Shield (Season Five) Chronicles pt. 2

Our author returns for the second installment of his Shield (Season five) Chronicles.

Well dear readers, must I apologize for my neglegence in writing a Shield review days after the actual episode aired? No? Good.
What can I say? It certainly seems that Kavanaugh wants Vic by the short and curlies, but Vic ain’t goin’ down without a fight…and that’s why we like him. On one hand it says a great deal about the evolution of modern television, that Shawn Ryan expects us to remember all the details of the first season four years later. For the life of me, though, I had forgotten that Vic and Shane got away with being the only ones to know that Vic took out Crowley. So when Kavanaugh was blasting Lem about knowing the truth about Crowley, I thought to myself, “Damn, how can Lem look so genuinely shocked.” What the hell, though. He’s an actor.
I was impressed nevertheless that Vic held his ground when Lem asked him the truth about Crowley. Vic teaches us that it takes great personal delusion to be a modern anti-hero. I’ll be interested to see what angle Kavanaugh takes next.
I’m convinced at this point that Claudette has something seriously life-threatening. I wanted to believe otherwise, but it’s possible that Shawn intends to take down the entire barn when the show ends. As for the case she and Dutch investigated, all I can say is, when I find myself hitting bottom as an alcoholic, aversion therapy will be my first attempt at recovery.
There wasn’t a whole lot to say about this episode otherwise. After watching the first four seasons, you learn that some episodes are just filler in-between the season-arcs. To put it in X-files terms, there’s monster of the week episodes and mythology, only for the Shield, it’s homicide of the week versus conspiracy episodes. At least, that’s my take on it. Join us next week when Kavanaugh gets some real evidence and Vic beats up a hooker.

Shield (Season Five) Chronicles pt. 1

After his long hiatus, Mr. Ousley returns with part one of The Shield (season 5) Chronicles:
Danny’s Knocked-Up, Claudette Has Cancer, and Lem's Goin’ To Jail (With Vic not far behind)

Having gone back and re-watched season 4 of The Shield since its DVD release on Dec. 26, I can honestly say that the season (which did not impress me initially) was a fine epilogue to season three (the show’s peak, in my opinion). The lag of season four can easily be traced to the absence of the strike team until the season’s final arc, which is why it was so refreshing to see Vic and his boys breaking up an interracial brawl at a funeral in last night’s season premiere. I feel bad for Ronnie, though, who at this point has been burned, beaten, and suffered the indignity of admitting he used to hand-wash his mother’s Oriental rugs, yet we’ve never seen him with a woman or had a single glimpse of his personal life. It’s one thing to use the guy as a plot device for the first season, but the most loyal member of the strike team should at least have a girlfriend!
Billings is an interesting choice to serve as the interim Captain, but I wonder how a police detective who hid like a sissy and watched a gangland assassination and then phoned it in to 9-1-1 got promoted. This is what happens when police recruitment goes down the crapper. Speaking of police recruitment, what’s with Tina, the officer Julian is training? First of all, I’ve NEVER seen a female cop anywhere near that attractive. Sophen’s cute, but if she wanted to kick my ass, I know she could. Second of all, in the course of her first episode, she hit on Julian, Vic, Shane, Lem, and Dutch! I only hope Dutch gets to nail this broad. Assuming he didn’t nail Mackey’s wife last season (it’s not really clear), Dutch’s personal life hasn’t been visited since early in the second season when that widow broke up with him. I always said he should’ve banged the cuddle-rapist’s wife, but she turned out to be fruit loops anyway.
We can’t talk about Dutch without talking about Claudette, though, and we have no clue what’s wrong with her. Based on the way she clutched her stomach, and the miniature pharmacy developing by her sink, I’d say Wyms either has cancer or an ulcer. Time will tell. Speaking of time, it looks like Danny’s about two months shy of bursting. It’s obviously Vic’s, since they randomly hooked up last season, and the consequences were never addressed (though I still say if he hadn’t just gotten his rocks off, Vic would’ve nailed Captain Rawling in the finale last season). All that said, the only other potential father I can think of is the black CI who fences stolen goods and tried to take Danny to a concert with some jacked tickets last season, but Nip/Tuck already did the black baby shocker ending, so I give it 20 to 1 odds.
That leaves us with our new IAD guy, Jon Kavanaugh. Forrest Whitaker has given us quite a bit to question with the way he plays this character, like why he feels the need to force-feed people gum or whether he really has an autistic child or if he was just faking it to get close to Mackey’s wife. Whitaker has definitely made an interesting choice playing the IAD Lieutenant like a closet-nutcase. In either case, Kavanaugh knows what he’s doing, or he wouldn’t have been able to interrogate Lem so efficiently. Kavanaugh definitely knows what’s what, but he’ll have to keep up with it to stay on top of Mackey.
This promises to be an interesting season. I look forward to seeing if Mackey can actually worm his way out of it or if this is where it all ends. I’d hate to see the Shield end now. They could do at least two more seasons and still go out on top. And remember, folks, Vic beats up a hooker in every odd season, so I’m keeping my hopes up for this one.
‘Til next time…