The Sheild
movies March 3rd. 2008, 9:55pmI do not watch procedural shows. I don’t like CSI. I do not like Law & Order. “Show crime, list suspects, cops talk about doing cop things, and 30 minutes later, a bad guy confesses to everything.” I don’t like self-contained “wraps up in an hour” neat little dramas. I was a fan of shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer that brought in arcs that span entire seasons, with side episodes and smaller filler that made up the “meat” of the remaining episodes.
I have started watching “The Shield“, and I’m hooked. I blame this on Jeff Cannata from Totally Rad Show. I started watching The Shield after Battlestar Galactica went off the air on Fox Korea. I had made it a habit to stay up and watch BSG, and when this show called “The Shield” took it’s place, I gave it a chance because it came very highly recommended by Jeff. He and I have very similar tastes, so I was willing to watch a few episodes. It’s not like there was anything else on television, ever.
I watched most of what I found out to be the third season. For an arcing story, it didn’t seem too hard to follow the characters. Cop dramas make it easy to jump in most of the time for the sake of new watchers. Their are still “busts” from week to week, but fifteen minutes or so of each show is based around the arc for the season.
Now with MegaTV, I’ve started to catch up to what’s been broadcast so far in Korea. I’ve got the first season finished, and I’m working through the second. The back story stuff has filled in a lot of the questions I had, but it’s made me like the show even more. I still hate the same characters, and root for others like I did before, but no one is a saint on this show.
The Shield is a show that should be very predictable, but shocks and surprises me every single episode. Just when you think a character hits rock bottom, they go farther. Just when you think you’ve witnessed the worst, you get shocked by a new crime. Just when you think someone crosses the line, you worry, then see if they can make it right again. The show plays on my expectations of a cop show and does so much better than the standard procedural drama. I understand Jeff’s passion in trying to promote the show to people now that I’ve seen it. It’s a show worth spreading the word about.
Jeff Cananta’s recommend a few other things I like, like Super Mario Galaxy (he defended it while the other two hosts trashed it), some comic books (Preacher), and a few movies that I ended up enjoying. It’s incredibly cool to watch TotallyRadShow, as it feels like I have a kindred spirit working to sort out the good stuff for me and save my time. Now that I found out that they have a Cowon D2 friendly video podcast (!), I can even watch their show easily when I don’t have time to watch the feed in Miro. So awesome.
11 Responses to “The Sheild”
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March 3rd, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Some other great shows of late are “Dexter,” “Breaking Bad,” “Damages,” “The Wire,” and “Mad Men.” Within the last few years some greats were “Veronica Mars,” “Farscape,” and “Slings & Arrows.” A quick http://www.imdb.com search can help you narrow in on what might be of interest to you.
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:20 pm
After watching “Breaking Bad,” I wished that I’d spent more time learning Chemistry. Then there’s also the issue of just what someone would do to see that their family is taken care of once they learn they don’t have long to live.
March 4th, 2008 at 12:20 am
I find myself agreeing with Jeff too.
Can’t wait to get my hands on that Mario Galaxy.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:04 am
I read one of the Dexter books. I find myself repulsed by the character, the writing, and the ending of what would be the first season of the show. The protagonist was too detached.
Veronica Mars…I gave it a shot, but it violated the “Paris Hilton” rule. As in, No Paris Hilton on a show I watch EVER.
People keep hyping The Wire. I’ll see it eventually if I can. That being said, once I finish The Shield, it’s likely I’ll be burnt out on Cop Drama for a LONG time.
Farscape is space opera. I’ve seen a few episodes. If I got into it, I’d be in the same position I was after Firefly. It didn’t “end”. Why start it only to be let down?
Mad Men was panned by Jeff, and from the first episode I saw, it’s not my thing. Nothing seemed to happen.
Slings & Arrows, Breaking Bad, I’ve never heard of.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Zen…I’ve got Galaxy. The first 60 stars are fun, then you beat the game. Then you’ve got 60 more “challenging” stars to collect. Then, you can do it all over again with a different character if you choose. It’s worth the price to import it. It’ll keep me busy for a LONG time.
March 4th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Farscape did end with the 2 hour movie–The Peacekeeper Wars. BSG modeled “frak” after Farscape’s “frell.”
Slings & Arrows was a recent great Canadian comedy/farce of running a classically trained Shakespearean theater in today’s changing world of tastes. The cast is top notch.
Breaking Bad finishes its run next week on AMC and stars Bryan Cranstan as a high school chemistry teacher who’s suffering from the world’s worst case of mid-life crisis (inoperable cancer) and becomes a criminal through chemistry (meth) to see that his family is taken care of after his death.
The character Dexter is the only thing taken from the book–much to the horror of fans of the books. The TV show goes a different route. I agree that Dexter is detacted, but it is about a serial killer who just happens to kill evil killers. The second season finale blew me away and is still sitting on my dvr’s hard drive months later to be savored again.
Yeah, Mad Men is more of a charcter study of the time in which it is set (the un-p.c. and anti-women in the workplace 1960’s) and the world that advertising creates which totally engulfs us while we are oblivious to most of it. Walk down any street here in this country and look around. At first I was awed, now it is just clutter and an eye sore. However, the finales of Mad Men and Dexter were the two best hours of TV I did see this year, and I will vote for them for Emmys come June. I am a voting member, and I’ve worked in TV for several years.
These are just some of the choices out there. My family loves Survivor and The Amazing Race. Others love American Idol. I like NCIS, Bones, House, and BSG. There’s a lot out there for people to pass the time with. T’m just lucky to live in these great times and to be able to connect instantaneously to the net and watch TV from anywhere in the world as it is being broadcast with my slingbox and hava (slingmedia.com - myhava.com) or catch up later with my VPN connection to the U.S. networks, Netflix, hulu, and the like.
Right now, I’m watching the season finale of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Actually, not a bad show, and I love Summer Glau from Firefly and The 4400.
March 4th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Actually no, the ORIGINAL Battlestar Galactica’s use of “Frak” beats Farscape’s “Frell” by 2 decades.
I’m watching Terminator series as well, but the chances it’ll get picked up are slim. The Taminator doing ballet is weird.
March 4th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Don’t know if too many people will get that awesome “Taminator” reference, and today’s ratings of last night’s finale will tell the tale of its return next year (TV year that is). If the demos are right it could be back even with its very high production costs. That’s how NBC justified putting the Knight Rider series back into production after the back-door pilot movie garnered 12 million viewers (mostly male). They can sell a lot of mustangs to young men who can’t do the basic math used in calculating gasoline mileage per dollar spent.
I’ve been waiting for the network TV ad/ratings bubble to burst for over a decade. I think we will ultimately get shows with shorter runs like in England. Back in the day, there were 39 episodes of a show a year (Bev. Hillbillies, Andy Griffith Show, Honeymooners, Bonanza, etc.), then 26, then 22, and down to 18 with Lost. Cable rarely gives large orders for shows anymore; however, Burn Notice did get a nice one from USA.
March 5th, 2008 at 8:58 am
If someone doesn’t know why I use the phrase “Taminator”, that’s their loss. That means they missed TWO short lived Sci-fi series, The Sarah Connor Chronicles AND Firefly.
Anyway, T:SCC has drawn steadily declining ratings since it’s debut. As much as I’d like it to be renewed, it’s doubtful it will happen. I’ve heard that without a huge finale ratings boost, it was toast. It’d be nice if it stuck around with the new Terminator 4 movie in production soon.
March 5th, 2008 at 11:16 am
The ratings were not great, but nothing is popping other than AI these days. I’d like to see it back, especially if FOX can somehow justify bringing back “Prison Break” for a fourth season with its even lower numbers.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/ratings/e3i4a397617ec737750992f611c8d89f318
Over 300 million people in the U.S. and not even a third of one percent watched the probable series finale. What’s everyone doing nowadays besides waiting for football to return in September? Are they all texting and gaming like South Koreans?
Anyway, FOX dropped the ball on this by not airing it after the Superbowl to give it a kick-off boost. I still don’t know why they would air a four year-old hit like “House” instead.
March 23rd, 2008 at 9:27 pm
[...] the title as a unique crime drama style novel. I don’t read crime drama, and other than The Shield, I don’t watch crime drama [...]