The Shield: No scheisse, Shane

Spoilers for "The Shield" season finale coming up just as soon as I find an attractive but age-appropriate female colleague to mentor...

Sigh... Franka's come and gone and without a single "Scheisse." Last July, I was helping Shawn Ryan procrastinate by seeking advice for my impending baldness (like Vic Mackey, Shawn sports the Mr. Clean look) when talk turned to Franka Potente's upcoming guest stint on the show.

"She's going to say 'scheisse' at some point, right?" I asked Shawn and fellow producer Chick Eglee, noting how wonderfully that particular bit of Germanic profanity has sounded coming out of her mouth in nearly every film role to date. Shawn and Chick looked at each other, smiled and said, "She is now!"

Alas, my contribution to the creative process turned out not to be, and I'm actually okay with it. The character Franka wound up with was far colder and craftier than she's played in the likes of "Run Lola Run" and "The Bourne Identity," and it might have felt dissonant for her to start cussing, just for the sake of an in-joke.

But enough about me (though at some point I'll bore people with stories of my futile quest to have my name put up on the "Homicide" Board, or maybe start regurgiating "I made Turk dance!" stories). How 'bout that finale? Or should we even be calling it a finale? As I mentioned in yesterday's column (scroll down to "Jumping Ahead"), I feel like the season essentially ended with The Confrontation in episode six. The four episodes since have been like a prologue for the final season, with the Shane/Vic drama backburnered in favor of setting up Shane's problems with the Armenians and Vic's plan to keep his job.

One of my fears when I got done watching the first six episodes was that Shawn and company would try to stretch out this storyline into the final season and drain all the tension they had built up since the season premiere. And, to an extent, I feel that's been true. The writers haven't cheated, but the brother against brother dynamic was more riveting when it wasn't being expanded to include the stuff with the Armenians and Cruz.

Now, these last four episodes have been very good, especially the finale, which had Shane going into major damage control mode to stave off Franka's assassination attempts and Vic going off the reservation in a major way to keep his job. (Jumping into the consultant's car as it was pulling away just to beat the guy up? Damn.) They just don't live up to, say, the season premiere, Vic killing Guardo, or The Confrontation.

But let's dwell on what worked in isolation, which most of the episode did. Shane's learned plenty of bad stuff from Vic over the years, but it only seems fair that he's picked up the useful things, too, like Vic's ability to come out on top even in situations where the odds are hopelessly stacked against him. His move with Franka's daddy, for instance, was reminiscent of Vic taking on a roomful of Byz Lats with only a single bullet in his gun. And yet Shane has a natural gift to find himself in a major hole and then keep digging. Bad enough that he got into business with the Armenians at all, worse that he told Franka that Vic and Ronnie robbed the money train, but then to cast his lot with yet another Armenian? Not since Homer Simpson managed to cause a nuclear meltdown in a training simulator that contained no nuclear material have I witnessed such mind-boggling, dangerous stupidity on my television. Shane deserves every bit of misery he has coming to him next season, and I'm struggling to figure out a scenario that doesn't end with him dead, probably sacrificing himself to save Vic and/or Mara and Jackson (a "noble" death that will be too little, too late).

Meanwhile, I'm just picturing the Don LaFontaine-narrated trailer for the final season: "Vic Mackey was a tough cop who didn't like to play by the rules. David Aceveda was a politician willing to do anything to rise in power. In a world where Mexican diplomats get their arms cut off and then drive around with suitcases filled with cash, these two men have no choice but to clean up a very dirty town. Together again for the first -- and the last -- time, they are... THE SHIELD!"

What? Sorry, moving on...

They've played the "reluctant allies" card with Vic and Aceveda a time or twelve already, but it feels appropriate that the two central characters of season one will be working together in the final season. Aceveda's been pushed to the show's margins since he got that City Council seat, and I like the rhythm that Chiklis and Martinez have together, even if I can't for the life of me figure out how Cruz could have gotten hold of the cell phone picture, especially when the original story made a huge point about how the two rapists were too stupid to know how to send the pictures around.

Two parts of the finale that felt like part of season six proper and not teasers for season seven: Hiatt getting bounced as Strike Team leader so he can go star in David Greenwalt's new vampire detective show (that won't be anything like his old vampire detective show), and Dutch's pursuit of Tina. I raised an eyebrow when Tina claimed that Dutch had a shot and should have taken it before Hiatt made his move, but I'm glad the story didn't wind up with the two of them together. He tried the whole mentoring-as-seduction thing with Dani a long time ago (maybe back in season one?), so it felt right that he would return to her when the Tina thing blew up in his face. Some very nice work by Jay Karnes and Catherine Dent in the scene with Miracle Joe's nephew, and especially in the locker room after. These two have consistently gotten raw deals from the other characters on the show; it was nice that they could have this moment together, wherever it winds up leading next year.

So what did everybody else think? Are you with me that the season peaked too soon with Vic and Shane? How do you expect this mess to resolve itself next year? Will Cruz wind up working with the Armenians? Will Dutch tell Dani about his history with kitty cats? Will we ever again hear word one about Julian's personal life and inner struggle? And if the writers decide to bring back Franka, can they please, for the love of all that is good and decent, have her say my favorite foreign curse word? Click here to read the full post

The Shield: The man with no brain

Spoilers for "The Shield" coming up just as soon as I go peek in that window...

So much is going on right now that almost all of it will have to carry over to next season, I expect. But for now, I feel like I have to take note of the following: Shane, you unbelievable idiot! Billings, you magnificent bastard! Cruz, you... wait, who are you again?

On a dumbness scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being Corrinne accepting Kavanaugh's stick of gum and 10 being Aceveda staying alone in that house where he got raped, Shane voluntarily giving up the money train robbery to Franka -- even in such a way that allegedly keeps his own name out of it -- is a 97. He's dealt with the Armenians before. How can he not recognize that this knowledge will lead to the deaths of Vic and Ronnie -- and maybe more people? And yet it's the same sort of move that Shane always makes when he's left to operate without Vic. The man constantly overestimates his own cleverness and vastly underestimates just how ruthless his new criminal buddies can be. (See also Antwon.)

Meanwhile, Billings gets his spectacular vengeance on the Dutchman, nudging Tina and Hiatt together and then turning Dutch into a peeping Tom forced to watch them make the beast with two backs. Vicious, hilarious and brilliant. David Marciano has been such a great addition to this show, and while I miss the Dutch/Claudette team, Dutch/Billings has its own pleasures.

Finally, we have Aceveda's buddy (or so Aceveda thinks) Cruz stepping in as Vic's white knight after the comptroller calls Vic's bluff on the blackmail scheme. This guy has been hovering in the background all season, but we knew he was trouble after Aceveda was moronic enough to tell him about Hernan. (Who's up, by the way, for Walton Goggins and Benito Martinez to star, in character, in "Dumb and Dumber 3"? Come on, who's with me?)

So, lot of balls in the air, very few likely to come down next week, but I'm intrigued. What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

The Shield: Franka goes to Farmington

Spoilers for "The Shield" coming up just as soon as I sign some autographs...

I'm going to be brief, because this is yet another episode about moving the pieces forward. In a way, it feels like this season and the Lem/Guardo storyline ended with episode six, and what we're in now is a prologue for the final season, especially Shane's involvement with the Armenians.

And that group is now represented by the awesome Franka Potente, of "Run Lola Run" and the first two Jason Bourne movies. This is a very different character for her, quieter and more calculating. When I first heard about the casting, I tried to talk Shawn Ryan into having her say "Scheisse" at some point, but I don't know that it would feel right coming out of her mouth. Still, Shane is in way over his head (as usual) dealing with this young woman, who seems so sweet and in need of protection, yet can casually order the castration of men who have crossed her.

The highlight of the episode for me, though, were the scenes with Ronnie and Shane, and Ronnie and Vic. Last year, one of the commenters suggested that David Rees Snell never got much to do because he wasn't a good actor. I think this season has shown that it was just a lack of opportunity, not talent. Ronnie's made a very interesting number two for Vic, smarter and cooler-headed than Shane -- and, as we discovered last night, maybe even more ruthless. Either he figured out the Terry thing a long time ago and made his peace with it, or he was able to make a quick moral calculation, but I got chills when he told Vic that he could have helped him cover it up better than Shane.

The counterfeit purse subplot was a decent throw-away, there mostly to show some thawing between Dani and Corrinne and between Dani and Tina, and I liked Hiatt winning brownie points with Vic at the same time he's losing them with Claudette.

As I've been saying for the last few weeks, this is NOT the place to discuss, even obliquely, the final two episodes, which have been available online since they aired in France. No hinting, no questions, no responding to other people's questions with "You'll see in episode 9." Got it?

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

The Shield: Writing is fundamental

I'm off to Manhattan for the CBS upfront press breakfast (aka Lox With Les), where I've been led to believe that the throwing of eggs will not be required, so far as the fate of "HIMYM" is concerned. I haven't seen "Veronica Mars" or "House" yet and may not get to them until tonight or even tomorrow. Not that I expect any earth-shattering plot developments on either one, but the Cone of Silence is up.

Spoilers for "The Shield" coming up just as soon as I find that arm I misplaced...

Not much was going to be able to live up to last week's Biblical confrontation between Vic and Shane, but "Exiled" did a good job of moving the pieces forward and showing just how dangerous Shane can be once, like Tony Soprano, he completely sets his conscience aside and focuses solely on self-preservation. How the hell does Vic get Shane now without bringing down himself, Ronnie and maybe Corrinne and the kids? Are we heading towards a situation where the Armenians get one over on Shane just like Antwon Mitchell did a few years back? And if someone other than Vic winds up killing Shane, is Vic screwed, regardless?

In other developments, somebody refresh my memory, please: was Aceveda always this much of a putz? I have vague recollections of him once being a half-decent, fairly smart cop who was always undercut by his own vanity and ambition, but maybe I give him too much credit because he was Vic's main opposition for a couple of seasons. Because giving up Hernan's identity to his developer buddy was one of the five dumbest things done by a character on this show (others include Aceveda staying alone in the house where he got raped, and anything from a large menu of Shane's activities), and I have no doubt that he's directly responsible for Hernan's disappearance.

Beyond that, I liked the little snippet of Dutch and Claudette working as a team again as they figured a way to hang onto the Mexican diplomat's money -- and, therefore, the Mexican diplomat. (Anybody know if that stat about 33% of all U.S currency testing positive for drug traces is true?) And while Mara's far from my favorite character on this show, this episode reminded us why she's the perfect woman for Shane, as ruthless and tunnel-visioned as he is.

What did everybody else think? And a reminder from the comments of last week: I understand that the final three episodes are available on-line somewhere because they already aired in France. If you have seen them, DO NOT DISCUSS THEM IN ANY WAY HERE. Don't hint, don't ask questions, nothing. Are we clear? This has been and will continue to be a spoiler-safe site. Click here to read the full post

The Shield: It hits the fan

Spoilers for "The Shield" coming right up...

Man, of all the weeks to be away from home with minimal writing time. I feel like I want to write an opera about all the brilliance contained in this here episode (the last of the ones I've already seen, so you and I are now on the same playing field, knowledge-wise), but I don't have nearly enough time to do it justice. So I'll just focus on The Confrontation and then move on to ye olde bullet-point list of all the other goodness (plus the one obvious bit of badness).

How amazing were Chiklis and Goggins in that final scene? Shane has been a liability to Vic for a long time, but because we know more than Vic does and because we're not blinded by personal feelings the way he is, this is the first time he's really, 100% recognized what a monster he created. And yet Shane is absolutely correct: Vic has no right to claim the moral high ground after what he did to Terry. Vic can go on and on all he wants about how Terry was "a traitor" -- which is, in a way, the writers justifying that act in light of everything that's happened since as much as it is Vic trying to defend the worst sin of his miserable life -- but the two of them are equally damned.

Actors (the good ones, anyway) like to say that they never play villains, that when they play people who do bad things, they have to find a way to rationalize why their character might have done them. Both actors delivered textbook examples of that here. Vic is horrified by what Shane has done (Chiklis has rarely been as scary as when Vic told Shane, "YOU MADE THAT DECISION ON YOUR OWN!") and doesn't want to admit his own role in this, while Shane has had weeks to convince himself that he did the only thing he could to save Vic, Ronnie and his own family. A great duel by our resident Emmy winner and our resident Oscar winner.

That said, I hope it's a bit more clear why I was so concerned about the series' endgame by the time I got through this episode. There are only four more episodes in this season, and Vic and Shane have now gone past the point of no return. One or both has to wind up dead or in jail, and if that doesn't happen within this season's final four episodes, then all the tension the writers have been creating over the last six weeks will be wasted. My fear: either they wrap up this storyline over the next four and then risk the entire final season being an anti-climax, or they try to stretch it out and make a great thing less great. As I said at the start of the season, I hope and even expect to be proven wrong, but I can't wrap my head around how they're going to do it.

Anyway, on to the bullet points:

• Bad news first: Chiklis' daughter is still a weak link in the way that, say, Cathy Ryan isn't. I never want to see Cassidy again, much less in the middle of an otherwise tense episode like this one.
  
• The one plus of the Cassidy story was that it gave Vic yet another problem to deal with, all of it coming to a head in that great sequence where Vic is freaked out about Cassidy, Hiatt wants him to follow a lead in their case, Dutch tries to lure him into the trap with Guardo's girlfriend and Ronnie gives him the head shake on the grenade count. Lots going on for this man, and Vic pushed to the limit is a more interesting character.
  
• Anthony Anderson! Always good to have Mr. Mitchell back to mess with Vic.
  
• A very special guest of a different sort: Frank Darabont behind the camera for this episode, making this two straight nights of "Shawshank Redemption"-related TV. He obviously contributed in no small part to the awesomeness that was the climax of this episode.
• Billings and Dutch are really turning out to be an interesting team, aren't they?

I'm too jet-lagged to keep going. What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

The Shield: How do you like your ribs?

Spoilers for "The Shield" coming up just as soon as I steal some food from Craft Services...

Shane and Mara: worst marriage in TV history, or best? So far, Mara has stolen some of the Armenian money train cash, the two of them combined to nearly kill Tavon and then cover it up, and now just as she's on the verge of giving his ass the boot for getting with that underage hooer, he confesses to murdering Lem and she takes him back. I don't even know what to say about that, save that things are spiraling out of control for Shane, especially now that Vic's been convinced of Guardo's (relative) innocence.

While Shane was melting down, we also had the tortured runaway case had some vintage Dutch-style closure, and the Strike Team took on a very new look, between Hyatt's increasing authority, Julian struggling to fit in and, cosmetically, Ronnie finally shaving the Armadillo beard. (Nice work by the makeup department on the grill scars. At first, I assumed they had forgotten to do anything, but once I saw Ronnie's face in close-up I realized what a convincing, subtle job they had done on them.)

But for me, the real interest was Carl Weathers' return as the Ghost of Mackey Future. What a bleak, vicious scene that was when Vic, Carl and the other guy were cleaning out the apartment and giving impromptu haircuts and complimentary beverages. Is this really what Vic has to look forward to once he's off the force? He's never been a great investigative mind; his resume is all about muscle, intimidation and willpower, and I doubt he's going to get many glowing recommendation letters from Aceveda or Claudette or any other boss he's ever had. Whatever was in the Retirement Fund seems long gone, either burned up by Lem or devoted to paying for his autistic kids' special school, and I don't know if a 15-year pension will be enough to live on by itself. (I've always been under the impression that cops retire and immediately take another job so that the pension is a bonus for down the road.) This was a chilling illustration of why Vic is going to fight so hard to stay a cop. Sure, a lot of it is about ego, but Vic needs to work, and running the Strike Team is all he's really qualified for.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

The Shield: Strike Team gets an FNG

Spoilers for "The Shield" coming up just as soon as I crank up the AC/DC...

Well, the obvious development to talk about first is the arrival of one Kevin Hiatt as the Strike Team's newest member and Vic's apparent replacement, but it's kind of hard to focus on that when there's that amazing Mackey freak-out at the end, no? Chiklis is just one hell of an actor, and they set it up beautifully, not only with Vic turning 'Vantes into a surrogate for Lem, but the placement of Corinne so that she couldn't physically get to Vic to help him as 'Vantes was dying. A very powerful, unexpected moment.

As for Hiatt, I don't know yet. I've seen two more episodes with him beyond this one, and he just seems sort of, there, you know? I'm not articulating this well, and we can talk about it more in the next few weeks, but if they want us to actually imagine a future where Vic isn't at The Barn and this guy is riding herd over all the gangbangers, he needs to be more charismatic than Alex O'Loughlin is showing me here.

I do like the idea of Claudette figuring out a way to make Vic behave until he's out the door. She understands what motivates Vic in a way that none of his other bosses have (except maybe Monica Rawling, who went more with the stick than the carrot), but this also has the potential to hugely blow up in her face. Also, while she's busy fixing the Strike Team, Aceveda is busy screwing her over by getting the house massacre taken away from RHD and sent back to The Barn.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

The Shield: Hanging out with Guardo

Spoilers for "The Shield" coming up just as soon as I go buy some ephedra...

Damn.

Just damn.

In the years since the pilot, Vic has killed guys in self-defense and he's left men to die when it's served his own interests, but it's been a long time (for us, if not for the characters) since he flat-out murdered a guy. Guardo wasn't the innocent that Terry was -- the writers reminded us of that through Shane's callback to last season's exploded BBQ -- but still. Damn.

Certainly one of the hardest-to-watch episodes ever, what with Guardo looking like a series of Abu Gharaib photos, the savage beatings, the blood, and the way the director framed the shot (both from the camera and the gun) to resemble the death of Terry. Again, damn.

And yet somehow, in the midst of Vic going way the hell off the reservation, of Shane being confronted with yet another bit of blowback from the murder and the cover-up, we got a bit of comic relief in the Dutch/Billings/Ronnie bizarre love triangle. Before this season, Ronnie rarely had much to do, but with Lem out of the picture he's become a much more important character, and David Rees Snell is holding up his end nicely. With Vic and Shane, Ronnie's the loyal sidekick, even the slightly nerdy one (he handles all the Strike Team's computer stuff), but pair him with TweedleDutch and TweedleDumb and he's suddenly the Alpha Dog.

When I watched this episode, I had forgotten the references at the end of last season to Vic's impending forced retirement, so Claudette's appearance in the final scene was a bracing splash of cold water after Vic and Ronnie (if not Shane) finally seemed to be getting over Lem's death.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

The Shield: Time to take out the trash

Spoilers for "The Shield" coming up just as soon as I write a dissertation about Chatton's anti-razor...

I'm blanking now on where I saw it, but someone complained after last week's episode that Kavanaugh framing Vic (ironically, for one of the few crimes in show history he had nothing to do with) was a betrayal of a character who was originally introduced as a squeaky-clean supercop type. I don't know if I'd buy into that characterization to begin with (his dealings with Corrinne were pretty shady), but more to the point, what his arc illustrates is how Vic eventually drags everyone down into the muck with him. By this point, Vic and Kavanaugh had been messing with each other's heads so much that I would have been stunned if it hadn't become personal for John, the poor, obsessed bastard. And now he's in jail, while Forest Whitaker is free to exploit whatever post-Oscar opportunities are available to him.

It was great having Whitaker around, but Kavanaugh's almost beside the point now. The real showdown now is going to be the one between Vic and Shane, and Shane's getting sloppy, with his trial balloon to Ronnie about "making up" a story about being with Lem when the grenade went off. (Vic, of course, is as much of a badass as ever, this time outsmarting a room full of armed Biz Lats with only the bullet in the chamber.)

This episode was a good showcase for both Dutch, who was the first to suspect something was wrong with Kavanaugh's story (and who introduced me to the intriguing idea of the anti-razor), and Claudette, who had that fine speech about the interrogation room: "It's not much to look at, but it brings the truth out in people. I fixed a lot of wrongs inside these walls." Not a lot of actresses could make lines like that work, but you always believe it from CCH Pounder.

What did everybody else think? You going to miss Kavanaugh, or was his time up? Click here to read the full post

The Shield: I hung my head

Spoilers for "The Shield" season premiere just as soon as I bathe myself in gasoline...

Between "Sopranos" prep, Passover and the fact that I already wrote about the season in broad strokes this morning, I'm going to be brief, take the bullet points route and then turn it over to y'all. I first saw this episode nine months ago, at a half-awesome (because of the episode), half-sadistic (because we weren't expecting to see another episode until January, which turned out to be April) screening FX arranged with critics, the cast and some of the producers, so I've been itching to hear what other people thought about it.

Me, I loved every single second of it (well, maybe not the Granny Porn subplot, but that's just me), but here are some of the highlights:

• The Johnny Cash song over the opening and closing scenes has quickly shot up my list of Best Uses of Music In a TV Drama (and inspired the thread below this one), just perfectly casting a pall over the entire hour. Because of the relatively low budget, the show generally uses music by unknown artists that can be used cheaply, but whatever they had to spend on "I Hung My Head," it was worth it;
  
• Shane's entire suicidal spiral, from the moment Claudette explains that Lem didn't sell out the Strike Team through being saved from eating his gun by Dani, all the way up to his confrontation with the meth-head arsonist;
  
• Corrinne warning Dani that the baby might be autistic, the kind of comment that could have been helpful in another context but was just plain vicious here;
• Kavanaugh slowly losing his mind over Mackey, to the point of planting evidence in Vic's house;
• Billings again being a complete waste of oxygen ("Geez, I've got a goddamn lump!");
• Dutch's reaction to the cats licking up the blood, both because of Dutch's own history with cats and because I first watched the episode while sitting at a table with Cathy Ryan, and at the end of that scene, eight or nine pairs of eyes all turned to her and she said, sheepishly, "What? Talk to my husband," followed by some discussion over the stability of the Ryan marriage.

So what did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post