I just finished Season 3 of the Shield. Oh my god I can’t stop watching. This is probably the most addictive show for me since the Wire.
I bought the series a while back but never really expected much from it. Now I cannot stop even this week being premiere week, I tivo everything and watch the Shield, starting season 4 tonight.
Everytime you think a character might have some redeeming qualities, the writers throw something in to change your mind about that one character. It’s really a rollercoaster ride, and action packed rollercoaster ride.
I just had to share because nobody in my environment has seen or even knows the Shield!
Bob is right - The Shield was already very good by Season 3 but it gets much, much better. I am not the sort of person to get hooked on a TV series (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but in recent years The Shield has been my one exception, and I got the box set of the entire series as soon as it came out.
Everyone associated with this show can be very, very proud of what they achieved. The producers, writers, directors and the astonishing cast all delivered 100%, and the last few episodes of the final season can stand alongside any other achievements in television drama. A great show that has a great deal to offer any viewer.
I dropped the show after season three (the money train storyline just seemed to go nowhere), but I’ve been meaning to get back into it to finish out the show.
The season finale to season 5 of “The Shield” is my favorite moment of the show and one of my favorite episodes of any show ever. The last two episodes of the series are my next two favorite episodes of the show. Season 3 is merely a warm up.
Believe me, the Armenian Money Train goes somewhere, and it ain’t nowhere good for anybody involved.
One of the best things about The Shield is that the writers and creator clearly had a path as to where they were going and how the show was going to end. It is one thing to continually end shows with a cliffhanger, like 24 or Lost, but another to craft the stories so the plot threads are consistent and plausible, and lead to the ultimate resolution in a way that seems not only likely but inevitable. The Shield also managed to get the “Anyone Can Die” trope right; instead of randomly killing off characters strictly for shock value, it lets the characters place themselves into a more dire circumstance, gives them an out, and then shows them making the wrong decision leading to their ultimate demise.
And Michael Chiklis as Vic Mackey is nothing less than a revelation. The character could have been played as a self-absorbed sociopath; instead, it is clear that Mackey cares about his job and his family, but in his effort to provide for both he oversteps any reasonable boundaries. However, that isn’t is flaw; his mistake is that he regrets doing this and tries to make up for it, inevitably making things even worse for himself and everyone around him. His final betrayal is all the more poignant for being a complete reversal of his core ethic. The supporting cast and their characters are all equally as good, especially CCH Pounder and Jay Karnes.
I won’t say more about how the show ends, but it should be as obvious as Lear.
It is unfortunate that Shawn Ryan wasn’t able to maintain the same control and continuity with The Unit; there were clear signs early on in that show of trying to craft an overarching story arc, but it clearly got A-Teamed by studio execs when it didn’t turn out to be a breakout hit.
I was a fan and regular watcher. Among the great shows of the past, Top Ten easily.
One thing I have observed is that since the show was cancelled the actors have (for the most part) not been as well utilized or written for as they were in The Shield and have thus not prospered as a by-product of their association with the show. Perhaps the most notable exception has been Walton Goggins (Shane) whose work on the FX show Justified is of the same caliber if not better.
The work the other actors have landed has been less noteworthy to non-existent. It’s not that you don’t see them, you can, it’s just that their roles on The Shield should have been a bigger boost to their status than has worked out for most of them.
It should be noted that unlike many shows, most of the actors on here are not “pretty”. Cathy Cahlin Ryan, who plays Vic’s wife, actually looks like a cop’s wife rather than the supermodels who population most police procedurals. The show goes so far as to subtly lampoon the general practice of casting pretty actors in working roles where everyone pretends that the character is just average; when an attractive trainee starts working at The Barn, she is immediately hit upon by every guy there, and then is transferred to PR work and is used as a recruitment model.
In general, the show is a pretty accurate (if obviously dramatized) depiction of police life, including the petty jealousies and back-biting politics, mostly without going over the top (though the Cavanaugh story arc threatened to collapse on its own implausibility). There were a few technical gaffs, like referring to “districts” and “precincts” (LAPD has administrative units of bureaus and districts), and the fact that “The Farm” (despite being a “satellite precinct”, seemed to cover an area from East Hollywood to South LA and all the way over to parts of Mid-Wilshire. It’s anyone’s guess as to where The Barn is actually located, but it appears to be somewhere in or around Harvard Heights or Pico-Union. However, they got a lot of nitpicky details correct, like service weapons and radio codes that many shows don’t bother to get right.
I don’t think I could name any of the strike team members by name, other than Shane. There was Blondie, and Mustache Guy, that’s all I got. I watched 4 seasons, and half-watched the rest.
Whether it was because of the writing or because of the acting, the officers other than Vic (and maybe Secretly Gay Black Officer) were pretty forgettable. Even Shane didn’t develop any character until years into the show. (Originally, he was “that other one”, other than Blondie & Mustache Guy).
I’m rewatching this show, about to start season 6.
Season 5 was the best of them. I always liked the money train story, especially the season 3 ramifications. I remember losing total interest in season 6, and not even watching season 7 when it aired, until much later. It didn’t pick up steam again until the last 2 episodes…but MAN DID IT when it did! Up there with Six Feet Under as best finale ever!
I also got my dad into this show. He’s been watching half a season a day, and he has NO IDEA what’s to come!
OMFG, I just finished the series… dang what an ending.
I finally got two people hooked on it now so I can share my awe of it
The only negative I have to say about this series is that now everything seems boring on tv, I think I need a break before I go back to my regular series!
Try The Unit also created and run by Shawn Ryan with David Mamet contributing story and the occasional script (first three series only before they A-Teamed it, and skim over the scenes with the Desperate Army Housewives), and of course, David Simon’s The Wire. Neither has quite the same manic intensity and downward spiraling story arc (The Unit clearly suffered from being forced into a network episode format and the limitations of broadcast censorship), and The Wire is less focused on story than the characters, but both have the same kind of gritty, jargon-laden, mise en scene detail that draws you into that world.
I’ve seen The Wire, which I thought was also excellent but as opposed to The Shield didn’t ruin television viewing for me
I’ll give the Unit a shot, I stumbled upon it once a while back, but I had seen an episode with mostly the wives, and not being into the Desparate Housewives… it didn’t appeal to me but I’ll give it a shot!
I like The Unit quite a bit but it’s not comparable in tone or quality to The Shield. The only show that might be is The Wire – I actually didn’t get into The Wire after the first season but I respect what they’ve done and may pick it up at the start of the third season someday.
My friend who thinks The Wire is the best show ever lost interest in The Shield at the end of the fifth season, since Lemonhead was the only character he liked. For me, the last two seasons made the show truly exceptional, or more exceptional than it had been up to that point. Vic’s end was perfectly done.
The last two episode of the Shield had me laughing, crying and screaming at my television… Vic’s end is indeed perfect, they could not have written a better end for him. That’s all I can say without giving anything away!
Agreed–it shows every sign of being tampered with by network executives in an attempt to make it appeal to a mass audience–but it has moments of brilliance that bring it close and make it worth watching. The episodes that Mamet actually wrote (either under his name or a pseudonym) stand out boldly against the rest, and makes you wonder what he could do if he devoted himself to a short series-type format like The Wire.
