Gay TV Recap: The Closer

First off, am I the only one who always wants to pronounce the name of this show "The Closer", as in "The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get"? Kind of like when car washes offer "Hand Polish" and I wonder when all the men in fur hats are going to show up.

But last night I watched this show for the first time because we'd been tipped off that there may be a gay storyline. It was the season premiere and had no commercial interruptions, which scared me -- what if I had to go to the bathroom and I missed something? Or what if it just sucked? But I told myself, no -- this is quality television. It's the highest-rated accent in the history of basic cable ... accent? Show. I meant "highest rated show".

Anyway, overall the show's pretty clever, and the gay storyline was just another "oooh -- someone's got a secret!" plot device that had the lone surviving son of a slaughtered family revealing that he's been sneaking out and snogging his male math tutor after-hours. It's not like any of the characters reacted with horror or anything -- his sexuality was really a non-issue to everyone but himself, and he was obviously having a hard time dealing with it.

And this is where things got a bit accented. Complicated! Jeez -- no idea why I keep doing that ... anyway, the titular More You Ignore Me (Kyra Sedgwick) had to basically get the kid put on suicide watch or lose her only witness, so she drove him to a nervous breakdown by recreating his family's murders with two plastic cups in the kid's hospital room. Now, this is a kid having issues dealing with his sexuality who's already displaying risky (sneaking out, messing around with an authority figure) and dangerous behavior (drugs), not to mention the fact that his entire family was butchered, and she's going to make it worse for him?

Yikes. One tough accent. Broad! Tough broad. And I get that she'll do anything to "close", blah blah blah. So while it didn't seem outwardly offensive, it was a bit insensitive, and just used the kid's sexuality as another sensational bait-and-switch (which we're far too used to seeing by this point on procedurals like this one).

Anyone else catch it? Thoughts?