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The Shield

GKarsEye

GKarsEye

Regular
Currently in my series of TV Shows To Catch Up On is The Shield.

The Wire gave me a taste for hard-hitting morally murky cop shows, so I'm on season two of The Shield now. Anyone else into this one?

I was a little wary with the first couple of episodes- it was entertaining but felt like they were trying to hard with Macky murdering his informant at the end of the first episode.

The pacing and some of the stories kept me interested enough up until season 2, where some really intricate and impressively designed plots were worked out. The whole Armadillo (not the animal, that's just the only way I can think of spelling the Mexican drug lord's name) continuing story line was really really good.

Yesterday I watched an episode that takes place before the first episode, when the division first began. That was really cool, especially seeing how the strike team learns how easy and fun corruption can be. It also left a lot open, so I'm wondering if they will continue with this for a while.

How is the quality of the show down the line? While I'm enjoying it now, I can see this easily dropping once some of the gimmicks wear off, like 24 or Lost.
 
Never seen it but its on my list. Several friends watch it and say its one of the better series made...
 
I watched all of season 1 and half of season 2. It was great, but shown at patchy times in the UK. I'd like to catch up one day, but have so little TV as it is...
 
This show keeps getting better and better. In the U.S. we're just past the halfway mark of season 6 (which is only 10 episodes instead of the usual 13.) This was originally planned as the last season, with the show coming back after an extended break following S5 for 10 last episodes to wrap the story up. But at some point the network and the producers decided that they'd conclude the show with a full 7th season instead. At this point they're tightening the screws so hard that I'm dying to see how they can avoid having the whole thing end in about 4 weeks. But I'm glad the show will be coming back, It would be tough to have this and The Sopranos both end in the same month. :)

In between the stuff you folks have seen and the current stories are a lot of twists and turns, betrayals and deaths, and some powerhouse guest stars and recurring characters. (Try Glenn Close and Forrest Whitaker for a season apiece.) Very cool stuff. If you have Netflix or a similar service this would be a great show to catch up with on DVD.

Regards,

Joe
 
But I'm glad the show will be coming back, It would be tough to have this and The Sopranos both end in the same month.
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Man, the Sopranos haven't been good since like season 2 or 3. (Yes I'm still watching, just because I know it's ending soon).

I'm in the middle of season 3 of The Shield right now. Season 2 ended real strong, but the current story lines are a bit bleh, so it's good to hear that the show is good a bit later on.

Favorite characters: Claudette and Dutch.
As entertaining as Macky and his strike team are, the whole "tough guy who gets things done and breaks the rules" can get a bit cliche at times.

The beauty of the Claudette/Dutch dynamic is how they're both so skilled at their craft and compassionate, but that it's the former characteristic that is the primary motivation for Dutch, while it is the latter that is for Claudette. I loved how in the prequel episode, Dutch kept going on about he'd never heard of her and she just couldn't care less.


SPOILERS

With her, as of now, poised to take over Aseveda's (sp?) job, there's some good story potential there. Aseveda is a character I can live without, and I could see Claudetter kicking some ass around that place.

I hope they give the chick uniform cop character something interesting soon- good actress.

Julian is a bit boring- he's conflicted, blah blah, whatever. Maybe he's just not a really good actor or something- whenever Julian is on screen I keep wanting them to go back to Macky or Dutch.

Perfect woman: the one that ran that abused women's shelter that Macky had a thing with. Beautiful, good humored, sexy, charming, smart, strong-yet-vulnerable, dedicates her life to helping others... yeah, this show is definitely written by men.
 
I hope they give the chick uniform cop character something interesting soon- good actress.
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Yeah. (She was very good in a CSI guest shot a season or two back.) The fact that she's a good-looking redhead is just a bonus. :) She does get more screen time, but not as much as I'd like, and they had to write the actress's real-life pregancy into the storyline, which I suspect altered the arc they'd planned for the character. I hate when that happens.

Aceveda mostly comes in handy by giving the audience one unambiguous character that it can simply despise. :) Never underestimate the value of such things. (I'm really looking forward to him getting what he's got coming to him before this whole thing is over. I'm not sure how I feel about Mackey. As with Tony Soprano and some of the other characters there - and I've only caught the show from time to time since about season 2, so I only came back for the finale because HBO is included in my HD slate - I'm not sure if I want Mackey dead, in prison or getting off scott-free at the end. But I know I want Aceveda to crash and burn as payback for all the sleazy, political ass-covering moves he's pulled in the past few years.

Later,

Joe
 
Aceveda mostly comes in handy by giving the audience one unambiguous character that it can simply despise.
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Yeah, up until he is sexually assaulted. Now I just feel bad for the guy.
 
GKarsEye said:
Yeah, up until he is sexually assaulted. Now I just feel bad for the guy.
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Well, that's why I didn't say I was looking forward to Aceveda "going down", which is how I originally phrased that until I remembered that event. ;) But trust me. He's enough of a bastard that he completely uses up all the sympathy points that earned him, at least in my mind, and I'm back to rooting against him.

Regards,

Joe
 
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Joseph DeMartino said:
Well, that's why I didn't say I was looking forward to Aceveda "going down", which is how I originally phrased that until I remembered that event. ;) But trust me. He's enough of a bastard that he completely uses up all the sympathy points that earned him, at least in my mind, and I'm back to rooting against him.

Regards,

Joe
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Well up until now, he hasn't been THAT horrible a person. Granted, he's a political sleazeball, but that's just typical local politician behavior. He hasn't been likeable enough to root for or evil enough to root against, per say. After all, his most usual opponent is a corrupt, abusive cop- we just for the cop because he has a lot more personality.

That's why I can take or leave Aceveda. Just... bleh. Maybe as an official councilman he'll have the opportunity to do some real evil. I would love to see some sort of showdown between Aceveda the politico vs Claudette the reluctant district captain. I'll just have to wait 'n' see... (don't spoil it :) ).

Actually, I have nothing to do tonight and will be home early, so maybe I'll just finish up season 3.


My favorite Dutch episode was where he was swindled by the female half of a sadistic couple had their victim in the trunk of their car, parked at the station. And then later, "I'm sorry.. daddy." Man- cold. And I dig that it effected him later.
 
Finished season 3 last night. Got a kick out of the finale, which guest-starred this hip cat:

andre%203000.jpg


(Andre 3000, half of the awesome hip-hop duo OutKast)
 
Nice hat. :)

Just watched episode 4 of the current season. The Shield had a problem akin to B5's. The decision had been made some months ago that this would be the last season, and that it would be a short one, 10 episodes just to tie off the plot threads from the previous years and wrap up the series. So even before the end of season 5, they were laying the groundwork for some kind of final showdown between the LAPD and Vic Mackey. But then somebody had a change of heart and they decided to bring the series back for a full-length 7th season, even though everyone had been signed for (and was shooting) a 10-episode "concluding" season 6.

Last night I began to see how they plan to get Vic out of a seemingly inescapable bind and not get him bounced off the force at the very least. On the other hand, certain other threads seem to be too far along for them to be called back now, and I suspect they will play out according to something like the original plan - but now instead of playing into the climax of Vic Mackey's story, they will be among the things he has to deal with (and maybe pay for down the road) as the show moves toward its real conclusion.

All I know right now is that I'm avoiding spoilers like the plague and I'll be glad when Boston Legal wraps its season so I can watch/record The Shield on Tuesdays and not have to wait for the rebroadcast. :)

Regards,

Joe
 
Cool.

I'm a few eps into season 4, which introduces Glenn Close. The character isn't flooring me, but I was glad that someone was replacing Aceveda, only to realise that he's still gonna be around. It looks like he may go from being an unpleasant but conflicted character to an outright villain, thus creating conflict between him and Close.

The new dynamic between Shane and Mackey has potential.

So far the season isn't impressing me, but I understand they need a period of adjustment for all the new changes.

Favorite comic relief scene: Dutch's date with Claudette's friend, as spied upon by his colleagues.
 
I just finished season five and can't wait for six to hit netflix. If you don't like the show after season five just stop because if that one doesn't do it for you nothing will.
 
I'm currently.... er.. .acquiring.. season 6. I think it just ended or something?

I also saw this 15 minute thing called "prequel," which revolves around a flashback to Lem winning a police arm-wrestling match even though he hurt his arm, thus demonstrating his drive to sacrifice himself for the team and such.
 
The 90 minute season finale was last night. You can see what I think are a couple of seams showing where they had to adjust from the series-ending arc they had originally conceived for this season to a bridge into a new season, but for the most part I think they handled it brilliantly. (They also did a series of promos that were either brilliant or the biggest cheat ever, because they were edited in such a way as to make you think the story was going to be very different than what it was. But this added to the suspense and kept some of the plot twists surprising because the viewer went for the head-fake in the preview and then got blindsided by the actual events in the episode.)

They've set up a couple of huge stories for next year with blackmail, betrayal, political corruption, developing personal relationships and alliances you never thought you'd see in a million years - and all of them tie-in to events going back to the first episode and beyond (like the flashback episode on the founding of the strike team.) I can't wait to see how they handle it.

Regards,

Joe
 
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Cool.

I was able to see up to episode 10 of season 6, hope to catch up ASAP.

Michael Chiklis (Vic Mackey) was on Opie & Anthony promoting The Fantastic Four, where he plays The Thing. Said they were going to start filming season 7 in January, IIRC.
 
OK so I just started watching this show. Almost done with Disc 2 of Season 1. Its on my Netflix. So far, so good. I'm usually not big on cop shows (although I really liked the short-lived Boomtown) but this show is definitely different than most cop shows. It does have a nice flow from one episode to the next, and isnt a "crime of the week" type show.
 
Recoil said:
OK so I just started watching this show. Almost done with Disc 2 of Season 1. Its on my Netflix. So far, so good. I'm usually not big on cop shows (although I really liked the short-lived Boomtown) but this show is definitely different than most cop shows. It does have a nice flow from one episode to the next, and isnt a "crime of the week" type show.
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Although it's not "crime of the week," (which could get boring real quick and why I stopped watching Law & Order after season 3), they do have some stand-alone crime stories and most of them are actually pretty good.

I still haven't seen last season's finale...
 
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