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Rewatching The Shield

LonghornGoodfella

By LonghornGoodfella
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LonghornGoodfella

LonghornGoodfella 114

Posted
Posted

What a great fucking show this was. I re-watched the series from start to finish over the summer and just finished it up recently. My jaw still fucking drops to this day watching the episode where Shane kills his family. God damn was an intense scene. Vendrell is one of the best villains of all time in TV history. Killing Lem was pretty intense as well. 

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Aqua Buddha

Aqua Buddha 14582

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Watched it again a year or so ago myself.  I was surprised that it aged pretty well all things considered.

Liked how it didn't fall into the trap most LA based shows do in trying to show us the glamorous side of the city.  It was strictly the "other" LA in all its grittiness.

The season with Glenn Close, Anthony Anderson, and Forest Whitaker was one of the best TV seasons ever of any show.

Trying to piece together all the gangs was confusing and portraying Michael Chiklis as some sort of ladies man was a bit of a stretch but the ending (final 2-3 episodes) is in the conversation for one of the greatest of all time.

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Vic Mackey

Vic Mackey 47012

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I loved this show (obviously). I have also watched is twice through. Like any show, you get to enjoy it on a different level the second time around. You can pay attention to the smaller details. It was just as good the second time around. The only part that made me cringe was Acevado (I think that was his name) sucking dick on camera. And they actually showed that.

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Prepuce of Doom

Prepuce of Doom 21053

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I just watched it for the first time. At the beginning, I had a hard time not laughing at the idea of our own @Vic Mackey as Vic Mackey, and a few weeks ago when I first started binging it, I actually did a search for a thread just to make that comment without actually reading anything, but the spoiler about Shane was visible in the search results and I saw it before I even realized that I might see a spoiler, but whatever. The show ended over a decade ago, so I take responsibility for ruining it for myself by taking a calculated but ultimately costly risk.

I found Forest Whitaker as Detective Jeff Goldblum to be one of the most annoying characters in memory, though I struggle to decide whether it was perfect casting for the role, or just an irritating portrayal. But I hated him enough (not just the character, but the mannerisms and "playing" of the character, if that makes any sense) that if Kavanagh had been in the show from the beginning, I can't say with absolute certainty that I would have stuck with it. That's how much he bothered me. Like the human personification of squeaking Styrofoam. 

Otherwise, I really enjoyed it. Some of the "monster of the day" crimes and investigations were a little hard to follow at times, but the writing was really on point with the bigger picture "how is he going to slither out of this jam" with respect to the bigger story lines. 

Ronnie and Lem were amusing in their one-dimensionality. They almost didn't even need to speak most of the time - they each had three or four stock facial expressions that could have just covered everything for them. Ronnie exasperated but silently going along with something. Lem having a token internal debate before going along with something. 

Anthony Anderson and CCH Pounder were great. Walton Goggins is among the best actors working right now in my opinion. 

The theme song was discordant auditory diarrhea, however. 

Edited by Prepuce of Doom
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Vic Mackey

Vic Mackey 47012

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2 minutes ago, Prepuce of Doom said:

I just watched it for the first time. At the beginning, I had a hard time not laughing at the idea of our own @Vic Mackey as Vic Mackey, and a few weeks ago when I first started binging it, I actually did a search for a thread just to make that comment without actually reading anything, but the spoiler about Shane was visible in the search results and I saw it before I even realized that I might see a spoiler, whatever. The show ended over a decade ago, so I take responsibility for ruining it for myself by taking a calculated but ultimately costly risk.

 

I signed up for The Shag in May 2010. This was fresh off when I finished the show (for the first time). Vic was a kick ass character for me and thought it was fitting. There was a few storyline points that were absurd but overall, one of my favorite shows ever. It might not be as sophisticated as say The Wire and The Sopranos but I enjoyed the hell out of it.

I actually liked the Forrest Whitaker character. He was even better for me on my second run through of the show. This show had a lot of replay value for me.

I loved how the entire show came down to the one incident to start the show. Everything came back full circle to that and they never escaped it no matter how they tried. I might give a third run through one of these days.

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Tom

Tom 2959

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I need to watch the show again in order.  I started watching it live in season 5 and at some point before the series ended I managed to DVR reruns of the first four seasons and binged them.

 

26 minutes ago, Vic Mackey said:

It might not be as sophisticated as say The Wire and The Sopranos but I enjoyed the hell out of it.

 

It may not be as sophisticated or true to life, but it's more fun.  I think I'd enjoy watching this series a second time again more than The Wire..

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tantric superman

tantric superman 4667

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8 hours ago, PilotsError said:


Lol they were pretty much based on the Rampart division. If anything, they weren't murderous and criminal enough.

No, I mean, I mean, as written, they were buffoonish fuckups.  Whether or not they were more or less murderous. 

Herc, from the Wire, had more brains that Vic.  They just weren't a credible team.  You believed every second that the team in the Wire might break the case. With Vic's group, it was like "oh come on, the shittiest criminal in LA would have run circles around you clowns".

It was just casting.  And I like most of the actors in Vic's team.  They were just wrong.

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Iceman

Iceman 2693

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17 hours ago, Prepuce of Doom said:

 

I found Forest Whitaker as Detective Jeff Goldblum to be one of the most annoying characters in memory, though I struggle to decide whether it was perfect casting for the role, or just an irritating portrayal. But I hated him enough (not just the character, but the mannerisms and "playing" of the character, if that makes any sense) that if Kavanagh had been in the show from the beginning, I can't say with absolute certainty that I would have stuck with it. That's how much he bothered me. Like the human personification of squeaking Styrofoam. 

 

Oh this is the cool guy from Good Morning Vietnam...3 weeks later...this motherfucker needs to be killed off now.  LOLz.

Such a great portrayal by Whitaker.

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Aqua Buddha

Aqua Buddha 14582

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1 hour ago, tantric superman said:

No, I mean, I mean, as written, they were buffoonish fuckups.  Whether or not they were more or less murderous. 

Herc, from the Wire, had more brains that Vic.  They just weren't a credible team.  You believed every second that the team in the Wire might break the case. With Vic's group, it was like "oh come on, the shittiest criminal in LA would have run circles around you clowns".

It was just casting.  And I like most of the actors in Vic's team.  They were just wrong.

That's pretty accurate.  You look into most police corruption scandals and there's usually one ring leader and some simpleton followers who believes whatever he says.  Generally, the ring leader gets off or a reduced sentence after turning on everyone else.  Shawn Ryan said at one point he did extensive research on scandals and said the show basically wrote itself.  It's basically a loose documentary on the Rampart scandal.

He also kept is real by focusing on the real LA.  Most shows set in Los Angeles follow the temptation to look at the glitz and glamour of the city but that's really only about 20%.  The other 80% is grit and the Shield never lost sight of that.

The only stretch the show made was portraying Michael Chicklis as some ladies man.

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Parliament

Parliament 14245

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Posted (edited)
On 9/10/2018 at 9:00 AM, LonghornGoodfella said:

Uh ok. But if you click on this thread for a show that ended years ago, not sure what to tell you bud. 

I was joking.  All is good.

I'm up to the middle of S6 in my rewatch.  It's deeper than I remember.  

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Parliament

Parliament 14245

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Almost done.  Not as deep or thematic as The Wire, but better than I recall.   One of the earlier serial series, and you can see it "growing into" that.  And the last season gets more and more and more intense.  Dutch is my favorite character.  Pete Campbell stole his character arc from him.

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