Post by acc on Sept 21, 2008 14:35:21 GMT -5
It seems to me that Season 6 just doesn't receive as much love as it should, at least on the whole. Re-watching all of the seasons before jumping into the brand new final season, I found Season 6 riveting, multi-layered, complex, and above all, quite powerful.
Some people complained about Kavanaugh being "abruptly" sent away, but I think with the gap in seasons between Season 5 and Season 6 they kind of forget--or forgot, rather--just how on the edge he was by the time Season 5 concluded. His was a thirteen-episdoe arc, and he had two left when Season 6 began. Looking back on it, the conclusion of his arc still hits hard, and the way Emolia, he, Vic, and then finally Dutch and Claudette all find a certain resolution in the second episode of the season still works extremely well. Scott Rosenbaum on the episode commentary defends this storytelling quite well.
Many people rightly noted that 6x06 Chasing Ghosts was in many ways the climax of the season, with Vic discovering the truth about Lem's death. Shawn Ryan on the episode commentary points to this as being the best of Season 6--very difficult to argue with that, and I won't. I think it is the best all-aroudn episode of the season. However, I think too many people have excessively criticized the final four episodes of the season, which primarily deal with the San Marcos investigation, Shane's nefarious dealings with the Armenian mob and Diro, Claudette trying to keep the Barn afloat, Dutch's crush on Tina finally getting crushed by Billings, "the picture" resurfacing with Aceveda's alliance with Cruz Pezuela reaching an unpredictable destination and Hiatt washing out as Vic's eventual replacement.
While those four episodes tend to lack the innate satisfaction of that 6x06 represents, they do tend to build up, in many ways, for Season 7 (presumably by design, at least mostly), and certain character moments such as Ronnie learning the truth about Terry in 6x08 and the raw intensity of episodes such as 6x09, in which Vic actually hands over the two Salvadoran San Marcos killers to the Byz Lats, one of his most well-realized "dirty deeds," (and an excellent example of him following through with a promise to Santi two episodes earlier, and doing what he said he only feigned doing with Hiatt in Hiatt's first episode) do help to maintain the season's overall strength and durability.
The charge that Season 6 is in many ways two separate seasons, with the first six episodes and latter four episodes representing significantly different dramatic impetuses, rings true, certainly insofar as Lem's death seemingly haunting the series for those first six episodes in a palpable manner. The rest of the season becomes more procedural, with the San Marcos case expanding, but I enjoy those episodes, too.
Shawn Ryan's point to his writers as Season 6 was being "thought up" by the writing staff--don't just try to outdo Season 5--was an excellent one. If the writers had attempted to have the season go out in a way similar to Season 5, with a dramatic, series-changing occurrence, it would not have felt as organic, and Season 6 functions quite beautifully as the branching out from Lem's death to The Final Act (6x01-6x06 representing the fallout of the former; 6x07-6x10 representing the transition to the latter), and as such I'm happy with what the writers were able to create here, even down to the complex construction of relationships that prove deeply instrumental in the makings of Season 7, such as Shane-Rezian and Vic-Pezuela.
I don't know, I just felt like I had to get this off my chest.
Some people complained about Kavanaugh being "abruptly" sent away, but I think with the gap in seasons between Season 5 and Season 6 they kind of forget--or forgot, rather--just how on the edge he was by the time Season 5 concluded. His was a thirteen-episdoe arc, and he had two left when Season 6 began. Looking back on it, the conclusion of his arc still hits hard, and the way Emolia, he, Vic, and then finally Dutch and Claudette all find a certain resolution in the second episode of the season still works extremely well. Scott Rosenbaum on the episode commentary defends this storytelling quite well.
Many people rightly noted that 6x06 Chasing Ghosts was in many ways the climax of the season, with Vic discovering the truth about Lem's death. Shawn Ryan on the episode commentary points to this as being the best of Season 6--very difficult to argue with that, and I won't. I think it is the best all-aroudn episode of the season. However, I think too many people have excessively criticized the final four episodes of the season, which primarily deal with the San Marcos investigation, Shane's nefarious dealings with the Armenian mob and Diro, Claudette trying to keep the Barn afloat, Dutch's crush on Tina finally getting crushed by Billings, "the picture" resurfacing with Aceveda's alliance with Cruz Pezuela reaching an unpredictable destination and Hiatt washing out as Vic's eventual replacement.
While those four episodes tend to lack the innate satisfaction of that 6x06 represents, they do tend to build up, in many ways, for Season 7 (presumably by design, at least mostly), and certain character moments such as Ronnie learning the truth about Terry in 6x08 and the raw intensity of episodes such as 6x09, in which Vic actually hands over the two Salvadoran San Marcos killers to the Byz Lats, one of his most well-realized "dirty deeds," (and an excellent example of him following through with a promise to Santi two episodes earlier, and doing what he said he only feigned doing with Hiatt in Hiatt's first episode) do help to maintain the season's overall strength and durability.
The charge that Season 6 is in many ways two separate seasons, with the first six episodes and latter four episodes representing significantly different dramatic impetuses, rings true, certainly insofar as Lem's death seemingly haunting the series for those first six episodes in a palpable manner. The rest of the season becomes more procedural, with the San Marcos case expanding, but I enjoy those episodes, too.
Shawn Ryan's point to his writers as Season 6 was being "thought up" by the writing staff--don't just try to outdo Season 5--was an excellent one. If the writers had attempted to have the season go out in a way similar to Season 5, with a dramatic, series-changing occurrence, it would not have felt as organic, and Season 6 functions quite beautifully as the branching out from Lem's death to The Final Act (6x01-6x06 representing the fallout of the former; 6x07-6x10 representing the transition to the latter), and as such I'm happy with what the writers were able to create here, even down to the complex construction of relationships that prove deeply instrumental in the makings of Season 7, such as Shane-Rezian and Vic-Pezuela.
I don't know, I just felt like I had to get this off my chest.