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Post by Dead Armenian on Feb 14, 2006 14:31:11 GMT -5
I think Kav's meltdown was believeable...there was a foretaste of it when Corinne told him to get lost at the school, and Kav went from sweet and bumbling to downright scary and intimidating in a split second.
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Post by dtpollitt on Feb 14, 2006 16:46:00 GMT -5
even louder after i checked the board and saw all the rave reviews - we have a huge fan base within our department and of course I had to listen to them talk about the show all day long and I couldn't say a word - and you know how hard that is for me, ha ha - I have a couple cans of Starbucks double expressos for this week!! I just got an article published in some journal and they wanted a picture so I sent them one of me with that huge S3 Shield poster in the background - hopefully they won't crop it well, just checked and here's a link: www.directionsmedia.net/newsletters.archive/index.php?ID=675#guestscroll down to the 'Guest Editorial' and click on my name and check out the poster, ha ha - The Shield is everywhere!! Wow, that is a SICK picture!! Great job, professor. --Dan
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Post by acc on Mar 26, 2007 12:10:39 GMT -5
That is an awesome picture, jwc! Excellent!
5x05 Trophy is on one hand, one of the most gimmicky episodes in The Shield's history and one of the more exciting ones as well.
I give the episode an A-. Yes, it's gimmicky but it's not horrendously so and even if you can see it all coming it's still fun to watch. The episode establishes Vic as a serious adversary for Kavanaugh (almost the opposite of what one would think--this episode is about demonstrating that Vic can mess Jon's gameplan up in a huge way).
The Dutch-Claudette case is unusually lame in my estimation--it's almost forgettable, honestly, except that it plays well to the issues surrounding their relationship. It was at this point in the season when I actually yelled at my TV set, "C'mon, writers, either start splitting them up or get off the pot!" What the writers *did* do, however, immediately after this episode, was bring back their mutual nemesis Kleavon back from Season 4 for two straight episodes, which both kept the issues from getting bigger *and* made them bigger at the same time. Smart writing, but they don't get there yet and it shows. Though, it is kind of touching for some weird reason when CLaudette actually tells Dutch the truth regarding her lupus.
When Vic pulls the rug out from under Kavanaugh at the end, you really can't help but smile. As I wrote in a previous episode thread, Chiklis shows the audience that Vic has rehearshed his own lines to Kavanaugh and Aceveda. After playing them like a fiddle in Tapa Boca and much of Trophy, he really gives Jon a really enormous blow to the head. As Teri pointed out, Vic's statement, "Councilman" made Jon think David's with Vic and it made David realize that Jon would think David's with Vic. Hilarious stuff!
It is interesting, isn't it, that for a show with such an expansive, sprawling tapestry, that one single line from 3x12 Riceburner can serve to set up so much in the audience's mind and for the series? (It was in that episode that Vic asked Ronnie if he had swept for bugs in the clubhouse before asking the guys to take a vote regarding the Money Train cash.) The tightness of the series is often breathtaking and this is a superb example of that.
Seeing the Russian prostitute-turned-stripper return was fun (and also kind of ties into the narrative of Vic's handling of women who do his bidding).
It's this episode that catapults Jon's rage into a new strategy. By focusing on Corrine, he thinks he can get to Vic. In the previous episode, Corrine goes to Dutch about Jon and his investigation (so Dutch knows now that Vic is in IAD's crosshairs). This one action redeems the entire plotline of Season 4 that involved Dutch dating Corrine. Like so many other elements of Season 5, practically everything that seemed like a possible red herring (Vic giving Corrine the bag full of cash in 4x08) or pointless arc (Dutch-Corrine, which to me was all about Dutch finding his balls, that he'll need to face off against Vic one day) in Season 4 is redeemed and made whole by Season 5. It's Dutch's advice that leads to Corrine disobeying Vic (something I can actually buy, since it's Jon who also points out to her that Vic's strategy is really all about protecting his own skin).
A strong episode that both resolves some issues but really builds up the tension for the following episodes.
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