It’s no secret I’m a great fan of THE CLOSER. In fact, I think it’s responsible for my current TV addiction. It kind of awakened me to the fact that TV finally had some great female characters.

I watched six seasons in one delicious hit and loved every moment of every episode. Then an enforced break ensued while I waited for season 7 to become available.

It was announced, in the meantime, that Kyra Sedgewick had called it quits and this was to be her finale season, despite a continuing spin off for the rest of the cast called Major Crimes and featuring Mary McDonnell.

7 turns out to be a tough season for Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson. Her boss dies, her dad is sick, there’s a federal lawsuit hanging over her and then something really awful happens. I won’t go into any more plot details to avoid spoilers, but I will say that though I enjoyed seeing Brenda’s story through to the end, I found the season quite depressing.

The writers pretty much make Brenda pay for some of the more hard line decisions she’s made in previous cases. The lawsuit surrounding the Shootin’ Newton murder haunt hers right up until the last episode and finds Brenda doubting herself and all around her. And then she suffers some serious personal losses. It was tough to watch.

One highlight for the season, for me, was the fact that she finally gets to nail serial rapist and serial killer Phillip Stroh to the wall, and then some. That was a very satisfing Closer closure.

For the rest, some of the plot tie-ups felt a little bit contrived. However, the characters stayed true to form and there is no taking away from the strong sense of family and loyalty carefully built up around the Major Crimes unit over seven seaons (despite the threat of a traitor among them).

As a lead-in to her role in the spin-off, Mary McDonell’s character Captain Sharyn Rador is allowed to become a lot more likeable and it was good to see she also had Brenda’s back when things got nasty.

The other highlight for me was Fritz. Oh … why aren’t there more Fritz’s in the world?? A devoted, caring, sympathetic husband beyond compare. Fritz’s need to be bottled.

The Closer will always be a series that I think of with great fondness. I loved the characters and I think I’ve absorbed a little bit of BLJ into my psyche. They can’t be a bad thing – she’s one gutsy lady. Kyra Sedgewick is legend in the role. But if you haven’t watched the finale season, don’t expect to be uplifted. Karma is a bitch and she’s got Brenda’s number.

Below is a pic of me with Mary McDonnell taken in 2010.

Well crime drama doesn’t get much better than The Killing aka by its Danish title Fobrydelsen. I started watching it a while back with my husband and he found it slow, so I never even got to finish episode one. When I sat down with it the second time, I watched it alone and didn’t have to worry about anyone else enjoying it!

It is a slowly told story but the power of the series is in that drawn-out pacing. Each of the twenty episodes depicts 24 hrs in the investigation of the murder of a young woman named Nanna Birk Larsen.

Without excpetion, it is incredibly well cast. However, my favourite performances were from Sofie Gråbøl, Søren Malling, Lars Mikkelsen and Ann Eleonora Jørgensen. Sofie (obsessed and clever Detective Sarah Lund) and Lars (obsessed and clever politican Troels Hartman) are outstanding.

Set in Copenhagen in winter, the backdrop to the story is relentlessly grey and miserable.The city’s mood combines with the detailed, complex narrative to draw the viewer deep into Lund’s gloomy hunt. After watching each episode, I had that sensation of really having to shake off the fictional world to re-enter the real one.

I was thrilled by the brilliantly portrayed character of detective Sarah Lund who becomes so immersed in the chase that her personal life totally unravels. Her obsession makes her unpredictable and she risks everything to find the answer. There was something very realistic about the dialogue and the dynamics of the relationships (even taking into account that some of the translation was obviously a bit naf).

The Killing also brings an added dimension to TV crime by the fact that it gives weight to the lives of the victim’s family after the crime, as well as the actual investigation. This works to invest the viewer in their loss and makes the journey even more immersive. Several false leads are pursued, and each one of them feels totally credible. The story cleverly circles back on itself, and details are rehashed. A second layer of story is splashed across the top as Lund tries to tie in a previous murder, and Troels, negotiates the dirty world of politics, while trying to maintain some personal integrity and minimise the damage Nanna’s murder has had on him and his election campaign.

Engrossing, believable and grim. Lund triumphs but at what cost?

Highly Recommended (and thanks to Peri Wilson for suggesting it while we were on book tour together). I have series 2 ready to go, (which I’ve heard is even better) but I’m holding off until I can settle in and enjoy it without interruption.

1. How would you describe The Return of King Lillian in a couple of sentences?

“The Return of King Lillian” is a mythic journey, an allegorical fantasy, a tale of self-discovery. Most of the story is told by Lillian, in a sort of spoken word storyteller fashion, so I have also recorded the story and it’s available as an AudioBook, as well as an eBook. (on www.kinglillian.com, soon to be on Amazon and Audible.)

 2. This project totally consumed you.  What turns a successful, talented actor and singer songwriter into an obsessed novelist/writer?

Ah, now there’s an epic question!  Forgive me, Marianne, but I’m afraid there’s an epic answer forthcoming…

For about 25 years now, I’ve had very sporadic dreams about the world of King Lillian. The first dream was a flash of Lillian in scarlet cape and Musketeer hat riding horseback uphill on a mountain trail; it was enthralling!  The dream images were almost all literally flashes, single moments so sparkling with light and color, so enchanting — I couldn’t possibly forget them.

Eventually, I began to try to capture this world, just immerse myself in it — play with characters, dialogue, trying to find the form it most organically wanted to take — knowing all the while that it would have its own style, its own sound that I would recognize once I hit on it.   But every go round, I’d dive in again, and each time, I’d come up feeling failed and frustrated and inadequate, because it felt like the story had chosen such a completely unqualified person for the job.

On the other hand, every time I returned to the idea after being gone a while, I’d realize that I somehow now knew much more than I did the time before, that in those interims the thing had taken root in my subconscious and had been growing while I was looking the other way.  It felt sometimes like I was on some sort of archaeological dig in my psyche, carefully brush-brush-brushing away, with this situation or that character revealing itself more dimensionally each time.

Fast forward a few decades, and I felt it was time to once again turn to this creature growing inside me, and either bring the thing into the world already or be done with it forever.  So I decided to read every single everything I’d ever written about the tale, the world, the characters, every version, every note, every scene — there was a lot to read, believe me.

There I was, just so completely exhausted with boredom and disappointment, lethargically trudging through it all, and I couldn’t wait to be finished with it — when I picked up a file of about 16 pages that was written in diary form.  I’d aimlessly played at writing Lillian’s diary years before because of one of those flash-dreams I’d had.  Well, I was so sleepy, I read those pages aloud simply to keep myself awake.

And the second I started reading aloud — “Ding!” — I was instantly wide, wide awake.  It felt alive and easy and I was having so much fun!  And that’s how the form, at last, got itself found.  I started writing on November 1, 2011, at the start of national novel writing month.  And we just pressed the launch button on the website November 1, 2012.  Yahoo!

3. Who do you see as your audience for King Lillian?

Well, let’s see now:  People who love purple, animals, art, fairies, elves, forests, libraries, journey tales, love stories, metaphysical fantasy… People who color outside the lines.  And, of course, I’m so excited to be surprised by just who might resonate with it.

4. You voiced the audio version yourself. Tell us about that experience.

It was heaven, with a few shots of hell, too, of course — particularly with respect to so desperately not wanting to fail the story.  But mostly, it was a deliciously fun and freeing and profoundly satisfying journey.

5. Has this kind of project inspired you to write more?

Though I do have an idea or two brewing for a bit of additional material about the world of King Lillian, in general, I think of myself as a sort of multi-media artist-type, who uses this or that artistic expression to express this or that work of art that wants expressing.  As far as the act of writing goes, honestly, I don’t know how you real authors do it, Marianne!  And by real authors, I mean writers like youself who have book after book after book in them, and are molecularly compelled to write!  For one thing there’s that sitting forever and ever business, ‘til my legs go numb and my back hurts and I’m barely able to straighten up afterwards, as I sit hunched over like a big comma, no matter how many times I remind myself not to.

For another thing, there’s the light and the shadow of what is apparently my process that can drive me nuts.  I call it “The Walk Around The Moon” because it takes me from light to shadow to light:  “Oh, this is fantastic, I’m having so much fun!” to “Oh, this is agony, quick, somebody, call a professional! What the hell was I thinking?!” to “Oh my God, I love this, I love this, thank you! Yes!”  Maddening, but true.

That being said, I feel that the writing and the enacting of this story has healed something at the core of me, and I feel very grateful that it came knocking at the door of my subconscious, lo, those many years ago.

6. What would you like to say to potential readers and listeners of King Lillian?

Oh, I’d like to thank them with all my heart for being curious enough to spend some their hard-earned time and money on this offering of mine.  I deeply, dearly hope it brings them joy.

Suzie’s wiki