Major Crimes

Premise

Following the departure of Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson from the Los Angeles Police Department, Captain Sharon Raydor (McDonnell) is selected as the new head of its Major Crimes Division. Throughout Season 1, she faces the challenge of earning the trust and loyalty of her officers, who are still in shock over Johnson's exit, while trying to close the department's highest-profile cases. Ambitious young detective Amy Sykes (Giovanni) also joins the Major Crimes Division.

Raydor decides to house Rusty Beck (Graham Patrick Martin), the key witness for the Stroh (Billy Burke) case, in her own home, paying for him to attend the Catholic high school her children attended. In Season 2, Deputy District Attorney Emma Rios (Velasquez) is introduced as part of the prosecution team on the Stroh case.

The series also stars previous cast members from The Closer such as G. W. Bailey, Tony Denison, Michael Paul Chan, Raymond Cruz, Phillip P. Keene, Robert Gossett, Jonathan Del Arco and Jon Tenney.

Development and production

On December 10, 2010, TNT announced that the upcoming seventh season of The Closer, which began production in spring 2011, would be the show's last. The channel said the decision to retire the show was made by Kyra Sedgwick.

On January 30, 2011, the media announced the final season would add six episodes to the usual 15-episode order, the final six being the build toward a possible spin-off series. On May 18, 2011, TNT announced the spin-off, entitled Major Crimes and starring Mary McDonnell as Captain Sharon Raydor, had been picked up for a 10-episode season.

Following an average of over 7 million viewers for its first season, TNT renewed Major Crimes for a 15-episode second season on September 27, 2012, which the network increased to 19 episodes in April 2013. Season 2 premiered on June 10, 2013. The series was renewed for a third season of 15 episodes on August 15, 2013, which aired from June 9, 2014, through January 12, 2015. On July 18, 2014, TNT renewed Major Crimes for a 15-episode fourth season, later expanded to 23 episodes, which aired from June 8, 2015, to March 14, 2016.

Episodes

As of March 1, 2017, 86 episodes of Major Crimes have aired.

Reception

Major Crimes received a score of 65/100 and "generally favorable" reviews based on 17 critics at Metacritic. Newsday's Verne Gay gave the series a B+ grade, calling it "sharply written, acted and directed", adding "producers now have to turn an (occasional) antagonist into a full-time protagonist. Let the metamorphosis begin." Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times called the series a "nice balance between the tragic and comic", citing Mary McDonnell's performance as "modulated and cool, but with a blue-flame intensity". Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker thought there were "fundamental distinctions" between The Closer's Brenda Leigh Johnson and Major Crimes' Sharon Raydor that "render the shows very different", adding "I've always found Raydor's serene assurance a palliative to the twitchy eccentricity of Kyra Sedgwick's Johnson." Mike Hale of The New York Times thought the series "[made] the dullest character from the old show the central figure of the new one," adding "Major Crimes feels like a reasonably sharp black-and-white copy of The Closer, but fans of the franchise are likely to miss the color provided by Ms. Sedgwick’s vivid performance."

The first episode, helped by the final episode of The Closer airing beforehand, had 9.5 million viewers, the largest viewership for a series premiere on basic cable. Its first season ratings were the highest for any new show on cable.

Broadcasts

Major Crimes airs on TNT in the United States. In Canada, it began airing on Super Channel on August 22, 2012. In Australia it airs on 9Gem. As of 2016, Super Channel is no longer broadcasting the show. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, Major Crimes began airing on Universal Channel on March 18, 2013.

In the fall of 2016, Major Crimes entered broadcast syndication over-the-air in the United States.