'Closer' holiday episode a bittersweet gift to show's fans

Remember that bitter childhood feeling when you get what you wanted for Christmas, but it turns out to be somehow disappointing? A cheap knockoff product or maybe a doll with the wrong hair color?

Well, fans of "The Closer" should recall that all too well next week, when a special, two-hour episode finds the series jumping the shark for Christmas.

Kyra Sedgwick's charming, disarming, but steely TNT cop show has just enjoyed a fine and popular third season. It was one of the series that made this the best TV summer ever on cable. And it returns for the new holiday special, "Next of Kin," which debuts at the end of a daylong marathon of episodes from the third season at 7 p.m. Monday on TNT.

It actually gets off to a terrific start, only building up expectations. Sedgwick's Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Brenda Johnson is grudgingly putting up a Christmas tree with her live-in fiancee, Jon Tenney's FBI agent Fritz Howard. It's only a seasonal ruse as they put their house up for a sale -- the holiday eye-candy equivalent of freshly baked bread. Brenda seems to be dragging her feet on moving, though, as she sabotages the potential sale by blithely pulling out her service revolver in front of the prospective buyers.

Hey, there's no better way to suggest it's a safe neighborhood, all right.

Duty calls, and it's off to a crime scene, as the robbery of a bank truck has led to the death of two armed guards. Another wounded guard, however, suddenly goes missing, and Brenda tracks him back to their mutual home state of Georgia, where he's been arrested, but where the police are immune to the Southern charm that usually opens doors for her in Southern California.

So far, so good. In the way of fine details, Brenda gets involved in a turf war with Robert Gossett's Commander Taylor over jurisdiction of the case. And over her usual flowered dress, far from the typical police uniform, Brenda sports a slick, grapefruit-red trench coat that wouldn't be out of place on Anna Karina in a Jean-Luc Godard movie. Yet, she has trouble exercising her sweet tooth, as she stops in at her family home only to find her parents have habitually hidden the household candy away from her.

That's where things begin to go horribly wrong, however. It's not that her parents are awful. They're actually exceptionally well-played by a couple of old pros: Frances Sternhagen, most familiar to viewers as Dr. John Carter's well-to-do mother on "ER," and Barry Corbin, now shaven-headed, but still fondly remembered as astronaut Maurice Minnifield on "Northern Exposure." Between Willie Ray's holiday sweaters and Clay's demands for his Perry Como Christmas CDs, they're a peach of a pair.

It's just that the show begins to pile on the typically contrived jump-the-shark elements. In addition to the Christmas special and the homecoming with parents, there's a road trip with parents, colleagues and a resistant suspect. It's a wonder Brenda doesn't get pregnant or take in an orphaned child along the way (although give the show time on the latter, not to give anything away).

Worse, however, is that Brenda goes horribly wrong. True, she's always played a little fast and loose with legality; what TV cop worth his or her salt hasn't? Yet what happens in "Next of Kin" really seems out of character. Brenda starts out playfully threatening a suspect -- "You do one more thing to irritate me and I will shoot you" -- and goes on to completely disregard the need for an arrest warrant or the usual extradition process. From there, she plies the suspect with alcohol and lies to him about the death of his younger brother, manipulates evidence and in the end helps to put the suspect in danger by simply handing him over to Commander Taylor for an undercover operation.

In that, "The Closer" seems to suddenly want to mimic the antihero elements of Holly Hunter's "Saving Grace," a far edgier cop drama that, appropriately enough, returns for the final four episodes of its first season immediately after the "Closer" holiday special at 9 p.m. Monday on TNT. Yet what has always distinguished Sedgwick's character is her sweetness, even when she uses it as a tool to ruthlessly get what she wants. In "Next of Kin," she's simply ruthless, and whatever sweetness she possesses goes out the window.

Now, having been disappointed in Christmas gifts on more than one occasion in the distant past, I know that it's proper to simply be quiet, accept the present and not raise a stink. But I think "Closer" fans should at least be warned not to get too excited about this Christmas special. One hopes it will simply pass as a holiday aberration, and the show will return to normal with its fourth season next summer. Yet in the meantime it will make loyal viewers think they don't know Brenda as well as they thought they did.

In the air

Remotely interesting: A public memorial service will be held for John Drury at 2 p.m. today at Holy Name Cathedral, 735 N. State St., Chicago. As a news anchor and reporter, Drury was a fixture on Chicago TV for 40 years until his retirement from WLS Channel 7 in 2002, and he was always a pro's pro. But to me what made him great was the effortless way he handled transitions in the industry from the one-man newscast of the '60s to the "Happy Talk" of the '70s and beyond to reach a middle ground in the '80s. Ron Magers makes it look deceptively easy today, but he might never have arrived at his smooth style without anchors like Drury to lead the way.

WMAQ Channel 5 has jumped in to name the Shedd Aquarium's new baby beluga whale. Viewers can submit names at the nbc5.com web site until Dec. 9, then vote on five finalists until the announcement on the morning newscast Dec. 21. … CBS' "Big Brother" comes looking for contestants for next summer's competition in a pair of open casting calls Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. at "Cool Waves" on Nordstrom's lower level at Woodfield Mall and from 10 p.m. to midnight at Ontourage, 157 W. Ontario St., Chicago.

WTTW Channel 11 airs the new Bob Dylan DVD set featuring his mid-'60s performances at the Newport Folk Festival at 10:30 p.m. Saturday. So, for those unwilling to buy the DVD, set your DVRs or VHS recorders.

End of the dial: More than 1,000 people took part in WLEY 107.9-FM's turkey giveaway along with Jewel-Osco before Thanksgiving at St. Clare Church on the South Side.

Waste Watcher's choice

Vin Diesel brings his own inimitable approach to the double-naught spy movie in "XXX," but give credit to co-star Asia Argento for matching him tit for tat as a Eurotrash vixen. Ah, the things he's got to do for his country. It's at 7 p.m. Saturday on FX.