New to The Shield

I'm up to season 5, and other than the great pilot I wasn't super impressed with the first season. It's always an above-average cop show for the first few seasons, but by 4 they've killed most of the weaker subplots and it's really good. By 5, it's amazing. I really need to get on the last two, as I hear they keep that momentum going.

The rare show that kept getting better until the very end. Though I remain critical of the Glenn Close stuff and the refusal to jettison Aceveda after his storylines wrapped up.

I am a Shield newbie myself, and have just finished season 3.  I am currently waiting for season 4 to arrive from the library.  I like what I have seen so far, and am looking forward to seeing the rest of the series.  I plan to watch The Wire and The Sopranos after I'm done with this one.  I have missed out on a shit-load of great TV, and I need to catch up.
 

God, 5-7 are beyond amazing. Just harrowing.

I wonder how it holds up to rewatch? The time might be coming.

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Originally Posted by Arjen Rudd 

God, 5-7 are beyond amazing. Just harrowing.

 

I wonder how it holds up to rewatch? The time might be coming.

I might be at that point too. Just an amazing series. My two favorite seasons being the Forrest Whittaker one and the finale season. I am feeling compelled to revisit it.

No show I've ever seen can match the sustained intensity of The Shield, particularly in its back half.  Breaking Bad comes close.  But yeah, to the original poster expressing concerns about whether the show lets Mackey off the hook for his actions in the pilot...not even close.

Early in the show's run, I often had some of the same concerns over reconciling the Mackey in the pilot with the Mackey in later episodes. By season five, those concerns were blown to smithereens.

I personally almost bailed after season 1.  I liked the show, but didn't love it.  My friend had lent me the first two seasons on DVD, and I figured I should at least start the second.  With the exception of a writer strike hodgepodge of season 4, the seasons all become increasingly better.  The final season maintained one of the most over the top intense arcs that I still claim to be one of the best seasons of any tv show.  

I love Breaking Bad.  It's good on so many levels, and I think it is more skilled and more labored than the Shield, but as crazy as it is I don't think it matches on the frenetic pacing.  I would also say that their were a lot more unbelievable things that occur on the Shield but none to the point of ever severing the relationship it built with the viewer.  I also don't know of two many shows that never gave up on any significant bad choice their characters made.  I felt so rewarded for watching seasons 1-3 when little things started popping up in the finale season.  Little things that most shows would have left buried.  

BTW, I had watched the first season of Rescue Me and The Shield closely together, and it seemed as if FX had attempted to make RM follow a lot of the same character plot points.  

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Originally Posted by Lightning Slim 

 

Please tell me my purchase of a full-series box set is justified! Please tell me we either get more Bad Vic, or a realization that what he did to kick things off is kind of fucked up.

 

What he does in the first episode is the key to his character. Stick with it.

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Originally Posted by jahosive 

I love Breaking Bad.  It's good on so many levels, and I think it is more skilled and more labored than the Shield, but as crazy as it is I don't think it matches on the frenetic pacing.

To be clear, I meant that comparison as complimentary to both shows, and not to suggest that matching that intensity level is a primary goal of Breaking Bad.  It is a much more deliberately paced show, building creeping dread that can take weeks on end to explode into scenes of real violence and horror.  Whereas The Shield is proud not to have a gear below 4th, and maintains that by keeping a half dozen balls in the air at any and all times.  It's impressive that they were able to keep that up for so long without becoming too ridiculous or simply exhausting the audience's ability to care (something I gather happened to 24 after a couple years), although I haven't rewatched the early, lengthier seasons in quite awhile.  Maybe the wheel-spinning is more noticeable there than I recall.  I'm surprised that season 4 seems to be getting such a bad wrap, though.  Close's character is not the shock to the system that the introduction of Whitaker is, but I thought her and Anderson did great work and overall it does a lot of interesting things with the big changes to the status quo.  

Anderson is incredible. Personally the only season that felt kind of off for me was 6, but they more than make up for it with the final season.

6 has a couple of stellar episodes, but it is the one that was affected by the writer's strike and a couple of fairly major characters having to be written out suddenly due to off-screen considerations.  It really feels like a bridge between the incredible 5th and 7th seasons rather than its own thing, and is sort of buoyed by association because its easier to talk about the late-life surge in quality of a show than to throw in an asterisk about how there are a few flat episodes somewhere in the middle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schwartz 

 

To be clear, I meant that comparison as complimentary to both shows, and not to suggest that matching that intensity level is a primary goal of Breaking Bad.  It is a much more deliberately paced show, building creeping dread that can take weeks on end to explode into scenes of real violence and horror.  Whereas The Shield is proud not to have a gear below 4th, and maintains that by keeping a half dozen balls in the air at any and all times.  It's impressive that they were able to keep that up for so long without becoming too ridiculous or simply exhausting the audience's ability to care (something I gather happened to 24 after a couple years), although I haven't rewatched the early, lengthier seasons in quite awhile.  Maybe the wheel-spinning is more noticeable there than I recall.  I'm surprised that season 4 seems to be getting such a bad wrap, though.  Close's character is not the shock to the system that the introduction of Whitaker is, but I thought her and Anderson did great work and overall it does a lot of interesting things with the big changes to the status quo.  

It was 6 that was the season I didn't care as much for.  I am sorry for stating 4.  I never had a problem with Close or Anderson.  Thinking back on it, I believe I really liked her storyline.  I knew the writers strike corrupted one of them though, and that not only did it not live up to the quality of the other seasons, but it was broken in episodes in that it only had 10.  

I didn't think you made a direct correlation to Breaking Bad, and there shouldn't be with the exception that they are both great at what they attempt to do, something so many shows fall short of.  

Sorry I credited the wrong season, and sent you off on that.  I was up sick last night and just rambling.

It wasn't just you, someone else mentioned not liking Close's character, and while she was certainly not as striking as Anderson or Whitaker, I was surprised by that.  I think she got the show's only acting Emmy, or something like that.

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Originally Posted by Schwartz 

I think she got the show's only acting Emmy, or something like that.

Well, that's ridiculous no matter what. Between Chiklis, Goggins, Anderson, Whitaker, and CCH Pounder, that's nuts.

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Originally Posted by Schwartz 

It wasn't just you, someone else mentioned not liking Close's character, and while she was certainly not as striking as Anderson or Whitaker, I was surprised by that.  I think she got the show's only acting Emmy, or something like that.

It wasn't me at all.  I only said the one season suffered from the writers strike and pointed at the wrong season.  

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Originally Posted by Arjen Rudd 

 

Well, that's ridiculous no matter what. Between Chiklis, Goggins, Anderson, Whitaker, and CCH Pounder, that's nuts.

Goggins should have his own category of likeable douchebag.  He would win every year.  I love that guy, and I love to hate that guy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arjen Rudd 

 

Well, that's ridiculous no matter what. Between Chiklis, Goggins, Anderson, Whitaker, and CCH Pounder, that's nuts.

Chiklis did win best lead actor for the first season (actually, even before his win, I remember some show had fun footage of him and his family sitting on their couch at home watching the nominations being announced live, and all of them going COMPLETELY nuts when his name was read, like they were just a regular family that had won the lottery)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schwartz 

 It's impressive that they were able to keep that up for so long without becoming too ridiculous or simply exhausting the audience's ability to care (something I gather happened to 24 after a couple years), although I haven't rewatched the early, lengthier seasons in quite awhile. 

I think 24 was killed by its own gimmick. The whole real-time aspect where we're asked to believe that all of these characters are awake and doing edge-of-your-seat exciting things for a full day which include cliffhangers at the top of every hour is a bit much to grasp in the suspension of disbelief category. I would have enjoyed the seven-part Jack Bauer takes a power nap episode or the one where he stops to take a shit for one. But I digress.

The Shield was probably one of the great TV series journies for me of the past decade. The central characters are great in that even when their agendas conflict with those of other characters I like or root for, it never feels forced. The secondary characters... maybe not so much.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arjen Rudd 

 

Well, that's ridiculous no matter what. Between Chiklis, Goggins, Anderson, Whitaker, and CCH Pounder, that's nuts.

Like I said, I haven't yet seen beyond season 5, but Whitaker should have gotten ALL the Emmys for that season. He's flat-out incredible.

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Originally Posted by Nexus-7 

Like I said, I haven't yet seen beyond season 5, but Whitaker should have gotten ALL the Emmys for that season. He's flat-out incredible.

I'd say Walt Goggins should have had one for that season. 

There's no season when Goggins wasn't worthy of a statue.

I'll say this for The Shield:  I hate it's visual style.  I find it awkward and distracting and ugly at times.  But it's still a top 10 all-time show for me, which should indicate how great the writing and performances are despite that enormous handicap.

One of if not the greatest series ending ever. I don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't made it, but it's all about that last minute.

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Originally Posted by Schwartz 

There's no season when Goggins wasn't worthy of a statue.

 

I'll say this for The Shield:  I hate it's visual style.  I find it awkward and distracting and ugly at times.  But it's still a top 10 all-time show for me, which should indicate how great the writing and performances are despite that enormous handicap.

That's odd, I always really liked the digital handheld stuff. And all the gangbanger ass shots, of course. Practically a motif by the end.

I got used to it, but never to the point of actually liking it.

For me, the handheld stuff made some of those street action scenes seem really exciting and random and raw. And the way the violence was shot, in such a brutal, matter of fact manner, the camera never quite framing it properly in that pseudo documentary almost found-footage type way... loved all that shit. People get fucked up all the time on Sons of Anarchy but it never has the same impact. The Shield had great style IMO.

It worked well for action sequences on a cable TV budget.  In personal conversations the shaky focus, random jump cuts and off-kilter framing could be distracting.  

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Originally Posted by Lightning Slim 

Hey all,

 

It's good to be back for a bit. Just started watching The Shield, and finished the first season. It's fun and the performances are spot-on and meaty. The character dynamics remind me of Homicide.

 

But Vic's character is wildly inconsistent. He does something unforgivably bad in the pilot, and spends the rest of the first season (literally) rescuing drowning babies and catching killers. Sure he steals a bit of money and beats some people up, but they're usually gangsters.

 

Please tell me my purchase of a full-series box set is justified! Please tell me we either get more Bad Vic, or a realization that what he did to kick things off is kind of fucked up.

 

Yours in hope,

's th bst

Slim

It's the best James Ellroy story that he never wrote.

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Originally Posted by Lightning Slim 

In season 4 now. I actually like Glenn Close in this.

 

I agree with whoever said that Aceveda should just fuck off already now that his arc on the show is complete. He seems like a blatant wall ornament to the show's roots.

He never really gets to to the point where he drags the show down (to me at least), but he never really feel necessary either. His scenes and everything are all sort of just... there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schwartz 

I'll say this for The Shield:  I hate it's visual style.  I find it awkward and distracting and ugly at times.  But it's still a top 10 all-time show for me, which should indicate how great the writing and performances are despite that enormous handicap.

Yeah I can't stand the look at all either. Constant zooms and such always take me out of a show/movie and remind me of the camera. And "handheld" doesn't have to equal "shaky mess".

There was definitely a period where Aceveda just hung around to nobody's benefit. But in the home stretch they minimize his presence and make it count when he's needed. But honestly, looking back, all I strongly remember is one Aceveda scene, for the whole run.

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Originally Posted by Arjen Rudd 

There was definitely a period where Aceveda just hung around to nobody's benefit. But in the home stretch they minimize his presence and make it count when he's needed. But honestly, looking back, all I strongly remember is one Aceveda scene, for the whole run.

Well, there's one that's pretty much impossible to forget.

I think I may be a bad person for laughing so hard at that scene, but I always hated his character.

I really wish I could somehow go back in time and watch The Shield for the first time...

Echo the sentiment regarding season 6 being sub par...I absolutely loved Close and Anderson in season 4.

And in a just world, season 7 would have forced a Constitutional amendment renaming the "Best Performance by an Actor" Emmy to the "Walton Goggins Award for Excellence in Acting."

Why can't Netflix have this on Instant,  DAMMIT!!

I had to skip season 4 because my local library network doesn't have it, but have seen seasons 5 & 6 the past two weekends.  Great stuff, and season 7 should be a real barn burner of a season. 
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arjen Rudd 

I ended up really liking the writing for Dutch, and the way they used that actor was truly impressive. I don't want to give too much away, but they do a very nice job of letting you wonder about some stuff with him, and when you expect it to zig, it zags. Or occasionally zigs. In a show remembered mostly for Chiklis and Goggins, the supporting cast was often under appreciated.

I remember once reading the best description of Dutch: He's an L&O detective who took a wrong turn and ended up somewhere much worse.

Just finished the series earlier today.  What an impressively dark, depressing ending.  Mackey was an EVIL shit-head, but he did get a pretty good comeuppance.  I would be willing to bet, that if

Vic. 

Yah, he won an oscar between seasons. But he served his purpose.