I'll state at the outset that I'm only up to the 1st episode in the final season, but if it ends the way it's been, this is up there in the top 5 shows of all time.
A little history....
Way back in 1989 I took a screenwriting class in college. It was well known that our professor was connected with the industry, and we had some really cool guest speakers in class. He was either a friend of or college roommates with Dick Wolf, and we knew about Law & Order well before it went on the air.
At any rate, our final project was to write a movie. My partner and I wrote a script for a film called DEA. It was the story of a bad cop. Drug addict? Yup. Drunk? Of course. On the take? You betcha. But the guy got results, so his superiors kept him around. The setting? Los Angeles, of course. Failed marriage? Check. Gave him a good cop name too. John "Nova" Novabilski (named after a cop friend of my partner's, who freakishly was killed in the line of duty in 1995).....John was none of the things our character was other than a cop.
Oh, and he headed up an elite unit that specialized in gang violence called, unimaginatively, the Strike Team.
We even dream-casted it. Our Novabilski was to be played by a no-name actor who's only real screen credits at the time were a couple of episodes of Wiseguy and the awful Belushi biopic Wired. Yup, Michael m-fing Chiklis.
So in 2002 when I saw the promos for The Shield, I was understandably a little nonplussed. There had been several episodes of Law & Order that bore a striking resemblance to discussions and ideas fleshed out by our class, but this.....this was unbelievable.
So I never watched an episode. I was pissed. I was furious. Bad enough to steal my idea, but to cast my guy in the lead? Oh hell no.
Well, time marched on, and with the advent of Amazon Prime and Netflix, I've started watching a bunch of old TV series. I figured what the heck....I should see if my vision made it to the screen.
The Shield's got some serious firepower on both sides of the camera. Aside from Chiklis, you'll recognize most of the cast and guests from SOA, and a few fliers from left field (Darrow Igus from Fridays! for example). Kurt Sutter (SOA), Clark Johnson (Homicide), Glenn Mazarra and Frank Darabont (Walking Dead), Scott Brazil (Hill Street Blues), and a host of others.
It shows.
The series follows Vic Mackey (Chiklis) as the leader of the Strike Team in the Farmington district of LA. His first scene on the show is him ripping duct tape off of a suspect's doo-dads. Over the course of the first 6 (and presumably the 7th) season, the show details how he gets results by skirting or ignoring the law, and seemingly gets away with everything.
The acting is uniformly excellent, particularly CCH Pounder, Walton Goggins, and Jay Karnes.
I don't want to get into too many details for those who haven't seen the series (and it'll be another week until I get to the end), but this is a great show that's worth a discussion.
Oh, and it's not my DEA script......Sort of. There are a lot, and I mean a lot of similarities. Vic doesn't have a drug or booze habit, but his methods are nearly identical to Nova's. He drives a different car, listens to different music, and has a different relationship with his family. Mix Vic and Shane (Goggins's character), and you've got a good idea what Nova was like.
The story goes in a different direction from my script, but I'm very curious to see if the series ends as the script did. No spoilers, but there was no chance of a sequel.
It was actually pretty fun to read the script again after all these years. It was clearly the work of two 21 year olds who watched too many police shows and action movies, but it was surprisingly gritty for 1989. Would have made for a good David Ayer (End of Watch, Training Day, Dark Blue, Street Kings )film.
The Shield
Moderators: Cagliostro, sgt.null
The Shield
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." - PJ O'Rourke
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"Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas." - Charles Stewart
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"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison
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"Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas." - Charles Stewart
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"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison
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Finished it last night. One of the best series endings I've seen. In a series packed with gut-punches, the finale is just killer.
Watch this series.
Watch this series.
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." - PJ O'Rourke
_____________
"Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas." - Charles Stewart
_____________
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison
_____________
_____________
"Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas." - Charles Stewart
_____________
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison
_____________
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Hashi Lebwohl
- The Gap Into Spam
- Posts: 19576
- Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2009 7:38 pm
It's well worth going back to. One of the best final seasons and series finalies ever.
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." - PJ O'Rourke
_____________
"Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas." - Charles Stewart
_____________
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison
_____________
_____________
"Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas." - Charles Stewart
_____________
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison
_____________
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Zarathustra
- The Gap Into Spam
- Posts: 19845
- Joined: Tue Jan 04, 2005 12:23 am
- Has thanked: 1 time
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Dude, you'll love it. There's one season that's not as strong as the others (the Glenn Close one), but otherwise it's 88 solid episodes with a killer ending.Zarathustra wrote:I'll have to check it out.
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." - PJ O'Rourke
_____________
"Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas." - Charles Stewart
_____________
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison
_____________
_____________
"Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas." - Charles Stewart
_____________
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison
_____________
-
Zarathustra
- The Gap Into Spam
- Posts: 19845
- Joined: Tue Jan 04, 2005 12:23 am
- Has thanked: 1 time
- Been thanked: 1 time