The Shield

I realize I'm chiming in late to this thread, but I just finished Season 5 today, and wow. I need to start tracking down Season 6....not sure that I can wait for Netflix.

This show is very good, and does a lot of twists and turns. The last several episodes of Season 5 are quite a roller coaster.

The ONE thing about this show that doesn't seem to fit, is the pilot. Mackey shooting that informant on his team. For 5 Seasons we have seen the guy do some pretty serious shit, but its clear there are lines he wouldn't cross. Killing a fellow cop --- even an informant --- seems that it would be one of them. I get that it was the pilot episode and a good way to rope in viewers with an "oh shit, this isn't your daddy's cop show" moment...but it just doesn't seem to fit with me. Everything else flows nicely.

Also....I guess this would be the second thing that didn't fit...and its that "prequel" episode that GKE was talking about that takes place as the team was getting formed. In the pilot episode, it seemed like the Strike Team had been around for some time...and that they were just bringing on the new guy. In that prequel episode, it seems the Strike Team was just formed, and that guy came on as a 5th member almost from day 1. Just didn't seem to flow with what was set up before.

But other than that I do like the show. Sorry to see one of the recent "offings" but I can see where it will do some great things for the story, and how that character was getting to a point where there wasn't much there could have been done with him.

Final season begins 9/2

DVR = set

Really want to catch this show. Don't know a lot about it, though, other than cop stuff. Anyone have a little more info (non-spoilerish)?

Dirty / Questionable / Do whatever it takes to get it done Cop Stuff

it's good to vic back, even though the episode was fairly average (although it's more about the longer term story).

Ok I finally caught up (I know, it's taken a while, but I missed the end of season 6, so I had to Netflix those DVDs before getting to the eps I recorded, etc).

I find the whole premise of Mackey purposefully starting a mob war to be a little far-fetched, even for this show. My first thought was "oh no, this will spin out of their control!" and the first scene of the first episode after the "war" began was exactly that. Duh.

Shield fans that like Claudette and Dutch more than Mackey are probably few and far between, but I'm one of them. Maybe not at first, but as the arc stories with the intra-Strike-Team dramas and gang conflicts became more and more convoluted and Mackey became more one-dimensional, I've come to look forward to seeing the new varieties of challenges and admirable characters of those two more and more over the past couple of seasons. Dutch's theories, arrogance and insecurities coupled with Claudette's skepticism and maturity remind me of Mulder and Scully, but with much better actors.

i like vic, i always saw him as a good cop who makes bad decisions, but dutch is certainly my favourite character.

Making bad decisions makes one bad at his job, ergo Vic Mackey is a shitty cop.
I know, he's an "anti-hero" character, and we like his tough guy attitude and that he's a man of action, etc, but over time I've just started cheering for his demise.

I just finished season 7 of The Shield and just turned off the finale a few minutes ago. All I can say is Wow. What a great show. It's one that I'm really going to miss. Even though I kind of knew what might happen to some of the characters, it still didn't bother me. It has always been one of my favorite shows and well written and well acted. I always liked seeing Dutch and especially his interactions with Billings. They seem such opposites but there have been a few moments where you see the detective Billings might have or could have been if he really gave a shit. I might have to watch the finale over.

As Vic became more self-centered and villainous, my favorite character over the years has actually become Dutch, with Claudette a close second. TV is full of buddy/partner cop scenarios, but these are the best I've ever seen (granted I don't actually watch a lot of cop shows). Something about those two always felt genuine- I think it was because their big flaws (Dutch's arrogance, Claudette's pride) are so common and easy to relate to, and the actors were just great.

Yeah true. Dutch was always one of my favorites and I would even get pissed at the show when Macki would make fun of Dutch even though Dutch was a great cop. Ive seen enough cop shows where the tough-guy/rogue approach has been done to death so I enjoyed watching Dutch work. I saw him on an episode of CSI recently (have been watching season 8) and he plays a detective. He looked much different, his hair was shorter and much grayer even though season 8 was only 2 years ago I think?

The best part about Dutch for me was when he kind of realizes that to really understand some of these psychopaths that he deals with, he has to learn not only how they think, but what they feel or don't feel. I can't remember which season it was but Dutch finds a cat and then precedes to strangle it until it is dead. At that moment you wonder if Dutch has the potential to become one of the criminals he chases or if he is just experimenting just to understand them more. It was a great scene for me.

Finally got done with Season 7. I had it on my DVR for a few months while I caught up on Season 6.

BIG SPOILERS BELOW

I agree with a lot that has been said here, that some of the Season 6 factors like the self-induced gang war started getting a little far fetched. Still, I liked how everyone got twisted around each other.

I also agree that the Dutch/Claudette pairing was one of my favorites. Perhaps the highlight for me as the series wound up near the end were the Dutch/Claudette moments, and those two were fantastic in the finale.

Other thoughts. I was never a Shane fan. Many times Vic drove him to where he was, but he always made the stupid call, and the stupid decision and made things worse for everyone. I did think it was interesting in the last few episodes when they would show that while Vic was "free" and patching things up with his family, they made it clear that Shane and Mara as fugitives had a better "family life" going for them in their dark times than Vic did. I thought Shanes end was fitting, and even a bit touching. I am also of the camp that I believe Mara was slowly pushing Shane to end it for them all, starting with her wanting to return home. When she killed that woman, she basically quit, gave up, and had nothing left. She saw the dark end coming for their family and her son and didn't want that for any of them. I think it was all done really well.

Ronnie got the shaft pretty hardcore in the finale, but you could see that coming leading up to it. Still, as I think about it, while it was a dramatic end to the show, its also clear his arrest was staged primarly to hurt Vic emotionally, even if it wouldn't last. The interrorgation room showing Vic Shane's photos, then showing Dutch arresting Ronnie was a one-two punch from Claudette. She knew she lost getting Vic but did all she could to hurt him, even if for a short time. And I say short time for a couple of reasons. First off, Vic isn't like Shane, and isn't a guy to go down and stay down. As the final moment in the series showed, he will always bounce back and try to leverage things to go his way. I also say it because when I thought about Ronnie's arrest, I realized that any good lawyer would have him off the hook and its doubtful if he would do any time. Him dropping off the money to Corrine wasn't anything they could really use. He was dropping off a purse for his buddy who got busy, he didn't know what was in it (he could claim). Nor could Vic's "statement" be used in court as its 100% heresay with no actual evidence. Plus, I seriously doubt the Feds would ever let that statement see the light of day because it would have been a HUGE black eye on them for bringing Vic onboard and showing how they manipulated them. So the case against Ronnie is extremely light, but Claudette sure pushed the buttons to hurt Vic and put some fear in Ronnie at the end.

Great line by the way:

Dutch: "Detective Ronald Gardocki, you are under arrest"
Ronnie: "For what?!?!?!"
Dutch: "The last three years."

Vic's cubicle job ending was also great, but as the last scene reflected....he wasn't changed or deterred. He was going to try to find his way out of THAT, his next problem to solve, no matter what it takes.

Interesting trivia note: Billings lawyer (the dike bitch as he called her) that was in the finale, and hit on Dutch giving him her card. Turns out she is the actor who plays Dutch's real life wife, and made that uncredited appearance.

So all in all, I really liked the show. At times I found my self rooting for the Strike Team in all their corrputness (cops stealing, but from bad guys). Other times I wanted them, especially Vic, to go down. But the stories and the twists in this series were great. I also like how the seasons were short and sweet, at 12-15 episodes only, so it didn't get too big and bloated.

In the final analysis, the ONLY major issue I have with the show, was with its pilot episode. After watching the series, and all the things they did to get out of trouble, Vic shooting a cop --- even one who was assigned to investigate him --- seems out of character and too drastic to be believable after watching the show. The cop wasn't a traitor, he was there to do a job --- catch Vic. Situations like that came up in the series, and they always had clever ways to deal with it. I think that cop shooting was put in the pilot for shock value to get viewers hooked --- and I bet it worked. But after watching the series, its the one piece that really never felt like it fit naturally to me. I just don't see Vic shooting a fellow cop, even one working for internal affairs. He would have either been more careful or done things another way.

So I realize this thread has been dead a while, but wanted to post my thoughts after watching the end finally. Great series!

Well you could argue that Vic would never shoot a cop because he shot the one and hated himself for it. However it does feel off and was probably done for the shock value and convenient plot point.

Also it certainly is the case that Claudette and Dutch staged Roni's arrest just to spite Vic. He really struck a personal nerve with her. She couldn't stand how glorified he was, how well loved, how he kept getting away with things, while she did played by the rules and scrapped and scraped her way to get anything.

What did take you so long to catch up, anyway?

Long story, but I had seen through Season 5 on DVDs. I watched them when I was working out at home. When Season 6 became available (right before Season 7 started) I was in the middle of another TV show that I was watching while working out, so I had to wait till I was done with that one. Then I went through Season 6 on DVD, and Season 7 which was stored on my DVR.

And yea, I'd thought about the plot point that he never killed a cop because he felt so bad about it...but after watching the show, that situation in the pilot episode was FAR from bad enough to push him to it, so I do think it was just there as shock value and as a viewer hook. But either way, the rest of the series was so well done its not worth losing sleep over.

And yea, one other side effect about staging the Ronnie thing at the Barn was all of Vic's fellow cops who did look up to him sure got one hell of a show, and his image was ruined in their eyes. So no matter what happens with Ronnie's case in court, no matter what happens with Vic's immunity, Claudette will certainly have that victory over Vic, and she tore him down in the eyes of his peers finally.