While I'm waiting for the pre-aired episode of Dexter to *ahem* arrive I've decided to talk about Six Feet Under. I suspect it might be because both shows star Michael C. Hall in them and show what a fantastic character actor he is, because he's damn near unrecognisable as David Fisher when compared to Dexter Morgan.


Starring:

Peter Krause as Nate Fisher
Michael C. Hall as David Fisher
Frances Conroy as Ruth Fisher
Lauren Ambrose as Claire Fisher
Mathew St. Patrick as Keith Charles
Freddy Rodríguez as Federico Diaz
and Rachel Griffiths as Brenda Chenowith
With Richard Jenkins as Nathaniel Fisher


There are some shows I will point at and call 'landmark television', these are shows that managed to change the landscape of televisual storytelling through their existence or highlighted an exciting new way to tell their story. Some of them lost their way and suffered at times (like 24, Lost, Prison Break & BSG) while others never had a single major duff moment (like The Shield, The Wire, Dexter, Homicide, Arrested Development & Seinfeld). Six Feet Under belongs to the latter category.

The show, created by Alan Ball, centers around the lives of the Fisher family; who own, run and live in a funeral home. They live their lives steeped in death, surrounded by the dead and grieving. This could appear to be a bleak existence for anyone, but for the Fishers it's life as usual. Which is the core concept of the show for me, it's about death but it celebrates life.

Everything about the show is simultaneously macabre and beautiful, at least one person dies in every episode - normally these people become the clients for the Fisher family - and these deaths are handled in a way that is sometimes shocking, sometimes amusing but always original. Much like the start of House M.D. or any hospital drama you find yourself watching for the soon to be deceased and wondering who & how. Then once the moment comes the show treats it with a quiet dignity that is at first unexpected and then wonderful. Unlike most shows, Six Feet Under uses fades to white instead of the standard fade to black. These fades are used to mark each death in the show along with their name, date of birth and date of death. It's a unique touch that manages to suggest a sense of hope about what lays beyond life's ultimate doorway.



Nate Fisher is the oldest child of Nathaniel & Ruth Fisher, he grew up hating life in the funeral home and moved far away, returning only to visit the family on holidays. But on one such visit he meets a beautiful woman in the airport and they are overcome by their impulses. While this is happening tragedy strikes the Fisher family and it changes the course of Nate's life forever. Forcing him to stay in Los Angeles and help with the family business.

On one level the show deals with death and the various characters viewpoints, expectations and experiences of it. Each and every character has a fundamental sadness to them, they are forever marked by their experiences. But the other side of the show is a rather more conventional family driven drama, Claire has problems in school, David and Keith have difficulties in their relationship (mostly driven initially by David's reluctance to come out of the closet) and Nate struggles with the new direction his life has taken. It's a show with a very black sense of humour to it, while you won't spend every moment laughing - it has more than it's fair share of comedy moments.



Six Feet Under altered the direction of modern television in a profound manner, before death was mostly something that tended to happen only in crime dramas and was something to be "solved". But the show turned it into something of a spectacle and made a real event out of people dying. It broke down many of the taboos surrounding death, it was also one of the first major shows to portray a gay couple in a realistic and sensitive manner. David and Keith's relationship is a very realistic one, they feel like a proper couple and the show doesn't seem to take advantage of this by playing up the gay aspect. It's very well handled.

Michael C. Hall's performance as David Fisher was in fact so good that quite often viewers expressed surprise when they discovered he was in fact not gay in real life. The man is a phenomenal character actor and he was the sole reason I started watching Dexter. Peter Krause is also superb as Nate, giving a wonderful 'everyman' performance that helps cement the viewer into the reality of his new life. Sadly Peter hasn't really moved onto anything else that's interested me, I kept meaning to watch "Dirty, Sexy, Money" because he was in it, but I never got round to it. Likewise every other member of the core cast is just brilliant, I could go into what each and every single one brings to the show but I'll just stop by saying Mathew St. Patrick rocks.


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I've decided to waste time complete my reviews of the Red Dwarf collection DVDs for the sake of completeness while I'm waiting to watch the final two episodes of Burn Notice.


For the previous series review see here:
Series 1
Series 2

Starring:
Chris Barrie as Arnold Rimmer
Craig Charles as Dave Lister
Danny John-Jules as "The Cat"
Robert Llewellyn as Kryten
Hattie Hayridge as Holly


The third series of Red Dwarf marks the point where the show evolved into the entity that captured the hearts of the British nation. Sadly it is also the first season where Normal Lovett was not involved in the project, Hattie Hayridge (who played Hilly in the final episode of the previous season) takes over the role for the next three series. A large amount of events are explained in a ludicrously fast moving set of text that parodies Star Wars. The short version is, Holly has changed his appearance, Lister has repaired Kryten but had to give him a new head and Lister's twin sons have left to their mother's dimension.

Series Three is really where Red Dwarf found its feet and struck a balance between dialog and sci-fi action. It's also the first series I actually watched as it was being broadcast on TV, having just become old enough to be allow to stay up. As such I have fond memories of the episodes, but on rewatching they hold up brilliantly.

The first episode Backwards is a clever piece that has the crew discovering a wormhole that leads to a 'modern day' (i.e. 1990s) version of Earth where time travels backwards. Initially Rimmer and Kryten find the place first and enjoy their lives but Lister and the Cat ruin it for them and they end up leaving. Marooned is a fantastic character driven showpiece for Chris Barrie and Craig Charles which has their characters stranded on an ice planet and Lister forced to go to extreme lengths to survive. Polymorph remains my favourite episode of this series as it features massive laughs (especially in the boxers scene) and some of the most memorable lines from the show. Bodyswap is another episode where the actors get a chance to show off, this time it's Craig, Chris and Danny who all get to act like each other as their personalities have been swapped about. Timeslides I'm not so fond of, it has a lot of cause and effect but it also has a very major change to the history of the show being used as a throwaway gag at the end and it doesn't really work. The Last Day is a strong ending to the series, when Kryten's expiration date comes up his replacement arrives, and the long journey in space has affected his sanity.

It's a great series of the show and it sets up the sweet period for Red Dwarf (Series three to six are the best, especially series six) and it often serves as a better introduction to the show over the first two series.


Packaging:
The BBC have kept the same standard for every series throughout, matching the spine up on each series to create a copy of the logo and only changing the colour plus stills used on each. I love this attention to detail as nothing throws me more than a series switching up their design halfway through.

Extras:
As always the BBC put others to shame with the extras on this. Not only do you get excellent and interesting cast commentary on every single episode (even if Danny is a little bit too fond of the word woofer) you also get a whole separate disc filled with stuff:

Cast Commentary
"All Change" Original Documentary
Deleted Scenes
Smeg Ups (Out takes)
Hatties DJ Diary
Tribute to Mel Bibby
"Food" Featurette
Backwards - Forwards
Trailers
Raw FX Footage
Isolated Music Cues
Talking Book Chapters
Photo Gallery
Weblink
And Easter Eggs plus a collectors booklet

Price:
The outright winner for this boxed set is play.com who have it at £7.99. Which is 4.9ppm, of course the problem with UK TV shows is they are always shorter than the American ones which makes it hard for them to ever win the ppm wars.

Details:
Run time: 161 mins
Aspect Ratio: 4:3 Full Frame
Audio: Stereo
Colour: PAL
Subtitles: English - SDH

Series three of Red Dwarf is an exceptionally excellent package. It's got it all in there and the amazing thing is that the show continues to get better after this one, it's Red Dwarf just as it finds a stride. I'd recommend anyone who's not watched the show to try this one first as it gives you a better idea of what the show is really like, the first two series feel very different (but are worth watching after this one).



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At the end of every week (Friday) I'm going to post the best reviews I've read around the net about each episode of the final season. Naturally you follow these links at your own risk if you've not watched up to and including episode 701.

Here's the first batch:

TV.Com - There are five at the moment and I'm sure more will turn up later. They're a mixed bag, some are a good read, others not so.

2GuysTalking - This one is a biggie, there's one heck of a lot of information and thoughts about the episode. Fortunately for us it's all broken down into sections with headers for each. Nicely laid out imo and worth at least skimming through.

Daemonstv - A very short one from Eric at daemonstv, highlighting how confusing the show can be for viewers, I feel especially sorry for our US cousins who have only just had the 6th season released on DVD. Over here in Blighty we've had around half a year to watch and re-watch the 6th season so I didn't have that much trouble following (I did for get one or two character names, I still can't recall the name of the darn tycoon who's so important).

TheTwoCents - At first I wasn't sure where the review was here, but it turned out to be located in the comments, a pretty clever way of hiding spoilers without having to use HTML which still doesn't work quite right. *shakes a fist*

IMDB - melanie809 (and others I assume, but she's the last to update when I looked) provides a synopsis/recap here that's shows a little bit of Dutch loving and manages to cover most of the details in the episode. Good place to check if you're not sure on something, for example that tycoon is called Pezuela! I have no excuses now!

TVsquad - Jonathan Toomey runs through his thoughts on the premiere and there's even a poll for predicting how things will end up for Vic. They missed out the option I would have voted for, which is "He walks away from everything and just disappears." But it seems most people think Vic needs to catch a bullet/needle for everything his done.

Author Jason Pinter's Thoughts are here.

And of course there are Alan Sepinwall's review as well. I already linked to that one before in my own review, but I'm including it here for the sake of completeness.

If anyone comes across any others, hook me up.
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For a while now I've enjoyed the fact that I can watch The Colbert Report legally via the Comedy Central website, especially because I do not get FXUK in my viewing package and switching up in order to get it isn't an option right now.

But this week Comedy Central took a HUGE step backwards in the world of free media and closed its viewing borders. Putting it back with less enlightened sites like Showtime, tv.com and so forth.

They've tipped my hand, I was content to watch episodes with a full 2 mins of advertising in them because it was legaly available. But now I'm stuck with going back to the original method I used to watch the show and I don't want to do that because of the hassle, illegality and so forth. So I'm afraid that The Colbert Report is disappearing from my "Currently Watching" list and will not be returning until Comedy Central rescind this action. What happened to the golden age of media? Where's our culture?

They're not going to bully me into watching FXUK, not even if it does show all of the best television.


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So here we are; at the beginning of the end with the first episode in The Shield: The Final Act and the long wait is finally over. The Co-Efficient of Drag brings us right back to the action the day after season six's finale and gets on with the meat of the show immediately.

More after the link...

Unlike my Burn Notice reviews which are part recap/part review I'm just going to be reviewing my thoughts on each Shield episode right after watching it. This is in part to keep the amount of writing down in size and in part because I don't like pausing The Shield to make notes.

The Shield hasn't ever had a single bad episode ever, in fact even average episodes for this show are well above the standard of the rest. But often the season openers are a little weaker than the main thrust of the season. (When I say weaker I mean weaker in comparison to standard set by the Shield, they're still amazing). And The Co-Efficient of Drag has a similar feel to it, the viewer is left trying to recall all the events of the previous season (even I struggled and I watched Season 6 last week) and the "Previously on The Shield" segment doesn't cover everything.

So here's the short version: Shane is in bed with the Armenians, Vic is facing retirement and has formed an alliance with Acevada against a property tycoon (who's name evades me right now - but I'm sure I'll get to know it as the season progresses) while also siding with the tycoon in an attempt to use the man's pull to keep his badge. Billings has set up a law suit against the department, Claudette has to improve the stats for the department or it'll get closed, Julien is a part of the strike team and Hiatt has been fired.

So the action takes place the day after the end of the sixth season and it opens with a pretty hard hitting scene that was leaked/released onto the Internet a while back. Vic and Ronnie hit Shane's home in retaliation for his kidnapping of Vic's family. Shane barely manages to explain his situation and he sets events in motion for the episode, it becomes a race between Vic plus Ronnie and Shane to find the hit man Shane shot in the previous season. Whoever makes it there first will

In counterpoint to this intense storyline we have two others, bodies are being dragged along streets to mark out territory (this links to the property tycoon) and a female federal agent joins the Barn as part of the investigation. Anyone want to make a bet how long it is before she ends up sleeping with Vic? And the other storyline provides lighter relief as it involves Dutch investigating one of Billings's old cases and brings him back into the show.

I'm very pleased to see Billings back as he's just fantastic in this show. David Marciano is a great actor and he really sells Billings as a believable human being. It would be too easy for someone to ham it up with a big selection of salad sauce when they're given such an obvious clown role, but David doesn't. He manages to give him a human quality while also not distracting us from the facts that Billings is a cowardly weasel of a man who can occasionally show signs of being a brilliant cop. Also pairing Billings with Dutch on screen is always great.

The main event in this episode, and the one that provides the punch; is Ronnie's actions. This episode marks the moment where Ronnie steps over the line and kills in cold blood. Something Vic did with Terry and Shane did with Lem. We always knew that Ronnie was going to get more screen time once Lem was out of the picture and this episode shows not only will we have a larger role for Ronnie, but it also shows that David Rees Snell can act. It's good to see Ronnie becoming his own man.

Speaking of acting, it's also clear that Walton Goggins (Shane Vandrell) has upped his game; he's gained some composure and a lot of presence; the scenes where he's talking in prison are great and he's now able to hold his own in a scene against Michael Chiklis. While ultimately Shane cannot be forgiven for killing Lem ("Lem was family" - Vic) at least it doesn't appear that he's going to be spending the season whining and screwing up all the time (maybe just some of it.)

Julien, Danny and Tina get minor roles in this episode. Julien in particular feels sidelined at the moment; but it's tough for his character because he's been placed into a team that's lost members, has a close knit core group and is currently divided against itself. Danny on the other hand has a bit of a shock moment where she's attacked by a hiding criminal after the room was supposed to be cleared - needless to say she wants the job of the officer responsible and I suspect that Tina is the guilty party here, she's a complete screw up.

There are also a lot of call backs already:
Aramboles was left chained up in the room where Vic killed Guardo last season
Claudette's illness is still an issue
Danny and Dutch's kiss was wrapped up very quickly thanks to Dutch's usual lack of social abilities. Hee!
The new agent came from the same department as Haitt
The DA who appears also featured in Season 4
There is a call back to a scene from the second season where the head of the battered woman shelter (who Vic was dating) shoved an abusive husband over the railing

So as beginnings go it was a pretty good one for The Shield. The episode was one of the strongest initial season episodes and holds up alongside Season 4 or 5 - both of which had additional punch thanks to Glen Close and Forest Whitaker. So it's a great start and having Ronnie finally step over the same line as Vic and Shane gave it additional meaning which I didn't expect to see so soon in the season.

For another review of this episode I'd recommend reading Alan Sepinwall's blog post located here. (I will be reading it right after clicking "Publish Post" as I prefer to write my own review before reading ones belonging to others.)

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As I'm sure you're aware the first episode of the final season of The Shield airs on FX tonight at 10pm (68 mins long apparently). I hope you're ready for this as it's going to be the most gut wrenching ride this side of the falls. There will be a review up tomorrow evening (GMT), which gives people time to view the episode without being hit by spoilers. I will still put it behind a cut mind you.

I'd like to give a warm welcome to a brand new blog in the form of Snark and Fury. There's no content there right now but I can assure you that past writing about television from the author (on his other blog) has always been entertaining so it's one to keep an eye on.

In other Shield related news (all spoiler free unless specifically mentioned otherwise):
Here's a link to Alan Sepinwall's mostly spoiler light review on NJ.com
The teaser trailer on YouTube
A few Publicity stills from season 7
A series of final cuts on FX Networks (should be spoiler free) including a look back at the previous six seasons
TV Squad's and Cinema Blend both have an early look at The Shield (Minor spoilers in each, I didn't read too hard once I realised)

I'll see you back here tomorrow after I've watched the first episode!
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Direct Link to the site:
http://www.watchtheguild.com/

Starring:
Felicia Day as "Codex"
Sandeep Parikh as "Zaboo"
Jeff Lewis as "Vork"
Amy Okuda as "Tinkerballa"
Robin Thorsen as "Clara"
Vincent Caso as "Bladezz"

The Guild is a collection of that short web-isodes that have been out for a while and focus on a small group of dysfunctional individuals who draw their entire social support system from each other, via the medium of an online guild in an undisclosed game (but most likely World of Warcraft).

Now this show is about a subject that I have a rather; intense dislike of. I really don't approve of MMOs as a whole, especially the latest batch headed up by World of Warcraft. Originally I wasn't that bothered about them, but having lived with people who became complete WoW-Heads and as such totally obnoxious losers who lived strange hours, smelt bad and talked in complete net-speak gibberish I'm not too well disposed towards them any more.

Note: I'm sure there are well balanced individuals who treat MMOs as occasional bursts of enjoyment out there. But I can't understand how people can spend hours sat in front of what is essentially a very bad movie without getting bored. Still people are free to spend their lives as they wish and it doesn't harm me so enjoy!

Felicia Day (who recently shot to fame as Penny in Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog and previously appeared on shows like Buffy) stars in and writes this off beat comedy about a young lass who's entire life is currently lived on the Internet as part of a tiny group of fellow addicts loosely called 'The Guild'. Her life is disrupted when 'Zaboo' turns up uninvited on her doorstep and starts proclaiming his undying love for her. This, combined with an "in-game" issue with Bladezz spamming 'fag' galvanizes her into arranging a face to face meeting with the other members of the guild. Who all live locally but have never met before...


It's not a bad little diversion to watch in an evening, each episode is approximately five minutes long and it's quite funny at times. Felicia is very likable and amusing as Codex and performances from the rest of the cast are equally strong, Jeff Lewis (Vork) and Vincent Caso (Bladezz) in particular are great, but I also enjoyed Amy Okuda's disinterested put-downs thrown at various times. You're left wondering why on earth she bothers with them because she seems to do nothing but insult the others and play on her DS. Which I found very amusing.

But it's not all perfection, parts of the dialog I found just too dorky for my stomach to handle, especially the stuff in the final episode which had me cringing when the guild members use in game terms while confronting Zaboo's mother in a restaurant - treating the whole thing like a "boss battle". I'm sure MMO users will find that part very funny, but I didn't like it.

Additionally, I just could not stand Zaboo from the very first moment he turned up; this was intentional as he's an unwelcome guest in Codex's house and she's too passive to properly drive him out. But I found myself getting irritated at him every time he opened his mouth. This isn't to say everything that he does is annoying and unfunny. The photo shopped picture of himself and Codex was amusing and the Ethernet cable incident made me laugh. But on the whole he was the weakest part of the series and for me this was a shame because most of the story revolves around him. Also, and I know this is entirely superficial, but I hate his eyebrows - man they are annoying.

Last of all, I could not stand the 'theme music' they've chosen to use; please - if you ever read this guys - switch it up next season and use something that sounds less like fairies taking a whizz on bells. I found myself skipping past it every single episode and it's only a few seconds long.

Still, negative feelings about Zaboo and the extreme, cringe worthy level of dorkiness (both of which are in the same area of comedy as "The Office" and "Fawlty Towers" so they're still quite acceptable) it's a great little series that should appeal to computer people (ooh you computer people with your computer stuff and your computer lingo, you scare me!). I guess I'm not part of the target demographic but I still enjoyed it once I gave it a chance.

I'll give it a 3/5 (which is pretty good for an independent, free, net web-isode thing) and I look forward to the next 'season'.


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Homicide Series 6 came out today but I didn't get a free copy (I guess all that Fremantle Media Enterprises bashing over the packaging doesn't pay) and as it doesn't include the film (Homicide: Life Everlasting) and the cheapest it's available for is £27.89 at sendit I've decided against purchasing it for a while. I really regret not ordering the region 1 versions from Amazon these days mind you. But let's push on and look at series five shall we?

For the previous reviews in the Homicide series check here:
The Complete First Series (Seasons One and Two)
The Complete Second Series (Season Three)
The Complete Third Series (Season Four)
The Complete Fourth Series (Season Five)


Starring:
Richard Belzer as Detective John Munch
Yaphet Kotto as Lieutenant Al Giardello
Kyle Secor as Detective Tim Bayliss
Clark Johnson as Detective Meldrick Lewis
Andre Braugher as Detective Frank Pembleton
Reed Diamond as Detective Mike Kellerman
Peter Gerety as Detective Stuart Gharty
Jon Seda as Detective Paul Falsone
Callie Thorne as Detective Laura Ballard
Michelle Forbes as Dr Julianna Cox


Season Six/Series Five of Homicide is possibly the show at it's finest, from the triple bill opening episodes guest starring James Earl Jones through to an electrifying final episode the show delivers blow after blow of highest quality entertainment.

The cast gets quite an overhaul compared to previous seasons; Brodie (Max Perlich), Kay Howard (Melissa Leo), Megan Russertt (Isabella Hofmann) all depart. Also Paul Falsone (Jon Seda) moves up from guest star to regular member, Laura Ballard joins (Callie Thorne) and Terri Stivers (Toni Lewis) gets additional screen time. But the most surprising return is when the cowardly cop Stuart Gharty (Peter Gerety, The Wire) from season four's episode "Scene of the Crime" and Season Five's two parter "Partners and Other Strangers" and "Strangers and Other Partners" (where he was IAD) has been transfered into Homicide. A theme of unjust promotions that runs through the series (and it's descendant "The Wire").

Kellerman's actions from the end of the previous season hold a huge sweeping presence over several cast members in this season and heavily influence the actions of several members of the unit. There is another cross over episode with Law & Order in "Baby it's you" and things build up to a terrific final episode that really rocks the boat.

This season is every bit as good as previous ones, while the new detectives can be a little hard to adjust to - especially Falsone as he keeps prodding into the events of the previous season - they all give excellent performances and fit in well by the end of the season. Homicide deserves those three Peaboy's it's won as it really is such a fantastic show.


Packaging:
I'm really a bit tired of pointing out the flaws in this range. The main thing it has going for it is it matches up with series four; but this means it doesn't match up with series 1 to 3. Again a simple cardboard dust sleeve would have mostly fixed this problem at minimal cost. Also once again the photos on the back are from the incorrect seasons; this time we have one that's actually from season 6 (series 5) but the other two are from before series 3 as Baldwin and Beatty make an appearance again...

Extras:
None, as usual.

Details:
Run time: 1035 mins approx (23 Episodes)
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Audio: 2.0 Stereo
Languages: English
Colour: Colour/PAL
Subtitles: English

Price:
Series 5 hasn't been out for too long so it hasn't dropped much in price - I still feel that the standard asking price of £40 per boxed set is ridiculous, sure the show is amazing but the product being put out is not worth anything near that. Right now the cheapest is £28.99 from play.com but I still feel that's over the odds for this considering all the flaws in the Region 2 version. It's a rather pathetic 2.8ppm, but it is worth noting that HMV often drops the price of the Homicide DVDs to £15 and when that happens it does become worth picking up (really I don't see why they just can't keep the price at £25 per season instead of fluctuating it between too expensive and too cheap.)


Same as yesterday's review on Series 4 this is an amazing show wrapped up in a rather stinky product. Ultimately I'd recommend Homicide to anyone who's enjoyed top notch police drama like The Wire, The Shield and so forth. But I'd also recommend them to avoid the region 2 versions and purchase the region 1 versions instead as Amazon and Play have them. I wish I had done.



Direct Link

For the previous reviews in the Homicide series check here:
The Complete First Series (Seasons One and Two)
The Complete Second Series (Season Three)
The Complete Third Series (Season Four)

I'm trying to push on and finish reviewing the last of the two Homicide DVDs currently released in Region 2 before the Fall season hits and reviewing old DVDs becomes a thing of the past. I've only been doing it this summer because it's a slow time for television; there's been precious little to talk about apart from Burn Notice, Psych, Middleman and the excellent Generation Kill.


Starring:
Richard Belzer as Detective John Munch
Yaphet Kotto as Lieutenant Al Giardello
Kyle Secor as Detective Tim Bayliss
Clark Johnson as Detective Meldrick Lewis
Andre Braugher as Detective Frank Pembleton
Reed Diamond as Detective Mike Kellerman
Melissa Leo as Sergeant Kay Howard
Michelle Forbes as Dr Julianna Cox
Max Perlich as J. H. Brodie

The fifth season of Homicide marks the debut of a single new character the new chief medical examiner Dr. Julianna Cox (Michelle Forbes) and the promotion of J. H. Brodie (Max Perlich) from reccuring guest to main cast member. Additionally Megan Russertt (Isabella Hofmann) moves down to reccuring guest star as well.

Set a while after Pembleton's dramatic stroke during the final episode of the previous season he's returned to duty but is currently confined to his desk. Andre Braugher is one of the powerhouse actors in this series and his performance as the still stroke impaired Frank Pembleton is hauntingly powerful. At times it's genuinely uncomfortable to watch him struggle along with things he used to do with ease (mind you, he does recover very quickly and is back up to his original strength - which is a huge break from realism for the show - but it was done because of poor audience reception to the change. )

It's business as usual for the members of Baltimore's Homicide unit as the season runs through the usual mix of cases; including a hostage situation in a school, a prison riot, investigation into Mike Kellerman on charges of corruption and we discover a previous member of the Homicide unit's ultimate fate...

The fifth season continues the standard of exellence raised by the previous seasons and is also the one with the least disruptions when it comes to cast changes, as such the third, fourth and fifth seasons hang together exceptionally well. It's a great set of episodes from a stunning show.



Packaging:
I've always had a slight love/grip relationship with the region 2 Homicide sets from Fremantle Media Enterprises and series four is where the balance tips and my opinion slides off the edge of the see-saw and wallows around in mud and sewage. I do like the members of my boxed sets to sit on the shelf and hang together as a series. I know that not everyone cares about this as much as I do, but I don't think it's too much to ask for a little polished presentation in the product. Some pride you know?

Fremantle on the other hand obviously don't care about getting this season out with any kind of pride. Now I can almost forgive the switch in packaging style to using the generic plastic book style. It's a cost cutting exercise, but it does mean that the newer sets are nearly a full inch shorter than the older three. But they also decided not to include a cardboard dust sleeve, which means that not only are they smaller but they also look completely different on the shelf.

Additionally the back of the boxed set boasts not one, not two but three pictures from entirely the wrong seasons.


From top to bottom you have in picture one Stan Boulander (Ned Beatty) and in picture two Beau Felton (Daniel Baldwin) both of whom left before the start of the previous season and the third picture features both of them and Crosetti (Jon Polito) who left after the first season. Additionally the blurb on the back claims to have "All 22 Episodes of Season 4..." Seriously, Season 4? Do they not have anyone who fact checks this stuff before throwing it out to the printers? It's season 5...

This is all a shame because I actually feel the black and neon styling used on the box art is superior to the American version. It's just a lack of consistency that lets the side down.

Extras:
None. See previous reviews, I shan't complain again here.

Details:
Run Time: 1056 mins approx
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Audio: 2.0 Stereo
Languages: English
Colour: Colour/PAL
Subtitles: English

Price:
This time it's HMV who win the price wars with a staggering offer of £11.99 for the complete fourth season. That's the lowest I've ever seen and it comes out at 1.13ppm, that's a new front leader in the highest amount of footage for your money and we're talking about quality footage here, Homicide is one heck of a good show. Seriously, wow. At that price I can ignore the packaging farce and just enjoy the quality of the show.


I'm torn in two directions by this, the show itself is an undoubted work of art; there's not a single duff episode amongst the lot and it's everything a fan of Homicide of police drama could wish for. But the product put out does not reflect the same standard of excellence. Now the old saying is, never judge a book by it's cover and it holds up here. But still, it's hard to be content with the final product when it has so many annoying gaffes.


Direct Link

For the previous reviews in the Homicide series check here:
The Complete First Series (Seasons One and Two)
The Complete Second Series (Season Three)


Starring:
Richard Belzer as Detective John Munch
Yaphet Kotto as Lieutenant Al Giardello
Kyle Secor as Detective Tim Bayliss
Clark Johnson as Detective Meldrick Lewis
Andre Braugher as Detective Frank Pembleton
Reed Diamond as Detective Mike Kellerman
Melissa Leo as Sergeant Kay Howard
Isabella Hofmann as Captain Megan Russertt



The Complete Third Series of Homicide contains all 22 episodes of the fourth season of the show as originally aired in 1995. Homicide is very much the spiritual predecessor to The Wire and is also an amazing show in it's own right. The fourth season brings with it some cast changes; Beau Felton (Daniel Baldwin) and Stan Boulander (Ned Beatty) both leave the show before the season starts and it introduces Detective Mike Kellerman played by Reed Diamond (Terry Crowely - The Shield). The season also introduces one of the major kingpins/foils/recurring villains for the show in the form of Luthor Mahoney (Erik Dellums), who's presence both on and off screen is almost palpable.

Over the course of this season a huge range of events would rock the department; from a gas pipe explosion, the second crossover episode with Law & Order ("For God and Country), sniper attacks and even marriage. It's a stunning season filled with the gritty, understated brilliance that you come to expect from the show. There's a good reason why Homicide is critically considered to be such a brilliant, pivotal and influential show; watching it you can't help but appreciate why.


The UK version is produced by Fremantle and is the last of the UK editions to be packaged stylishly in my opinion. There is a rather questionable photograph used on the back cover as it's clearly taken from the first two series - Crosetti (Jon Polito) is in it along with Lewis (Clark Johnson) - which is just poor quality control. Crosetti is not in the fourth season at all; but he still appears three times on the artwork for this boxed set. Seriously Fremantle, who's in charge of double checking this stuff? It's such an obvious and irritating mistake and it's a shame because the rest of the product is ace.


Outside of this gaffe it's a superb piece of work; it's a fold out cardboard book contained within a cardboard dust sleeve. The entire thing oozes with style and matches up exceptionally well with series one and two. It's a pity I can't say the same about Series 4 and 5 but more on that later...

What extras? Fremantle decided to again deny the Region 2 viewers any of the amazing extras that the Region 1 viewers get. Yes, I am bitter about this. If you want the extras I'd recommend getting a region free DVD player and purchasing the Region 1 versions instead. Enough said about that matter.

The Details:
Run time: 1100 mins
Aspect Ratio: 4:3 Full Frame
Audio: 2.0 Stereo
Colour: Colour/PAL
Subtitles: English - Hard of Hearing

Price:
The winner by absolute miles is sendit who have it at £17.89 (with free delivery as always) and that's a pretty insane 1.6ppm. I can't recommend picking it up enough at that price; especially if you enjoy police procedurals. In fact at that price I'd go as far as forgiving the lack of extras and the box art gaffe.

Additionally HMV occasionally put the Homicide boxed sets up for £15 a piece, but it's for limited periods. Just check your local high street store occasionally and you might even be able to get all of the series currently released for £15 a pop.

Season Three was were Homicide really began to hit it's stride, but season four is every bit as capable; it's a testament to how strong the writing and acting is when two major characters are lost but it doesn't even miss a beat. The problem with this boxed set are the exclusion of extras, the lack of attention on packaging art (tbh that's a minor gripe) and a sudden major change in packaging style which occurs with the next two series boxed sets. But I'll cover those later.



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This is a continuation of what I'm loosely calling "Shield Fever" on my part, first of all before I get into the thrust of what I'm going to talk about today there's a post over on Alan Sepinwall's blog which has spoiler free thoughts after the experience of watching episodes one to eight of the final season (Direct Link). As these have been released to critics it seems inevitable that they will all get leaked onto the Internet within a month or so (which is what happened to episodes of The Wire's final season), but I doubt we'll see the final episode of the show make it up in advance because that's under serious wraps and not even the cast are talking about it (but some of them obviously want to). This means I might not run ahead and watch all of those episodes even if I get the chance. But I might watch them a day or two early so I can review on a Tuesday instead of a Wednesday (which is often an incredible busy day for me).

Anyhow, first of all a general request to other TV bloggers out there, if you come across stuff about The Shield's final season that doesn't contain spoilers please, pass it on to me. Thanks.

Today I'm going to look at the various characters as they approach the final season, look at the situation they're in, what they have gained so far, how they've developed and what they have left to lose. Because let's face it, the final season of The Shield is going to be all about the losses. That's the mythos of the show - personal loss and dealing with it...

More beyond the link...

The Strike Team:

Detective Vic Mackey:

Since the very first episode of The Shield the stakes have been high for Vic. His shooting of fellow police officer Terry Crowley is the single largest crime he's committed and the one he hasn't really paid for in any shape or form yet. There are people with suspicious out there; David Acevada at the forefront but as IAD have failed to make a case twice against him for this it's likely that Shane is the one who'll end up dropping the ball and landing Vic in it if anyone.

Vic is one of the greatest examples of duality in modern media; he lands on both sides of the law at the same time. Willing to go to extraordinary lengths to protect and serve it's this attitude which probably slid him into the life he's involved in now. He's willing to break the law to bring criminals into justice but he's also willing to break the law to protect himself or his men. This duality of character continues into his personal life; he loves his family with such a passion and just about everything he does is ultimately for his kids. The money he steals mostly ends up funding tuition for his two younger autistic children and he's clearly a loving - but misguided - father. But Vic is also a terrible adulterer, he's just unable to help himself when it comes to other women and as such he's managed to lose close contact with his wife and his family. Even Danny Sofer - the mother of his illegitimate child - is unwilling to let him be too closely involved in her family life.

Vic has already lost almost everything in his life and he's in an intensely dangerous position at the start of the third season. Shane has not only arranged for a release of information if he ever dies - thus trapping Vic into protecting Shane or at least not killing him - but he's also gotten into bed with the Armenians, who are easily the most vicious members of the criminal community in The Shield and told them too much.

It's unlikely he's going to get off scott free given the nature of the show, but I'm not totally convinced that killing him will happen either. Now there are several suitable candidates for finally overturning Vic and I'll mention who they are in their relevant entries. I see four possible ways this could go; Vic being shot by a fellow cop - ironic, Vic retiring in disgrace and living his life alone separated from his children with nothing left - unlikely due to the blackmail material he has, the Armenians catching up with Vic and ending him for the money train heist and Shane's evidence being released, which would result in prison and most likely execution.

Ultimately I think that the line which may predict Vic's fate was uttered by Kavanaugh in season six.

"One day, the Universe will take out its trash."

The end of the show will spin around Vic's final fate and I love the character so much that I'd like to see him survive, but I'm not convinced it's possible. Still, there is one other possible outcome - Shawn Ryan has indicated in one Q&A session (on the Season 5 extras) that Vic might (and I do mean might) just walk away from everything and leave it all behind. I think I could appreciate an ending like that. But we'll have to see.

Shane Vendrell:

Shane is the second member of the Strike Team directly linked to Terry's death; while he did not pull the trigger he is responsible for conspiracy because he was the only other person present in the room at the time Vic pulled the trigger. Initially he did show remorse about this but as the show has progressed Shane evolved into the villain of the piece. This is one of the crowing achievements of the show, the biggest monster on it is the best friend of the lead character. Ironically the Shane of the later seasons is almost entirely a creation of Vic's influence; but the catalyst for the changes in his character is his wife Mara. After Mara came into the picture Shane became exceedingly selfish and has evolved into a grotesque caricature of what he pictures Vic as. The first major signs of this was the Tavon incident, where Shane cost the team a man who could have become one of their own given time and this is just the first in a long series of screw ups that Shane lands himself and the rest of the team in. In season four he gets in too deep with Antwon and has to be bailed out by Vic and Lem, which lands Lem under IAD investigation, which means Shane mistakenly believes Lem has turned and kills him, so Shane then spends a lot of time trying to avoid being discovered by Vic and when he is found out he runs to the Armenians for protection which once again lands Vic, Ronnie and Vic's family into the picture. A long chain of actions and reactions that were all triggered by Shane's actions.

Shane constantly attempts to emulate Vic, but suffers a lot because he's nowhere near as intelligent. The reason he consistently lands in hot water is because he just doesn't have the mental vitality of imagination, both to see the potential consequences and to maneuver his way out of problems. Vic is capable of political machination of a high degree, Shane is just capable of getting himself and his friends killed.

Ultimately Shane is very unlikely to make it out of the show and honestly doesn't deserve to. Just about every bad event that hits the Strike from the fourth season onwards can be directly traced back to Shane's actions. Something Vic himself realises once Shane reveals the truth about Lem's murder.

"I had the chance to pull the trigger on you once before; I didn't do it, and Lem lost his life because of it!"

Ronnie Gardocki:

Ronnie has always been something of a dark horse in the Strike Team and the viewers have learnt little about him beyond his work life. It's clear that he's intensely loyal to Vic and while he initially showed some doubts about breaking the law he's proven time and time again that he can take to it like a duck to water - unlike Lem and Shane who were tortured by the murder of Terry - Ronnie was only upset that Vic didn't tell him because if he'd known he could have helped protect Vic. Fans originally felt that Ronnie was in the show just to be killed off, but that belief has already been used to great effect when his face was burnt by Armadillo. He's also the only original strike team member left alive who's not directly involved in Terry's death and while he could go down for a lot of charges of corruption and the like as far as I know there's nothing linking him to killings... yet.

With the termination of Kevin Hiatt Ronnie is now in charge of the Strike Team and it will be interesting to see how things develop for him. As the seasons have progressed he's taken a larger and larger role in the show and I suspect the seventh season will either be the making or unmaking of him. He's certainly a level head as shown when Shane sets up his incriminating documents and reveals Vic's murder of Terry Ronnie's reaction is to side with Vic but attempt to look for a peaceful method of solving the problem between the three. Hopefully Vic will cut Ronnie lose to save him from any devastation and he'll have a chance to either start over or walk down the same path as Vic.

Julien Lowe:

Julien is the one current member of the Strike Team who's on the level, but even he isn't completely immune to the corruption that infests the Barn. His past struggle with homosexuality (he 'fought' against it due to religious reasons) has brought out something of the brute in him. In the past his desire to conceal his sexual orientation even sparred Vic when he caught the Strike Team stealing cocaine during a bust. On the whole Jullien knows that Vic, Shane and probably Ronnie are not clean. But it's Vic who he has the most ire for. It's this distrust of Vic combined with a violent temper and past history that means he would probably shoot Vic if the situation warranted it. I think he'd prefer a clean shooting if he had the chance, or a legitimate arrest, but ultimately Julien just wants to see the back of Vic one way or the other.

Tavon Garris:

Tavon is worth a mention here because he is confirmed as returning to the show for the final season. Tavon is the second biggest lost the Strike Team have suffered after the loss of Lem, both of which were facilitated by Shane. It's difficult to speculate any further with regards to Tavon. Last we saw he was seriously injured; possibly to the point of forced retirement, and he had been convinced that his injuries were caused by an accident.

Tavon was a capable and brilliant cop who would have fitted right in with the rest of the Strike Team given trust and time. While it's hard to tell if he would have gone over the line all the way he was happy to be involved in illegal wiretaps and often eager to dish out justice through any means necessary. His involvement in the final season is going to hinge on if he recalls the fight with Shane and Mara, if he does then he's going to be a serious issue for Shane to deal with.

Either way I welcome the return of the character as I was very fond of Tavon.

The Officers:

Claudette Wyms:

Claudette has gained so much in the show as the seasons progressed, she's moved from a successful detective career into a well deserved Captaincy and she's not once compromised her sense of ethics or morals and has always remained firmly on the side of the law. No matter what it's cost her in the past she's always been a completely straight arrow, even when Kavanaugh had Vic bang to rights with some planted evidence Wyms refused to use it because she was unwilling to use fake evidence, even if it would mean bringing down a dirty cop for good. There are no compromises with Wyms and in a show of such moral ambiguity she's the one true beacon of justice.

What the seventh season has in store for her I don't know, the Barn is in trouble and if that goes down she could lose her Captain's rank. She's also a serious candidate for dealing with Vic once and for all and if someone was going to bring him down legally I'd have her or Dutch as the front runners.

Holland 'Dutch' Wagenbach:

If any character has managed to evolve over the seasons it's Dutch, but his path has never been straight and true. He's certainly been more corrupted by events than his past partner Claudette, but it's departmental/political maneuverings that involve most of the more underhand tactics he's employed. He has a serious history with Vic and the two have something of a playground relationship; with Vic being the bully, Dutch the target of his cruel taunts. Dutch also has a tendency to ride on Vic's coat tails with regards to women, he's often expressed interest in women who've also dated Vic.

If anything Dutch is closer to the line than any other detective, he seems to spin along the edge of the line between law and crime like a penny which hasn't stopped yet. Dutch understands killers, he spends hours dealing with them in the show and this interaction has taken it's toll on him. The cat killing scene in particular was a very disturbing low for him and while it didn't go much further there has always been a question mark over him. How far would/will he go? Would he pull the trigger on Vic if he had to? Will he manage to find out that one thing which ends Mackey's reign?

The sixth season ended with him kissing Danni, a pursuit that's almost as old as the show itself depending how this turns out it could make a huge difference on events. There is the irony of Dutch ending up raising Vic's child with Danny and that's quite a delicious concept...

Steve Billings:

Billings is a genuinely underhanded wretch of a man, not only content with fleecing the department members via his own vending machines; he's also stood by while a murder occurred, set Dutch up to get hurt by paring Tina with Haitt then arranging for Dutch to see the whole thing and at the end of the sixth season he announced he was suing the department itself for injuries sustained when a brawl between Kavanaugh and Vic caused him to hit his head on a desk. The injuries seem genuine, but Claudette doesn't believe so and suspects him of attempting to defraud the city. Given Billing's character this is very possible.

Now he has left the barn, but Billings's law suit has major potential to affect everyone in the Barn as such a high profile lawsuit could spell the end for the project. It may well be the straw that breaks the camel's back and causes the end of the Barn.

David Acevada:

David has stood the test of time as a foil to Vic, but he's never quite proven himself strong enough to win a decisive victory. As it stands now Acevada is in quite a predicament, the oral rape from season three still hangs over his head and while he could have spun it in the past to his advantage, his actions that followed - shooting Ricky and having Juan murdered by Antwon's men - have dug him into a hole that Vic is more than happy to manipulate and Vic is a master of manipulation.

Despite initially noble intentions Acevada has become heavily corrupted by both his desire for success in politics and his contact with Vic. As such he's now in a precarious position, disposing of Vic would be ideal for him, it would serve to cut all ties with the past and allow him to move on towards the Mayor's offive. But it's going to be very difficult to manage due to the sheer amount of blackmail material Vic now has on him and other politicians.
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As the most macho - no make that MACHO (is that macho enough?)- show on television is returning for it's final season next week I thought that this would be a good time to take advantage of all the watching those DVD reviews involved and recap the show before it grabs it's viewers by their nether regions and twists until it's all over. If you've not watched the show at all I'd recommend you don't read beyond the link as it's going to be exceedingly spoiler heavy, instead check out my 'Why You Should Watch... The Shield' feature and if you like the sound of the show play catch up by watching the DVDs instead (first season here for £9.99, sorry I don't know enough American stores to be able to suggest a good place to start over the pond). The show is so good that you really don't want to go spoilering events in it before watching.

For those of you who have watched the show up to the end of season six the rest lays beyond the link...


Starring:
Michael Chiklis as Detective Vic Mackey
Walton Goggins as Detective Shane Vandrell
Kenny Johnson as Detective Curtis "Lemonhead" Lemansky (Seasons 1 to 5)
Benito Martinez as Captain David Aceveda
CCH Pounder as Detective Claudette Wyms
Catherine Dent as Officer Danielle "Danny" Sofer
Jay Karnes as Detective Holland "Dutch" Wagenbach
Michael Jace as Officer Julien Lowe
and David Rees Snell as Detective Ronnie Gardocki

Guest starring:
Glenn Close as Captain Monica Rawlings (Season 4)
Forest Whitaker as Lt. John Kavanaugh (Season 5 + 6)

Season One:

The first season introduced us to the LA district of Farmington, it's police headquarters - nicknamed 'the Barn' and the radical anti-drug squad called 'The Strike Team'. The Strike Team consisted of the team leader Vic Mackey, his number two Shane Vandrell, Curtis "Lemonhead/Lem" Lemansky, Ronnie Gardocki and Terry Crowley (Reed Diamond). In the pilot episode the first important plot point occurs, Terry is covertly investigating into the Strike team for Captain Acevada on accusations of corruption. But at the climax of the episode Terry is shot by Vic (who was tipped off by Assistant Chief Gilroy) with only Shane as witness to the murder.

The remainder of the season deals with the fallout from Terry's death and Aceveda's suspicions. While Detectives 'Dutch' and Wyms track down a serial killer and Officer Sofer is assigned new recruit Julien Lowe to train, training which is complicated by Julien's struggle against latent homosexuality.

The season ends with riots breaking out and Acevada forced to co-operate with Mackey (a theme which reoccurs often in later seasons) both to quell the riots and to deal with Gilroy's attempts to pit them against each other.

Season Two:

The main thrust of Season two deals with the Armenian Money Trail Heist, this is the second of the major events to occur in the show and it plays out over multiple episodes. While the Armenian's appeared in the first season it's the appearance of the shows first kingpin - a sadistic feet loving individual by the name of Armadillo - who positions them into a serious place in the storyline. Armadillo directly attacks the existing drug trade in Farmington which has a knock on effect on the Strike Team, who support certain members of the local drug trade to supplement their income. As they investigate into the Armenians they discover the existence of the money train and the plan begins to fall into place, but it doesn't run entirely smoothly - especially after Vic burn's Armadillo's face and as a consequence get's Ronnie's face burnt in retaliation. After this an additional member is brought into the Strike Team, one Tavon Garris and he remains part of the team until events in the third season hospitalise him (well Shane does)
Eventually Armadillo is caught, but he escapes...

Elsewhere in the Barn Gilroy skips out on bail after illegal estate scamming and is smuggled out to Mexico by Vic, Dutch and Claudette continue to investigate cases and some of them begin to take their toll on Dutch's strength of character, Acevada continues to struggle between proving Mackey's corruption and working with him while Sofer and Lowe continue to patrol the streets and deal with more domestic cases.

The season ends with the heist going off successfully and the Strike Team making it away with a huge amount of cash.

Season Three:

But no-one can expect to steal that amount of cash and not have consequences. In this case the Armenian response is visceral and the body count in Farmington begins to spiral out of control. This is a serious problem for the Strike Team who have decided to play things by the book from now on as they're sat on a massive amount of cash and set for life if they play things right. This is a problem for Tavon who feels that he's not a part of the team and they're excluding him from something. It's a shame because Tavon is ideal 'real' Strike Team material and if he'd joined them earlier the team would have had another co-conspirator to share the burden. Eventually Shane and his shrew of a wife Mara seriously injure Tavon and hospitalise him, ending his role in the series... Actually, that's not the case - I can reveal that Tavon will be returning for the seventh season in some way.

Acevada brings in the Decoy team - another specialist task force - with the intent of replacing or reducing the influence that the Strike Team have and begins to make maneuvers towards a place on the city council. Armadillo realises that the Strike Team will eventually find and kill him, so he surrenders to the police instead, but Vic arranges for a prisoner to get a shiv and Armadillo is killed. Which has a major impact on Sofer's career, because she was the one who searched the prisoner and as such is held responsible.

Wyms and Dutch discover that a D.A. was a heavy drug user; information which makes all of her cases questionable and while Dutch is willing to suppress this Wyms isn't, which puts her in the s**thouse and really compromises her chances of further promotion. But this is typical of Wyms who is one of the straightest characters in the show, she follows the letter of the law and to heck with the consequences.

There is also another event which has major repercussions along the way, during a raid on a drug house Acevada remains behind alone and is attacked by two gangers, Juan and Ricky. Juan forces Acevada to perform oral sex on him at gun point and the pair are set to kill him when the Strike Team arrive and save him. He covers up the facts of the rape immediately.


By the end of the third season poor Lem's nerves have had enough with all the pressure and the final episode ends with him taking the only action he can think of to save his only family (the Strike Team) from both the Armenians and any investigations; he cracks and burns most of the money in a furnace that the Strike Team had used earlier in the season. The rest of the Strike Team fail to stop him in time.

Season Four:

This season brings major changes to the landscape, not does Acevada leave the position of Captain and become a councilman but the Strike Team has disbanded and Vic is left a shadow of his former self in his job. This season introduces Detective Billings (who is an underhanded yes man) and Captain Monica Rawlings (Glen Close) who is determined to turn things around in Farmington. Meanwhile Acevada continues to try and deal with being a rape survivor by taking revenge on the two who were involved (killing Ricky in a shoot out robbery and arranging for Antwon to kill Juan after he's arrested and attempts to blackmail Acevada).

On the street the One-Niners have risen back up to the top of the pile with the help of one Antwon Mitchell. Who has Shane (now in Vice) and his partner 'Army' over a barrel, potentially in the frame for murder as Antwon used their guns to kill a young girl named Angie.

The main important events of this season are based around the reforming of the Strike Team and Lem going the extra mile for Shane but putting himself into a seriously bad situation when doing it. He illegally confiscates a block of heroin while trying to lever information about the location of Angie's body and it's noted and swapped with a fake by an investigating officer sent by Rawlings.

Eventually Antwon is brought down and imprisoned; Shane is in the clear (but Lem has a price to pay for this), Rawling's controversial search and seizure plans end her career, Dutch passes up a chance to become Captain of the Barn out of loyalty to Wyms and things appear to be looking solid for the Strike Team in the future.

Season Five:

After Captain Rawlings retired Billings rose up to fill the Captaincy after Dutch refused to become the 'yes man'. Throughout the season it becomes clear that Billings is not the right man for the job, so eventually Claudette Wyms is given the position she deserves and the Barn gets it's second female Captain.

The major thrust of this season returns to two things; Lem's confiscating of the heroin without handing it into evidence control and Terry Crowley's death. Both of which are being investigated by Internal Affairs Detective John Kavanaugh, who intends to use Lem's charges as leverage to break him and get Mackey over Crowley's death. But Lem is completely loyal to his family and genuinely ignorant of the truth in Crowley's death (as is Ronnie). As the season progresses Kavanaugh grinds into Lem and mounts more and more pressure towards the Strike Team. The season is very much a charting of the fall from grace of Kavanaugh as it is the downfall of Lem. One of the major points in this is Lem actually saves Kavanaugh's life from a stray grenade, showing how good a person Lem actually is - because if Kavanaugh had died the invesigation would have been over. Eventually Kavanaugh realises that Lem would never crack and is somewhat ashamed over his actions, he comes to like and respect Lem.

In the midst of all this Julien becomes the training officer for a pretty young policewoman named Tina Halon - who flirts with Dutch all season and Danny is pregnant but won't reveal who the father is.

The final episode of The Shield is the single most tragic episode in the entire run; at the climax of the episode a harried and stressed out Lem is blindsided by Shane, who kills him with a grenade as he's afraid Lem has turned on the team (something Lem would never do). This holds all kinds of irony, Lem saved Kavanaugh from a similar fate earlier in the season (if Kavanaugh had died Lem would have been in the clear and safe) and also even more tragically Shane has killed Lem because Lem saved Shane's career. If Shane hadn't screwed up so badly in the fourth season Lem would never had moved outside the lines and would still be alive.

Vic's snarled words to Shane and Ronnie set the tone for the next season:

"We're gonna find whoever did this, and we're gonna kill 'em."

Season Six:

Season Six was originally intended to be the second part of season five, but it was broken up and turned into a separate season. It deals mostly with the fallout after Lem's death and charts the final fall of Kavanaugh, who becomes corrupt himself in his rabid pursuit of Mackey. Something that he confesses to Claudette Wyms, who despite her misgivings about Vic remains true to her morals and arrests Kavanaugh for planting fake evidence. Wyms remains the pillar of morality in this show (and is a serious candidate for toppling Mackey in the end)

The rest of the season deals with Vic and Ronnie's tireless pursuit of Lem's killer and Shane's attempts to at first conceal his actions and then later set things up to avoid Vic taking vengeance on him. (I think Shane might do well to watch out for Tavon coming in from the left field as well...) There is a new detective brought in to replace Vic (who's facing retirement still) and Julien is promoted into the Strike Team as well. Billings continues to manipulate things while working with Dutch, twisting the knife into both his now partner Dutch's back and the Barn.

Vic discovers about Acevada's rape and uses it to form an uneasy alliance between the pair, with the intent of allowing Vic to keep his job.

Worst of all, Shane continues to act in a stupid fashion that endangers everyone around him as he gets into bed with the Armenian mob.

That's it, you should be entirely up to speed with everything that matters in The Shield and you should be ready to get going for the final season's gut wrenching fallout...

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