The NZA Posted February 24, 2009 Author Share Posted February 24, 2009 that's gotta be the worst part of his hell. losing his family's awful, but overdue; he's never gonna be on the force again, sure - but after Lem, Ronnie was the man (i only disagree with skeet that i wish he was fleshed out more across the series) but that betrayl was so fucked. he had a chance to warn ronnine after the big bust, i thought, and i was just totally sitting there on the edge of my seat, hoping he'd tell his ass to make a run for the border, but he never did! that shit was unforgivable. still, given that i was so sure vic'd end up dead or in jail, i didnt see that coming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jables Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 Desk job almost seems worse though, right? Also, taking the gun made me think of some Punisher-style epilogue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DKS01 Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 Desk job seems worse, but the very ending, with him taking out the gun and the slight smile on his face, makes me think that Vic's not done being Vic. Sure, he's stuck at a desk for 3 years, but he got away with all the shit he did, and the way I read the ending, it looks to me like he knows it, and is already making plans for down the line. Course, that's just my interpretation, but it does fit with the way he's been portrayed, so who knows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dag Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 that's gotta be the worst part of his hell. losing his family's awful, but overdue; he's never gonna be on the force again, sure - but after Lem, Ronnie was the man (i only disagree with skeet that i wish he was fleshed out more across the series) but that betrayl was so fucked. he had a chance to warn ronnine after the big bust, i thought, and i was just totally sitting there on the edge of my seat, hoping he'd tell his ass to make a run for the border, but he never did! that shit was unforgivable. still, given that i was so sure vic'd end up dead or in jail, i didnt see that coming. I just finished the final season of the Shield and man, the thing that bothered me the most was that Vic betrayed Ronnie. That series was probably the most intense show I've ever watched. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jables Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Easily. I clean forgot about that large element right there, really wanna rewatch this now, possibly drag Shane by the short hairs along for the ride. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The NZA Posted July 10, 2009 Author Share Posted July 10, 2009 yeah, if i didnt say so prior, that was the most heartbreaking fucking thing about it. ok, so the feds said it would negate his deal, but fuck man, right then after the last big bust, when vic's supposed to get back to the station? if not before, that was the moment to lean over and go "LEAVE YOUR SHIT AND GET THE FUCK TO MEXICO RIGHT NOW". you notice how he focuses on Lem since the other piece of his team died (partly due to him) and another's now locked up (entirely due to him). dude's in a hell he created. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alive she cried Posted February 12, 2010 Share Posted February 12, 2010 Is there any point watching this, bearing in mind I've seen The Wire? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Hakujin Posted February 12, 2010 Share Posted February 12, 2010 Oh, most definitely. The Wire is a different beast in it has a much broader scope. This series is much more narrow in its tales and has been called "Shakespearean" due to the focus on its morally questionable protagonist and the shitstorms he incurs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alive she cried Posted February 12, 2010 Share Posted February 12, 2010 (edited) What I mean though is, am I just going to roll my eyes as I inevitably do at every cop show I've seen since The Wire. They're all so silly, is it going to be like starting off with Miller's run on daredevil and then going back and reading the first Stan Lee stories afterwards? Edited February 12, 2010 by alive she cried Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Hakujin Posted February 12, 2010 Share Posted February 12, 2010 I don't know what to tell you, E. I love 'em both. If you roll your eyes all baytorh8r at the first episode then just don't bother w/ the series as it sets the tone of all the seasons beautifully. It's not as wide in scope as The Wire and definitely has more pitfalls (especially in the latter seasons), but I'd have to say if The Wire is the #1 cop drama of all time then The Shield is a close #2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alive she cried Posted February 12, 2010 Share Posted February 12, 2010 Ok, I'll give it a go so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The NZA Posted February 13, 2010 Author Share Posted February 13, 2010 haku nailed it, different takes/stories entirely. picture the Wire as a macroscope, and the Shield as a micro focusing on a sort've "who watches the watchmen" kinda angle. the very first espisode, though rough, concludes on such a point Mackey's either compelling or not your thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Hakujin Posted May 3, 2010 Share Posted May 3, 2010 FYI: The complete series of The Shield is going on sale as an amazon.com Gold Box offer this Wednesday (5-5-10). They're having a week long sale on TV DVD titles. As it stands now before the sale, the entire 7 season run is only $110. That's less than $16 bucks per season, my guess is it'll be around $70-$90 during the sale, but who knows until Wednesday. This kinda pisses me off as I bought seasons 1-4 for $20 ea. over the years. :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jables Posted May 3, 2010 Share Posted May 3, 2010 Yeah, I just get the seasons as they're released here and we're up to six. A couple of friends on facebook are commenting on season 5, and invariably talk of the Shield makes me want to rewatch it so I'm in the process of rewatching the entire series again. ASC- how'd you make out with this one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The NZA Posted February 22, 2022 Author Share Posted February 22, 2022 'People were repulsed and fascinated': An oral history of 'The Shield' Michael Chiklis, Walton Goggins, Glenn Close, and more reflect on the shocking cop drama that forever changed TV. Quote "Good cop and bad cop left for the day. I'm a different kind of cop." Detective Vic Mackey issued that warning moments before he beat a suspect with a phone book in the 2002 pilot of The Shield. By the end of the episode, he'd murder a fellow cop. And that was just the beginning of his crimes — and a game-changing, Emmy-winning run for a show that came to define FX, basic-cable programming, and a new era of television. To celebrate 20 years of arresting audiences, Shield stars Michael Chiklis, Walton Goggins, Glenn Close, Anthony Anderson, and more reflect on the trailblazing drama. Quote Originally hired to write a sitcom pilot, Nash Bridges writer Shawn Ryan instead became inspired by a Los Angeles Police Department corruption scandal — and concerns about protecting his newborn daughter. His one-hour drama spec script, then titled The Barn, followed an experimental LAPD division in the fictional Farmington district, a community terrorized by gang violence and drug trafficking. At the center was Det. Vic Mackey, the charismatic leader of the precinct's Strike Team, which often engaged in the same transgressions they were tasked with stopping. That's why, seemingly unbeknownst to Mackey, Capt. David Aceveda embedded Det. Terry Crowley into the squad to expose them. But Mackey was one step ahead, ending the first episode by killing a drug dealer on a raid and then using the dead man's gun to shoot Crowley in the head. SHAWN RYAN (CREATOR): I had gone on a couple ride-alongs for my work on Nash Bridges and was seeing and hearing things not appropriate for a CBS procedural. And I was having all these disaster fantasies about, "Oh my god, how do I protect this little girl from the world?" I really wrote that pilot script thinking that I would just get it out of my system, so it was almost more a writing exercise for me than anything else. I wasn't a very experienced TV writer at this point; it didn't even occur to me that someone would want to make this. I was just hoping it would be a good enough sample that it might help me get my next staff job. PETER LIGUORI (FORMER FX PRESIDENT): It was a miracle; it never should have happened. His script had been randomly in a stack of other spec scripts. Every page was electric. When I called Shawn to say we wanted to make his pilot, he thought we were joking. CLARK JOHNSON (DIRECTOR): Shawn's writing was so on point. Neither of us had done a pilot and we really bonded. I teased him: "Nash Bridges, really?" I let him know, "I starred on Homicide: Life of the Street, buddy!" GLEN MAZZARA (WRITER): This was Homicide meets Sopranos. Shawn and I were both big fans of Homicide and the work of Tom Fontana. We wrote a number of scripts together, and I was not the best match for Nash Bridges. I was pitching grittier, more realistic, crime-driven material than CBS could handle. The seeds of The Shield are in Nash Bridges. It was an opening of an episode in which Nash (Don Johnson) and Joe (Cheech Marin) are getting the typical perfunctory information that you would at a crime scene. It was really a boring scene. They put the Kid Rock song ["Bawitdaba"] over this teaser — and it worked. Don loved it and said, "That's what I'm talking about! That feels like the old days, like Miami Vice." And so then that song got stuck in Shawn's head as he was writing The Shield and became the famous ending of the pilot. RYAN: One of the pilot's story lines is, a girl goes missing, and who do you want to try to find her? The by-the-book cops, Dutch and Claudette, or somebody like Vic Mackey? The answer is somewhere in between — but don't be surprised when you make a deal with the devil and he turns around and shoots a cop that's investigating him. MAZZARA: When I read the script, I did say, "I can't imagine someone's going to let you get away with this ending." So when he told me, "FX wants that ending," I was very surprised and happy. Click to shrink... WALTON GOGGINS (SHANE VENDRELL): I was doing pretty well in movies but trying to break into TV. Looking the way I did, sounding the way I did, there wasn't really room for me on network TV; they didn't know what to do with me. And so I read this and it read like one of the greatest cop films ever. I called my agent and said, "Are you sure this is for TV?" It had been a long time since someone had told a story about Los Angeles in this way. Shane has, like, two lines in the pilot, but I felt it could be special — and I knew Shane was part of the original sin. Little did I know, after that pilot, the executives wanted to fire me. Shawn didn't tell me until the end of season 1 during a DVD commentary recording, and I said, "How?! I had two lines!" He said to them, "I know what this guy's capable of, let me prove it," and he focused the second episode on Shane. I'm glad he didn't tell me because I may have f---ed that up. was just thinking about this show the other day - still marvel at how certain i was the showrunners had painted themselves into a corner with the ending, and then they went another way and absolutely nailed it. i don't think ive seen that happen elsewhere in TV. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the division of joy Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 I'm still impressed at how well put together the finale is/was considering it could have very easily gone off the tracks and been a bit underwhelming/silly and doing a disservice to the seasons of excellent work that had gone before it. A genuinely great article to read over and its making me want to re-watch the series. On a tangential note, this is one of the best CCH Pounder impersonations I've ever come across: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alive she cried Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 Never watched this. Does it hold up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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