The Shield

Was just blown away by the first 4 seasons of
Justified. The writing, the acting, the production
values, everything was top notch. Never seen
another show like it. I was impressed with Walton
Goggins, and he was on The Shield for 8 years,
so I gave it a try.

OMG, what a piece of crap. Bad writing, bad camera
work, bad locations, bad music, and really bad acting.
I got thru 6 episodes and it just got worse with every
one. NYPD Blue meets Miami Vice. A renegade cop
who doesn't get along with his Latino boss, that's
sure original. The stories we've seen a hundred times,
the dialog is cheesy and familiar.

The main tough guy cop is really short. I mean 5' 6"
short. In real life who cares, but it looks ridiculous
when he's talking tough and staring up at everybody.
The only reason this show stayed on so long was it
was a on a small network, was cheap to produce,
and got good ratings for a small network. On any
real network it would have had one season.

If after 6 episodes I don't care about a single character
and know nothing about them, why would I continue
watching. With Justified, I was hooked halfway into
episode 2.

Quote: Evenbob

OMG, what a piece of crap. Bad writing, bad camera
work, bad locations, bad music, and really bad acting.
I got thru 6 episodes and it just got worse with every
one. NYPD Blue meets Miami Vice. A renegade cop
who doesn't get along with his Latino boss, that's
sure original. The stories we've seen a hundred times,
the dialog is cheesy and familiar.

You must be kidding, "The Shield" was one of the best cop shows ever. Vic was one of the best characters of all time. You have to look at the complexity. The Captain is a two-faced jerk. Vic is a crooked cop but he is only crooked to the crooks and is very good to honest, working people in need. Vic is one of the most complex characters ever written for a TV show. Dutch is book smart and street stupid in most respects. He and Claudette are set up as "straight cops" but you actually root against them when they pursue Vic because Vic is just so smart.

I loved it because there were so few stereotypes that you see on most shows. Who cares if the black cop killed his gf in real life.

TRIVIA: In the show most of the cops are relocated to LA from somewhere else. Where the character is from is where the actor is from.

Shows I like you won't like right away:

Trailer Park Boys
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
Arrested Development
Dexter
Continuum
Star Gate
Supernatural
Castle
Bones
Workaholics

Quote: AZDuffman

You must be kidding, "The Shield" was one of the best cop shows ever. Vic was one of the best characters of all time. You have to look at the complexity. The Captain is a two-faced jerk. Vic is a crooked cop but he is only crooked to the crooks and is very good to honest, working people in need. Vic is one of the most complex characters ever written for a TV show. Dutch is book smart and street stupid in most respects. He and Claudette are set up as "straight cops" but you actually root against them when they pursue Vic because Vic is just so smart.

I loved it because there were so few stereotypes that you see on most shows. Who cares if the black cop killed his gf in real life.

TRIVIA: In the show most of the cops are relocated to LA from somewhere else. Where the character is from is where the actor is from.

I agree, I thought the Shield rocked.
One of my favorite scenes is when Glen Close is interrogating a suspect protecting Vic and Vic is freaking out because Glen Close is playing hardball with the suspect and may get to the truth.

I never thought Justified was as good as the Shield, ever. The characters and writing on the Shield were fantastic. Towards the end when the Strike Team falls apart, and in particular the final 4 episodes or so, was some of the best TV ever filmed. Vic Mackey rocked. Walton Goggins was so convincing as Shane I was certain that's how he was in real life.

Quote: terapined

I agree, I thought the Shield rocked.
One of my favorite scenes is when Glen Close is interrogating a suspect protecting Vic and Vic is freaking out because Glen Close is playing hardball with the suspect and may get to the truth.

I never quite thought of it until just now but part of what made the rivalry between Aceveda and Vic so great was their career goals. Vic loved being a cop and mixing it up, he had no ambition to be more than a street cop he loved it so much. Aceveda didn't like being a cop but saw it as a stepping stone to greater things. Aceveda hated the streets and the gritty work often needed to get things done in the sewer they were working in.

Vic knew how to show force and project power, Aceveda thought if you said "POLICE" that should be that. Best example of this was when Vic got info from forcing a dealer's crack pipe in his mouth and making him smoke until he was sick. Later that day Aceveda goes into a house without backup and meets the same dealer and his buddy and in a focal point for the series is forced to be the guy's "cell bitch." He just folded. Vic would have never folded.

Quote: AZDuffman

You must be kidding, "The Shield" was one of the best cop shows ever.

I was appalled in the pilot when
the bald guy shoots a fellow cop in the face
just because he was a bother to him. The
Latino captain hates the bald cop and just
'knows' it wasn't an accident because he hates
the bald cop so much. Yet in the next episode,
he sends baldie into the holding room to work
over a suspect with torture to get info out of
him. Ridiculous.

Of the 6 episodes I watched, I've seen every
story they used a dozen times in other cop
dramas. Even Walton Goggins couldn't save
this show for me, and I WANTED to like it, I
tried hard to.

This is a review on IMDB that says it better
than I can.

"There are two kinds of characters on THE SHIELD: people who try to do the best they can and do the right thing, and people who relentlessly pursue their own self interest and commit every mortal sin they can while telling themselves and everyone else that they are heroes, and everyone's only hope. More than any other show, THE SHIELD is about hypocrisy and self-delusion. Unfortunately, the hypocrites and self-deluders are the shows heroes, and as such have the typical genre-fiction heroes' improbable immunity to getting defeated or caught and they come out on top over and over again, making fools out of all of their peers...
the story is a cartoony, overwrought wish fulfillment scenario of gratuitous violence, rape, and lies.

The hero, who drags everyone down with him in failed scheme after failed scheme, is wiley like a Warner Bros cartoon character, always escaping and making fun of all the Elmer Fudds (anyone who does not support him in his lies and crimes), automatically attracting any good looking woman supporting character to come on the show, always surviving any attempt to bring him to justice, and ALWAYS scraping your ears with his excruciating self justifications. If another cop detects something wrong with something he's doing, and someone gets hurt because of his actions, he always blames the suspicious cop, regardless of the fact that his schemes and elaborate lies and doomed plans are always the cause. Every time."

The last part of the review is where I had the
most problems with the show. I felt this yo-yo
effect in the 6 episodes I saw, it's why I had no
feelings for any of the characters. Real life is
not like this, people don't act the way they do
on this show.

"Most disappointing though, is the writers' hubris as they try to change the viewers' sympathies back and forth, to and away form the characters on whims. Sometimes, they want us to see Shane as the enemy. Sometimes they want us to see him as a poor misunderstood soul. Sometimes they want us to see Vic as a dangerous, sexual dynamo. Sometimes they want us to see him as a poor guy with a heart of gold. Sometimes they want us to see Mara as a low down vile Jezebel. Then they think that if they show her sitting and talking over her dreams with Shane, that we will find her to be sympathetic and tragic. None of this manipulation is adequate to obtain the kinds of sympathies they want. Once they've shown these characters ruin other people's lives for their own ends, that's it. It is nonsense to keep trying to flip back and forth. But then, it is also nonsense to produce seven seasons of these bumbling clowns drawing every super model in existence to their beds and running a crime syndicate right out of the police station, right under everyone's noses."

Quote: Evenbob

I was appalled in the pilot when
the bald guy shoots a fellow cop in the face
just because he was a bother to him. The
Latino captain hates the bald cop and just
'knows' it wasn't an accident because he hates
the bald cop so much. Yet in the next episode,
he sends baldie into the holding room to work
over a suspect with torture to get info out of
him. Ridiculous.

It is a TV SHOW, not real cops. he shot the cop in the face because the cop was a rat who was trying to put him away. It is why I love the show, I rooted for the bald cop (Vic) the entire way because he got away with everything and got out of every setback. The latino Captain (Aceveda) hates Vic but uses Vic to meet his ends every time he can, and because of this Vic knows that there is only so much the Captain can really do to him.

Quote: Evenbob

I was appalled in the pilot when
the bald guy shoots a fellow cop in the face
just because he was a bother to him.

That one shooting was the set-up that drove the entire series, and plagued Vic until the final episode. Will Vic ever get caught? Watch and find out. You won't be disappointed. But it sounds like one critic's opinion on imdb already has discolored your view. Too bad; it was an excellent show. Better than Justified, which has many dumb implausible plot lines and dislikable, unnecessary characters.

I'd like to bring up the mostly-excellent Sons of Anarchy as well, it'd be better if they left out the whole Irish subplot. Katey Sagal's Gemma is the most badass woman on TV. New season starts in a couple weeks (sept 9), in the slot when Tyrant ends. Is anyone watching Tyrant? Or The Strain?

Quote: AZDuffman

It is a TV SHOW, not real cops. he shot the cop in the face because the cop was a rat who was trying to put him away. It is why I love the show, I rooted for the bald cop .

By the 6th episode I so completely loathed
the bald guy that I couldn't watch it anymore.
It just wasn't believable.