The Shield Season 1 Review

It's good to work. Any questions? There is everything

wrong with your podcast player. Please attempt

to adjust the volume. Hello and welcome back

into our studio. You are now listening to...

I'm of course TF2 and Mike joining me. I believe

for the first time on this show is Ryan the Uninvolved

Merkley. Hello, sir. Yeah. Hello. And we are

here today to celebrate the 20th anniversary

of a television show that was controversial 20

years ago. It's a television show. I thought

we were talking about the PlayStation 2 game.

Oh, man. I'm kidding. By the way, the game is

just terrible. Do not ever play. I have no interest

in even seeking that out. It was written by the

show writers and actually like features some

of the performances and stuff but oh it was so

bad. Anywho. Anywho. So yeah, this is about The

Shield. Yes, FX is the Shield Season 1 because

when we release this episode it will be March

12th, 2022, 20 years after. Yeah, how does that

happen? It's been 20 years. I remember when you

told me, I went, what? Nah, it can't be right.

Oh, man. That's like a couple of weeks ago. We

were talking about something else that I mentioned

that, yeah, Smallville has been off the air for

10 years or something like that. Yeah, it's been

off the air for 10 years. And last year was its

20th anniversary of coming on the air. So Spider

-Man's 20 years old this year, too, in May. Oh,

Aunt May? What? No, anyway. No, in May, not.

Wait. May it may I that's a whole other bag of

worms for another show at another time. So the

shield Yeah, it's so it should be noted this

we're gonna cover season one This was it won

the Golden Globe for best television series on

that year For this season. Sorry, I should say

for season one And Michael Chiklis won a bunch

of different lead actor Golden Globes and Emmys

and everything for different years. But I think

he won one year one as well. The series was created

by Sean Ryan and you mentioned that it aired

on FX in the U .S. So this here in the U .S.

the shield was as far as I remember. It was the

show that debuted the FX Network going into original

dramatic type television. I believe so, yeah.

The FX Network started in around 94 or so, but

I don't remember anything that they put together

before The Shield. Obviously they aired some

of the Fox stuff, but The shield is one of their

first ones. I know there was like So I'm looking

at the Wikipedia article and I'm not gonna read

through it or anything else I'm just gonna look

through the contents 94 to 97 the early years

9701 Fox gone cable and then the 2002 2007 was

the emergence in original Yeah, but 2002 was

the shield and that was the first one they put

together and then after that was stuff like nip

-tuck rescue me. Those are remember. Yep That

might, yeah, anyway. The only reason why I remember

Damages is because Glenn Close was on the shield

and then she starred in Damages. She was really

good on the shield. So that's season four, though.

So yeah, season one, the series was created by

Sean Ryan. It is in reference to a real life

police scandal. And that was the Rampart team

or Rampart division, which is what. So on this

show, it's the strike team, which is Michael

Chiklis. character, Vic Mackie. The strike team

is Vic, Shane, Ronnie, Lemonhead slash Lemanski,

and Terry Crowley. No, wait, no. Ronnie came

on in after Terry got killed. Wasn't Ronnie one

of the originals? No, he wasn't. He came on.

He was in another part of the department. because

that's what I was when I watched the episodes

back before we were gonna do this. I'm like,

okay, so it's Vic, Shane, Lem, and Terry is the

new guy. And then after what happens to Terry,

which we will talk about in a few moments. Viewer

discretion advised. When the law protects the

criminals. You used excessive force during his

arrest. Yes, I'm hickey. Instead of the innocent.

People want this to make it to their cars without

getting mugged. You do what it takes. If this

means some cop roughs up some guy. What the hell?

You can get some kind of third -in -ad going

down there. It's don't ask, don't tell. Let me

know where you're hiding at. You're hiding in

the police? The Shield, coming this March to

FX. Then Ronnie comes on. As the new guy No,

so he only comes on full -time. I was right.

Yeah, he okay. He has guard hockey So it's Ronnie

guard hockey. Anyway, he has guard hockey run

around and do stuff for him and the real reason

is They just they didn't have a lot for the actor

to do. So he's only in a handful of episodes

But yeah, he was there. He he's not super featured

Season 1 and not really in season 2 although,

you know There's the scarring and then things

kind of pick up for him and he's used more and

more and obviously in the last season Yeah, he's

heavily used and hole does not get he gets the

short end of the stick. Yes That's that's that's

six podcasts away from yeah So yeah in season

1 anyway, it's Ronnie Shane Terry lamb And of

course, Vic is the leader. Yep. And this show

was ahead of its time, sort of. So when it aired

in terms of television, it was very different

from everything else. It wasn't law and order.

You know, definitely it was very heavily serialized.

So you want to watch the episodes in order. There's

a storyline running through it. the storylines

involve the strike team is the main story and

then in season one we have a bunch of different

things going on we have uh one of the other officers

danny sofa training a new officer julian low

we have vic and his family life we have and this

is a character i totally forgot about by the

way we have gilroy the assistant chief This is

the chief and I totally forgot about him I did

not forget about Gilroy because the reason why

I didn't forget about Gilroy is because of the

line that Vic says in You know the very first

episode which I have the audio here something

you get my report in a couple of days Maybe a

week. You don't like the timetable you take it

up with Gilroy. I don't have to in this building

I'm in charge Well, maybe in your own mind amigo

But in the real world, I don't answer to you

not today not tomorrow not even on Cinco de Mayo

So Vic says that which is, you know Basically,

you know telling Acevedo like it doesn't matter

if it's Cinco de Mayo or not I run this place

because Vic is you know, he's got backers heavy

up and But I didn't get to him yet. So captain

and Acevedo he is the captain of this is set

in the Farmington district yet called the barn

is affectionately quote -unquote known as and

then the last sort of pair that we follow along

a lot is detective wagon wet ah Detective Wagenbach

Which hobo I'm just calling them Dutch from now

on because I cannot pronounce that Correctly

repeatedly and we've clawed at whims who was

played by CCH pounder who is bloody fantastic

I knew her, obviously, and you know her from

Justice League. See, I knew her here first because

I hadn't caught up to Justice League yet at the

time this was airing. Oh, I agree. I think I

watched her first on this. Yes. And then she

showed up as the voice of Amanda Waller and was

going up against Batman. I'm like, oh, my God.

Holy cow. She's an excellent actress in person

and obviously doing voice acting is incredibly.

Difficult. It's just interesting to see somebody

who's just fantastic at both. She's so good So

as waller like for years she was She was waller

for bill is waller for well Yeah, like don't

get me wrong or any anyone else that has done

it has been great But no, but she's been able

to do it live that they've had her do it live

action as well, too. And yeah, it's really, it

was neat. Actually Detective, it was my fault.

I should have taken control of this. I hope this

isn't the way you teach a trainee how to preserve

a crime scene. This is how murderers go free,

son. But yeah, she is fantastic in this show.

All of the, and that's one of the things, all

of the characters and all of the people in this

show are really good and end up being quite good

actors. Some of them, oh boy though, I mean,

The actor who played Julian Lowe, it should be

Wow. I mean, he he became one of the characters

of this strike team, basically. But yeah, he

is in prison for 40 years, sentenced to second

degree murder. So, yeah, I don't know what to

say about him in that. And overall, I mean, so

the show is about the strike team. The show is

about a partially a real life team that did a

lot of terrible, illegal things. So it is not

a pleasant show. And I don't know if you can

talk about this series without mentioning the

wire. I can't remember which came first. And

so I'm going to cheat and do that thing. People

love where I look something up, look something

up during the show. Wire premiered June 2nd,

2002. Wow. So this was almost, yeah, they were

almost neck and neck. So yeah, that's the big

difference between the two. I love The Wire.

I think it's also excellent. I was probably,

at least when it aired, a bigger, not probably,

I was definitely a bigger fan of The Shield.

I like character dramas. You mentioned Breaking

Bad. It's one of the reasons I love it because

that show is a character study of Walter White

and Jesse Pink. This is a character study pretty

much exclusively of Vic It is but I forgot the

one thing I did kind of forget about this show

because I'll say this now I Actually had us doing

this five years ago after we did our Breaking

Bad series over on remote control. So We were

supposed to do this five years ago, but it is

what it is and whatever. Yeah, I think I have

not I Have not watched this show I haven't seen

it in reruns. I haven't seen... I've rewatched

it, yeah. I have rewatched it. It's not... So,

you know, you want to talk about... I watched

it as it aired after... So I couldn't get it

on cable. So season one and I think two I watched

on DVD pretty much as soon as they came out and...

After that, I just watched it as it aired. It

should be noted too, by the way. So you watched

it streaming on Hulu? Okay, so this time around,

I have it on Hulu. I did have, I believe, up

to season four on DVD, and originally, back in

2002, 2003, when it started, I was watching it

on... You know, I was watching it as it aired

but there were a few years that I just kind of

you know So it started just to get this out of

the way here in region one for the Fox DVDs the

original Fox DVDs Season one was to that January

7th of 032 was January 6th of the next year February

22nd of the next year. So basically 2007 the

first five seasons were out and then it switched

from Fox to Sony and Then they released the rest

of the show. So from March 25th 2008 to November

3rd of 2009 is when all all of this Watching

it up here. So because it was on global and Global

is a normal like over -the -air Broadcaster and

so it had to be edited for content, of course

Even though it aired pretty late at night, so

watching it live always sucked. They did make

a big deal of the finale. Family Meeting was

aired, completely unedited. Not to mention they

aired it in its entirety. That's another thing

too, is not all of the episodes had a normal

runtime. And especially the finale was extra

long. The finale was a 90 minute finale, because

that was the thing. And that was a big deal.

Yeah, well had to make room for it and stuff.

Well, that was the thing back in those days 2002

to 2008 and With a lot of cable shows that that

were like the shield there weren't a lot that

were like the shield But you know the stuff on

FX the stuff on whatever else that was not on

normal broadcast television They wanted it to

feel extra special. So they were like here. Here's

a 90 -minute episode of the shield blah blah

blah blah blah and whatever. I completely understand

why Global would have to censor this show because

this show was the first show in United States

history where the word shit was said on air unedited

because it's FX, it's not broadcast. Didn't ABC

do that? I don't remember. Name I can't remember

me NYPD blue. I think so. Yeah, it might have

been I mean NYPD blue might have said it but

I still think they bleeped it whereas you know

the guy screaming from Vic basically ripping

off the The the coke or the drugs from his nads

in the very in the pilot episode. Yeah, where

he's like, oh shit, man like Literally that was,

I remember that was a big deal in 2002 because

no other cable network had ever not bleeped the

term shit. Anyway. So season one was 13 episodes.

Yep. Debuting with pilots, very creatively named.

You know, I mean, so the thing with a lot of

shows back then and maybe even now is that You

don't know if it's gonna get picked up. Like

this was I So I hinted at this before But the

first season the storylines pretty much we have

the two detectives dutch and claudette are just

Looking for a serial killer Next we have vic

and the strike team who are doing illegal things

While still trying to sort of police things while

trying to make themselves rich, while trying

to keep ahead of Captain Acevedo, who is onto

them. And the pilot, by the way, sees him installing

a new detective as part of the team. I mentioned

him before, Terry Crowley, and he's added to

the strike team as an inside man. And the other

sort of bits feature, so we mentioned him before,

we mentioned Gilroy. Gilroy... is on Vic's side

and tries to help cover things up. In the beginning

he is, yes. Well, he doesn't last. We'll get

to that. Anyway, and then the last is also an

ill -fated character who's not really a main

character, but he's in season one a lot and he's

kind of important. We've got Rondel who is a

local drug dealer that Vic deals with. Okay,

so you want to know the funny thing about Rondel?

Rondell used to be a Power Ranger. Oh, yeah So

later seasons and this is what I wanted to mention

too and I got off track and I forgot about this

I On the DVDs the music is intact at least the

early release ones. I don't know. It's been reissued

since then I think the series is on blu -ray,

but I have a sneaking suspicion It's probably

pretty heavily edited because man, they liked

using actual music Is it in the Hulu? To my knowledge,

it isn't. I just finished watching the show as

we're recording this. Yeah, there's less in season

one than later seasons, especially in seasons

because we've got outcasts and other people,

like actual rappers as... So the two songs that

I remember off the top of my head from watching

all 13 episodes within the last 13 hours are

Kid Rock's Bawitaba, Which was at the end of

one of the episodes? Yeah, I'm not sure he's

aged well anyway Well anyway, but but my point

is you're asking a question. I'm trying to answer

I know go ahead I remember that song because

I remember that scene and I remember just now

having finished watching season one Cold plays

trouble plays at the end of episode 13 So I believe

the Hulu stuff is intact Interesting be curious

later on if it's all there. I guess we'll find

out so no that was interesting to me This is

one of the shows Yes, one of the shows I can

think of off the top of my head that had a fair

amount of different popular music And this is

at a time in 2002 2003 the beginnings of it when

theory of a dead man had just hit and made it

big with an invisible man on the spider -man

soundtrack and You know, they had a song on the

shield soundtrack and so far according to Amazon

It only has a complete series DVD listing for

one of the older versions of it and then one

of the more newer Releases of it. I do not see

a blu -ray set could have sworn it in Could be.

It was on everything streaming for a long time.

Yeah. It's been kind of pulled up here. It's

harder to find, but whatever. I will say the,

so it's filmed in that sort of grainy, we're

using a handy cam style and on HD TVs and stuff

like that. It's, I don't know. It looks a little

weird sometimes. It's prime. I guess what I'm

hinting at is it's prime for a remaster, but

we'll see. Hopefully they just do decide to do

it. That's weird that yet hasn't been. Well,

it is the 20th anniversary and I think the problem

is, is that it depends on who actually has the

rights for media release now. I don't know who

has the effects stuff is weird. That's true.

Cause I don't think rescue me or some of the

others have been reissued in a long time. Hmm.

I mentioned this earlier. That's those are some

of our main storylines. We've got the detectives.

We've got all the strike team stuff I mentioned.

And then the other sort of big deal is Danny

training Julian. And they all kind of at different

points merge into each other. They're all related.

And that kind of continues through the season.

Most of these characters are main characters

through. the other seasons except for gilroy

and ron yeah i mean good ron dell ends up spoilers

folks the show's 20 years old but poor poor uh

zack taylor the black power ranger walter jones

walter emmanuel jones the third as as ron dell

robinson he dead by the end of the first season

there were a lot yeah pretty much everybody in

the main cast, the cops, the this, the that,

everybody pretty much stays intact until certain

things happen in later seasons that just make

me want to scream. But yeah, and the funny thing

is, is where I've seen some of the other actors

in other things. So I am right before we started

doing this seven -part series, not all at once,

folks, but at some point throughout the rest

of this year, we will finish the other six seasons.

Kenneth Johnson, who plays Slam, he was a guest

star for, I think, three or four episodes on

Cold Case, CBS's Cold Case with Catherine Morris.

He played her, her love interest at one point

or another. And like we already said about CCH

Pounder, you know, the greatest voice of Amanda

Waller that there has ever been. I don't know

anything. Like I actually am going to have to

look up his name, but Jay Carnes who plays Dutch.

Had never heard of him 20 years ago, and I still

don't know anything else. He has done since this

show I am sorry the big one is Walton Goggins

who said went on to just the hell of a career

Yeah, I mean his career has been nuts. Yeah,

he's also a voice on invincible He was in Django

Unchained. He was in Ant -Man and the Wasp. He

was in Tomb Raider He was a step one of the stars

and predators like his career has been nuts sons

of anarchy He has had one hell of a career and

He's won an Academy Award. He's won Primetime

Emmys like he's doing okay for himself. Yeah.

Oh Good good. I was gonna mention like he was

just cast in Something too and in my brain has

completely fallen asleep and I can't remember

what it is So, yeah, I've seen fallout. Thank

jeez. Oh, that's right. We forgot. Yeah Yeah,

just been cast in Netflix's fallout series. It

just hit me I didn't even have to look it up.

Hooray. Anyway, so again with me with this show

it's There's only just scrolling through Jake

Harns's Short filmography. I mean the guy's been

around since 99 and 98 acting between movies

and TV. TV shows, he was in an episode of Cold

Case again, and then he was Martin Rausch in

an episode of Numbers. He played this bank manager

who set up the kidnapping of his wife and child

or something for insurance or something or other.

So yeah, I mean, I have not seen a lot of Jay

Karnes, but like you said, with with Walton Goggins.

The man is the best one. Yeah. And then, you

know, Benito Martinez was in Sons of Anarchy

as well. Thirteen Reasons Why, a bunch of other

things. So he's done OK, too. And yeah, it's

obviously Michael Chiklis. I don't think we need

to go into. I mean, sure, we know. Really? I

mean, everybody knows. Yeah, he's been in. No,

we got to sing everybody's praises. I mean, especially

the commission. I mean, come on. You go from

the Kamish to Vic Mackie to playing Ben Grimm.

I mean, come on. He's also, and I'm just doing,

I don't even have to click on his name. I'm just

doing this by memory. He's also starred in No

Ordinary Family, which I still never watched.

I wanted to. It was just on in the time that

I just never could get around to it. But, and

the man has, Like, I know there's a note in his

Wikipedia somewhere about his voice getting hoarse

from doing the voice of the thing, and obviously

that's not me trying to do Michael Chickless

at all. But the dude is multi -talented. Theater,

video games, film, television. He also is a musician.

I've heard the guy sing, and he's got some great

songs. So, you know, I mean... He's one of those

Multi -talented people that has I wasn't gonna

he has his thing in a lot of pots folks. It's

the shield It brings out the worst in my my vernacular.

Oh Lord yeah, I'm dirty. Oh, yes. Yeah, I did

not know that about Michael Jase though. That's

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, we already did but

I'm just saying like and Two characters in this

show that I really until Julian joins the strike

team I Back 20 years ago and even watching it

back now in this first season. I'm just like

can we get to the point where Julian actually

Is a better character than what he actually I

mean, I know why you didn't like him. But anyway,

I Just no no, no, it has nothing to do with that

It has to do with the fact that it just seems

like the character doesn't know how to Express

themselves with that like he doesn't want to

get involved in anything kind of thing Is was

my problem great and maybe we'll get into it

with the other stuff So, you know what worked

and what didn't in season one? Bring it all forward

favorite everything, you know moments, whatever.

I'm just gonna start with what didn't work the

spread would crappy episodes It's gotta be one

of my least favorite like talk about low stakes

like So for people who don't know Vic and the

strike team they arrest a basketball star and

they decide to try to find ways to keep him You

know locked up so they can bet on a basketball

game. I mean this was oh boy this is a this is

season one episode three talk about a filler

episode it was not well who could tell us exactly

you all right the bigger they are whatever that

was one of my least favorites but um god i don't

know there's a lot of stuff Let's be honest the

most important moment of the season one came

in the pilot so long story short Vic and the

strike team have to Read they do a raid and during

that raid Vic uses the gun of the drug dealer

and Two -time. Yep. Yeah, and he uses the drug

dealers gun to kill Terry Crowley right who was

the new guy on the strike guy who Vic knew was

you know was there? This is my biggest problem

with the pilot. This is the only problem I have

with the pilot we go through this whole thing

and at the very end It's Vic and Shane with the

dead drug dealer in the bathroom Shane hands

But it sounds like glue Vic and Shane with the

dead drug dealer in the bathroom. Yes, yes. So

they're standing there like they're having a

conversation, but they're not actually talking.

They look at each other. Shane hands him two

times gun, and then he just turns around and

just cold cocks Terry right in the face. You

don't hear anything about this. You don't see

anything about this. The only thing we've seen

to this point of Terry being killed. is that

Terry meets with Acevedo and the guy from Justice.

We don't see how Vic finds out about this at

all. He just knows. By the second episode, we

figure out, Gilroy has someone at Justice, just

like Acevedo has someone at Justice. But it has

taken me 20 years to finally see how they knew.

Was okay with it just because we remember we

want we watch this in different ways. I watched

season one on DVD So I just kind of consumed

it. I don't know. I liked it in terms of it's

a big Shocking moment to open your show like

that was the hook to get people to watch next

week For the most yeah for the most part it worked

I'm not saying Had like oh my god this because

this moment isn't explained What I'm saying is

is that for the last 20 years? Until I started

watching the second episode when I did my watch

through I never like there was no Line there

was no thing in the pilot and then I realized

oh wait in the second episode they say what happened

so when we're talking about season one that The

two moments I remember most about season one

are both from this episode I mentioned that one

the other one is Vic and he gets involved in

the interrogation or it was they're involved

in a He gets involved in a case for clutch and

Claudette where they are investigating a murder

and they discover that there's a girl missing

and it turns out that the girl was sold to a

pedophile by her father who's a drug addict etc

etc and they're running out of time to find him

and so Vic decides to interview him and the moment

I remember most is Vic's starts kind of taking

out the stuff from a bag and it's like a phone

book pair of pliers and The perp asks him...

What's in the bag? What's that stuff for? That's

what I'm gonna use to get you to tell me where

Jenny Reebok is. Your turn to play bad cop? Nah.

Good cop the bad cop left for the day I'm a different

kind of cop and I remember that and I Remember

that and I remember what happens right after

that phone book Aruni and because what I remember

about him Vic smacking the guy with the phone

book is because I believe it's in the promo or

it's in so they used it somewhere Yeah, that

part I've seemed to have blocked out there It's

only been a few days since anyway, what I'm getting

old there's been a rough 22 days here in Ottawa

So there's that I remember those that stuff well,

I remember the sort of Huh, so okay, there's

a couple things to get into here number one,

I don't want it the show Does a really good job

of? not getting into People don't sit around

and talk about whether or not Vic is evil or

doing the right thing And to his credit Sean

Ryan has always kind of said that like Vic's

a horrible cop. I mean is a terrible person.

He's a bad police officer but deep down sometimes

you wish for that and it's Kind of the same as

the Punisher the Punisher is a horrible human

being Etc. Etc. But sometimes you wish it wish

he existed and In the pilot you I mentioned,

you know, there's a case of the pedophile you

kind of wish for you know There are moments.

Yeah, there are moments. This series does a good

job without kind of Moralizing about it So the

one thing I notice now, 20 years after originally

seeing the show, is that there, at least in the

first season, there are certain lines Vic will

cross, and there are certain things... He won't

do like he says to several of the different drug

dealers You get your kids running around here

makes you know couple of the meth lab people

like make sure they're not near the junk or whatever

get a babysitter or something or whatever so

is Vic it's kind of like the same discussion

we had five years ago with with with Walter White,

you know Now that's a celebrity death match.

I'd like to see Vic Mackey versus Walter White.

I wonder who'd win that I mean he pummelled Walt,

but if But if there's a thinking it it's like

the Batman Yeah thing if if Walt has time to

prepare. No, anyway They'd probably get along

real well actually to be fair No, it isn't Vic

has a soft spot for kids at least early on as

the series goes on he's worse and worse and yeah,

yeah kind of gets really bad and the last sort

of bit is I Can't watch the show without thinking

about the I Think it's the second last episode.

I constantly think about it There's a scene where

Vic sits down calmly and, by the way, spoiler

alert, don't listen to this if you haven't watched

the series in its entirety or if you don't want

spoilers. Are you talking about an episode before

the series finale or the season finale? Series.

Before the series finale. My problem is I can't

not think about it because it changes the shape

of the entire series. Especially when you rewatch

it and that is Vic sits down. He's making a deal

with ice Uh -huh. Oh, I remember this. Yeah,

everyone remembers it. There's a minute and a

half long pause Yeah, and he finally starts with

I murdered a police officer Like yeah, so for

the immunity deal he has to admit to everything

he's done right opens with that and It's so well

done because up until then you've kind of in

your head whether you mean to or not you have

either excused or forgotten or Skip over whatever

you want to call it Some of the awful things

Vic has done and then having him start to lay

them out. Yeah You realize that this guy's a

monster and it's not only that but he doesn't

feel bad about any of it I think in that finale.

He did not feel that okay. Sorry later on he

did not Yeah that at the time. Yes, because in

this season there is some guilt over him killing

a cop Yeah, that you know, but by the time season

seven rolls around fast that well, we will get

there but and the funny thing is is that Shane

has more it's I'm not saying they switched roles,

but Shane and the pilot, when Terry is killed,

he almost has more guilt than Vic does because

he looks at Vic and says, Vic, we killed a cop.

And Vic says whatever he says about, don't bring

it up again, or whatever it is that he says.

I think Shane always had a little bit more. Guilt.

Guilt and. Don't think he enjoyed the stuff they

did as much as Vic Yeah, I think Vic's the real

kind of monster here Shane is also, you know,

absolutely a Monster shame he does but he's bad

about it at least that's true Vic doesn't care

the I guess Oh, God. No, never mind. I'll stop

now. That's a discussion for season six and seven.

That's why we're trying to do this by season,

folks. I guess the question would be in the long

term, though, would Shane or sorry, would Vic

have been able to do some of the things Shane

does in season six? And my answer to that is

probably because what he does in season seven

to somebody close to them. Yeah. Is is you wouldn't

wish it on anybody he anyway he gets he gets

thrown into a prison With the people that they

put in there. Yeah, it's real bad Yeah, that

is another character and that's another time

though. It's but it's I don't know watching this.

It's hard to forget that stuff. Yeah, it feels

different than when I watched this in 2003 Yeah.

And the thing for me is, like I said, 20 years

later, I am watching this with fresh eyes with

everything that has happened in the last 20 years

since this premier, with everything that has

happened in the last two to three to four years,

both in the U .S. and Canada and how, even though

this is a work of fiction, people, still, you

know, the whole every issue with any police department

thing like Look, I respect the hell out of police

officers. They go out there and put their lives

on the line every day It's not an easy job. I

don't It's not an easy job at all. No, no, no,

it is not an easy job at all and Seeing So it's

interesting since 2017 versus now since about

2010, 2011, I have been watching a lot of true

crime stuff. Investigation Discovery and other

things, stuff like Forensic Files and other things.

The main show that I had watched at the time

was Homicide Hunter with Lieutenant Joe Kenda.

And I've listened to his audiobooks and everything

else, and he always says that what they show

you in the movies and on TV is nothing. And that's

the thing, I understand that. I can separate

this fiction from what actually does happen in

real life, even though this show was sort of

loosely based off of a real life event. the overall

premise of the at least the first season or maybe

even just the pilot. I don't know. You know,

it is what it is. And again, you know, we watch

entertainment, we read entertainment, we listen

to entertainment to escape. Is this show a good

show? It is a good show about a lot of bad characters.

Yes, a lot of bad cops and the criminals alike.

You know, it just is what it is The first season

and that's what I was gonna say a second ago

was 20 years ago versus now is I am looking at

this in a whole new light and Season one by the

end of it. I was very uncomfortable It's a show

that holds up well, but I remember even back

when I watched it I would tell people that yeah,

I really like the show but man after I watch

a few episodes I feel like I need a shower And

and honestly that hasn't changed much no, I feel

about the same but yeah, yeah, and I don't want

to hog Everything with Vic, but we mentioned

So for example, we have the Julian being trained

by Danny as one of the side stories here The

big deal with that is it's Julian discovers that

he's gay Yeah, and I do not know how I feel about

how that was handled or anything. Obviously Vic

uses it as blackmail Because again Vic's a crappy

human being We have that we have Danny is having

an affair with Vic which by the way Vic is I

forget to mention this. Yeah, Vic has a wife

and the child Corinne and Matthew Matthew's the

name of the kid, but they have three children

though yeah sorry it's but Matthew's the only

one that well the daughter uh is a little more

important later thank you uh but Matthew is a

big deal because is autistic yep and Vic wants

to use this is a bit of a Walter White thing

he wants to use the money from all his illegal

stuff to try to help Matthew and help his family

the family that by the way he's having affairs

on and eventually Yeah, has a child that because

of an affair and yeah, he's not a great whatever.

Yeah Yeah, he's not a great great character at

all But there are moments at least in this first

season where even though I know he's going down

the path he's gonna go down there are moments

where I Eat 20 years ago and even now where I

felt okay Vic I can Can see where you're going

with this or like, you know, whatever but there

is Does it mean that some of the stuff isn't

you know? So we mentioned before Vic has the

deal with Rondell to try to keep drugs out of

certain areas and away from certain people especially

kids because that's a big deal for him and You

know would Is it yeah, is it better to just have

You know some drugs in a certain area or should

he arrest everybody or there's stuff like that

and Yeah Through the series really the only quote

-unquote clean Groups are there's Claudette definitely

Hello, of course, everybody remembers her two

biggest lines, or at least I do. The first is...

Do the smart thing, though, son. Cut bait. Doesn't

bother you the things he does. I don't judge

other cops. Mac is not a cop. He's Al Capone

with a badge. Al Capone made money by giving

people what they wanted. What people want these

days is to make it to their cars without getting

mugged. Come home from work, see their stereo

still there. Hear about some murder in the barrio

find out the next day the police caught the guy

If having all those things means some cop roughs

up some niggas I'm speaking to get a well as

far as most people are concerned is don't ask

don't tell yep And then her other line in season

7 where like we allowed this, you know, we used

him Yeah, like a tool. We're just as guilty of

all the things he did and again, this is in reference

to Vic. Yeah But yeah, she's Clean for the most

and the for the most part Dutch is too. He does

a few Dutch's I I have problems with Dutch. We'll

get back to Dutch Claudette I agree. She is I

have no issues with Dutch early at least but

later season Dutch Yeah, I have issues with Dutch

early season. Oh this season. Oh my god. He's

going Yeah, I'll get into that in a second Claudette

is amazing throughout the entire series. And

she's a good police officer. Yes, she is a good

police officer. I should mention too, Acevedo

is not a good... He is mostly good in this season.

Yes, he is mostly good in this season. And he's

trying to kind of clean up Vic. Yeah, and then

his whole trajectory goes political and that's

a whole other nightmare for other seasons. but

they're only I believe three characters that

are even though two of them are culpable you

know by association obviously Lem is pretty much

the heart and soul of the team Lem is the guy

it's not he's not gonna I agree anything too

crazy but at the same time he's still following

Vic's lead Ronnie As far as this season, what

little we see of him, he's okay just in this

specific first season. I was gonna correct you,

but yeah, nope, you're right. And then obviously

Claudette. Yeah, and then obviously Claudette.

Claudette is Claudette. So again, I have not

seen this series in a long time, so watching

this back fresh. When I watched some of these

episodes in season one, It was like I was transported

20 years ago and I felt as uncomfortable as I

did then as I do about Dutch is a is a you know,

he's the serial killer cop. He's the guy that

wants the big You know, naming lights because

he's caught this serial rapist or this serial

killer or this or that or whatever. And every

profile thing that he does, I think to myself,

Dutch, stop talking about yourself. Oh, you've

got me shitting me. Because there was the woman,

the woman that comes in to talk to them about

her husband who had died a year ago. And Shane

even points this out to him, which is even worse.

But Shane's like, man, go for, you know, she's

been on the line for blah, blah, blah. And, you

know, whatever. And Dutch just kind of looks

at him like, I do appreciate that. Eventually

we get the Shane and Dutch team up. But anyway,

that's that's way off. Yeah. But I just I don't

know, man, just some of the. things that dutch

does and some of the looks that he gives various

people even the one episode that ends with him

finding out about vic and danny when he's like

oh you've got to be shitting me and the episode

ends and i'm like dutch why are you following

like oh dutch is a very lonely boy for a long

time yeah yeah he is okay Who took my ding -dongs?

Problem touch what? I had some ding -dongs here,

they're gone now. Ding -dongs? What are you,

in kindergarten? Look, I've got a suspect whose

profile screams organized, humiliation -driven

offender, which means he won't crack easy, which

means I've got an interrogation that's probably

gonna go on all night, which means I need my

ding -dongs, and you took them, didn't you? Right.

Because I can't make it through the night without

eating one of your precious ding -dongs. Stay

away from me and stay away from my desk. We got

an interview We all have a bet took my ding -dong.

Oh, come on son fork over his ding -dongs 13

episodes Amazing acting from every single person

no matter what their character was supposed to

be but these actors and actresses Don't think

there's a bad performance in this entire Season

like there isn't like, oh my god, why'd they

do it that like it's more about oh my god Why

did the character do this? It has I'm not in

I'm not in love with Michael Jace as Julian in

this season. I think that one's fair. Yeah, and

You're right. There is a lot of character like

the biggest one is For me, at least. Danny makes

a lot of bad decisions. Yes, she does. Just so

many bad ones, including having an affair with

Vic. She makes a lot of weird choices. Yeah,

she does. And so there's one thing that I remember

from one of the episodes where she says to the

other... uniformed officers or something. Oh,

no, I got other plans or all this or all that.

She makes some excuses to why she can't hang

out with them or why she's not going to hang

out with Dutch to have her study for the sergeant's

exam or something. She goes home. She gets dolled

up. She puts her gun away because she's going

on this blind date. And then she walks back into

the bedroom and brings the gun anyway, which

I don't fault any police officer, especially

a female police officer that is going to do that,

especially if it's a blind date and you haven't

researched the guy. but it just I don't know

man her character in this season she seems like

she's a veteran police officer because she is

Julian's training officer but again some of her

decisions she makes a lot of bad ones through

the series too yeah I mean so this is another

case that maybe I'm kind of it's because I know

where it goes Right. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff

that I thought like I'm not sure Not sure she's

that Smart I don't know. What else do we want

to say about season one? I Feel like we've covered

a lot of it I know a lot of the focus was on

the pilot and I'm just gonna be blunt the most

of the stuff That is important to the rest of

the series happens in the pilot in the pilot

We do have some other things that are important,

i .e. we've got Vic and co. stealing evidence

to kind of clear stuff up and that is a big deal.

There's a lot of stuff though that just doesn't...

part of it is because Rondale dies, so the stuff

with him is not super important. Gilroy loses

his career and then he gets killed eventually,

but that's... That's season two, I think, or

season three. Yeah, him dying is much later,

but he gets canned and leaves. And yeah, it's

mostly there, at least the long -term stuff.

Season one, a lot of it is just kind of getting

to know the characters. I mentioned before that

Ronnie's not even really in this, but we definitely

learn a lot about... Len, honestly, he's not

in it heavily either, though. It's mostly Shane

and Vic, at least in terms of our strike team

pairing. There's an awful lot of Claudette and

Dutch, which I'm perfectly fine with. I could

have, I would have lived with a show about their,

if they'd done a spinoff or something about their

adventures slash being a team, at least for a

while. I don't know. Right. Yeah. And then Acevedo

trying to catch Vic is really kind of the main

portion of of the whole season Yeah Yeah, and

there's so many things with Acevedo and Mackie

in this season that it's like it's like them

just trading barbs with each other half the time

like a lot of the quotable lines are basically

Mackie just going off on Acevedo. I want a shot

at the son of a bitch who did this. Get in line.

Line starts here. I mean, Acevedo gets some good

licks in there, but not many. The only other

thing I think we should mention, because I think

it goes through the rest of the series, at least

until she potentially ends up dead. I forget

what happens to Connie, but Connie is Vic's hooker.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry took me a second. I thought

like oh is he thinking of career and then like

oh, yeah Connie is the is the hooker CI of Vicks

that has the Sun She gets screwed up. She gets

you know, just I Want to know how much makeup

and what they had to do to that actress to get

that knife strike the way it is on her like from

her neck all the way back to her bat like That

was sick. That was crazy. Hey. What's the matter?

You alright? He had a knife. A John? Okay, let

me see. So... He seemed normal, you know? Yeah.

Even paid up front. I go to put the condom on

and the asshole smacks me and tries to rape me.

I know a rape, for Christ's sake. Alright, what

then? I kicked and scratched till I got away.

I got some of his license, but... I want this

print to hurt. But she, you know, is a huge part

of this show, part of Vic's life, and I'm...

Not that I'm glad about this, but I'm glad that...

Yeah. It's like, okay, so eventually it's revealed

later on that Danny ends up pregnant with Vic's

kid. At first, in this first season, I thought...

And I, I pretty much, thankfully they didn't

do this. I thought at first that they were going

to have Connie and Vic have a kid. But I think

he's, I think more with him and the, the, with

Connie, it's more about, you know, I don't want

to say father daughter, but it's more of a, he's

trying to soft spot for sort of seems to care

about her, but not so much later. Yeah, not so

much. I don't know. He cares about the kid more

than kind of... I don't know. It's not a... Yeah,

the only... I bet you Vic's not a great dude.

No. The only other person we haven't talked about

yet is Sean Ryan himself, the creator of the

show. Grew up in Rockford, Illinois. Illinois,

I should say. I haven't forbid I say it the wrong

way. Uh, and the only reason why I know his name

before this show is because he was a part of

the writing staff on my other favorite show,

Nash Bridges. So he was writing Don Johnson as

Nash Bridges and, and, uh, uh, Cheech Mariners,

Joe Dominguez and Nash is more of an upbeat.

I mean, after all, it was on CBS Friday nights

next to Walker, Texas Ranger, and Marshall Law

with Sam O 'Hung. So Nash is like 70 ,000 leagues

different from Vic and the Shield. But I like

the guy. I like Sean's writing. I like the...

I like what he's... And he also was in a... He

was also cheating, but in this case, it was with

Corinne. I'm making a joke. He's married to the

actress who plays Corinne. Yes, yes. And it is

only Michael Chiklis's one daughter, Autumn,

that is originally when I was going back and

looking at this I was like wait weren't all of

his two children in this and I don't I think

it's just the one no I think it's the one yeah

yeah yeah so the shield season one I even though

I'm uncomfortable watching it again because of

everything that's happened in the last 20 years

especially everything that's happened like the

show Still really like the show too. And again

if for me, it's I have a feeling we're gonna

be in agreement. So yeah continue Sorry, I'll

shut up. Well, I think it's all about the fact

that this is a fictional thing So yeah, okay.

Well, but yes, but as this goes along It's very

fictional because I just read the Wikipedia article

about the rampart thing. I I don't remember ever

reading anything in the Rampart incident about

one cop putting a grenade in another cop's car.

Anyway, that's for much later. Wow, now who's

ruining later seasons? Well, you know what? We've

jumped around all over here. Let's be clear,

folks. Ryan and I are both uncomfortable watching

this show because of Events that happen in the

show and we are looking at it at a completely

different light now and This show isn't your

Hills not Hill Street Blues Adam 12 or You know

Barney this isn't the Andy Griffith show. This

isn't any of that It's a rewatching it is a lot

like the wire and Breaking Bad when you know

what happens to everybody Yeah, it feels different

when you know what some of these people become

and what they do Yeah, absolutely and you know

what this first season I I don't know. I'm not

sure like I don't want us to start off at fives,

you know, zero to five rating. I don't want us

to start out at fives and then by the end of

it, season seven is a zero because it's good.

It's good television, but the events that unfold,

it's, I don't, how, how are we going to rate

this thing, Ryan? Cause I don't know. I think

we're fine. Cause like there are, so let me put

it this way. There are better seasons, but there's

also worse seasons. Okay. Yeah, maybe we'll get

in too soon There's stuff. I that worked better

I guess is what I'll say, but there's definitely

stuff that would work worse. I will say that

yeah God, maybe we'll find out as we continue

but The spread might be my least favorite episode

of the series. Well, yeah Let me just do a running

tally here. I don't remember off The top of my

head if there's I know there's another there's

a couple other episodes and I remember the names

of them Off the top of my head, but I do know

there are some other ones that I didn't like

that I thought were just either not great episodes

or there was a little too much Happens like straining

believability. I'll say this in terms of season

one you mentioned How much stuff there's going

on is going on I could have done without some

of the Gilroy stuff ie Gilroy needs Vic to cover

up like a drunk driving or whatever case it was

like At first I agree with you and then all of

that came back into play at the finale They do

a good job of using it my issue is like there's

already a lot going on It feels like we could

have spread out some of the stuff. And I think

during some of that is when they have like some

of the stuff with the shield in season one is

they have Vic and his team doing one thing and

then somehow that ends up careening into what

Dutch and Claudette are doing on their case.

So their cases are now connected. And then sometimes

you have Danny and Julian doing stuff on the

street. that they end up calling so it all kinds

of kind of comes together at one point or another

and then it all kind of separates where they're

all on their own separate trajectories. So and

then there's this we really can't not talk about

this before we get out of here is that when the

strike team is disassembled for the first time

and they're all reassigned to various things

you have Claudette and Vic teaming up and you

have Shane and Dutch teaming up and I'm just

like Wait a minute Shane and Dutch really I was

said that that was only that only lasted an episode

essentially I honestly would have liked to have

them there to have them do it for maybe even

a few I feel like it would have been a little

more realistic to if it was more than You know

one episode mmm. I don't know. There's They speed

stuff up a little much Sometimes and other times

It's not it's a little slower than I'd like we'll

get into it in later seasons Yeah, so in total

the show has I believe a hundred and eighty eight

episodes Season 1 & 2 are 13 each season 3 is

15 season 4 is 13 5 is 11 6 is 10 and 7 is 13

funny thing about season 5 & 6 is that was originally

supposed to be one whole season I think and then

they split it up. Well season 7 was split to

remember they split to the point that Initially

on DVD they released it in portions. They did

the sopranos I think was I'm trying to remember,

Sopranos and Battlestar Galactica are the two

I remember doing it first. And then yeah, The

Shield did it, which by the way was really annoying.

I dislike when shows do that, but whatever. Yeah,

season three should have been shorter and season

five should have been 600 episodes longer. Season

four was pretty much perfect. God, I loved Glenn

Close and the show. some of the guest stars so

you know we'll get into it later but holy cow

Glenn Close is amazing unsurprisingly that's

not you know the the big one that I remember

well uh Anthony Anderson oh yeah when he came

on he's so good in this show as Antoine Mitchell

Antoine Mitchell was so great and then Just when

you think that okay, we had Glenn Close and we

have Anthony Anderson is in that same season

he's introduced and Okay, Glenn Close great Anthony

Anderson amazing. You're going they can't do

any better than this. Let's introduce Forrest

Whitaker as Lieutenant Kavanaugh as part of internal

affairs. Oh man this oh it was perfect and Yeah,

anywho, but yeah, that's later stuff Yeah, this

is all you know all the guest star stuff all

of the major guest stars that they get that they

got for this show is Almost like any other television

show that gets major guest stars that you would

not think Yeah, I never yeah never thought Glenn

close to do TV For example, and then yeah, she

comes on this show for a season and is just knocks

it out of the park. Yeah so yeah my Review I'm

giving it just a really high Four out of five

only because I think there's better seasons Okay,

I want to I want to leave some room But it's

really good It leans towards a four point five

to a five It's still really good it's great if

you enjoy watching character dramas or you enjoy

watching actors who just do an incredible job

as the character, especially, excuse me, especially

Michael Chiklis. Yeah, I mean that guy, he is

so good in this. So good. I want to wait before

I sing his praises too much and bring up a lot

of his stuff, because he actually somehow gets

better as the show goes on. Yeah, absolutely.

For me, I... I want to give it higher. I want

to give it higher, trust me, but there are better

seasons, and there's one that's not going to

be as high, definitely, but I want some place

to go. When, say, we introduce some of those

guest actors I mentioned. Yeah, absolutely. I

am probably going to season one. I really like

like like we already said, I really enjoyed the

pilot. I really enjoyed the finale. I enjoyed

a couple of the episodes in between. But overall,

I am probably going to give it a three and a

half out of five. Now, the reason why I say this

is because three and a half out of five is good.

Yes. No, but our GCR universal rating system,

3 .5 is good. Issues are certainly prevalent,

but so are the successes. Typically, there is

one specific area of extraordinary achievement

or multitude of quality moments that make the

negative aspects relatively easy to accept. I

don't know if that's so much truth for this show

because some of the... Things in this whatever

but yeah, so yeah overall three and a half out

of five. It's not a bad rating at all and Just

wow, it's gonna be interesting to see where we

go from here We are gonna take a quick break

come back and close the show after this, you

know what you're doing son Like science fiction,

of course you do or you would be listening to

the geek cast radio network Well, the Markhoo42's

universe podcast is an award -winning sci -fi

radio show that's been around for over 10 years.

We cover everything from Doctor Who to the MCU

to pop culture and everything in between. A new

show drops on Tuesday mornings on the GCRN website

and all of the major podcast platforms. So listen

to the Markhoo42's universe podcast from the

universe and beyond. Because the world needs

another movie podcast. The Geekcast Radio Network

presents for your listening pleasure, this cinematic.

Hosted by Amanda, Kevin, Matt, and Dan. Each

week we dive head first in the landscape of movies

as we discuss movie news, play movie games, go

in depth on reviews, and even have a top 10 countdown

or two. Also, don't miss our director retrospective

series where we review noted director's movies,

filmed by film. Bottom line is, if you love movies

and love podcasts, you need to experience the

Cinema Geeks. You can find us on iTunes, Blog

.Radio, or GeekcastRadio .com. Kid? Yes? Shut

up. Beyond the Night is the GCRN's latest review

podcast. We are covering everything in the Knight

Rider television universe. From the classic 80s

TV series to the 1991 reunion film... Team Knight

Rider, and the 2008 relaunched series as well.

So join TF2 and Mike and Dion the Music Man as

they go in depth in Beyond the Knight only on

Geekcast Radio Network. You can find Beyond the

Knight in iTunes and on www .geekcastradio .com.

Geek. Yes, Michael. Just keep driving. Hello

geeks and geekettes. Looking for a podcast that

covers a vast array of topics? then check out

Altered Geek Unleashed, where we discuss our

thoughts on this week's geeky news, tech, gaming,

television shows, movies, cartoons, comics, and

more. So, get Altered Get Geeky with the Altered

Geeks, every Friday on the Geekcast Radio Network.

Hey guys, it's Rodimus Primal and be sure to

check out my YouTube channel. Join me as I have

Transformers discussions, retrospectives, toy

reviews, and more. You can also follow me on

Twitter at Rodimus Primal as well as Facebook

and Instagram at Rodimus Primal Show. Transform

and roll out and be sure to check out my content.

Till all are one. Since 2009, we have been the

premiere cartoon podcast here at the Geekcast

Radio Network. We are Tooncast. From taking you

beyond the cartoons we grew up with to seasonal

saucy toon talk, and now we get the origins of

toonstars everywhere as we ask guests... 30 questions

about their cartoon watching experiences, plus

so much more. Tooncast is back, join me, TF2

and Mike and the rest of the GCRN crew as we

give you all the Toon Talk you will ever need,

only on the GCRN. And wherever you consume your

podcasts, we are beyond good, beyond evil, beyond

your wildest imagination, we are all Toons, all

the time, here on Tooncast. I'm gonna hit the

head. I'll see you in the clubhouse. All right,

folks Any final words from you sir that we want

to impart about the shield season? I give this

show for comics ology relaunches out. Hey, hey

Six, I don't know what that rating means at all

That's a backless ten that's a zero one that's

a zero zero zero one one one one one percent

All right. Yeah, no. Thank you for joining us

here inside this studio. If you'd like to get

in contact with us, leave feedback for the show.

There are several ways to do so. Visit the website

where you can listen to and comment on all of

our content. That is, of course, geekcastradio

.com. Send us an email to feedback at geekcastradio

.com. Here are all the ways you can listen to

us nowadays at Google Podcasts, Spotify, and

any other podcasting client you choose to use.

Follow us on Twitter at geekcastradio for the

network at its... ITS studio 2009 all one award

for the show. I'm at TF2 and Mike. What is your

Twitter? I'm only on myspace now. It's no I'm

at night beats Oh, man, this week's gonna be

great thing finally get back to posting about

comics video games movies and the bills and not

Why are you posting about the bills they weren't

in the Super Bowl Anyway, become a damn close

man. Those are good games. Hey Become a fan of

Facebook go to Facebook comm slash geek cast

reading it work You can also search out studio

2009 podcast over there as well join us next

time when we will be talking about something

folks I don't know. I know next time around is

episode 37 Oh, that's on a different podcast.

That's not no We're not gonna carry it over to

all of them I don't know yet. Anyway, for now,

I'm TF2 and Mike with... Ryan, the uneven flow,

me. You'll hear us back in the studio soon. Can

you tell how uneven his flow is, folks? I mean,

come on. Peterson, the john's still not working.

Plumber must have gotten lost. Look, the city

wants to thank us for a job well done. How's

about making sure we don't all have to cram into

the same goddamn stall? Vic can I see you give

me a sec? I need you now. I'm taking a piss Provided

the spot in the ladies room opens up. I got my

fingers crossed now