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Confessions of a Shield Virgin

post #1 of 134
10/3/08 at 1:27am
Thread Starter 
I can't wander around that Season 7 thread anymore, too many spoilers. So I figured we'd get one started for those of us who might be watching the other seasons and aren't on 7 yet.

When I got the first discs of Season One I thought this might serve as a diversion in between discs of BSG but it's quickly overtaken it. I love the shit out of this. But I'm in the middle of Disc Two Season Three and I gotta say, I'm not as impressed with this one so far. Maybe it's because I've gotten overly invested in Julien and Danny but the lack of them is kind of hurting so far and I feel like important elements seem to come and go at the whim of the writers (Armenian Money Train, Tavon's condition). For a show that never seems to forget anything there's a few too many conveniences for my liking.

But there's still good stuff. I thought "Bottom Bitch" was a really good individual episode and I'm real interested to see what they're going to do with Aceveda post-rape.

Anybody like me making their way through the show or made their way recently?
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post #2 of 134
10/3/08 at 1:33am
Nope, you're not wrong when you say S3 ain't as great as S1 and S2. Season 3 gets bogged down in the whole money train thing, and even the writers acknowledge that it got a little out of hand. Season 4 isn't anything all that great either (for The Shield. But the episodes are always entertaining). But Season 5....that's the shows perfect season, and the one that raised it to a whole different level. Just wait until you see that season, just hope nothing got spoiled for you. If it did, that really sucks.
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post #3 of 134
10/3/08 at 1:37am
Season 5 and 6 make the little bit of downtime in 3 and 4 completely worth your while. (Not that they're not worthwhile on their own merits, mind you.)
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post #4 of 134
10/3/08 at 1:37am
Thread Starter 
My experiences with watching the show casually included the major death if that's what you're talking about. Hell, I think everybody knows that. But I don't know TOO much.

Every episode I've seen involving Glenn Close I loved but we'll see. That was a while ago.
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post #5 of 134
10/3/08 at 1:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jakespeare View Post
My experiences with watching the show casually included the major death if that's what you're talking about. Hell, I think everybody knows that. But I don't know TOO much.
That sucks. Part of the greatness of S5 is that absolute shocker of an ending. Still, I'm sure you'll love it.
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post #6 of 134
10/3/08 at 1:43am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by InTheShadows View Post
That sucks. Part of the greatness of S5 is that absolute shocker of an ending. Still, I'm sure you'll love it.
I knew Aceveda was going to take it at gunpoint and it was still horrifying. Trust me, i'm still susceptible.

Watching Vic and Shane interact knowing what's going to come for them is kind of heartbreaking in a way. Watching Cassidy knowing what she's up to now is having the same effect.
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post #7 of 134
10/3/08 at 2:00am
Season 3 is not as strong as the others. It's all mainly about fallout from the money train and it doesn't bring as much to the table as other seasons. That doesn't mean there isn't a lot of great moments, but it is the weakest.

S4 is underrated. Close gets all the attention, and she's quite good. But for me it's the season that introduced us to Billings (though he doesn't truly catch fire until S5) and convinced me that Anthony Anderson wasn't just a stain in films.
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post #8 of 134
10/3/08 at 2:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moltisanti View Post
But for me it's the season that introduced us to Billings (though he doesn't truly catch fire until S5) and convinced me that Anthony Anderson wasn't just a stain in films.
Echoing the love for Anderson as Mitchell, just an awesome performance from the last guy in the world you'd expect to deliver it. Season 4 is certainly important in the series as a whole, since an event that takes place influences the entire 5th season, but for some reason my mind just kind of lumps s3 and 4 together when I guess they really shouldn't be.
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post #9 of 134
10/3/08 at 2:11am
I tend to lump them as well, though that may be because 5 and 2 are my favorites (so far) so everything in between tends to blur together.
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post #10 of 134
10/3/08 at 9:27am
Season 3 is the weakest, but it's still very good TV. Some great scenes, especially the Shane vs Tavon rumble. I think that's the most brutal fight I've ever seen on TV.
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post #11 of 134
10/3/08 at 9:42am
I started with Season 3 and it roped me in but since I re-watched all of the seasons again I can't say that it's my favorite. I have to give a lot of love to Season 4. I think that it's great and two big reasons for that are Glenn Close and Anthony Anderson. Of course after that S5 just completely blew everything out of the water.
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post #12 of 134
10/3/08 at 4:12pm
Thread Starter 
The show is always watchable so far, it's not like "Fuck Season 3, that nearly made me quit watching!" but it is proving to be a slog at least for me.

Though at the very least Aceveda's arc is rather great if hard to sit through. Rough stuff.
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post #13 of 134
10/3/08 at 5:09pm
Yeah season 3 is definitely the weakest. If I had to rank the seasons from worst to best (excluding season 7 of course) it'd be: Season 3, Season 6, Season 1, Season 4, Season 5, Season 2.

That said I think all the seasons are good shit.
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post #14 of 134
10/3/08 at 5:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael View Post
If I had to rank the seasons from worst to best (excluding season 7 of course) it'd be: Season 3, Season 6, Season 1, Season 4, Season 5, Season 2.

That said I think all the seasons are good shit.
Seems like a lot of folks rank S6 near the bottom. Like S3, it's a season that is really all about fallout from what happened the prior season (though shorter in # of episodes than S3 which helps). But it worked for me mainly because it really gave Walt Goggins a chance to break out and add a little bit of compassion for his character. Not easy, all things considered.
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post #15 of 134
10/3/08 at 6:01pm
Season five is unquestionably this show at its pinnacle. One of TV's all-time great seasons of ANY show.
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post #16 of 134
10/4/08 at 4:05am
I think I'm going to have to start downloading season 7. No word on when it hits the UK, and I can't wait any longer. And I don't want to be spoiled, like I was with season 5. I'm pretty sure it's not going to end well for these guys, but I want to be suprised.

I tried with bitorrent and utorrent, but it didn't work. I don't like downloading, but any pointers would be appreciated.
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post #17 of 134
10/4/08 at 9:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by InTheShadows View Post
Nope, you're not wrong when you say S3 ain't as great as S1 and S2. Season 3 gets bogged down in the whole money train thing, and even the writers acknowledge that it got a little out of hand. Season 4 isn't anything all that great either (for The Shield. But the episodes are always entertaining). But Season 5....that's the shows perfect season, and the one that raised it to a whole different level. Just wait until you see that season, just hope nothing got spoiled for you. If it did, that really sucks.
I actually really enjoyed season 4 - thought it had a great deal of mounting tension.

Then Forest came along with season 5 and . . . well fuck.
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post #18 of 134
10/4/08 at 12:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluelouboyle View Post
I tried with bitorrent and utorrent, but it didn't work. I don't like downloading, but any pointers would be appreciated.
When using bittorrent:

Check out torrentz.com

When you run a search for what you want, format it like this....

The Shield s07e01, The Shield s07e02, etc.

When you click on the result links (the file should be around 350 mb), it will bring up a page of mirror sites that the torrent is available on. I prefer PirateBay, but it doesn't really matter because their all the same anyway. Click on the link to the mirror site, then download the torrent from the site. Just open the file with uTorrent and it will start to download. The files you DL will either be uncompressed AVI or a RAR file that you'll need to uncompress to watch.

Hope that helps.

Oh, and you should always scan the file for a virus before opening it. Most aren't, but some assholes like to post infected files on torrent sites.
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post #19 of 134
10/5/08 at 5:06am
Thanks mate
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post #20 of 134
10/5/08 at 3:58pm
I started watching The Shield midway through S2. I've been hooked ever since. I agree with those that say S2 and S5 are the best of the series. Though its fair to say that every season has had its moments. S2 and S5 are the best, IMO, because they each provided the most amount of tension for Vic and/or Shane. For my money the Latin gangster from S2 (I can't recall his name off the top of my head) was the best villian/antagonist of the whole series.
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post #21 of 134
10/6/08 at 3:38am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by History Buff View Post
I started watching The Shield midway through S2. I've been hooked ever since. I agree with those that say S2 and S5 are the best of the series. Though its fair to say that every season has had its moments. S2 and S5 are the best, IMO, because they each provided the most amount of tension for Vic and/or Shane. For my money the Latin gangster from S2 (I can't recall his name off the top of my head) was the best villian/antagonist of the whole series.
Armadillo. Pronounced armadio.

Yeah, he was a fucking monster.
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post #22 of 134
10/10/08 at 2:38am
Thread Starter 
I'm in the middle of the last episode of Season Three but I thought I'd share impressions now.

Yeah, there were some good parts. Aceveda's entire arc was great, unpleasant as hell, but great character work.

Shane in general also got some good stuff to do this season even if after Tavon left it got a little less interesting.

Speaking of Tavon, the scene when Lem tricks Tavon into thinking he beat up Mara was like Aceveda's stuff so uncomfortable but so well done at the same time. The look on Lem's face as Vic gets deeper into the story teller role was great.

Claudette and Dutch are pretty watchable no matter what.

But overall the season was a master's exercise in wheel-spinning. I'd understand if they didn't have an antagonist that reached up to Armadillo's level but they barely had an antagonist at all. Margos was there for part of it but he barely registers. That speaks to the higher flaw though, the writers had a few too many balls in the air for them to deal with. Shane and Tavon/Tavon's condition, all of the loose ends from the Money Train, Claudette and Aceveda's tension over who's the Captain, the Decoy Squad, the cuddler rapist, and I just don't think they handled the plotting as well as I've come to believe they can. As a fan of Danny and Julien I was also really pissed at how little we saw of them this season.

It'll be a bit until I can get to Season 4 and I'm not nearly as pissed about that as I thought I'd be. Big disappointment.
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post #23 of 134
10/10/08 at 6:50am
Wait until Forest Withaker joins the bunch.
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post #24 of 134
7/15/09 at 9:40am
I just finished Season 3 last night and I'm glad to hear that it gets a lot better after that. I really had to push myself to get through the middle parts of it. I really didn't like the Tavon thing, I thought it was a much more interesting storyline to have a member of the team who was a bit of an outsider than to just have him get taken out so quickly. The Decoy Squad stuff was pretty cool but then it seemed to just be dropped too quickly. They seemed to have a lot of good ideas in general and just were trying to through them all up at once.

I liked the finale, especially the scenes with Lem burning the money and the Strike Team break up. I hope there's more Lem he's the most likable characters on the show. Claudette's career suicide was interesting but at the same time it seems like she would be a smarter person and see the bigger picture than try to get a couple innocents freed.
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post #25 of 134
7/15/09 at 12:50pm
Man I still loved season 3, even if it was weaker than the rest. Season 4 through till season 7 is just amazing. Not enough can be said about season 5, but the last season is simply fantastic too. Man I envy you fellas whom are watching it for the first time.
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post #26 of 134
7/15/09 at 1:08pm
I loved the show up until season 5 (where just to be clear I still liked the show), but it was here that it seemed that everything went Vic's way.

I was looking forward to Forest Witicker performance and in paticular to the cat and mouse game he and Vic were going to play. Lets just say that doesn't occur. And the theme of what occurs there continues as the show moves on.

It isn't until the middle of the final season when the one suspect talks (I think we know what scene we are talking about) that the show really picks up again.
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post #27 of 134
7/15/09 at 1:08pm
I think the biggest issue with The Shield has always been the whole thing with them having another member. It's Tavon first of all, then Army (Though he does serve a bigger purpose, mainly how Shane could never be Vic, and how Army was a much smarter Shane). But it still does them all a diservice.

It's like Aaron Sorkin's treatment of VP's in 'The West Wing'.
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post #28 of 134
7/16/09 at 5:34am
I fucking loved Season 4. The character arc of Monica Rawling was just amazing to watch, it was her job to catch criminals, in way, she's on the same page as Vic and she was far more interested in making the city more safe than playing politics (but she could do that when she needed to), hell, she even bought a house in one of the worst neighbourhoods just to show her commitment. Seeing her arriving at the house after getting fired was really quite heartbreaking.
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post #29 of 134
7/16/09 at 8:04am
Quote:
Originally Posted by DerekT View Post
I loved the show up until season 5 (where just to be clear I still liked the show), but it was here that it seemed that everything went Vic's way.

I was looking forward to Forest Witicker performance and in paticular to the cat and mouse game he and Vic were going to play. Lets just say that doesn't occur. And the theme of what occurs there continues as the show moves on.

It isn't until the middle of the final season when the one suspect talks (I think we know what scene we are talking about) that the show really picks up again.
I know what you mean, but I don't fully agree, since Whitaker was the catalyst for his eventual downfall. I won't go further, since I'm assuming this is a spoiler free thread.

Yea season 4 included an absolute powerhouse performance from Close almost rivaling that of Whitakers in the next season. It was a superb season, I agree Dragon.
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post #30 of 134
7/16/09 at 12:17pm
As someone who had never cared for Close before, she just blew me away on The Shield.
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post #31 of 134
7/16/09 at 7:07pm
My sentiments exactly, I can't think of a single time I liked her before the Shield (Damages came out after), but after her turn in season 4, I realised what a great actor she can be.
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post #32 of 134
7/16/09 at 7:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DrVenkman View Post
I think the biggest issue with The Shield has always been the whole thing with them having another member. It's Tavon first of all, then Army (Though he does serve a bigger purpose, mainly how Shane could never be Vic, and how Army was a much smarter Shane). But it still does them all a diservice.
To me the various people that would get brought in from time to time (throw Kevin and Julian in there as well) just reinforced that no mater what, dead or alive, it was the fab-four's team. I liked when someone else would show up to mess up their dynamic. Kept them on their toes.

That point was made from episode 1.
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post #33 of 134
7/16/09 at 7:31pm
Great show. Loved every moment of it. DAMN YOU MOLTI...sorry, force of habit.

Don't forget about the "lost" episode that even die-hard Shield fanatics sometimes miss out on. It's the 15-20 minute on-line only webisode that bridges season 5 and season 6.
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post #34 of 134
7/16/09 at 7:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moltisanti View Post

S4 is underrated. Close gets all the attention, and she's quite good. But for me it's the season that introduced us to Billings (though he doesn't truly catch fire until S5) and convinced me that Anthony Anderson wasn't just a stain in films.
I concur 100%. I loved season 4, and would actually rank it above season 1.

But yeah, season 5 is just perfect television.
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post #35 of 134
7/17/09 at 3:51pm
The thing that bugged me about season 5 was how the writers treated Corrine. Not only did they make her turn so easily on Vic, but they also showed her to be easily manipulated by Wittaker's character. You'd think someone that was married to Vic Mackey wouldn't be so easy to manipulate or easily scared.
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post #36 of 134
7/17/09 at 4:38pm
I don't know about that. Part of the reason women like Corrine marry guys like Vic is because they're easy to manipulate and/or scared.
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post #37 of 134
7/17/09 at 4:49pm
Good point. Perhaps it was that Cavanaugh was such a screwd dick.
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post #38 of 134
7/17/09 at 6:25pm
Its also due to the eye opening experience she went through. She gets massive amounts of undocumented money handed to her from her husband. Knowing his disposition she realises not all is kosher, combine this with all the info Cavanaugh is feeding her she starts to realise how corrupt Vic is. She wanted out somehow, and Cavanaugh gave her this. I thought it was well handled, it ringed true.
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post #39 of 134
7/17/09 at 10:59pm
What I do love about Shield is the holy shit moments, of which there are many but the one that still stands out in my mind is that episode with the man/woman serial killers, seeing that crippled woman in the bathroom shocked the hell out of me. The end of that episode (or was it in another episode) with Dutch coming to realize he'd fucked up by letting Melanie Lynskey only to find she was more evil than the boyfriend was really quite disturbing.

It was interesting to see Dutch fail like that, he came off a high after matching wits with that arrogant serial killer and getting kudos from everyone including Vic, so Melanie Lynskey eluding him really showed him he wasn't as smart as he thought he was.
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post #40 of 134
7/18/09 at 9:53am
I love the Shield.

It is the best Cop show ever made. (I love the Wire and think that it is the best TV show ever made, but its much more than just a cop show)

Season 5 is probably the best and most consistent season of television I have ever seen. I have never felt physically sick when watching an episode (I think you guys who have seen it all know what moment I am talking about), until this one. If you can elicit that kind of emotion from your audience, you are doing something very fucking right.
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post #41 of 134
7/18/09 at 6:04pm
Anyone heard if they plan on releasing all 7 seasons as a DVD compilation set, ala The Sopranos?
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post #42 of 134
7/18/09 at 6:27pm
Don't know about that. I do know that with the current 25% off sale at deepdiscount.com you can get seasons 1-6 for $17 a pop. The just-released 7th season works out to be a bit under $24. It's listed as "temporarily out of stock" but since it just came out like a month ago they're likely to have it again real soon.
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post #43 of 134
7/18/09 at 6:42pm
If there's one issue I can think of with The Shield, it's their treatment of Ronnie as a character. The guy's always been a bit of a non-entity. I'm at the end of the 6th season and it's just about now that he's starting to come across as a real person.
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post #44 of 134
7/18/09 at 6:50pm
That's a valid criticism. For most of the show's run he was mainly just along for the ride. Truly the Ringo.

But one of my favorite aspects of the last couple seasons was his emergence as a fleshed out character. Snell was more than up to the task when Ronnie was finally called upon to be a focal point.
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post #45 of 134
7/18/09 at 9:17pm
agreed. we always used to joke in the season threads "what about ronnie!". But the writing staff really brought it home near the end. He became a fully fleshed out character.

I know Molt has been championing him for a while now, but I also gotta reiterate how damn good Anthony Anderson can be when given the right material. He was scary in this show.
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post #46 of 134
7/19/09 at 2:26pm
At the start of the year I was a Shield virgin. Now I'm practically a Shield registered sex offender. In England the show never gets the credit it deserves, largely because the media only has the attention-span to lavish praise on one genre example at a time, and that honor has befallen The Wire in recent times. The Shield isn't taken seriously because it's too damn entertaining.

Also, Ronnie isn't completely neglected in the earlier seasons. There's the big reveal that "Hey, this guy's pretty good with computers!".

And on a slightly related note, it's nice to see Jay Karnes bringing his game to Burn Notice.
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post #47 of 134
7/19/09 at 5:08pm
Yea don't know too many people here who watch it, but I've been preaching the gospel of Shield for a while. Ugh, Jay Karnes is cool, but Burn Notice blows. It should not tarnish this thread.
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post #48 of 134
7/19/09 at 6:08pm
We didn't even know Ronny was tech-savy until S3. We never found out anything about his family either.

You guys across the pond gotten Season 7 yet?
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post #49 of 134
7/19/09 at 6:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by History Buff View Post
You guys across the pond gotten Season 7 yet?
It came out on DVD last month with little to no fanfare.

Quote:
Ugh, Jay Karnes is cool, but Burn Notice blows. It should not tarnish this thread
Sorry. I didn't know it's not popular here.
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post #50 of 134
7/19/09 at 6:45pm
No, no it's all well. I think it's actually liked by a lot of people around here, I personally don't like it though.
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