Post by ISaidWhoaDangIt on Apr 3, 2007 12:57:29 GMT -5
This is from today's edition of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette's TV Column. The writer LOVES TS. I tried to put the photo in, but it wouldn't work. So just the article you get.
The Shield back with its dirty cops, antiheroics
MICHAEL STOREY
Det. Vic Mackey is grieving. And he’s boiling mad. He’s shaking with rage and he wants revenge.
This could get ugly.
Season six of the gritty FX corrupt cop series The Shield kicks off at 9 p.m. today. Ten episodes are planned. Season seven begins filming in June. That will be the final one.
When we last left our intrepid anti-gang Strike Team, they had just lost one of their former members in a nasty, nasty way.
Det. Curtis “Lem” Lemansky (Kenny Johnson) was fragged — a grenade dropped in his lap while he sat in his car. Tough way to go.
The trouble is, the fragger was Lem’s former team partner Det. Shane Vendrell (Walton Goggins), who thought Lem was about to spill his guts about the team’s nefarious, illegal and murderous ways.
Shane thought that was what Vic would have wanted him to do. He should have asked.
Lem was no snitch. He hadn’t turned on his former team members. He was set up. It was all a misunderstanding, but Lem is Swiss cheese anyway.
As the new season opens, team leader Mackey is unaware who killed Lem. He assumes it was one of the bad guys they’ve beat up or busted over the years. He certainly doesn’t suspect his buddy Shane.
Mackey’s monomaniacal drive to uncover Lem’s killer and have his revenge is the crux of this season’s action. It promises to be fast and furious if the frantic first episode is any indication.
As a reminder, the rest of the Strike Team consists of Det. Ronnie Gardocki (David Rees Snell) and new member Det. Kevin Hiatt (Alex O’Loughlin).
Hiatt has been secretly sent in as Mackey’s replacement. That’s not a good spot to be once Mackey gets wind of it.
Also back for several episodes is Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker as internal affairs investigator Jon Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh is just as obsessed with bringing down dirty cop Mackey as Mackey is with finding Lem’s killer.
The face-off between the two promises to be intense and the gauntlet is thrown down in a taut eyeball-to-eyeball at the end of the first episode.
Meanwhile, if I were Shane, I’d watch my back. Once Mackey finds out what really happened to Lem, Shane is a dead man. Maybe.
The Shield usually makes the family-friendly watchdogs’ black list, so keep that in mind.
It’s also one of the best adult dramas on TV. Let me emphasize adult. Chiklis is playing the tube’s best antihero.
It’s hard to root for Mackey. He kills people. But Chiklis still has a way of making him sympathetic. Chiklis won a Best Actor in a Drama Emmy for the part in 2002 and hasn’t lost any of his edge.
I got to visit the set last summer and watched a scene being shot while I stood on the balcony inside The Barn, the former church used as the precinct’s headquarters.
It was so realistic we forgot we were actually inside a cavernous sound stage. We ate lunch with the cast and all were excited about the forthcoming season and the possibilities it held as the show winds down.
The Shield back with its dirty cops, antiheroics
MICHAEL STOREY
Det. Vic Mackey is grieving. And he’s boiling mad. He’s shaking with rage and he wants revenge.
This could get ugly.
Season six of the gritty FX corrupt cop series The Shield kicks off at 9 p.m. today. Ten episodes are planned. Season seven begins filming in June. That will be the final one.
When we last left our intrepid anti-gang Strike Team, they had just lost one of their former members in a nasty, nasty way.
Det. Curtis “Lem” Lemansky (Kenny Johnson) was fragged — a grenade dropped in his lap while he sat in his car. Tough way to go.
The trouble is, the fragger was Lem’s former team partner Det. Shane Vendrell (Walton Goggins), who thought Lem was about to spill his guts about the team’s nefarious, illegal and murderous ways.
Shane thought that was what Vic would have wanted him to do. He should have asked.
Lem was no snitch. He hadn’t turned on his former team members. He was set up. It was all a misunderstanding, but Lem is Swiss cheese anyway.
As the new season opens, team leader Mackey is unaware who killed Lem. He assumes it was one of the bad guys they’ve beat up or busted over the years. He certainly doesn’t suspect his buddy Shane.
Mackey’s monomaniacal drive to uncover Lem’s killer and have his revenge is the crux of this season’s action. It promises to be fast and furious if the frantic first episode is any indication.
As a reminder, the rest of the Strike Team consists of Det. Ronnie Gardocki (David Rees Snell) and new member Det. Kevin Hiatt (Alex O’Loughlin).
Hiatt has been secretly sent in as Mackey’s replacement. That’s not a good spot to be once Mackey gets wind of it.
Also back for several episodes is Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker as internal affairs investigator Jon Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh is just as obsessed with bringing down dirty cop Mackey as Mackey is with finding Lem’s killer.
The face-off between the two promises to be intense and the gauntlet is thrown down in a taut eyeball-to-eyeball at the end of the first episode.
Meanwhile, if I were Shane, I’d watch my back. Once Mackey finds out what really happened to Lem, Shane is a dead man. Maybe.
The Shield usually makes the family-friendly watchdogs’ black list, so keep that in mind.
It’s also one of the best adult dramas on TV. Let me emphasize adult. Chiklis is playing the tube’s best antihero.
It’s hard to root for Mackey. He kills people. But Chiklis still has a way of making him sympathetic. Chiklis won a Best Actor in a Drama Emmy for the part in 2002 and hasn’t lost any of his edge.
I got to visit the set last summer and watched a scene being shot while I stood on the balcony inside The Barn, the former church used as the precinct’s headquarters.
It was so realistic we forgot we were actually inside a cavernous sound stage. We ate lunch with the cast and all were excited about the forthcoming season and the possibilities it held as the show winds down.