The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

TNT’s The Closer Is Back!

This is just a quick note to remind you all that TNT’s The Closer returned to television on Monday night. As most of you know, it is The Closer’s last season. (I wrote about The Closer before, and it continues to be one of my favorite television shows.)

The Closer has followed Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) as she “closed” more cases for the L.A.P.D. than probably any other reigning police chief. Of course, she did this by using techniques that were more commonly practiced back in the 1950s and 1960s, than are allowed these days.

“Say it ain’t so!”>>> but it is! This is the final season for The Closer, but there is some good news at the end of this rainbow: In August, there will be a new show on the horizon: Major Crimes. Heading to the Major Crimes line-up will be Mary McDonnell (Capt. Sharon Raydor). And, even better news, some of The Closer’s other cast members will be following McDonnell to the Major Crimes unit.

I have a few characters who I definitely want to continue seeing… unfortunately, they include ALL of the major players from The Closer:

Lt. Provenza (G. W. Bailey)
Lt. Andy Flynn (Tony Denison)
Detective Sgt. David Gabriel (Corey Reynolds)
Detective Julio Sanchez (Raymond Cruz)
Lt. Mike Tao (Michael Paul Chan)
Technician Buzz Watson (Phillip P. Keene)
Asst. Police Chief Will Pope (J. K. Simmons)
FBI agent Fritz Howard (Jon Tenney)
Commander Taylor (Robert Gossett)

In case you missed Monday night’s debut of The Closer‘s final season, the episode is called “Hostile Witness“, and it will re-air this Saturday morning (July 14, 2012) at 10:00 AM (central) and again on this coming Monday night (July 16, 2012) at 7:00 PM (central) on TNT.

I am truly sorry to see this show leave TNT’s line-up, and hope that Major Crimes will continue to have the same great writers associated with it, and of course, the same wonderful actors we have all grown to love.

PBS Masterpiece Mystery – Inspector Lewis Series V, Starts This Weekend

It’s time, once again, to set up your favorite mode of taping. Either that, or be sure to be sitting in front of your television set, with your popcorn already popped, tomorrow night.

Your local PBS stations should be starting Series V of the Inspector Lewis episodes on Sunday, July 8, 2012. Inspector Lewis (Kevin Whately) and his trusty sidekick Detective Sergeant Hathaway (Laurence Fox) will be back solving crimes for four consecutive Sunday nights.

Inspector Lewis, Series V:

The Soul of Genius – July 8, 2012
Generation of Vipers – July 15, 2012
Fearful Symmetry – July 22, 2012
The Indelible Stain – July 29, 2012

And, for those of you who may have missed a few of the Inspector Lewis shows from Series IV, they will be re-airing two of the shows:

The Mind Has Mountains – Aug. 26, 2012
The Gift of Promise – Sept. 2, 2012

So, go get your taping machines ready!

Masterpiece Mystery Endeavor – PBS July 1, 2012 (Tonight)

I meant to write about this show when I found out about it, weeks ago. You know what they say about putting off until tomorrow…

Short notice, but tonight, on your local PBS stations, Masterpiece Mystery will be airing Endeavor. For those of you who are Inspector Morse fans, you will know that his first name, although highly guarded, was actually revealed as >>> you guessed it! >>> Endeavor. Morse’s mother had been a Quaker, and assigned this very big name to her little baby, something he never quite grew into. Thus, everyone called him Morse. (That was years ago, before it became commonplace for people to name their babies with such unusual names.)

This 1 1/2 hour Masterpiece Mystery episode stars Shaun Adams as Morse, the young version of the Morse many of us “knew” as John Thaw’s portrayal. Inspector Morse was an opera-loving,  Oxford-educated man, who enjoyed working the most difficult crossword puzzles while listening to the most beautiful classical music, sipping the finest liquor. (Oh, and he never met a beautiful woman he didn’t want to know better! Even though she might be a suspect in his current murder investigation…)

Yes, I guess I do sound like what I am: a Colin Dexter fan! Although he doesn’t write Cozy Mystery books, his Inspector Morse books are some of the very finest police procedural mystery books I have ever read. And, of course, I am like many  in that I have seen every one of the Inspector Morse television mystery shows, at least once.

So, go set up your mode of taping OR make sure you are sitting in front of your television tonight, with it set on your local PBS station’s channel, and get ready to be introduced to a young Endeavor Morse, before he owned his beloved red Jaguar.

PS >>> Watch for John Thaw’s daughter – Abigail – playing the part of a very busy newspaper editor. The editor is being questioned by Endeavor, while she is trying to get work done at her desk. She asks his name, hears it, and finally looks up to see him and ask him if they have ever met. He says no, to which she replies “Another life then.”

If You Get PBS on Channel KQED: Midsomer Murders Marathon

Alfred sent me a letter telling me about a special “marathon running” of Midsomer Murders on the PBS channel KQED. It starts June 1:
“Danna Just wanted to give you an early warning that the entire month of June starting  June 1st Midsomer Murders will be on KQED plus from 8 to 10pm The first one they will be showing is Tainted Fruit, part one at 8pm and part 2 at 9. Just wanted to let you know so you can do some research on it.”
Thank you, Alfred! I did do some research, and found that Midsomer Murders will be airing on the PBS station KQED during the months of June and July of this year (2012).
Lucky you if you get this PBS channel in northern California! (Takes me back to when the A&E channel ran these types of shows!)
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