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Post by badcop187 on Jan 23, 2006 17:46:02 GMT -5
I am a little late getting in on this, I thought season 4 was a huge dissappointment. It was a real let down compared to the first 3 seasons. HOWEVER, a bad season of the shield is still far above a great season of some other police show.
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Post by qb on Jan 23, 2006 21:58:32 GMT -5
I am a little late getting in on this, I thought season 4 was a huge dissappointment. It was a real let down compared to the first 3 seasons. HOWEVER, a bad season of the shield is still far above a great season of some other police show. Really? I liked Season 4 better than Season 3 (the whole Money Train thang wasn't working for me) At the time, I didn't hear a lot of people complaining about the season either...only now. People were saying how good Glenn was in her part, too, but now everyone is saying the exact opposite. ?? Is it just because this season seems better already? Will we follow along, praising Whitaker (some of us), only to disparage it later?
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Post by dice on Jan 24, 2006 14:17:38 GMT -5
I've got a simple answer: Season 4 is good. Better or worse than 1-3, doesn't matter. You NEED to see it before you watch Season 5 - which is clearly going to be "The $hit." You just flat out need to see it. And you'll enjoy it.
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Post by dutchess on Jan 28, 2006 0:05:21 GMT -5
Well... I'm finished watching the 4th season DVD and there was a bit of a jolt in how they handled Glenn Close's "demise". There wasn't much choice I guess since the character had to exit. But, of course, there was tragedy... big time tragedy for her. Here's someone who spent years developing enough relations, with the macho police world, that would allow her to get the respect required to become a captain only to have the rug pulled from beneath her.
'Course in the mean time she gained Vic's respect and she grew to care enough about him to actually tell him that he needs to think about the future (even while *her* future is in taters) and what might become of him.
Naturally little of season 4 would have worked if they had hired a lesser actress for that part!
At the end when she has that little crying jag... man, I know all about that because I've done it... a 10 second "cloud-burst"(it's more about frustration and the how life can be SO futile) and then it's over and you just go on because you have to! You know it's amazing how menopause re-ordered my thinking and priority list. When you're my age what you think about is "legacy" and how much time you have left (before your body starts failing and it fails completely) to create one. That's exactly what Glenn Close's character was crying about! The legacy she was trying to create was swept away by events that got out of hand and out of control!
Many fans (young guys and even young women) probably can't (it's reasonable really) identify with what a middle-aged woman's life is like and certainly they won't get what a character like that had to go through to get where she did in the first place. Sure there was likely affirmative action but she had to WORK to get there.
Fans being fickle and thinking they can outhink the people who *actually* wrote the scripts, created the characters.... you know the people who did the *work* creating the series instead of the Wednesday-morning-quarter-backing bit. There has to be a degree of continuity in the series or none of it makes sense and you have to have(or you should have) characters that are more than 2 dimensional.
A few things that stood out in season 4 for me: 1) Aceveda is an even bigger a**hole than I thought he was. 2) There was more of an effort to show that there are actually law-abiding/middle class blacks in Farmington; that the place doesn't consist entirely of nigga gang bangers/ gangsters/ hustlers and ho's! 3) Dutch FINALLY exploding from the relentless teasing. 4) Claudette being wasted because they wanted to focus on the Rawlins character. 5)Lemonhead is not as big a "dumb blond" as I thought.
As for Season 5, the whole idea of just forcing Vic out by retirement seems trite to me....something more dramatic should happen. It's like the expectation that Tony Soprano will FINALLY be nabbed by the FBI or that he ends up leaving the country... it's TOO obvious.
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Post by dtpollitt on Jan 29, 2006 19:32:11 GMT -5
Good post, Dutchess...
First, I don't really think of how Monica's character ended as a "demise". Sure, the seizure policy didn't "work", but in who's eyes did it not work? Monica's? Vic's? The chiefs? Or Davids? It was bullshit that the policy was being thrown in a bad light with data that was skewed to be over three months old and out of date; not her fault. Monica had David on her bad side from the get-go, too. The policy was working, in fact, when looking at current data. Whether the people on the streets liked the policy is entirely another issue; shake the tree and someone's going to come out barking.
In fact, I greatly enjoyed Monica's last scene. The entire season she was strong, determined, driven, relentless. A moment to cry and lose her composure was superb, I thought. Definitely one of my most favorite Shield moments in history.
Finally, sure, we all know Vic is doomed (or is he?!) to get caught/killed/brought in one day. It doesn't bother me in the least that this is the case; in fact, I think the show is made that the more interesting and provocative when I THINK I KNOW WHAT'S GOING TO BE THE ULTIMATE END...BUT HOW WILL THEY GET THERE?! is the killing question that I salivate to in front of the TV every week..."How's he going to go down?" is my question? What villian, what emotional explosion is going to drive him to the edge and push him over? I think that is what really keeps the TSR fans coming back, not the end, but the means to it.
--Dan
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icebergslim
Ginger dyed her hair red to fit her name and Bernie pocked his arms with a pack of Camel lights
Posts: 28
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Post by icebergslim on May 7, 2006 21:39:52 GMT -5
I thought season 4 featured some of the tightest storytelling of the series. The only complaints I've seen about S4 is that it's not as violent as previous seasons. However, there's a valid reason for that and it's perfectly in-line with the story arc; Vic has been given a bland no-frills assignment as a direct result of dropping the ball on a major operation (S3) and he needs to work himself out of the dog house.
Most of the complaints I heard about S4 were coming from high school kids who eat, sleep and breath GRAND THEFT AUTO. Go figure! LMAO!
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Post by electroshockblues on May 11, 2006 13:32:13 GMT -5
The reason I think that its the weakest myself is that I think that it wasn't tight - I found it to be messy and unfocussed.
Almost nothing of significance happens until Angie gets killed (ep 5), after which they (mostly) tread water again for a couple of episodes (6 and 7), then they resolve the Angie threat (8, 9 and 10) and then the Scooby and Carl story takes over with the IAD subplot in the background (11, 12 and 13). It just seemed very filler heavy at the beginning, with the vague threat of the Shane/Antwon connection doing very little of significance, then they started the Angie arc, which ran its course so then they stretched the rather dull Carl and Scooby arc over the last few of episodes. Even the Scooby and Carl arc itself seemed as though it was made up on the fly and written in a piece-meal fashion. It was as though the writers couldn't make up their minds as to who killed them, as we went from gang members to Nigerians to Russians and then to all three. Also, was anyone just annoyed with this arc in general? It just seemed totally unrelated to anything that I watch the show for. The whole 'corruption' angle (as well as the characters) took a back seat and the focus was on the investigation, which is the antithesis to what the previous seasons were like.
Overall it seemed like writers started with the vague premise of the Shane/Antwon connection (which had a lot of promise), danced around that idea for a few episodes without actually committing to a solid plot, had one great dramatic peak (Angie's death, Shane being in trouble) and then didn't really know what to do again.
By contrast, Seasons 3 and 5 (my favourite seasons) had one premise (the Money Train cash and the IAD investigation), and built a brilliant, nuanced plot around this single premise. The only good thing about Season 4 were me were the great way that they set up plotlines for S5 (Antwon in prison, Lem in trouble over the heroine), Aceveda's arc (which unlike the main plot, developed a single idea into a cohesive plot) and some Claudette and Dutch stuff (stubborn, grumpy Claudette ruled and I really liked the Kleavon case).
I respect your opinion, and am only posting this because I'm intrigued to hear it since its so totally opposed to my own. I'm not trying to flame you or say that you're wrong - I just want to hear why you think that S4 was tightly plotted. Maybe it will make me re-evaluate my opinion.
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Post by striketeamwashere on May 12, 2006 14:20:36 GMT -5
For me the only problem with S4 was that Anthony and Glenn completly overshadowed the rest of the cast in a big way. Other than that I liked S4. Still my least favorite of the 5 but good none the less.
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Post by Bad_Ass_Cop on Jun 7, 2006 6:31:28 GMT -5
Season 4 was good. didnt like the ending, but overall it was good.
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Post by slickvic on Jun 18, 2006 11:33:29 GMT -5
it was a good season but of all 5 seasons so far it is my least favorite. It almost had the feel of a slightly different show. It didnt feel exactly like the Shield to me
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Post by kinglouis on Jun 21, 2006 13:14:05 GMT -5
Season 4 had interesting dynamics and relationships because it was all fresh. It seemed like the writers and creator wanted to approach The Shield differently. It was a good season but my least favourite mostly due to the ending, which compared to S1,2,3,5's endings, was quite ordinary and unspectacular. It was a good way to wrap things up, but the other seasons had suspenseful and dramatic endings, whilst S4's ending was soft.
I don't think the writers had a choice though, I remember reading that they either continue with the IAD vs Lem storyline in S4, or end it there and bring it up in S5. So unless Season 4 were to be 24 episodes long, S4 had to end there really with no bang, just a prelude of bad things for the Strike Team.
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Post by ShootFirst on Jun 21, 2006 17:27:52 GMT -5
The ending of S4 for me was my final "catch up" episode before my first new show. My room mate got me hooked on the show when we watched the Surveilance of Cpt. Rawling's place. So when S4 wrapped up, I was completely stoked for the new season. This was also during the recaps FX showed right before S5 and not the initial airing of S4.
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Post by striketeamwashere on Jun 21, 2006 18:54:10 GMT -5
shootfirst-Is S4 the only season you've been able to watch other than S5?
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Post by ShootFirst on Jun 22, 2006 8:30:00 GMT -5
shootfirst-Is S4 the only season you've been able to watch other than S5? I've seen them all now. The S4 recap was where I was introduced to the show and S5 was my first full new season. Went and got all seasons on DVD pretty quickly and have now seen them all in order.
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