Show Viewing Date: 9-2-2008
Show Title: The Shield - The Coefficient of Drag
Network: FXHD
Reviewed By: MIke Wilkerson - 2GuysTalking

Intro:

The 9 o’clock hour arrived.  I sat down in front of my plasma screen tuned to FXHD - to witness the onset of the final season of what is easily one of the most satisfying television shows for me in recent memory - The Shield - starring Michael Chiklis and a cast that simply will not stop impressing.  The credits of the movie on prior to this episode fade to black - a thunderous roar begins as a blood-red badge emerges as the letters T, H, and E fall into place.  A gunshot is heard and the badge shifts to a broken, but now somehow stronger version of itself as the world “SHIELD” falls into place, presented with limited commercial interruption by Bud Light (as will this entire final series of episodes this season).  It’s time, for the first of the last great episode reviews of The Shield - The Final Season, on The 2GuysTalking Caption Hunt.

Previews/Commercials Captioned: No, and No - Sigh.  While many of the commercials (but not all had closed captioning), NONE of the feature film trailers presented, nor any of the future or “Tribute to The Shield” segments featured captioning.  It’s another one of those baby-step moments for a show that has what is easily one of the best closed captioning sets that serves as a model for other shows that are still in their closed captioned infancy.  Let’s get with the PROGRAM, FX.  Spend some of that money that Busch is throwing through on captioning the many advertisements that you showcase.  You won’t be sorry you did.

Opinion Review: My reviews for this final series of The Shield episodes will mirror the same style I’ve used in the past that allows me to comment with a broad brush that gives you, the reader, maximum impact by giving you detail of what I see and “think” as I’m watching the show.  read on for more and remember I’m ALWAYS looking for you to chime in with your thoughts on mine.

The Insertion Point: It’s as if we haven’t missed a step as we find Vic Mackey, along with Ronnie, whaling on Shane who have duct-taped his pregnant wife’s mouth shut (something that, sadly, I think I’d have done for them), but I marvel at how quality television programs are able to stay in the moment from season to season with months and so many life events in between the start and stop.  Well done, folks, well done.

Pushing Hearing Anticipation:  Vic Headlines Nothing: For those that don’t remember or weren’t The Shield witnesses to last season’s finale, Vic was on the edge of being smited as a police officer and was waiting for the decision of an impending hearing to decide his municipal fate.  We got nothing from the last episode, except of course that he didn’t go to the hearing directly, and as we inch into this episode at full The Shield speed, we discover that they’re not spilling the beans or even wiggling the bowl that they live in yet.  The jury is literally still out on the status of Vic Mackey, and even better - he will NOT be “headlining” any of the action we’ll see in this final season.  Does anyone else want to go in on odds with me that might not be the case this season? :)  Some of the best work when wanting to “headline” things can be accomplished when everyone else thinks you’re not in charge, and it looks like Vic is going to revel in it this time.

Olivia Murray ICE:  What would The Shield be without another new, attractive, potential sexpot for Vic?  This season we meet Olivia Murray, who presumably is working with the federal level organizations who are following the varying cartel organizations.  Does anyone wanna’ take odds on her ending up in a car, hotel room, closet, abandoned crack house or blue Dodge Charger before the season is out?

Top Notch Production Design: Anyone that has listened to our top-notch discussions with 24 Production Designer, Joseph Hodges is truly aware of the magic and pay-off that happens with high quality production design, and The Shield has never disappointed.  In this case, we get a grizzly scene with a neighborhood street littered with body parts and sporting the “lines that have been drawn” literally with blood by the Salvadoran cartel in the streets to delineate where what will and won’t happen.  It’s something that could SO easily could go wrong, but it is wonderfully accomplished work that always satisfies.

Unable to Sell an Ex Wife: Vic is usually able to sell just about anyone on anything, but Corine is just simply not buying into his description of the events that transpired last episode.  Rather than telling her straight-out that her and the kids lives are in jeopardy, he chooses to float a fat, smelly bobbing turd of a lie out there and for the moment - Corrine takes it on and moves forward.  The scene where Ronnie and Vic stumble into the man with the blackmail orgy trunk from last episode is something to remember as well and is wonderfully blocked.

The Power of Saying So Much with So Little: In our 2GuysTalking: 24 Podcast, we talk OFTEN about Keifer Sutherland’s ability to say so much by saying so little.  Michael Chiklis has ALWAYS been a master of this and this season appears to be his next “frame” for showcasing this skill.  His one-of-a-kind ability to stare-down, to move people along, to interject but saying nothing is one of the best portrayals in American television - bar none, and it reminds me how proud I am to see an actor of Michael’s caliber working on the small screen.

Dual Arrowheading a Storyline: There are so few shows that are able to create this feature, but also then to intertwine them in a single episode that eventually is a tiny piece of an overall thread throughout a shows season that I have trouble explaining how well it’s done.  We have two arrowheads, heading to the same point in the form of:  Vic and Ronnie (as one arrowhead in the episode’s story), and Shane as the continued lone wolf element converging on the hotel room of the man who tried to murder Vic’s family in the last episode.  Not only are the writer’s and director of this episode able to pull it off with perfect timing, but the interaction between the two forces, without them actually interacting, is simply one of the best pieces of television available.  If this situation were for some unexplainable reason, happening to you, YOU WOULD DO WHAT THEY DO to get what you needed done.  Show me another show that bothers to showcase that.   That we’ll be able to take the overall arc of what happens in the room as an element that steers this entire episode toward the end, and what I predict will be seen throughout the episode in general, is sheer GENIUS and it’s appreciated completely.  Again, very well done, folks.

Protected by Final Jeopardy (instead of Double Jeopardy): I love the ability of the writer’s to interject little items like this that are appreciated not only by the people watching, but by the characters “under their breath” as they’re being stated.  It’s the little bits of writing that help to sell, push and drive a storyline that is included in an episode that could totally be seen as “meaningless” but then is looped BACK into the story to become one of the largest factors guiding this last season of The Shield.

Ronnie Turning the Moral Corner: It might be that the cloak of impropriety has always been draped around Ronnie’s neck over the last 6 years, but never before has his interaction with characters become as bold as outright murder.  We see him take on the final responsibility that often defines the actions of one Vic Mackey.  His murder of Zadofian is heartless, quick, but incredibly important, not only in the vein of the story, but in the general portrait that The Shield has created for Ronnie Gardocki.  It provides him with a black stripe for his heart, that I’m not certain he’ll be able to ever remove, nor will it eventually fade.  He has truly become “the apprentice” for the Sith Lord that is Vic Mackey and his overall governing “law” that guides a swift and decisive (and often violent) hand to get what he wants done.

Just When Your Thought It Was Already Terrible - Chop! Another completely overlooked trait of The Shield is to be completely shocked AGAIN - with even MORE shocking events - after having just been shocked to your mortal core moments before.  After Ronnie shoots Zadofian in the hotel room, thereby nullifying the direct and current threat to Vic’s family (and then departing in an alleged OJ-like Ski mask), Shane struts up to the hotel room and after a quick, darting eye-flash and run downstairs to the local FIRE AX DISPENSER, HACKS OFF ZADOFIAN’s FEET!  It’s raw, completely unexpected, but - not so amazingly - fits the need for items that can be “found” and used to foster the story that Shne plans to push to a variety of sources to get what HE wants done.  Again, again, the apprentice utilizing traits he learned from watching the master for so many years.

Continuity Support: Ronnie’s Face: One of the often-forgotten items that plague just about every television show, is continuity.  Several years back, Ronnie has his face put to a hotplate burner in some crackhouse/house of illrepute and he received a scar that has been regularly featured on the left side of this face.  This season doesn’t disappoint.  It could be SOOOooo easy to write out the scar, but they take the time to address it, and it’s totally appreciated and adds weight to Ronnie’s situation in life.

Making a Sushi Run and the Scent of a True Pussy: Former Detective and Temporary Barn Captain Steve Billing’s arrives back into The Barn (the title of the police station because it’s made out of an old Barn that was once a church, believe it or not), complete with complaining, excuses, and some of the funniest GI Joe-style sunglasses I’ve ever seen.  If you thought you had seen the “one person” in your workplace that was milking the “disability teat” in the past - you ain’t seen nothing yet.  He continues to profess that he has been completely disabled by the tiny bump on the head he received fourth-handedly while being in proximity of Vic and another Internal Affairs Officer (Forrest Whittaker, who was OUTSTANDING while on his short stint on the show, by the way) and the chicken literally has come home to (sort of) roost.  Apparently Sushi provides the “shot of protein that helps him stabilize the memory problems that he’s been subject to post-incident.  Hoooo-boy.

The Master of Life’s Combination Locks = Vic Mackey: I am certain that you are or have met someone that can slide in and out of just about every situation imaginable.  They’ll formulate, compile, and emote a story the likes of which no one could have ever foreseen or come up with in even four times the amount of time that person had for the story.  Sure, you may know someone like that, but tell me this:  Do you know the person that can do allll of that, and then come up with two and three OTHER stories, that will merge right into that situation days, weeks, months, years later?  Vic IS that person.  Again, another stellar piece of story construction, cerebral Scrabble, and details that just will not stop.

Pinned Down and Under Fire:  Raising the Bar and Lowering the Front Door - Literally: Sure, any show can have an “action-packed shootout” but how many will take the next giant leap and complete the job by DRIVING THEIR CAR through a wall!??  Vic Mackey will!  To quell an uprising, with no SWAT support available for the foreseeable future, Vic jumps in his trusty car of 3+ seasons, and barrels it through the front door of the establishment cloaking rogue, machine-gun-toting elements and saves the proverbial day.  Again, wonderfully choreographed, and engaging.

Extra Note About The Sons Of Anarchy: Another sure-fine appearance from this show for at least the first episode is something you can depend on.  The detail, especially in HD is something that will be a sure-fire attention getter for tomorrow evening and we’ll have it RIGHT HERE at The 2GuysTalking Caption Hunt!

Casting Masterpieces: It’s all about casting, folks.  There are so many times that parts could be complete throw-aways in this show.  Over the last 6 years, I’d say that - 40 - actors, that could have been nothing more than people appearing in an episode and out, have been characters that you at LEAST think are interesting.  Whether they’ve got a great on-screen disposition, a great accent, wonderfully-vibrant clothing selected for them, or just their ability to say so much with what is often so little - The Shield pulls it off WONDERFULLY again in this introductory offering for final season 7.

30 Days Before Assembling a New Committee = Vic’s VooDoo: Vic’s VooDoo…  I plan on revisiting that at least once in each episode, and perhaps that’s what we can call his masters-level combination lock of life interactions?  That Vic has 30 days to “figure it all out” is an instant and wonderfully-laid plan from the writer’s to amp up the tension and light a fuse not only under Vic Mackey’s ass, but the viewers’ as well.

Quote of the Episode: There were MANY again this episode, but I’m going to have to go with Dutch’s inventive, completely fabricated quote to incite Billing’s foundational asshole instincts by saying that “(another character) said that the only thing weaker than his detective skills is his spine.”  SHEER GENIUS!

The Junior Combination Lock Expert: The best sample of how you live your life is how you effect those around you, and this couldn’t be closer to the truth, than when talking about the scheming, conniving, get-the-plan-in-this-path-to-better-me-later ability that Shane exhibits in this episode.  Vic has always been the master, and has provided those around him with many of the skills that have “benefited him” for the last 6+ years.  Whether it’s truly been “good” or “bad” is all up for interpretation, but one fact remains:  The strongest difference between Vic’s and Shane’s ability to conjure the perfect, vindictive, complex-enough-it-has-to-be-true bullshit lie is very simple…  Shane’s usually blow up in his face.

A Warm Story-laden Pillow for Shane: A false sense of security is what has killed or injured every single character on The Shield, and I have a feeling that it’s going to be a focal point all the way around  and through this season.  The ability to trust, to believe in those you “have history with” and to comfortably move forward has always been dependent on your overall feeling of security.  Don’t pucker, folks.  The veil of security is incredibly thin this season.

The captioning for this episode is probably some of the best in the closed captioning industry.  The captioning appears from left to right as the people in frame speak and the lettering appears JUST before they speak so that you’re right on them as they speak.  MANY shows, most recently the Olympics, could learn a lot from the captioning displayed here.  The captions also move from bottom to top when graphics or banners are showcased on the show, so that you can take advantage of the information provided via those banners and graphics.  Many sports television shows are using this but a sadly large number of shows do not.  Very well done, FX.

Overall Caption Rating: 4

Overall Show Rating: 5

Total Rating: 5

Do You Recommend This Show to Others Who Depend on Captioning? Yes

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