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New Digs, Career Decisions for TNT’s The Closer, July 12

By April MacIntyre Jun 10, 2010, 5:16 GMT

01/23/2010 - Kyra Sedgwick - 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards - Arrivals - The Shrine Auditorium - Los Angeles, CA, USA © Albert L. Ortega / PR Photos

TNT series The Closer ramps up July 12.

A new multi-million-dollar headquarters and an internal political struggle over who will become the next police chief add a whole new set of challenges for Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson as the sixth season of The Closer.  Golden Globe winner and four-time Emmy nominee Kyra Sedgwick returns as Johnson, who heads up the LAPD’s Major Crimes Division.

The Closer launches its new season Monday, July 12, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT), and features an extraordinary cast. 

From TNT

The series stars Jon Tenney (Brothers & Sisters), J.K. Simmons (Juno), Corey Reynolds (The Terminal), Tony Denison (Prison Break), G.W. Bailey (M*A*S*H), Michael Paul Chan (Arrested Development), Raymond Cruz (Breaking Bad), Robert Gossett (Arlington Road) and Phillip P Keene (The DA).

As the new season of The Closer opens, the squad is moving into its new high-tech digs.  But it’s not long before they’re wishing they could be back in their old space, where a plain white board nailed to the wall was more practical than the troublesome sliding screens in their new murder room.  But true to form, Brenda is determined to bend the space to her style.

With the LAPD on the hunt for a new chief of police, Assistant Police Chief Will Pope (Simmons) is among those in the running.  Should he get the job, it could mean a promotion for Brenda.  The political juggling around the office soon leads Brenda to do some career-minded soul-searching.  It also has her colleague, Robbery-Homicide Commander Taylor (Gossett) smelling a possible promotion for himself, even though he can’t even seem to wrangle an office of his own in the new facility.

On the home front, Brenda’s husband, FBI Agent Fritz Howard (Tenney) has some career changes of his own in store.  After turning down a promotion that would have sent him to Washington, D.C., he’s now in line for a job that could not only keep him in LA, but give him and Brenda the chance to spend a lot more time together.

This season, Brenda and her squad will tackle cases involving a sniper shooting in a posh neighborhood, a possible serial rapist who uses a stun gun to immobilize his victims and a drug-related custody battle that ends in two deaths.  Meanwhile, Detective Sanchez (Cruz) will struggle to care for a young boy involved in a case the squad investigated last year.  And Lt. Provenza (Bailey), Brenda’s second-in-command, will once again find himself in a professionally embarrassing situation when a one-night stand with a flight attendant leads to the discovery of a dead body in her bathtub.

Also this season, Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica) will reprise her role as Capt. Raydor, the by-the-book head of the Force Investigation Division who has butted heads with Brenda on several occasions.  This time, her presence could have major implications for Brenda’s future in the department.

The Closer will be joined on Mondays by TNT’s newest crime drama, Rizzoli & Isles, starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander.  The series centers on Boston Detective Jane Rizzoli and her best friend, Medical Examiner Maura Isles, characters created by novelist Tess Gerritsen.  The series airs Mondays at 10 p.m. (ET/PT), beginning July 12.