THE SHIELD

Season one set up the characters. There are as many as eight characters considered principles. Those would be Vic Mackey, Shane Vendrell, and Curtis Lemansky aka Lem from the special unit Strike Team, their boss Captain David Aceveda, Detectives Claudette Wymms and Dutch Wagenbach, and representing the uniformed officers Danny Sofer and Julien Lowe. On top of which, there are probably about that many major supporting characters.

Season two did more to flesh out those characters. Julien being gay, for example, basically worked to set up his marriage and attempt at going straight in seasons two.

Season three gets more complicated, as characters start developing, changing. Coming up with these changes, and properly motivating them -- THAT shows some serious SKILL in the writing. Claudette in particular started acting significantly different than previously after having just a little whiff of power. Shane and Lem are cracking under the pressure. Then there is Captain Aceveda and The Incident.

Season four brought in the compassionate but extremely hard nosed Captain Rawling to bust heads in the hood, with tough enforcement of asset forfeiture laws, while supposed community activist Antwon Mitchell went crazy killing cops and children.

We have season five, with a wussy yes-man captain being overrun by the most evil but "honest" internal affairs character ever in a cop show. Forest Whitaker is GOOD, and he's getting something to work with.

Now we're into season six, dealing with the aftermath of Lemonhead's murder by one his own, and the tension and sense of doom builds for next season's series finale and settling of accounts.

******************

I have spotty notes up on the episodes of seasons one and two, which I'm adding to a bit here and there. Later seasons have pretty extensive notes on all episodes.

Notes on season 1 Warning: full of spoilers

Notes on season 2 Warning: full of spoilers

Notes on season 3 Warning: full of spoilers

Notes on season 4 Warning: full of spoilers

Notes on season 5 Warning: full of spoilers

Notes on season 6 Warning: full of spoilers

Nude Lemonhead Pictures!

Poll: What's the stupidest thing Shane Vendrell's ever done? Vote!

Poll: That Darned Cat! A survey on Dutch's infamous "Strays" incident Vote!

Is Vic Mackey "moral"?

Character development is key

Claudette's Moral Superiority