Lowered my shield, lowered defenses
Curiously, with the exception of TV Squad, I'm not seeing much talk about the new season of The Shield. Perhaps I'm not looking in the right places. Or maybe Season Four's more subdued tone put off some of the viewers.
Whatever the case, seven episodes in, Season Five is fantastic. Forest Whitaker is, unsurpisingly, note-perfect as Lt. Jon Kavanaugh, the Internal Affairs investigator obsessed with bringing down the Strike Force. He's definitely a borderline personality. His dangerous tango with Vic Mackey & Co. is mesmerizing, even if it does involve my least-favorite character on the show, Vic's ex-wife Corrine.
What are the chances she'll go to prison, while everyone else goes free? Ah, I can dream, can't I?
I'm a little concerned about what they're doing to Det. Claudette Wyms. First it's revealed she has lupus, then she takes a nasty tumble down the stairs at the Barn. She just can't catch a break.
On the show's blog, writer Emily Lewis reveals: "Shawn [Ryan, series creator] wants to see Claudette have to make a choice -- she can either let her disease get the best of her or she can overcome it to have a career win. We want her to win, but in true Shield fashion, it can't be clean. There are always consequences."
True enough. If everything were tied up neatly in a bow, I'd be disappointed. But if they kill off Claudette, I'm not going to be happy. Take Corrine instead, dammit!
I agree, Whitaker is doing a great job on this show. I think this season is a LOT better than last's. I wanted to fall asleep through the whole year it was that boring. This year I'm trying something new... I'm just watching the scenes with Mackey and Kavanaugh and fast forwarding over all the other junk unless something catches my eye. It's kinda cool, I get to keep up with the show but avoid the fluff.
I need to start doing that with other shows I watch. It turns a 45 minute show into around 20-25. Cool deal.
Posted by eDuke | 11:28 PM
But you're missing the Claudette/Dutch scenes! Their attempt to catch a serial killer has been pretty good.
Posted by Kevin Melrose | 9:06 AM
Ha! Only Ed would fast forward through the boring stuff on a 45 minute show. That cracks me up.
I gave up on The Shield sometime into the...second season, I believe. Maybe the 3rd. I don't like Vic Mackey, I don't like the people on the Strike Team, and I got really tired of watching them weasle out of every situation with very little repercussions. I watched Claudette fail as captain, while ex-captain what's-his-name got orally raped...then when Dutch killed a cat to 'get inside the killer's head' I called it quits. Violence is one thing, "gritty realism" is one thing, but it was really pushing the limits of believability for me, and they seemed to be going for shocks for the sake of shock.
I'd rather watch Tony Soprano, who's also a bad guy...but he seems to have more layers than Vic Mackey. I don't like Tony either, but he doesn't seem as hypocritical or something.
Posted by Stacie Ponder | 3:37 PM
Well -- I couldn't fast forward through last week's episode... every minute was watchable! :-)
Posted by eDuke | 12:46 AM