The third record-breaking season of TNT's The Closer may be over, but the creators of the show have a special Christmas present for fans of Detective Brenda Leigh Johnson and her colleagues - a two-hour, brand-new episode that is actually one of the strongest TV offerings of the month. Fans of The Closer know that Kyra Sedgwick is doing some of the best work on television, but they may be understandably wary of their tough-as-nails heroine stuck in the muck of holiday-themed cliches. Luckily, "Next of Kin" avoids most of the traps of the seasonal special and isn't afraid to be heartbreaking even on Christmas Day. Many shows stretch to the two-hour running time and their flaws get amplified by more time on-screen, but the length is never a problem in "Next of Kin." You almost get the impression that The Closer could work at two hours every week. You can't say that about a lot of shows.

When The Closer started in the summer of 2005, most critics feared that it would be just another serial drama with a new mystery of the week and cardboard cut-out characters. James Duff and the team behind The Closer have avoided that trap and become more popular every year because they focus their energy as much on their characters as their mystery and they have an award-deserving actress like Kyra Sedgwick as their lead (although the entire ensemble is notable, particularly the always-great J.K. Simmons, and they're often overshadowed by Kyra's press). If you've never seen it, you should know that The Closer is more like NYPD Blue or Homicide, shows where the people were just as important as the crimes they solved.

"Next of Kin" is about a string of armored truck robberies that Detective Johnson and her team are brought in to solve. The latest shoot-out left two guards dead and one injured. When the injured one flees the hospital, Johnson's theory that it must have been an inside job seems more likely and she ends up having to chase down the fleeing suspect all the way to Atlanta, where she gets to see her family for the holidays. They think she's there for Christmas cheer, but she's really there to transport a suspect back to L.A., something that proves much more difficult than she ever imagined. The whole gang, Brenda's family, the suspect, and even Fritz (Jon Tenney) end up in an RV traveling cross-country for the holidays.

It sounds like a set-up that would be ripe for cliches about family and awkward physical comedy but the team behind The Closer is much smarter than that. Sure, there are deep family conversations, most notably between Brenda and her dad, but there's also a dark edge to The Closer that you don't find in a lot of cop shows. The CSI franchise may love their gore, but The Closer is better because it's willing to find the flaws and darkness within its characters, not just its victims or killers. Brenda makes a decision with her suspect that is questionable at best and arguably despicable, but, as she says, she would do it all again. Without hitting its audience over the head, "Next of Kin" asks them how cruel they would be to a suspect if it meant that they would be more likely to save lives in the end. You don't often find those gray issues of morality in any cop show, much less a holiday-themed one. The Closer isn't just any cop show.