Even though the show’s over, I’m interested to know: Would the main character have been criticized so much if it had been male? I’ve seen Brenda characterized as ruthless, heartless, cruel, cold, and much worse. If a male had done the same things would he have gotten the same reactions?
(If this is an old discussion point, forgive me; I came to the show late)
I think had it been a male protagonist - he would have been fired much earlier on.
I also don’t think it would have come across quite as ruthless - nothing sells ruthless as her “thankyooooo, thankyoooo so much”
The only way she got away with the things she did, in the viewer’s eyes, is because she was so cute and vulnerable. I don’t watch the show but my wife has it on endless tape loop. Every time I sit down she (Brenda, not my wife) is lying or pulling some outrageous trick that, I hope, no real police officer would ever try and getting away with it because she too cute for anyone to believe she would do such a thing.
And when someone does call her on her antics, she whines and makes the big puppy dog eyes, and appeals to Pope, who usually caves after trying to be all stern with her.
Are you watching the follow-up series, Major Crimes? Capt. Raydor is as ruthless and lying in her own (much less cutesy) way as Brenda Leigh ever was. Plus, it’s nice seeing Provenza act like a crime-solving detective for a change.
Johnson was given as much leeway as she was because she got results. The obvious reply to Curtis Armstrong’s slimy attorney (if you’ve gotten that far; he was a key figure in the final season) was that he’s comparing Johnson’s dogged ruthlessness to every beat and traffic cop’s, whereas Johnson dealt exclusively with the worst of the worst of LA’s murderers. And while Raydor cuts a lot of deals to avoid expensive trials, Johnson elicited confessions that likely had the same result.
“Major Crimes” just does nothing for me. I loved all the characters on “The Closer” but the Brenda character really made the show pop for me. And after watching some other police procedurals on tv this week I’m convinced the criticism of Brenda was exacerbated because she was female. What she did on tv was not worse than what the guy on 'Law & Order - Criminal Intent" did.