The Shield (MARKED spoilers within)

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Charlie Don't Surf

Charlie Don't Surf

Hello. The other night I watched the last two episodes of FX Cop Drama "The Shield" for the first time since they aired. It was still gut-wrenching, tense, and insane for me, even though I knew exactly what was going to happen. The Shield is one of my favorite TV shows of all time. Michael Chiklis is amazing in the lead role of Vic Mackey. Walton Goggins' lack of Emmy-love for his portrayal of Shane Vendrell is criminal. This show lasted 7 very strong seasons before wrapping up with one of the most satisfying finales I've seen on TV.


There were great guest stars throughout. Glenn Close and Anthony Anderson had amazing turns in Season 4 as a Police Captain and Drug Kingpin, respectively. If you thought AA was just a comic actor, you're dead wrong. He was an amazing and terrifying villain. Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker was on for a season or two as a IA officer obsessed with taking Mackey down. He was also great.

The pilot is one of my favorite pilots of all time. I think the ending/hook in the episode, which is insanely important for pilots to hook you for the rest of the series, is the best of all time. At the end of the pilot, about 10 years ago, I knew that I was gonna watch every episode of this show.

I was just wondering if anyone here watched/loved the show, and if no one has, then I'm here to strenuously encourage you to give it a shot from the beginning.
 
Frank

Frank

I could not agree more. The Shield is the most popular show amongst my coworkers and I by a mile. My DVD sets have been passed around more than any I can think of.

Hell, we went so far when we were naming our watches (groups of us that work together all the time) for some presentation thing for our yearly regimental ball that my watch got called Shield Watch and I was labelled as Ronnie.

The Shield is my favorite show of all time (tied with The Wire I think). The characters, the stoylines, the fact that everything tied back to the first episode, everything. The show is a masterpiece in a sea of mediocre serial dramas.

I think the only thing the show didn't do well is how they handled Julien.
They just sort of dropped his gay cop storyline and ignored what he was going through for the rest of the series after his "turning" by his pastor.
 
Charlie Don't Surf

Charlie Don't Surf

I disagree on Julien.

I mean, that was the end of the storyline. He chose to bury himself, and it's not like that's gonna reverse soon. I liked the moment in the finale showing him watching the gay couple holing hands wistfully. You know it's still there.
 
E

elph

I tried watching a couple episodes late in it's run, but my dedication just wasn't there (since it was around season 5 or 6 I think) because of it. I've been interested in getting a hold of it or finding it online, just not enough to do something about it yet.
 
@Li3n

@Li3n

You know, i wasn't expecting Mackey to actually get away with all the shit he's done... poor Ronnie... he didn't even do half the shit Vic did.
 
Frank

Frank

I dunno, Ronnie deserved jail just as much as Vic did. These guys were some of the worst kinds of assholes in existence and this is coming from fucking Ronniefan1983 over here. The show's ending is one of the best of all time I think.

Vic may have not gone to jail, but he's definitely in hell.
 
@Li3n

@Li3n

Dude, Vic
shot a cop
in the 1st episode... none of the shit any of them did after that comes even close. Yeah, they all deserved jail, but Vic would have gotten the chair for sure.

And i was more talking about being betrayed like that...
 
Frank

Frank

@Li3n said:
Dude, Vic
shot a cop
in the 1st episode... none of the shit any of them did after that comes even close. Yeah, they all deserved jail, but Vic would have gotten the chair for sure.

And i was more talking about being betrayed like that...
Click to expand...
And Ronnie

Not only knew about it the whole time but helped Vic cover it up.

That's just as bad.
 
@Li3n

@Li3n

I'm pretty sure you get less time for that in most legal systems. Also, he knew like Aceveda knew, it was pretty obvious, but had no way to confirm it, so lets not exaggerate it.
 
J

jasonisgreat

I loved this show. Everyone on the show was good at what they were supposed to be doing. There were episodes that legitimately shocked me, particularly

when Lem got exploded. Holy shit.

And also

the whole "Aceveda blowing a dude and then pictures surfacing" thing.

My one complaint is that

I felt they kind of just left the Dutch thing alone. I expected something to happen after that episode where he strangles the cat in his alley.

Awesome show, though.
 
A

Alex B.

Frankie;280793][quote=@Li3n said:
Dude, Vic
shot a cop
in the 1st episode... none of the shit any of them did after that comes even close. Yeah, they all deserved jail, but Vic would have gotten the chair for sure.

And i was more talking about being betrayed like that...
Click to expand...
And Ronnie

Not only knew about it the whole time but helped Vic cover it up.

That's just as bad.[/QUOTE]

Actually
Ronnie didn't know until pretty late in the series. I forget when exactly, but only Vic and Shane knew from the start. Minor difference, I guess.
the show is great for making you wonder why you're feeling bad for such horrible people. :)

At any rate, I agree, fantastic series. My wife and I chugged through seasons 1-6 in record time, then had to wait a few agonizing months for the last season to come out. So, so so good. I thought the Season 6 conflict between Vic and Kavanaugh was simply some of the best television ever. Kavanaugh was so clearly in the right but you hated him all the same.
 
Frank

Frank

When Vic decided to tell Ronnie, Ronnie basically just said, "Yeah, I knew, I wish you had decided to trust me earlier."
 
@Li3n

@Li3n

Yeah, but it's not exactly complicity until they actually told him, up until then he was just conjecture on his part.
 
R

Reboneer

The second last episode is one of my favourite episodes of any TV show ever.
 
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