 
Top Chef Season 8's first All-Star casualty last week was Elia Aboumrad (who placed 4th in Top Chef, Season 2 ). I dedicate to her Patti Labelle's album: Patti Live! One Night Only...  To Jen, I dedicate Patti LaBelle's hit song "New Attitude".

Either the All-Star cheftestants OD'd on La LaBelle's lyrics, or the producers whipped them into a stiff, saucy frenzy for ratings' sake. To wit:  Last week, Elia landed on the chopping block for stubbornly refusing to update her losing dish beyond a mere tweak.  And Fabio Viviani (Season 5's Fan Favorite, who placed 4th), threw down the gauntlet with bitingly-brutal judge Anthony Bourdain. 

This season, Jen's anger, feistiness, and cockiness sharply contrasted with her mild-mannered demeanor during Top Chef Season 6 (she placed fourth, too - I see a pattern here).  Jen staunchly stood by her soaked pork-belly dish (which some said tasted like wet bacon) and so dissed the judges that her castmates (and some judges) rocked on their heels. I think one of her teammates gasped. (Although in the stew room, two-stitch Jamie Lauren (who placed 7th in Season 5) said about Jen's tirade: "She was good!")
Antonia Lofaso (who placed 4th in Season 4) asked Jen if she'd behaved that way in Season 6. Jen's reply: "Absolutely not. This is All-Star Jen."

Jen, Jen, why'd you drink that Kool-Aid?

This go-round, Jen's hubris in general, and cockiness about the Museum of Natural History challenge in particular challenged the gods of reality TV to take her down. Couple that begging-for-it setup with her alternately simmering and red-hot-chili-pepper temper this season, Jen's impudence at judge's table, and her shared confidence in the confessional (her father sez coming in second is still losing), and you KNOW she's cruisin' for losin' - if only to make good TV.

And good TV we got.  All that tough talk and the tirade at judge's table certainly was "dramatical" (to quote celebreality star Flavor Flav) and "drama-full" (to quote a young woman overhead gossipping on Manhattan's 6-train yesterday). But I'd bet my best cookware Jen never would have talked so tough if she'd felt vulnerable. 

But she was.  They all are. For all but one chef-testant, life upon this show is but a walking shadow, short-lived and soon-doused. 

Instead of listening to Patti LaBelle - or the producers - or her father - and breaking bad, Jen should have read Shakespeare's MacBeth.  For on Top Chef, to-morrows are not promised, and for all but one talented, lucky contestant, hubris, incompetence, and carelessness will light fools the way out, out! To be then heard no more.  (Until the Top Chef  holiday special or some other media opportunity.)

This course, Jen's candle was snuffed. Her strutting and fretting upon the stage, full of sound and fury, signified nothing. And so Tom Colicchio told her: he admired her standing up for her dishes, but that did nothing to improve her food. 

Given all Jen's bad-ass bravado and bluster, her elimination was painfully ironic. Padma's "Jen, please pack your knives and go" was tight-throated (as if it were hard for her to break the bad news). Tiffany and Jamie's reactions:  total shock (although Jamie's also reflected surprise she it was Jen - not she - who was sent packing). Antonia's reaction spoke for us all:  "Holy sh*t!" 
Even I, who found Jen's bravado and overconfidence unwise and her behavior at judge's table inappropriate, found her ousting hard to swallow.  (I pity the fool!) But what came next for this poor player was even harder to watch.

Not even a Machiavellian producer like Real Housewives' sleaz-evil genius, Andy Cohen, could have predicted Jen's priceless, cringe-worthy, emotional roller-coaster of a meltdown.  Jason Sheehan describes it well in his post: "Top Chef All-Stars, second course: Is Jen a dinosaur?" 

By the way, I think Jason Sheehan should be a Top Chef judge.  To underscore my point, check out this post: "Note to Top Chef: Stop sucking."

ONSCREEN: What's with Alicia Witt making love in lifts with men she shouldn't be with?

What's with Alicia Witt making love in lifts with men she shouldn't be with?  Well, not Alicia exactly, but some of the lusty, unfaithful characters she plays onscreen.

• Exhibit A:

Consider her steamy elevator scene in Season 2, Episode 7 of The Sopranos ("D-Girl", 2000). Witt, as film development executive Amy Safir, begins an illicit liaison with her fiancé's mafiso cousin, Christopher Molitsanti (Michael Imperioli), in a hotel elevator and consummates it all over her room.

Chris, we already know, has no respect for the terms of engagement (his fiancée is Adriana La Cerva, played by Drea de Matteo). That's not surprising, since The Sopranos and the gangster fare that inspired it, whether fictional (e.g., Casino, The Godfather Trilogy, Goodfellas, The Public Enemy, Scarface), semi-fictional (e.g., The Untouchables), or true-life (e.g., the Decavalcante Crime Family), perpetuate the belief that most gangsters (and their wives) take having a comàre or three for granted. We also know Christopher has become disenchanted with the breakdown of Cosa Nostra values, and so he feels justified violating the taboo against airing Family secrets and bloody laundry (even in fiction).

But Cousin Greg (Dominic Fumusa), whom Amy and Chris cuckold, had introduced the pair in a win-win effort to help Chris make mob-oriented movies and Amy find marketable film projects. For Chris to sleep with that cousin's (ANY relative's) intended wife?  Madonn'! Chrissie clearly doesn't much respect family ties, either.  (Except, of course, when they involve Chris' cousin/uncle/mob boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and Adrianna.  We see how Chris feels when he thinks the shoe's on the other foot in "Irregular Around the Margins" - Season 5, Episode 57 and in his movie Cleaver, aired in "Stage 5" - Season 6, Episode 79.)

Exhibit B:

I wonder if Witt's steamy elevator scene in The Sopranos inspired either her casting or the elevator scene in the movie, Last Holiday (2006)?  In this big-screen flick, Witt plays sultry secretary, Ms. Burns, who gets lovey-dovey in the lift with her married boss, Matthew Kragen (Timothy Hutton).  Later, a tete-a-tete with Georgia Byrd (Queen Latifah) in a hotel spa reveals Kragen has been stringing Burns along with promises he will leave his wife.  Burns feels stressed, trapped, and unable to leave because she has no education.  Byrd advises her (in so many words):  stop being a sucker (pun intended), go back to school, and take charge of your professional and personal destiny!

The Upshot:

Both stories end well for the women and badly for the men. 

In The Sopranos, sleazy Safir severs ties with Moltisanti and his film project (after, of course, her boss has stolen Chris' concept).  In a less-than-subtle symbolic scene, Chris confronts and insults Safir, calling her a "D-girl".  The Yale University graduate and doctor's daughter, Safir, leaves Chris standing at the bottom of a staircase (an "auto" lift of sorts) and corrects him (read:  puts him back in his place), while steadily ascending - "I'm a Vice-President, you moron!"  The experience temporarily wounds Christopher emotionally (he really liked Amy) and opens his eyes to the shark-like nature of the film industry (which is not unlike that of the mafia, but without the offscreen violence). But Chris' world doesn't collapse. Not immediately.  That happens after he makes another film (a revenge fantasy, which could have been subtitled, "Pork Store Killer's Revenge") with a little help from "friends of his" both buttoned ("made") and buttonholed (made to help). The film's message contributes to Chris' demise, and sometime later, Moltisanti suffers a tragic fate at the hands of Tony, who modeled the film's protagonist (in "Kennedy and Heidi" -  The Sopranos: Season 6, Part 2, Episode 83). 

In Last Holiday, Burns' status elevates while Kragen's plummets.  Burns takes Byrd's advice; she returns to school, graduates, and gets a better job at the Grand Hotel Pupp. In contrast, her adulterous, manipulative, self-interested former boss, Kragen, loses his money to his ex-wife and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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