Posted in: TV | Tagged: entertainment, HRL, James Duff, Major Crimes, Marry McDonnell, television, The Closer

Major Crimes Season 6: Ending Series Surprises Fans with Shocking Death

Published Wed, 20 Dec 2017 15:15:19 -0600

Last updated Wed, 20 Dec 2017 15:21:30 -0600

Spoilers… like, BIG spoilers… like someone died and we're going to say who spoilers…

Major Crimes is coming to an end this season. The series is a spinoff of The Closer, continuing most of the cast when Kyra Sedgwick left the series and Mary McDonnell stepped in. The Closer went for seven seasons and Major Crimes is finishing up its sixth with four more episodes to go, but they pulled off a big surprise last night, having McDonnell's character of Sharon Raydor die at the end of the episode. How many shows would have the lead character die of a major heart attack with four episodes to go?

Major Crimes and The Closer creator James Duff talked to TVLine about the twist:

As Sharon said to Provenza, many, many people die with this disease, not from it. And we had discussed maybe having her retire for medical reasons. But that left open the chance they she could get a transplant and come back, and the show would not really have a curtain [call]. And if we [killed her off] in the last episode, we felt that would be a dark way to end the whole series.

How did they decide to kill off the character early?

We knew they were going to cancel the show, but we did not know they were going to [announce that] in advance of airing it. What was Mary to do in that situation? If we had left the fate of her character in the air, people would not know she was available. And who am I to coop up Mary McDonnell in a dead show? That does not honor our professional relationship in any way, shape or form.

Though fans have been starting petitions, trying to save the show, Duff says it's done:

It was not just Sharon's death, it was the death of the show. In a way, it was a metaphor.

The problem with that is you're talking about a show that has already swapped leads and continued on almost as long… so killing off Sharon Raydor doesn't quite have the same gravitas when she's already replaced Brenda Leigh Johnson. They just need to pull a Doctor Who and have her regenerate into a new Closer.

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