Major Crimes interview: Creator James Duff discusses season 6 themes, show’s future

Today, Major Crimes Month continues with the man who is really responsible for just about everything with the TNT series! Without the work of one James Duff we wouldn’t have the excellent series that we do, and there is a lot of interesting stuff to discuss with him in the aftermath of the show’s cancellation — including his emotional process and what he thinks about doing a possible seventh season elsewhere.

This interview was conducted on October 7 at the 100th episode event, days after the cancellation news was first announced. Since this time Duff has spoken out about some of the factors that led to the show’s end on Facebook. (The Facebook post referenced in this interview is one posted the week of the cancellation.)

CarterMatt – Where’s your head at now that you’ve had some time to process everything?

James Duff – My head right now is in a celebratory place — I’m surrounded by the people I love and the people I’ve been working with, some of them for 14, 13 years. It’s an emotional experience. My family has a motto — ‘don’t freak out in advance.’ So I don’t know what the last day is going to feel like so I’m not going to live that moment or anticipate that moment yet.

I will say that I’m directing the series finale and I don’t have a lot of time [to think about the end] — you’re worried about so many different things.

I was stunned when my Facebook post [about the cancellation] went viral because I thought that only happened with singers or movie stars or the President. I definitely did not expect [the response]. I have absolutely no experience in saying bad things about people in the press, so I have no bad things to say about anyone. I’m not an attack dog.

What are you excited for people to see in season 6?

What I’m most excited about is how well the stories came out. There are three big stories — a five-parter based on faith, a four-parter based on reason, and a four-parter based on rescue. We put our characters through some impossible situations. It’s really more focused on the people on the show than it’s ever been.

Before I let you go I’m going to throw this out there into the universe — do you have a dream in your head for what a season 7 could look like if it somehow happens?

I’m going to tell you a really fast story. At the end of the first season of The Closer I was on vacation and I went to a beach, which is not something I do very often. I looked out on the beach in Hawaii and my head was about as empty as the Pacific was large. I had no idea what I was going to do — that’s how I approach every season. I have to process everything that’s happened [to date].

If someone came to me and asked ‘do you want to do season 7?’ — well, they’d go to [Warner Bros. TV head] Peter Roth [first] — but if they said that, I think we’d all be on board with that.

More Major Crimes interviews!

We’ve got all sorts of good ones with cast members over at the link here, and there are going to be many more coming in the days ahead! Stay tuned, and like CarterMatt on Facebook for more TV updates. (Photo: TNT.)