Confessions of a Shield Virgin - Page 2

And the fact that he knows how to properly care for asian throw rugs.

Ronnie was certainly the most vacant personality, but I don't find that to necessarily be a bad thing. It kind of reflects how groups are in real life, there's always a quite introspective person, and Ronnie fills this very well. It's only when things start getting really fucked up, and they may get killed or go to prison do we see his personality coming out. It takes this kind of stress and pressure for some people to bring up what is underneath. I personally liked the way they handled the character.

I'm saddned with the thought there will never be a cop show like this. Instead we get bland crud like The Unusuals and that one with the OC kid.

Speaking of which I recorded and watched the first episode of that Dark Blue show with Dylan McDermott. It's pretty foul. Clichés ahoy!

Thank goodness Sons Of Anarchy is coming back in a little over a month. Best thing out there to help me with Shield withdrawls.

Haven't checked out Dark Blue, I'll give it pass I suppose. Lately it's like they're trying to make some really bad cop shows. After the Shield it's always going to be tough task, but it's like they're trying to make shit cop shows. And yea I can't wait for Sons of Anarchy, it's just cold stone awesome, I might have to force myself to wait for a bunch of episodes come out though.

I love the ending scene where the Mayan's leader has his right hand man killed by an ax weilding ice cream vendor in a park, it's all set to this beautiful and haunting classical guitar peice. Anybody happen to know the name of that peice?

I don't know the name of the piece but I do know that the it was a churro vendor not an ice cream vendor and it was his son not his right hand man. As least, I think it was.

Yea you're right it wasn't an icre cream vendor. I didn't realize it was his son, I think he calls him this at one point, but I thought it was son in the rhetorical context. It certainly makes the scene even more powerful, but it's cold even for the leader of the Mayans to kill your own son for such an infraction.

The classical-guitar piece was "Fortunate Son".

Thank you sir.

I finished Season 4 last night. Close was really great throughout season 4 as was Anthony Anderson who I didn't know had it in him. I liked seeing the Strike Team playing it clean (at least by their standards).

FAsten your seatbelt for Season 5. Many say its the best of the entire series. I would certainly put in the top 2 or 3. But when it comes to such a great show like The Shield i can't pick just one season as THE Best

Yea man, you're in for a tasty treat. Especially since you won't have to wait week to week, you can satisfy your addiction by smoking them one after another. From here on out it's a manic roller coaster ride till the end.

To me, S5's only competition is S7, and looking back I can't decide if it's because it is as consistently awesome as 5 or just because those last few episodes are so fucking good. Regardless, this is the stretch where the show really proves itself to be far more than a flash-bang cop show.

To me S4, even though I really like Glenn Close and her character, was not in the same class as S1, S2 or even S3. I know people regard S3 as weak, but I think the fallout of the money train fiasco and the way TSTeam were kept on their toes, plus throw the Aceveda rape scence and the Shane/TAvon throwdown and it makes S3 one of the better, IMO.

But S5-S7 are an exercise in seemingly perfect dramatic TV. There almost nothing i can complain about. You're going to riveted.

I just finished Season 5, holy shit and let me just say in lovely spoiler tags for any other virgins out there.

Fuck Shane.

I picked up S4-7 the other day, and rewatching it, I kinda forgot how great and intense 4 is. Goggins, Chiklis, and Johnson are all doing fantastic work (particularly the big confrontation between Vic and Shane about halfway through), and Anderson, Pena and Close (whose character didn't really wow me the first time through) match them step for step.

Hard to believe how much better it gets from here.

Alright, alright, the constant talk and comparisons to The Wire around here and the lavish praise my uncle has heaped upon this show got us, my uncle and I, to watch the first episode on-line (spur of the moment thing, don't hate me).

Holy shit, that's how you kickstart a series. I must know more. I must see all!

Dammit, I don't need another fucking show. Why is there such good television...

Yup, its one of the greatest first episodes to a show, especially the final scene. It just kicks your ass like no other show. Doc you are lucky that you have not seen this show, it gets so much better, and you don't have to wait week to week.

Just keep in mind: While Seasons 1-4 are really good, Seasons 5-7 are some of the best television I've ever seen. One of the few shows that get better as they go along.

I concur.

I'm coincidentally working my way through the seasons right now. Just started season 4. Close is a God.

It's been slow watching, but I just saw the episode where Dutch is going after the serial killer. and jesus, that scene where (forget her name), Mackey's hooker friend is begging him to beat her up just slew me. This show goes there...and then it goes further.

Still on season 1? You're near one of my favorite scenes in the entire series.

Times like this, I wish I could wipe my memory of my initial watching of 'The Shield' and just go back and watch it fresh all over again.

I barely remember anything prior to Forest Whitaker, and even then my memory is hazy. I'm hoping I get the Shield box set for Valentine's and get to go back through the show again.

I thought Season 6 was great up until the episodes after the Shane/Vic confortation about the big thing in Season 5. <Spoilers

Mild Spoilers: "All I was doing...Was following your game plan coach!"

What's really fuckin screwy is I've never seen season 1! For some reason I got into the show with season 2 and never bothered to watch the first damn season. Just 2 through 7 I'll remedy this sooner or later... but then I'll be tempted to do a rewatch of the whole show. Oh well.

They do get a bit lost in the plot contortions at the end of 6, which carries over into the beginning of 7. But most of it is absolutely gripping, harrowing stuff, and it just can't be said enough how hard Goggins is nailing all of it.

I understanded that they needed to establish the storyline that lead to ICE and the final season, but it was handled clumsly.

Spoilers
Why didn't Vic try to kill shane or put the plans into motion until a few episodes into season 7? Plus the plot of Vic getting a replacement as the leader of the strike team was pure filler to pad the season out. Part of the problem could have been the need to rewrite the season 6 ending because Cliff Collins Jr. walked off the set of the show. His character was set up to be a major part of season 7. Spoilers

If the first half of season 6 could have been combined with the last half of season 7 than that season would have surpassed season 5 in quality.

Spoilery S6-7 stuff:


Vic held off on moving against Shane because 1) Shane was holding the file he made of all their misdeeds over his head, 2) I think the whole mirror/window confrontation shook him more than he let on, and it took him a while to compartmentalize it and go forward, and 3) as always on The Shield, there were 7 other crises to deal with at any given point. The timeframe of seasons 5-7 was also very compressed; I think they only covered 2-3 months of story time, even though it aired over 3 years.

Whoa...whats this about Collins walking off the set? I always wondered what happened with that whole (relatively intriguing) storyline. Never heard any of the behind the scenes stuff before.

Was that the guy that went on to do that horrible vampire show on CBS? MAybe that's why he left.

No. That was Alex O'Loughlin.

I realized what I loved about this show so much just recently. SPOILER: They take this character and let you watch him do shitty horrible things for 7 seasons and the whole time, you always find a way to go along with him. It keeps asking you how long you'll stay with Mackey, and it turns out, the answer is right up until the very very end. And then, when he does what he does in the second to last episode, you finally have to say 'Fuck him'. Not even Sopranos had that degree of perfect timing.

In an interview with Slashfilm - a great interview, by the way, still available on their site for download - he basically says he was treated badly. I think it was about script AND money issues. Weird, because the behind the scenes stuff always paints them as decent guys. Of course that doesn't tell the whole story.

Jebus, Ill have to look that up. Thats too bad to hear, being a big fan of Collins as well as the show.

http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/06/22/...housand-faces/

I think this is it. It is an hour long, so I'll listen to it tomorrow.

Yup that's it. A great interview, as he talks about a lot of his other work as well.

Season 1 in the can! I'll admit, I did a little fist-pump when Mackey brought Gilroy in.

Is it just me, or did what Gilroy do sound familiar? I'm unsure if they follow "ripped from the headlines!" type cases, but it sounds like something someone had done at point or another.

Oh, loved the use of 'All my Little Words' by the Magnetic Fields at the end of episode 8. Nice touch.

WARNING POTENTIAL SPOILER BELOW:




With regards to Collins' character, I always wondered what happened to his character. They just sorta disregarded his role, which is sorta silly since he was undercover and, as far as I can recall, he knew all about what was going on with the Salvadorans.

Just browsing Amazon and I noticed it's the last day of a sale on all seasons of The Shield.

Looks like all the seasons are just 14 dollars. If you haven't seen this show you'd be a fool not to buy season 1 at least~

Consider yourselves heads-upped!

I'm almost finished with season 4, and I think Chiklis should have gotten on Emmy just for saying "his son is a cumburper" with a straight face.

That scene was hilarious. This show has many great lines. One of my favorites is Lemansky saying "She better have a pussy that can cure cancer!" about Mara.

 

I've been posting about this in the B-Action Thread, but I've been revisiting the entire series over this past month, as I've been getting the sets for cheap. Right now Season 7 can be had for $15 at Target. That's the season I'm up to now. I haven't seen it since it first aired back in the fall of 2008 Still great.

God yes with that Lem line!

 

I forgot how this show can mine some pretty funny stuff out of it's grim situations. Dutch showing that elderly rape victim the poloroid penis line up was twisted with hilarity.

 

Claudette: "You had a 73 year old rape victim look at a penis line up?"

 

Dutch: "Well...yeah."

 

Claudette: "Where did you get these other pictures?"

 

*Dutch looks down at the ground in shame*

 

Claudette: "Oh, Dutch..."

Great interview with Goggins. Major SHIELD spoilers throughout.

http://m.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-alan-watching/posts/interview-justified-co-star-walton-goggins

About to re-watch this show with a friend who is only vaguely aware of it. Should be the closest thing I can get to watching it for the first time again. She likes Southland, and i described The Shield pretty much with "This show is Southland when it consciously decides to not take it's meds".