The Shield

[Tofu]

Season 4 now, nice to see Glenn Close but I feel it won't be long before she gets shafted. Great stuff so far.

[glb]

16 hours ago, Tofu said:

Season 4 now, nice to see Glenn Close but I feel it won't be long before she gets shafted. Great stuff so far.

 

Oh, just you wait... Things get even better.

 

Love The Shield, may have to go back and rewatch it. Not sure if the missus has seen it, and might mean less How to Get Away with Murder and Scandal if she hasn't.

[Tofu]

Bloody hell, on the last season now:(

 

Still loving Dutch and his relationship with Claudette.

 

One of the best TV series I seen for a while since Breaking Bad.

[CactuarBill]

Wow you are really getting through the show.  It is amazing, my favourite show of all time.  

[Tofu]

1 hour ago, CactuarBill said:

Wow you are really getting through the show.  It is amazing, my favourite show of all time.  

 

I have it playing while painting, its one of those series you simply can't stop until the very end. This was what I was expecting Soa to be like in terms of drama and tension.

[Tofu]

Holy Shit.

 

The last two episodes are really grim. I was always expecting the ending to be dark but man that was really fucked up. 

 

 

[CactuarBill]

Congrats on getting through one of the best TV series ever made and criminally underrated.  

 

I actually think it is one of the best endings to a show ever. It is perfect and as you said grim.  

[mushashi]

I watched a fair chunk of the start of this a while ago, the main thing I recall from it was how OTT it was, not exactly what I would call a show aiming for realism or anything, a bit like 24.

 

It was good, maybe I should attempt to finish it at some point, but there are about a Bajillion of these overly long running acclaimed TV series in existence and I already have a massive iPlayer backlog which needs clearing and is evergrowing as a result. Still never finished The Wire or Breaking Bad either.

[CactuarBill]

It doesn't achieve the realism as The Wire but it sacrifices that for entertainment and it is a very entertaining show which does deal with some disturbing issues and can get dark when it wants to.

[mushashi]

I suppose the problem is tonality, its more difficult to swallow and fully enjoy shows which want to be serious and dark, but also a bit/very unrealistic, like 24 supposedly became (only watched some of the early stuff of that, it was also impressive but the thought of having to wade through that much content means it gets abandoned usually).

 

I watched upto somewhere in the 3rd series I think, the Armenian money train stuff and the fallout. I think their captain has something horrible happen to him (well for a man, it's fairly rare if the stats are to be believed).

 

Oz is a bit similar in that way, quite dark at times and mildly unrealistic at times (also on the pile of shame, even though it is also pretty awesome and undersung, Adebisi :D)

[JohnnyNolan]

I thought The Shield was a fantastic show, and while it wasn't based in the gritty settings of something like The Wire it was a million miles away from the fantasy styling of 24.

[CarloOos]

The Shield is no more far-fetched than any other police procedural, it's just not in the same journalistic mould as The Wire with its meticulous approach to the mundanity of actual police work.  The show was originally called RAMPART and the Strike Team are loosely based on the real CRASH unit, which is obviously a bit more dramatically lucrative than committing yourself to portraying the mind-numbing bureaucracy of building a base of evidence and having that work thrown away by corrupt and self-serving institutions.

[Tofu]

1 minute ago, CarloOos said:

The Shield is no more far-fetched than any other police procedural, it's just not in the same journalistic mould as The Wire with its meticulous approach to the mundanity of actual police work.  The show was originally called RAMPART and the Strike Team are loosely based on the real CRASH unit, which is obviously a bit more dramatically lucrative than committing yourself to portraying the mind-numbing bureaucracy of building a base of evidence and having that work thrown away by corrupt and self-serving institutions.

 

Think it was meant to be called the Barn.

[mushashi]

10 minutes ago, CarloOos said:

The Shield is no more far-fetched than any other police procedural, it's just not in the same journalistic mould as The Wire with its meticulous approach to the mundanity of actual police work.

 

In comparison to something like Homicide: Life on the Street it is, a show which I have seen pretty much all of, with the exception of the supposedly disappointing final series IIRC (losing Andre Braugher being a big hit). It felt like on of those heightened reality type shows, though how it progressed past series 3 I do not know currently.

[CarloOos]

To be fair Homicide is basically The Wire v0.5, I mean it's based on a book by David Simon.  Neither of them are particularly reflective of 99% of other police shows, or even much TV in general.  In terms of realism I'd put The Shield closer to stuff like Law & Order and Third Watch, and much more realistic than nonsense like Luther, Dexter and the various CSI shows which belong on the sci-fi channel.

[ZOK]

Homicide is obviously the best thing ever, but that doesn't mean The Shield isn't also magnificent.