“The Shield” — On the Jones (Sixth season premiere!)
Before we get down to brass tacks, let’s start with a little history. I started watching The Shield during the winter of 2005 on DVD. I blasted through the first two season in a matter of weeks. Needless to say I found the show compelling, and still find its pilot episode to be one of the greatest ever filmed (any series that kicks things off with the main character murdering his new partner screams, “I want to see another!”). Still, as fun as The Shield was to watch, it rarely crossed over into greatness.
Well before I ever tuned in, I heard about The Shield on some morning zoo-crew radio show where one of the DJs said “It’s The Sopranos but with cops.” Later that year Michael Chiklis won the Emmy. The problem is the series, in those first few seasons, never really elevated itself above exploitation. Not that that is a bad thing. The Shield has shocked me regularly. It created a Los Angeles police district that seems to house the most vicious criminals ever conjured up by mere mortals. In fact Farmington was so ruthless, our anti-hero frequently came off as a saint. One plotline that was especially troubling involved a gang leader who prayed on young girls and tattooed their faces so that they wouldn’t forget. Unless you’re Eli Roth, those are the type of images that stick with you (and this is on basic cable no less). And for those of you keeping score, Vic Mackey eventually presses the guy’s face to a stove. It’s rough. There’s more after the jump…
Season three the series started thinking about the bigger picture — that the show could be about more than just a never-ending series of urban horrors. Numerous season-long arcs had our characters finally dealing with the violence on a personal level. It became the series that it maybe should have been all along. Not that I’m complaining. A series this brutal needs its audience aclimated to the world it inhabits before it can truly start looking below the surface.
Last season marked the first time I was able to watch the program as it aired on television (I think. Honestly season four is kind of cloudy, outside of Glen Close’s guest starring role.), which is necessary for a show like The Shield. You need that week of recuperation between episodes, especially when you throw an on-fire Forrest Whitaker into the mix. What he added to season 5 was an invaluable presence of conscience — even if the thirteen episodes eventually made his character as obsessed as Vic.
Which leads us right up to last night’s premiere.
Kavanaugh (Whitaker) has officially turned into the man he’s trying to catch. All last season he was on the verge of crossing that line (and did often times), but last night he decided that the line doesn’t really matter any more. Seeing as how Forest Whitaker has an Oscar now (all the bigger slap to the face of the television academy that didn’t nominate him for an Emmy last season) he isn’t going to be sticking around for the whole season which suggests this particular arc should be coming to a head sooner than later — I’m guessing Mackey comes out on top… but stranger things have happened.
Strange things like Dutch discovering a house packed with dismembered bodies. What’s great about The Shield is even as the main storylines get more and more intense, they don’t let us forget about the never-ending string of carnage that happens outside the doors of the Barn — carnage that our “heroes” are suppose to be protecting the citizens from.
I used to compare The Shield to The Wire, which is absolutely crazy as the only real similarities are the cops and gang members. The Shield is about the unraveling of a man, The Wire is about the unraveling of a system. Still, Dutch’s discovery reminded me, in a way, of Beadie’s discovering the can full of dead Russian hookers in season two. I’m sure that’s where the similarities end — especially if the volume of blood was any indication.
The Shield is back, my friends, and I can’t wait until next week.
