Kyra Sedgwick is a mystery in ‘Ten Days’
It’s the beginning of the end for ‘The Middle’ on ABC
Kyra Sedgwick’s TV door is no longer closed.
Come Oct. 1, The Closer star returns to television in ABC’s Ten Days in the Valley. She plays Jane, a struggling TV producer whose daughter is kidnapped — a crime that reveals her and every other character’s dirty secrets.
The crime is the driving force, but what interested Sedgwick is the character’s life as a working mother facing the terror of losing her child, and the pain and criticism that come with it. The plot, Sedgwick told the Television Critics Association, taps into the guilt women have “from the mo- ment we give birth.”
Sedgwick says she also liked the idea of doing a show that was more heavily serialized, as opposed to The Closer and its cases of the week. “I was interested in doing a show where I’m not solving a mystery; I am a mystery.”
For those who worry about being hung out to dry by an ongoing puzzle, producer Tassie Cameron says you can take the title of the series literally. Ten Days will run for just 10 episodes, each covering one day — and when it’s over, the central mystery will be solved. But never fear, she says: Bombshells will be dropped that she hopes will carry the show into a second season.
Sedgwick can solve one mystery right now, though it has nothing to do with Ten Days. Some have wondered how she felt when the PBS show Finding Your Roots revealed that she and her husband, Kevin Bacon, are very distantly related, possibly by more than six degrees. “I figured I was going to be related to Kevin Bacon. Most white people are related. ... I wasn’t surprised; frankly I figured that was the reason they wanted to do both of us. I had to act surprised.”
CAUGHT IN ‘THE MIDDLE’
What the Heck? The frugal Hoosiers are moving out of Orson.
After nine seasons, ABC’s The Middle will end its run next spring with an hour-long finale.
The comedy, which realistically portrays a perpetually cashstrapped Indiana family, stars Patricia Heaton and Neil Flynn as Frankie and Mike, the parents of slacker Axl (Charlie McDermott), perky Sue (Eden Sher) and quirky Brick (Atticus Shaffer). Its farewell season will feature the return of favorite characters, and some touching moments, maybe even for unemotive Mike.
Said Heisler: “Our show’s always been a little like Mike: ‘Don’t stick your head too far above the weeds.’ ”
But it resonated among fans for its focus away from the coasts TV writers seem to love.
“People in the middle of the country have been honored” by its depiction of “their everyday life,” Heisler said, and the setting has won new currency in this divided nation.
“Our timing really sucks,” joked Heaton. “We’re planning the end of the show, and suddenly it’s a hot topic.”