Posted on 12/10/2008 12:41:51 PM PST by Hacksaw
This was by far my favorite show. I really don't watch TV at all anymore except at break on work, but I would always go out of my way to catch up with "The Shield".
Thoughts: When Mackey confesses to his crimes, hearing everything he's done at once is a real shocker. We have seen some of the things he has through the episodes, but he always has something "good" he does as well (like saving that priest from blackmail, getting that young gang banger into a juvi program, etc). But when we hear everything at once, it really hits home.
Selling out Ronnie: True, Mackey though his wife was under arrest, so that is the one mitigating circumstance. But I think they put this in to show that deep down, perhaps Mackey is not a good guy after all.
Dutch and the serial killer - what the hell was up with that? Was it to imply that just maybe DUTCH is the killer? I hope that wasn't the intent, cause I liked Dutch for putting up with all the abuse he takes and still being a great detective.
Shane's murder-suicide: Completely unneccessary. Sure, Shane taking his own life was plausible, to give his idiot wife and his kid(s) a chance at a clean break. But why take his family out with him? Extremely selfish.
David Aceveda - should have been more prominent. What will happen to him? Has his deals with Mackey and his lust for power forever corrupted him? Not much of a resolution there.
Still, it was a great series finale. Good job!
Yeah, an interesting ending.
Despite all the good things Vic did, I would say the show was right to end with everyone seeing that Vic is indeed NOT a good person. He can’t be trusted, period. His selling out Ronnie was the most major case in point. He knew he was going to take the immunity deal, he should’ve warned Ronnie, but he just cared about himself in the end. Sure, he did it to save his wife, but, let’s face it, Ronnie stuck with Vic through far more than his wife ever did or would have.
Dutch is a serial killer. After his practical fawning over the “cuddler rapist” in the interrogation room, I had a feeling that Dutch had finally crossed over into admiring what he hunted. While it was fairly ambiguous in the final episode, I think Dutch has gone whacko on us.
Shane needed to eat a bullet three seasons ago. It was long overdue. Killing his family was definitely a ridiculous move, but it definitely followed with Shane’s overall problem-solving abilities. Still, a sad ending for them.
Aceveda’s pure corruption in a suit, if you ask me. There was little else the show could’ve done to demonstrate that. The only reason he went against Pezuela, I think, is pride. Pezuela tried to blackmail him over an incident that Aceveda had already murdered two people over, and he fought back. Anything softer on Aceveda, and he might’ve just gone along with it.
Overall a sad ending for a great show, but, with people like that, what other ending can there be?
ping
It was a great series - Shane murdering his family before eating his gun was over the top for sure. Vic Mackey having to sit in a cubicle for three years instead of life in prison was getting off lightly, to say the least.
My favorite programs over the last few seasons have been The Shield, Deadwood and Sons of Anarchy. NFK - not for kids.
best show of all time. i thought the finale was pretty good. there is a discussion on here from a few weeks ago that talks about the show. the only thing i was surprised about was vic selling out ronnie. i just didnt see that coming. vic was alot of things but always loyal to his crew.
One other thing - a few seasons back, didn’t Dutch have his desktop computer go missing after he was “researching” child pornography? IIRC.
Not sure - I will have to check that out. Remember that deal with the cat too. Geez, the writers never gave any of the characters a break! Everyone on this show has some sort of issue, except perhaps Lem (who was given a grenade sandwich from Shane for his troubles).
What I like about this show is that each character has their own story going on, kind of like in the series "Lost".
I just wonder what Vic was up to when he tucked his gun into his pants and walked off-screen. I hope there’s some made for tv or straight to DVD follow-up down the road.
I knew shane was a POS when he threw the grenade into his partners car. Offing his family was pretty low. Somehow I never expected him to survive. but his family?
Mackey was the cop you loved but hated. His confessions and the reaction of the ICE Lady over what his immunity protected him from was priceless. Truely a deal with the devil. His wife knew he was evil and was afraid of him.
Lem trusted Mackey and Mackey threw Lem to the wolves.
Aceveda was what corrupts public officials. Power. Greed. Disposing of people who were in his way. Typical politician.
Sad to see the series go. But it had to end with Vic, alone, because he had pushed away everyone, friends, family, co workers, career, to save himself. His misery was for him alone.
Maybe Vic’s gun in his pants was his protection from all the demons that haunted him? Or could it be live by the sword, die by the sword?
Come on now; Vic has screwed over everybody that had the misfortune to meet him. Vic only cared for Vic. Catching criminals was just a stepping stone for that.
Yeah - Aceveda entered the series as a reformer, but his lust for power caused him to throw all his values away.
So, who was the father of Danni’s baby?
Who else - Vic Mackey.
Mara was a greedy bitch from day one. Her and Shane deserved each other. I knew her fate was sealed when she led Shane to the real estate office to steal those checks, then when she shot that innocent woman. I didn't like the fact that her unborn child and Jackson had to die with them, but that is how life is. Children are at the mercy of their parents. That is why parents need to always think "how is this going to effect my family?" It is a concept lacking in modern life. Someone else is going to come along and pick up the pieces, bail you out, clean up your mess. This realism is what made The Shield so popular.
I kept saying that I was going to quit watching it because they were murderers and corrupt, but I finally did give it up after the grenade murder.
I only saw it in re runs so I saw it in a pretty short time.
Yeah, Shane pretty much screwed everything up he got involved in. It's like he tried to emulate Mackey but just didn't have the grey matter to carry it off.
Shane was pretty funny though - like his undercover persona where he went by then name of "Cletus Van Damme".
That was the whole premise of the series - "Does the end justify the means"?
The last episode leaves 2 of the detectives dead, one being arrested, and the main character Mackey left working a desk job with no friends, nobody who will trust him, and the one thing he did care about (his children) gone. So it did show that there is a price to pay.
Maybe they will have a spinoff called "Dutch" - where Dutch breaks impossible cases by day, commits serial murder by night.
However, after talking to others, it seems that when Vic sees the cop cars go by, and sees their numbers, and has his gun, perhaps . . . he's going to go spring Ronnie out. You get the sense that Vic Mackey is never defeated.
And for me, the question was never was Vic a "good" person: it was the Jack Nicholson line, "You want him on that wall, you NEED him on that wall." And, in fact, we do.
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