The Shield where it has been and where its going. March 15, 2006
Posted by vinnyt in : The Shield , add a commentI must first say I am relatively new to The Shield, but in the short time I have watched it I have seen all the episodes to this point and watch weekly with a nearly religious level of devotion. I have to say that I connected with this show on so many levels and it was not a connection made over time but rather an immediate familiarity. My father was a police officer for 30 years, and although the pay was never spectacular the job afforded us a level of security that most people will never be able to understand. The Shield portrays cops in both a real light they are people who put their lives on the line every day to make sure it is safe for your kid to walk to school. However, on the flip side The Shield gives you a view of cops as mere gangsters with a badge. The first is clearly the side I was most familiar with. My father touched the lives of nearly every person he ever met while on duty, and to this very day he and I can not go very far from home with out someone recognizing him and striking up a conversation. It’s truly a blessing to feel that connected to a community, and I think that connection is ultimately what has kept me in Kansas City. Here is where my connection with The Shield really comes into light. After college I moved to California to seek my fortune in the whole dot com boom. I moved out there with very few family or friends and so I had to make my own way. I ended up living on the edge of Echo Park, in the Silver Lake region of LA. If you watch the first episode of The Shield this is where Terry and David meet to discuss their deal with the feds to go after Vic and the strike team. So although this was imaginary I’ve met both those men and felt a strange connection. I’ve since moved back from LA, but continue to visit on occasion to remember the places I’ve been in my life. I was of the opinion this was going to be the last season of The Shield, but I think with ratings being what they are we might be lucky enough to get one more season, and honestly I can’t wait.
Season 5 Episode 7 of The Shield March 7, 2006
Posted by vinnyt in : The Shield , add a commentOh what tangled webs we weave is how I believe the saying goes. The episode begins with Kavanaugh talking to that punk assed bitch Antoine Mitchel. Mitchel who clearly could bring the strike team down offers up information in exchange for any members of the strike team who go to jail they have to be put in his prison. Kavanaugh scoffs at this, and is quickly distracted when his ex-wife reports that she has been raped. Dutch is called in but quickly discovers that the clues don’t point to the rape being real and we soon discover that the ex-wife is crazy and Kavanaugh gave up on her at a moments notice. So clearly he is a scumbag from the word go and so he will stop at nothing to put the strike team behind bars. As the episode progresses we see a very disturbing exchange between Kavanaugh and he ex-wife in which all the dirt the team would ever need to put the pressure on Kavanaugh is revealed however, this jewel of hope that was delivered is quickly taken back when Kavanaugh realizes he is being watched over closed circuit TV and by Vic and Lem no less. At this point Kavanaugh blows up, arrests lem and the episode ends with Kavanaugh offering Mitchel a deal. I want to see Vic clear this one up he is a bad person but he is trying to do well and I think he deserves another chance.
Season 5 Episode 6 of The Shield March 3, 2006
Posted by vinnyt in : The Shield , 1 comment so farI don’t think I’ve ever seen “The Shield” acknowledge a holiday (for the record, I’m still waiting for the Halloween-themed episode), but this had to have been the worst Valentine’s Day ever for our boys and girls at the Barn. First off, I doubt that Kavanaugh’s decision to set up shop in the station was a welcome one by any member of the police force – including Captain Billings, who although has command over the IAD Lieutenant cannot stop him from taking over his office. Bummer. And so the first round of interrogations begins, with Vic playing his lawyer card and Shane treating the investigation as a mockery. We already knew that all of the guys on the Strike Team wouldn’t talk, but Vic’s fugly ex-wife Corrine just had to open her big fat mouth and tell Kavanaugh about the mysterious $65,000 that he gave her at the beginning of last season. Was her nose not taking up enough of her ugly face? Did she have to open her fat mouth and start crying too? Ye gods, and on VALENTINE’S DAY! That wasn’t all folks. Even poor Danny Sofer got the shake down for having a past relationship with Vic. Not like she’ll get punished for it, but it was a nice zinger to use against Corrine during her investigation. Kavanaugh is good at manipulating the weak, and the cards are in his favor for the time being, but what happens when the bulk of the case comes down to getting one of the four guys to turn? We’ve seen how brutal he can be in the interrogation room, but will Kavanaugh really have the balls to drag Shane’s wife Mara into the mix? If he does, God help us. If Corrine cracked under pressure, Mara will surely be more problematic down the road. Meanwhile, Dutch and Claudette revisit an old murder case from last season involving the cool and composed killer, Kleevon, when his sister goes “missing” and they think that he killed her. We know she’s okay, of course, because we caught a quick glimpse of her in the previews for next week’s episode, but another black woman was found raped and murdered mere hours after he was released from question, and she bears an uncanny resemblance to Claudettte. Looks like she may have pissed him off /just/ a bit, but the reckless death job may be his final curtain call. And in a short subplot of ouch-that’s-gotta-hurt hilarity, Julien and Tina walk in on a guy who’s suspended at a glory hole because his dick is stuck in a… what for it… mousetrap! Yowzers! That’ll teach you, if nothing else does, to NOT stick important body parts into foreign holes
