Friday 16 August 2013

The Shield - Series

This year, I watched the entirety of the cop show that wasn't like any other cop show. No, I'm not talking about The Wire, I'm talking about The Shield.

Today, I revisited the series finale. This was an episode that, when I last saw it, I had to pause to stop and get a drink. It was just that emotional. But while it's true that emotion is always the starting point for any good drama, it wasn't the only thing I loved about The Shield.

SPOILERS - Heavy spoilers follow.


The Characters

Vic Mackey - This character belongs in the pantheon of great TV anti-heroes. Not only that, but TV characters in general. By the end of the series, we know this man inside out. He's ruthless, selfish, and he won't bend to anyone's will. He cares about his family and his team. He cares about his job - about preventing crime and apprehending criminals. But he's not above committing any himself. And GODDAMN HIM for getting away with it (because after all, cubicle hell still sounds better than actual hell.)

Shane Vendrell - I cannot recall another TV show that accomplishes what The Shield did in it's final two seasons. Shane Vendrell was the Christopher Moltisanti of the show. The surrogate son of Vic Mackey, he looked up to him but continually demonstrated that he didn't have the brains to play the same game Vic did. But only in this show do we see a character like Shane commit heinous acts and find ourselves cheering for him two seasons later when he's on the run. His ending was tragic, brutal, unforgivable.... and, in a sick sort of way, honourable. I'm glad I don't know a Shane Vendrell, but I'm thankful to The Shield for bringing him to us.

Dutch Wagenbach & Claudette Wymms - The heart of the show. Simply put, without these two, we'd be watching bad cops vs bad guys and bad cops vs other bad cops. The banter and friendship between these two was always great.

Lem - Hey, did you hear Kenny Johnson (the actor that portrayed Lem) has been cast for the final 5 episodes of Dexter? The fact that I'm legitimately excited to watch them now should tell you how important this character was to the show.

Everyone else - Acaveda, Corrine, Dani, Julien, Ronnie, Mara, Kavinaugh, etc - You get it. The cast was strong.


The Adrenalin

Simply put, this was the most action-packed and inventive cop show I've ever seen ('dat camerawork!). Yes, sometimes the decisions made by characters were a stretch. Yes, sometimes the plots were ridiculous. But it was 100% entertaining, 100% of the time.


That Scene Where That Guy Did That Thing (OH MY GOD!!!)

The grenade at the end of the 5th season. The forced oral degradation. The series finale. Serial murderers. Serial rapists. Cat murder. Cop-on-cop murder. People murder. Placentas. Sawed off feet. Hate crimes.


Shades of Grey

Enough said. The characters were often well-meaning and well-intentioned, but they were often driven by selfish motivations and concerns. If you ended up loving any of the characters, you did it with the knowledge that they were not perfect human beings and could be downright awful. 


...And Goddamn That Finale Was Brilliant

"I guess enough painkillers can make even the worst kind of hurt go away. The thing you need to know is that Mara was innocent and Jackson was innocent; they didn't know what they were drinking and their last moments together were happy ones. They left the way I first found them, perfect and innocent. They were innocent and they are in heaven now and we'll always be a family. The guilty ones are me and Vic. Vic led but I kept following. I don't think one's worse than the other, but we made each other into something worse than our individual selves. I wish I'd never met him. I see it all now. There are no apologies I can make, no explanations I can give. I was who I was and I can't be that person any more. I can't let myself.." - Shane's note

No comments:

Post a Comment