I watched the last two episodes of this show tonight and I felt compelled to mention it. If you’re familiar with the show and would like some additional thoughts, you can check out The Watcher’s take. If you already know the show, haven’t seen the finale, and think you might be interested, I highly recommend you skip that link and enjoy it spoiler free.

First a little history on how I got acquainted with The Shield. In the summer between my sophomore and junior years of college, I stayed in Manhattan and worked as a “Cool Cat.” It was a silly name for a group of about 20 of us that basically ran the residence halls for summer students and conferences. The job came with a lot of free time, so we were always looking for things to keep us occupied. There were also a few summer RAs who had similar schedules and responsibilities, so we spent a lot of time together. We started having watch parties for movies and TV shows on DVD on nights thatwhen many of us were free. After a few nights with good turnout, Jake (one of the RAs), suggested we start watching The Shield. I had a vague idea that Michael Chiklis was in a new show, but I didn’t really know anything about it. I’d watched him in The Commish as a kid, so I knew who he was. Jake assured me that The Shield was, in fact, totally awesome and that I would get hooked if I gave it a chance. He also warned me that the show was different than most in pretty much every way. He was right on both accounts.

From the opening scene, the show was something new that I’d never seen before. The first chase almost made me sick due to the camera work, but I couldn’t stop watching. And then, less than 45 minutes into the series, the main character shot another cop in cold blood. That pretty much set the tone for the entire show, and I knew I couldn’t stop. I asked Jake if I could borrow the rest of the DVD set and started watching. The first two seasons were already out, so I caught up quickly and only had to wait about 6 months for season 3 to start. The wait between seasons was always excruciating. I will never forget my disbelief after the strike team successfully stole millions from the Armenian money train, or the moment when Shane dropped a grenade in Lem’s lap and walked away.

I’ve enjoyed this show immensely for reasons I’m not even sure I can explain. Despite the craziness of the scheming and plotlines involved, the writing, acting, and execution was always top notch. The actors made the characters real to me, and after spending almost 90 episodes with them, I was right there feeling their every emotion during the finale. I’ve always been impressed when an actor/writer/director uses nothing but silence to convey a characters thoughts and emotions. Vic says almost nothing for the last 10 minutes, and yet you can almost hear his brain working and see the waves of realization wash over him. I’d never heard of Walter Goggins before this show, but I won’t soon forget his performance here. Escaping into the world of The Shield has been my guilty pleasure, letting me root for the bad guy (’cause let’s face it, Vic Mackey was a cop, but he is definitely the villain, not the hero).

The Shield is certainly not for the faint of heart, but if you think you can stomach it, I encourage you to give it a chance. The finale wrapped up the majority of story lines and gave a fitting end to most of the characters. There were a few shocking moments (I was not expecting Shane’s last moments), and a few predictable ones (Aceveda seems a shoe-in for his coveted post), but all in all a very fitting end to one of my favorite shows ever. Thank you to Shawn Ryan, Michael Chiklis, Walton Goggins, and everyone else who made this show a joy to watch. And, Jake – wherever you are – thanks for getting me hooked.

I cannot believe this show was cancelled in favor of more Seventh Heaven. No matter what anyone says, I’ve never had a show draw me into the characters lives’ as completely as Everwood did. Getting me hooked on the show might be one of the only decent things Jimmy ever did for me. The series finale was somewhat predictable and sappy of course, but the writers always managed to do that in a unique way that made it worth it. I think I might just own the entire series on DVD. Everwood, you will be missed.

What could have been.

Since The Shield started up again on FX, I’ve been seeing previews for this show and it piqued my curiosity. Once the premiere came close enough, I set the DVR to record it to see if it would be any good. If nothing else, it looked like an interesting concept and while I wasn’t sure about pure entertainment value I thought it might be worth watching.

As of today something like four episodes have aired, and I’ve watched the first two. It started off a little bit slow as they explained the premise (which I already knew after one promo spot). Basically two families live in the same house together and attempt to give each other the experience of living as the opposite race. Makeup artists work their airbrush magic to change black to white and vice versa.

The first episode kind of laid the groundwork for the opinions of those involved in “the project” as they call it. The black dad is amazed at how much better he gets treated as a white man. The white mom thinks she grew up with a liberal family and this project won’t be a stretch for her. The black mom is sensitive to racially charged language. The white dad thinks racism is all in blacks’ interpretations. The black son couldn’t care less about the whole thing. The white daughter seems to have the best grasp of the whole point of the show out of any of them.

Each family is supposed to help the other to gain the full experience of living as the other race. So far, this hasn’t really happened. The black family feels like they already know what it takes to be white because they “put on that face” all the time to be accepted in white society. The white family assumes they know what it takes to be black, and – not surprisingly – they have no idea. They end up trying way too hard; but then again, the black family isn’t really helping them out either.

The most interesting component for me is the situation they’ve put the white daughter in. She’s attending a slam poetry class with some very open and honest black teens who lay out all their feelings for everyone to hear. She struggles with the fact that she might not live up to their expectations, but more than that, she feels horrible hiding who she really is when they are being so honest. In the episode I just watched, she actually revealed to them that she was really a white girl in black makeup. I can’t imagine how hard that must have been for her to admit that she’d essentially been lying to them. The reaction was mixed – some of them were supportive, but one in particular felt betrayed and let her know it. Still, it’s obvious that she understands what they’re doing, and genuinely appreciates their varied reactions. So far she seems to be the only one who really gets it.

One thing is immediately obvious – these are two very different worlds being forced to collide. It’s no surprise that not everything is going to go well. After two episodes, I’m hooked in. I’m interested to see where things will go from here, even if it’s uncomfortable at times. Still, after finishing an episode a few minutes ago I couldn’t help but think the whole thing was a little depressing. Granted it’s still early, but the level of understanding between the two families is almost non-existent. I hope at the end I’ll be pleasantly surprised and not bitterly disappointed. If you haven’t seen the show, it’s worth checking it out Wednesdays on FX.