“Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer” should have set off the red flags, but I was too wrapped up in the hopes that Dark Blue would be an adequate replacement for The Shield. It’s time I learned that few shows will ever match the psychosis and utter brilliance behind the morally grey world of The Shield. Breaking [...]

No onion rings. No botched attempt at parking cars. No Journey soundtrack. No cut to black.
Shawn Ryan delivered on his promise that Vic Mackey would get a proper ending. And it’s exactly what he deserves. A veritable purgatory, if you will. Call it a metaphorical prison for a guy who thrived on the streets: rousting [...]

In 2002, FX, a then up-and-coming network, were looking to corner the market for basic cable scripted dramas. Taking a risk, they unleashed what is now considered to be a landmark series, and one of the most innovative and original police dramas ever made, The Shield. Now 2008, and the series finale less than a [...]

Hot tamales! That confession scene was INSANE!
He’s been investigated several times over for some of the most horrific crimes ever, and yet the only person to finally prove to a listening ear just how evil and corrupt Vic Mackey truly is, was himself. Olivia looked like she got handed a death sentence from a doctor [...]

For the third episode in a row, they’ve ended with shots of Shane and Mara pondering their next step. This has got to mean something.
You have to wonder just how long Vic Mackey’s luck is going to hold out. Everything is crumbling around him; everyone he knows or even comes into contact with is getting [...]

Shane and Mara, still on the lam from the law, are holed up in a mansion playing house while Vic and Ronnie are desperately looking for them, along with half the precinct. Vic puts a bounty on Shane’s head with the gangs, while Ronnie, realizing just how deep the poo has gotten lately, considers running [...]

They wrung so much humanity out the characters tonight, on top of keeping the tension at a serious high.
With Shane on the run from the law, fingernails were chewed to the quick wondering when – and if – he was going to get caught. It’s a testament to this show’s unyielding power that, despite all of [...]

There’s no turning back now.
Two cops who’ve bent, broke, and obliterated the law to obtain their own needs with the aid of their badges are no longer cops. With only five episodes left, every little misdeed Vic Mackey and Shane Vendrell have done is finally starting to catch up with them.
Last week, Ronnie went ape-poopie [...]

Before I start this missive, it should be noted that the creative minds behind The Shield are obsessed with oral sex (or at least euphamisms for it). Not that I blame them, but that’s a different matter altogether. Anyway, I counted at LEAST six references to the act, some of which are alot more graphic [...]

I suppose last week’s episode, Game Face, was the proverbial calm before the storm. Tonight’s episode, Animal Control, was a full-on, Gale Force, tearing up the trailer parks of Oklahoma kind of episode! Easily the best of the season so far.
Where to begin?
Vic and Ronnie stood over Lem’s grave, lamenting the fact that they’ve yet [...]

I’m all for filler episodes; they act as good bridges between tension, but it’s a little late in the series to spend alot of time on faces from the past; scratch that, it’s a little late in the series to spend alot of time on faces from the past that do little, if anything, to [...]

Can of worms = Open.
So much happened tonight. Let’s start small and work our way toward the big revelation that closed the episode.
It seems Julien, for all of his hard work in trying to fit in, is doing Vic, Shane, and Ronnie, no good on their little plan that involves pitting the Mexicans against the [...]

They derived alot – and I do mean alot – of dramatic tension out of just about every single character tonight.
Let’s start with Danny, who used her blindsided attack back in the first episode of this season to reason with a girl who was kidnapped and refused to admit to her whereabouts. Dutch was watching [...]

This week’s episode was fairly quiet; well, quiet in terms of The Shield. We were treated to a smattering of suggestive imagery and various racial epithets, but for the most part, it was alot of running around and barking orders in terms of Vic trying to quell the Armenian threat hanging over his family.
One interesting [...]

The Shield‘ kicked off its final season with every cylinder on fire.
Vic and Ronnie gagged Mara (finally, someone shut her up), cornered Shane, and proceeded to kick the stuffing out of him for his kidnapping of Vic’s family. Then Shane tells Vic the truth, or a variation thereof, and suddenly, disposing of his former protege [...]