TV is my drug of choice (plus The Shield is awesome)

I love TV. I can talk/write/think about it for days on end. Unfortunately, I find that no one I know watches as much TV as I do and if someone watches some of the shows that I do, they really don’t want to hear what I have to say (at least not ad nauseam). That’s where you come in, Internet. I know you’ll listen to me even if I write 500 paragraphs about Lost.

So, Internet, I am going to take you through my week in TV as best as I can remember without looking at my DVR. This is going to be my first writing project for this blog, and if this blog does nothing else, it will get all these crazy thoughts out of my cluttered head.

Before I get into my TV week, I’ve been dying to write about the final episode of The Shield which ended last Tuesday.

I felt that The Shield has always been an entertaining, well-made, generally well-acted show, that when on, I always looked forward to. (At most it would sit on my DVR for 24 hours before I watched it.) Michael Chiklis and CCH Pounder have always been fantastic and the show has worthwhile just for the two of them. In the last few years though, Walton Goggins has really put on a riveting performance and David Rees Snell, initially the forgotten member of the strike team, has brought himself into the forefront. I could also go on about the solid work of Jay Karnes and Benito Martinez and past standouts Anthony Anderson, Forrest Whitaker, Kenneth Johnson and Glenn Close, but what I really want to write about is the finale.

I was completely unspoiled going in (I don’t even watch previews) but I had read spoiler-free advance reviews alluding to shocking events and an all-around excellent episode. I wasn’t disappointed.

My only real complaint was the stuff with Dutch. It felt kinda shoehorned in and I think that particular story conclusion would have played out better in the second to last episode. I was more concerned with Dutch and Claudette and even Dutch and Billings to be invested in the serial killer. (By the way, Beaver Casablancas is really making a name for himself playing creepy teenage killers.) I am glad they resolved that story (pretty much), but I wish they could have done it earlier because everything with Vic and Shane was so riveting.

I’m glad they didn’t kill Vic for two reasons. The first is that I really didn’t want him to die. Much like Tony Soprano (as detestable a character as they both are) I wouldn’t have watched so long if I wanted to see them dead. The second reason is, as a character, the justice he received was a far worse sentence than being murdered or killed by another means. That he has to live with Corrinne betraying him, his betrayal to Ronnie and what he did to Shane and his family is perfect punishment. Even though his relationship with Shane had become so malicious, knowing that he made Shane into the man he had become, Vic not only has Lem and Shane on his conscience, but Mara, Jackson and an unborn child too.

And speaking of Shane and family…wow. The times I have been shocked by a TV show I can count on one hand (Locke in a wheelchair, Lost’s flash-forward and the last episode of the first season of the new Battlestar Galactica). I am often surprised by TV shows, but episodes that actually leave me with my mouth agape in shock are few indeed. Now The Shield has become #4 on my mini-list with the killing of Mara, Jackson and her unborn baby girl. It was disturbing enough to see Shane blow his brains out (an event not so shocking, but jarring nonetheless), but then to see the simple, silent scene of Mara with the flowers and Jackson the toy truck, both “asleep” on their bed…it was not something that I expected at all – especially Jackson.

And since I’ve brought up Mara, I feel like I should single out the work of Michele Hicks. When Mara was first introduced, I truly, truly hated her. Shrill, annoying, always crying and whining at Shane – I hated watching scenes with her and anyone. But this season, she has become much more sympathetic even while being in a situation she did not have to go along with. I felt bad for her even though I knew she was making the wrong decisions, and that rarely happens with shows that I watch.

And, of course, there are the comparisons that will be made between The Sopranos and The Shield. Even before it ended, Shawn Ryan insisted that he would not pull a David Chase. Whatever. I personally liked the way The Sopranos ended and it’s a credit to Chase that people are still discussing it (and are still pissed about it).

In its later years, The Sopranos became more artistic and symbolic than it was in at least the first two seasons when it was more a show about a mobster and his extended family. So they way it ended felt true to me. It seems like TV viewers are constantly out for blood, but when some character dies, but it’s not the character that you want, the response always is “Well that sucked!” (I have been guilty of this myself, but I stand by my opinion that killing Sheriff Lamb was an egregious mistake.) But anyway, I’m getting off-topic…

The Shield ended as the type of show that it always has been: gritty, dirty, messy and adrenaline-pumping. It’s always been consistently entertaining, never getting too muddled (see Alias) too frustrating (see ER) too ridiculous (see Rescue Me) too silly (see Prison Break) too over-the-top and generally irritatingly stupid (see Nip/Tuck). It was no Angel (best.finale.ever), but it was damn good. So, I send my thanks to the creator and writers of The Shield for that.