* note from webmaster - Well, soon after hearing that James Frain was going to appear on TNT's new-ish drama "The Closer", he did just that! On Monday, July 31 he appeared in the episode "Critical Missing" as Paul Andrews, who's wife and daughter have been found murdered. We understand that he has done it again - turned in an excellent performance in a critically favored televison drama.

His TNT turn has inspired the following accolades: WARNING - THESE REVIEWS CONTAIN SPOILERS

First of all, one of our favorite TV critics Amy Amatangelo - Zap2it's "TV Gal" (We LOVE your taste!) had this to say in her latest column, called "TV Gal Seeks Summer Substitutes", in which she discusses Summer television --

"The Closer" is the summer's "Veronica Mars": As I wait for my favorite detective to return, it's great to have another kick-ass female who solves crimes with smarts, sass, strength and by playing on the fact that people think maybe she's just another dumb blonde.

Where Have I Seen Them Before?

James Frain, Eli Szura on "Invasion," poor Paul Raines on "24," and I loved him as Forney in the movie "Where the Heart Is," was the man who killed his wife and daughter on "The Closer." I've officially moved Frain into the "deserves his own show" file.

from Carol:

JF absolutely tore up the tube in a brilliant performance as Paul Andrews, a man whose estranged wife and beloved little daughter turn up dead, tied together at the waist with knotted rope, and sunken in the waters of the bay.

Alternately admirable and sympathetic, grieving and pitiable, outraged and venomous, and ultimately, culpable and criminal and horrific, James Frain is constantly completely real, believable, appealing and utterly captivating to watch. We mourn Andrews' many losses and suffer all his sorrows, we want to comfort and assure him, then are blown away by his fury and self-righteousness and guilt. Mostly, we want to know more about him, who he is and why he does what he does, and what will become of him.

Just like always, James Frain has created a character who makes us believe he really exists, and more -- who makes us care. Gorgeous. I will be looking for this on DVD.

I, too [watched Critical Missing] and James Frain gave a BRILLIANT performance!! It was on again at 11 o'clock and I watched it ............again.

He was great!!

Just dropping a line to give my two cents on James' performance on "The Closer", which I was able to catch on Tuesday. Really interesting watching the change of emotions with his character and Kyra Sedgwick's. Personally, I'm glad that he chooses these roles where he can keep the British accent.

My only question was in regards to this show - is why? Why did he kill his wives? They never really got into the reason. Other than that, really enjoyed the show.

So, I saw James' brilliant performance on 'The Closer'. This man is so damn talented. He never lets me down with is acting, and he gets more beautiful with each passing year. I loved what tv gal said...and she is so right. I hope James does get his own show. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he did. What kind of show should it be? Cops, forensics, docs, lawyers, another sci-fi venture? Whatever James does, I always love him in it. I may not always love a certain project, but James is always the best.

As for 'The Closer', he had me convinced that his character was innocent. I was still in denial of his guilt until I saw the body of the first wife at the bottom of that pond. His character was so sweet and heart breaking ....and then, truly scary in his seeming denial of reality. I only wish we could have learned why he did such horrible unpeakable things.

I can only repeat what was said before... he was brilliant on the 'The Closer'! As you, Teri, I did not believe that he was guilty, until the very ending. I still can't decide if he was psychotic or 'just' an evil liar. His new girlfriend would have ended up in the water too, that's for sure.

As for his own show, I'd like to see him on something like CSI or House. :) He deserves something well-written and gripping. We shall see.

These are some reviews which were posted at TV.com's page for this episode:

"Exactly why I watch this series"

Emotions run high as a murder-suicide is revealed to be not as it seems (spoilers below)...

James Frain deserves an Emmy nod.

Even I was believing the load he was delivering until the pieces began to fall into place. Pathological liar indeed.

What interested me most, oddly enough, was the unresolved case of Josie, his first wife. Amazing that Andrews's own words led them right to the grave of the woman he claimed to love.

The thing that had me convinced was his attitude towards the daughter, Aiko. Usually, one can't fake those kind of tears. Yumi...yes, I could see him killing her, but not the little girl. What purpose did it serve? Clean slate?

It certainly wasn't about the citizenship status.

I was most impressed with the way this one was handled---the ruse to get access to the car, the name-dropping to give directions to her team in the electronics room during the interview, and the attention to detail.

Particularly of note was the scene where Brenda "mimes" what she thought Yumi was doing so as to commit the suicide. For a minute there, I really thought she was going to fall in herself. It also was the first clue to disproving the murder-suicide theory.

It's nice to see a little light on Lt. Tao. He's so intregal, and yet we really don't know that much about him. He's among my top five favorites in the cast, and it's about time he got to be the "expert" on something other than techie things for once.

My one question, though, is how the FBI would tie into this. I know that Fritz does side work for Brenda and her team quite often, but was he looking at the gardens with everyone else just out of curiosity or what? If so, can't say I blame him.

Solid episode.

Amazing, Disturbing, Well Written

WOW, this episode was amazing, it was so fast paced and the dialogue was amazing. I absolutely love the way Brenda starts barking out orders to her 'troops', she just bangs them out, and then you see everyone hop to it. It's fantastic. It's really great to see her team coming together and gaining strength, you can almost see them anticipate what she's going to ask them to do.

Paul's character was very disturbing, he was so cool about everything, so well composed. His story seemed to be flawless. (of course our Brenda always gets her man)

This episode was so well written, that it seemed to simply fly by. The dialogue was quick and witty. The writers certainly didn't disappoint me.

I thought this was a truly amazing episode. I look forward to more.

Brenda is facing the most thrilling interview ever. The man whose wife and daughter are found death in the water is probably Brenda's hardest case to unravel.

Until the very end you really cannot tell if the guy's guilty or not and for the first time you get the idea that Brenda too is in trouble understanding the truth. Kyra is truly at best in this episode: you really got the impression she is striving for the thruth, going through all of the doubts that us viewers are. Even in the end, when you understand the man is guilty it seems so plausible and the whole "discovery path" so co-herent that I did not miss the usual banters that much. Very nice by the end of the episode, Fritz bothered in bed by Brenda's talking about the day gives her a hint for a final discovery. Great!

In a real departure for this series, Brenda not only has to catch the suspect in a lie -- she has to figure out if he's even legitimately a suspect. The questions are all good, but I think one of the main things the writers did correctly was to pit Brenda -- the irresistable force -- up against a pathological liar -- an immovable object.

Her experience tells her something is off about this guy, but for confessions she needs them to actually tell her things.

And this guy was guarded. And humanly, she knew that in this situation, if the guy hadn't done anything wrong, he might burst into an unstoppable stream of absolutely everything that's every happened to him in his entire life ... or he might react in exactly the way he was reacting.

It was hard to know. She was dealing with a Brit. Concerning a potentially valid Japanese murder-suicide ritual. Brenda had cultural filters to negotiate from across two oceans.

So she treaded carefully. She burned rubber getting the vics' identities confirmed while instictively trusting that she knew what was going on and holding the husband. Knowing that she couldn't be treading dangerous ground if indeed it [i]wasn't[/i] him, she was appropriately circumspect as to what stage of the investigation she was at at every given turn. She never revealed too much. She never violated his rights. She remembered every piece of evidence all the way through and ultimately he'd given her enough embroidery to ferret out the cloth of his lies buried beneath.

This was a pathological liar who had murdered at least three people and it didn't [i]matter[/i] to him. The enormity of his actions didn't affect him in the slightest.

And that's why she was reserving her rage all the way through. The murder of two women was one thing -- she's proven again and again that she can at least understand motivations behind some murders. But the murder of a four-year-old girl -- in cold blood -- his freeqin' [i]daughter[/i] besides -- that she could never understand or forgive.

Kyra is a fantastic actress. So is Brenda. When faced with this sociopath, she asked glancing questions and let him spin his web. His asserted belief that his wife and daughter were still alive led him to share information her team could track down. And it was always true, but there was always just enough off about it that she kept digging.

And she maintained good policework. Her belief that they'd returned and had been picked up was key to Sanchez tracking down that tape, tracking it to the owner and tracking down the forensic evidence.

And her conversation with Fritz ...

She was so upset that he could get a deal. That she'd needed to compromise her investigation enough in securing the confession that this animal could go free was offesnive to her. At least two bowls of ice cream offensive. It was nice to include Fritz in her epiphany, but she'd probably have figured it out herself. She'd worked so hard in turning an apparent murder-suicide into first-degree murder that she'd gotten too close, and the detail of his full-circle pattern -- disposing of them where he'd married them -- had slipped out of place.

One night of sleep would've probably done it.

The team was perfect as usual, and the case extremely interesting throughout. The killer was charming and believeable.

Every so often they throw her a curveball -- a charismatic, all-but-unnailable perp -- and I love it. She's just so damn' good.

Did she catch some breaks? Of course. The guy keeping the boxes unopened was a real find. That he used the same knots for that purpose as to bind a body was another break.

But the work itself was incredibly good work, and all the actors pulled it off.

I liked this one. Motive remained unclear because if she'd had a motive she'd be jumping up and down on it. Yumi's audacity in leaving him could easily have been enough -- I don't think this was a well character, nor do I thing he was meant to be. It was psychological, twisted and came down to how she could catch the bad guy even in the face of the long period of uncertainty as to whether he was the right guy in the first place.

But he was. And she did.

Well done.

P.S. -- Fritz seems to be nearing a breaking point with her, which is sad, because her solve and conviction rate must be through the roof. Professionally, she's at her peak. She really is as amazing as she seems and it's sad that life with her seems to be wearing on him as much as it seems to be.

It feels like he's building up to say something out loud, and I get the sense that it's gonna devastate her.

Man, I hope I'm wrong. :|

Paul: "Do I really seem like such a monster to you?"

Brenda: "You look human enough."

Paul Andrews was a tough character to read. His naturalistic performance made him look very innocent. He was calm and relaxed when he was being interrogated, and he appeared shocked when he found his wife and daughter were murdered. In fact, his face seemed to beam whenever he spoke about his daughter, that I just had such a hard time believing he could kill her. James Frain did an excellent job with the character, and he probably deserves a whole review just about his performance.

We got a long drawn out interrogation today, something we haven't seen before. I really liked how during the interrogation Brenda was able to subtly drop hints to her team on what she wanted then to check out.

Kyra Segwick did an excellent job during the interrogation at displaying Brenda's uneasiness on whether to continue grilling Paul. What if he really was innocent? Did she really want to make Paul discuss his tragic past when he just found out his wife and daughter were murdered? I even found myself doubting Brenda (I know, shame on me), because like Lt Tao said: she usually gets a confession faster. Brenda really struggled with this case, and it was nice to see a confession not come so nice and easy to her.

This was a strong episode, but fairly different then past ones. We never got a motive for Paul's actions, which I'm sure is realistic of life, but I'm not sure how I feel about it. What we do know though is that Paul was a pathological liar and a murderer, and I guess the knowledge that he deserved to go to jail will have to be enough to keep me content.

Final Notes and Quotes

- Brenda seems to be getting more emotional with each case. Could her job finally be getting to her?

- I sensed tension between Brenda and Pope today. Brenda: (to Pope) "Don't tell me how to run this case." I wonder how things will work out between them.

- I loved Brenda finally giving in to her sugar cravings and practically eating out the sides of the ice cream box.

- Paul: "I remember someone told me…that if you were locked in a library of the world's miseries you would be lead almost inexorably to choose your own, because it's the pain you're most familiar with."

- Brenda: "Well I think if nothing else it's fair to say that Paul Andrews has a type. Either that or the girl he fell in love with keeps rising from the dead."

- Paul's girlfriend seemed was a likely suspect, especially with her strong "It's my house now" statements. How did Brenda know it was Paul so early on? I guess it was just a gut feeling.

Final Rating: I really liked this one, but was it a four? I'm not sure what to rate this episode as.

Well! Makes your webmaster wish she had TNT on her television! Looks like I missed a good one. As Carol said - we'll be looking for this one when it comes out on DVD. It's great to know that there are more and more worthy dramas on the small screen to enjoy James Frain wonderful talent. Indeed, we hope that one comes along which he can call his own.

July 31, 2006:

Untying the Knot

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise: Brenda Leigh Johnson, during the course of a three-minute interrogation, accomplishes more with coded messages to her eavesdropping sibs than most of us do in an entire day. That sequence in this week’s episode of TNT’s The Closer was a sheer thrill, as Daniels, Garcia and Tao all scurried off in their covertly directed ways.

At the heart of this week’s case was yet another stirring performance by – and forgive my vagueness here, because I am blogging from vacation via dial-up and have no access to the TV Guide database – “that guy from 24 and Invasion,” who is always inherently watchable. I believe he even had the same name this time as he did on 24 – Paul. But Audrey Raines’ beau was never this nasty and duplicitous. For a good part of the episode, he had me – setting aside any preconceptions based on his previous turns at playing unseemly. (Check out Jessica Alba’s Into the Blue to see him as a drug lord.) I was even wondering, where is this going? Did the meek Japanese girlfriend off the rival? But no, the hubby did it, done in by his own observation that “We are our patterns” or something like that. Good thing Daniels didn’t untie all the Storage USA boxes, eh?

And what a deliciously original closer for The Closer, with that final scene. Mind you, I was watching a screener DVD, so maybe y’all saw something slightly different, but the last image on my screen was the underwater shot of the doomed first wife’s nylon binding, as Brenda stared deep into the pond water. Eerie yet subtle stuff; no need to dredge and dig up the ugly truth.

I hesitate to trot out the “best episode yet of the season” superlative... since we do it here almost every week... but damn if this wasn’t a good ‘un.

Now everyone discuss as I continue on with my vacation. Dial-up or no, I’ll be lurking!

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For more reviews on this episode for the TV Guide blog click here -- TV Guide Closer blog.

IMDb webpage for this specific episode -- Critical Missing