Abstract: This essay looks at how components of narrative complexity function in The Closer (TNT 2005-2012), a television detective series developing intertwined professional and personal plots around a female protagonist. Interdependent elements of character and action in the drama illustrate how weekly subplots build to create a portrait of the lead and her interactions with family, friends, and colleagues. Aesthetics and ideologies in The Closer reconfigure genre conventions and gender stereotypes associated with the police procedural by highlighting contrasts between femininities and masculinities related to character and action. The series resets gender codes by describing the female protagonist’s weaknesses and strengths in relation to her effectiveness as an investigator and a manager, who has a feminized appearance and a masculine style of working.
