In her first lead role in a dramatic series, Sedgwick plays a CIA-trained, Atlanta detective who has been brought to Los Angeles to head up the Priority Murder Squad, a special unit of the LAPD that handles sensitive, high-profile murder cases. Brenda is tapped to lead the team because she is a world-class interrogator, and when it comes to obtaining confessions, she is a closer. As the series' first episode opens, Brenda arrives in Los Angeles and immediately finds herself thrust into a very different way of life. She struggles to leave past demons behind her while dealing with co-workers who resent the fact that she leap-frogged over many veteran cops to the elevated position of Deputy Police Chief. Her quirky personality and hard-nosed approach to her job immediately rub her colleagues the wrong way, as does the fact that she is a tough-minded, Southern woman in a department dominated by men. Though focused on her career, she's also trying (somewhat unsuccessfully) to overcome her love of doughnuts, chocolate bars and other snacks and reignite a personal life that has fallen by the wayside.

On the job, Brenda has a great talent for knowing a person's secrets and obtaining confessions, with skills that stem from understanding her own imperfections and neuroses. She does whatever it takes to find out the truth, no matter what the personal costs. Though she finds some support from her boss, Assistant Police Chief Will Pope, played by J.K. Simmons (Spider-Man, Law & Order, Oz), for the most part she must fend for herself in a hostile work environment.