Post by kl70 on Nov 27, 2008 9:20:01 GMT -5
www.tvguide.com/Roush/Roush-Shield-Finale-1000246.aspx]
www.tvguide.com/News/Shield-Shawn-Ryan-1000235.aspx
In the Shawn Ryan interview (on the 2nd link above), Shawn says his next project is a network comedy show for Fox called Millionaire's Club, that he's scripting a teen coming of age film
and if Vic ever returns, it'd preferably be in a cinema film.
FX's extremely poor rating Damages show that's coming back in North America in 2 months (and that'll probably only go for 3 seasons), may not appeal to all Shield show fans, but Glenn Close's ultra bitchy villain lead character in it, is basically Vic Mackey as a female lawyer, with a university education.
The Shield Finale: All's Well That Ends Badly.
Nov 26, 2008. by Matt Roush.
The Shield made TV history in so many ways. It put FX on the map. It signalled new possibilities not only for the police drama genre, which it turned on it's head, but for basic-cable programming, which had never gone this dark or explosively, explicitly bold. This week it made history again, wrapping it's remarkable 7 season run with one of the most searing and satisfying series finales of all time. Series creator Shawn Ryan cunningly mapped out a way for Vic Mackey, that dirtiest but most gifted of ham-fisted detectives, to get away with murder, while also making him pay for his crimes in the most gut-wrenchingly ironic and savage way possible. One week earlier, in a scene even by The Shield's shocking standards was a riveting jaw-dropper, Vic confessed everything, including his murder of fellow cop Terry Crowley that had haunted the entire series, as part of a deal granting him total immunity. Everyone who watched this go down, from his federal handler Olivia to his boss Claudette, was horrified at the reality of the monster in their midst, but Vic's freedom came at a terrible price, one Ryan revealed in layers of gotcha glee. Vic had lost virtually everything that mattered to him. First and foremost his family, with wife Corinne so aghast at the thought Vic might discover her own betrayal (which he eventually did, thanks to a phone call from a furious Shane) that she fled into witness protection, taking their kids with her. Vic also was forced to witness the takedown at the Barn of his unfailingly loyal soldier Ronnie, who he reluctantly but cravenly sold out and then there was that bad news about Shane.
Walt Goggins, as poor trapped and hopeless Shane Vendrell, on the lam with a pregnant and wounded wife and innocent son, was simply astonishing in this final act of desperation. Once he learned Vic had immunity and he had no more leverage against his partner-turned-nemesis, Shane had to face the truth that it was over for him and the family he loved. The intimate scene where he guides his pain-riddled wife Mara to the bathroom was almost too wrenching to watch. Rather than see them go to jail, Shane decides to end it all with a family meeting (the episode's title), sending Mara and little Jackson to eternal sleep and penning his final confession until the moment the police arrive, prompting him to blow his brains out. This was every bit as upsetting as it sounds and when Claudette later reads aloud to Vic from his suicide note ('Vic led, but I kept following... I wish I'd never met him'), the impact was shattering. Barely had Vic been able to digest the horror of Shane's bloody end (driven home in a powerful scene by Claudette forcing him to look at photos of the tragic scene), the indignity of Ronnie's arrest and the paralyzing reality of losing access to his family, when the bitterest blow of all is delivered by his new boss Olivia. Turns out Vic is going to prison after all, albeit a metaphorical one : a suit-and-tie desk job in an office cubicle. 'I don't do desks. This isn't what I signed up for', Vic growls. Too bad Vic. No more glory for you, no more roaming the streets as a maverick enforcer. No more fun and deadly games. Which doesn't mean he's putting the gun in the drawer for good. Our final glimpse of Vic, after the lights have symbolically gone out as he sits and stews at his desk, is of him retrieving his gun out of a locked drawer, tucking it in his waistband and heading out into the empty abyss of his new life.
For me, this was so much more satisfying than the self-consciously artsy finish of The Sopranos' abrupt crash to black. Which may have suited that show's more tempered life-goes-on worldview, but left many fans feeling underwhelmed and frustrated. Hard to imagine any Shield followers left hungry after Tuesday's full-course meal, which more than lived up to the show's proudly pulp sensibilities. There was so much more to the finale than Vic's comeuppance. Quite rightly, honors should be shared in equal measures by Michael Chiklis, Walton Goggins and CCH Pounder. Claudette was on fire all episode : revealing to Dutch she was off her meds and resigned to riding out her illness while working as long as she could ; facing down the narcissistic evil of chilling teen psychopath Lloyd (Kyle Gallner), who tried framing Dutch for the disappearance and presumed murder of his mother and confronting Vic one last time in a scene made more blisteringly powerful by it's eerie quiet. These are characters and moments that rank among the top tier of TV crime noir, including The Sopranos, Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue. As I noted in a recent review column, The Shield is the kind of show you never want to end, even while you desperately want to know how it will all end someday. That day has finally come, and how rare it is to close the book on a TV show with such firm and satisfied conviction. How many more days until Damages starts ?
www.tvguide.com/News/Shield-Shawn-Ryan-1000235.aspx
In the Shawn Ryan interview (on the 2nd link above), Shawn says his next project is a network comedy show for Fox called Millionaire's Club, that he's scripting a teen coming of age film
and if Vic ever returns, it'd preferably be in a cinema film.
FX's extremely poor rating Damages show that's coming back in North America in 2 months (and that'll probably only go for 3 seasons), may not appeal to all Shield show fans, but Glenn Close's ultra bitchy villain lead character in it, is basically Vic Mackey as a female lawyer, with a university education.
The Shield Finale: All's Well That Ends Badly.
Nov 26, 2008. by Matt Roush.
The Shield made TV history in so many ways. It put FX on the map. It signalled new possibilities not only for the police drama genre, which it turned on it's head, but for basic-cable programming, which had never gone this dark or explosively, explicitly bold. This week it made history again, wrapping it's remarkable 7 season run with one of the most searing and satisfying series finales of all time. Series creator Shawn Ryan cunningly mapped out a way for Vic Mackey, that dirtiest but most gifted of ham-fisted detectives, to get away with murder, while also making him pay for his crimes in the most gut-wrenchingly ironic and savage way possible. One week earlier, in a scene even by The Shield's shocking standards was a riveting jaw-dropper, Vic confessed everything, including his murder of fellow cop Terry Crowley that had haunted the entire series, as part of a deal granting him total immunity. Everyone who watched this go down, from his federal handler Olivia to his boss Claudette, was horrified at the reality of the monster in their midst, but Vic's freedom came at a terrible price, one Ryan revealed in layers of gotcha glee. Vic had lost virtually everything that mattered to him. First and foremost his family, with wife Corinne so aghast at the thought Vic might discover her own betrayal (which he eventually did, thanks to a phone call from a furious Shane) that she fled into witness protection, taking their kids with her. Vic also was forced to witness the takedown at the Barn of his unfailingly loyal soldier Ronnie, who he reluctantly but cravenly sold out and then there was that bad news about Shane.
Walt Goggins, as poor trapped and hopeless Shane Vendrell, on the lam with a pregnant and wounded wife and innocent son, was simply astonishing in this final act of desperation. Once he learned Vic had immunity and he had no more leverage against his partner-turned-nemesis, Shane had to face the truth that it was over for him and the family he loved. The intimate scene where he guides his pain-riddled wife Mara to the bathroom was almost too wrenching to watch. Rather than see them go to jail, Shane decides to end it all with a family meeting (the episode's title), sending Mara and little Jackson to eternal sleep and penning his final confession until the moment the police arrive, prompting him to blow his brains out. This was every bit as upsetting as it sounds and when Claudette later reads aloud to Vic from his suicide note ('Vic led, but I kept following... I wish I'd never met him'), the impact was shattering. Barely had Vic been able to digest the horror of Shane's bloody end (driven home in a powerful scene by Claudette forcing him to look at photos of the tragic scene), the indignity of Ronnie's arrest and the paralyzing reality of losing access to his family, when the bitterest blow of all is delivered by his new boss Olivia. Turns out Vic is going to prison after all, albeit a metaphorical one : a suit-and-tie desk job in an office cubicle. 'I don't do desks. This isn't what I signed up for', Vic growls. Too bad Vic. No more glory for you, no more roaming the streets as a maverick enforcer. No more fun and deadly games. Which doesn't mean he's putting the gun in the drawer for good. Our final glimpse of Vic, after the lights have symbolically gone out as he sits and stews at his desk, is of him retrieving his gun out of a locked drawer, tucking it in his waistband and heading out into the empty abyss of his new life.
For me, this was so much more satisfying than the self-consciously artsy finish of The Sopranos' abrupt crash to black. Which may have suited that show's more tempered life-goes-on worldview, but left many fans feeling underwhelmed and frustrated. Hard to imagine any Shield followers left hungry after Tuesday's full-course meal, which more than lived up to the show's proudly pulp sensibilities. There was so much more to the finale than Vic's comeuppance. Quite rightly, honors should be shared in equal measures by Michael Chiklis, Walton Goggins and CCH Pounder. Claudette was on fire all episode : revealing to Dutch she was off her meds and resigned to riding out her illness while working as long as she could ; facing down the narcissistic evil of chilling teen psychopath Lloyd (Kyle Gallner), who tried framing Dutch for the disappearance and presumed murder of his mother and confronting Vic one last time in a scene made more blisteringly powerful by it's eerie quiet. These are characters and moments that rank among the top tier of TV crime noir, including The Sopranos, Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue. As I noted in a recent review column, The Shield is the kind of show you never want to end, even while you desperately want to know how it will all end someday. That day has finally come, and how rare it is to close the book on a TV show with such firm and satisfied conviction. How many more days until Damages starts ?