FX
(Season 7, Episode 9)
I’ve got a beef with FX. I went out of my way last week to finally get FX in HD. I sit down tonight to watch The Shield tonight (I already caught the episode DVD weeks ago, but that’s beside the point) and … it’s not in HD! What the hell?! I only hope shows next season will finally give us some HD goodness. Come on, guys!
Anyway, to the episode at hand.
The best part: Vic getting “this close” to taking out Shane in the hospital parking lot.
Biggest let down: Vic being so stupid to get caught pulling the gun on Shane and Mara, then the arresting officers don’t detain Vic (or Shane as witness!) for very long for pulling a concealed gun in public.
Bad-ass moment: Ronnie’s perfect explanation to Claudette as for why Shane is trying to kill him.
Least surprising moment: The Strike Team is dismantled.
We still don’t really care about: At this point in the series, Billings. I seriously don’t get why he occupies so much of our time lately.
Kills / Arrests: 0 / 1 (Vic)
Best quote: “Workin’ on your stamp collection there, Marcus?”
Final thought: I get the feeling Mara not taking Shane’s offer to go into custody means she’ll wind up in the “Kills” section in the coming weeks.
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Oct 28, 2008 @ 23:15 EST5EDT
Next season?
Next season of what?
“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia?”?
Seriously… It’s not really necessary to phone it in like this for the last few episodes of such a seminal tv drama. How about starting up on Sons of Anarchy with this lighter format and leave the last few episodes of The Shield to your doppelganger.
Yeah, this can’t be the review, can it?
This is lacking EVERYTHING. Not mentioning Dutch and his hunt for the boy, not a word of Acavedo. Not even three coherent sentences re: the episode?! And topping it off with not knowing that this is the final season? WTF?!
*POST AUTHOR*
Guys — We’re experimenting here. Obviously this isn’t a format anyone seems to dig, so we won’t do it again. I mean, if you do like it short, then do speak up.
I didn’t mean *this* show’s next season, I just meant any show’s next season. Shit, of course I know this is Shield’s last!
But Keith, you HAVE to know that we are like vultures when it comes to openings like this one ;-)
We are fanboys ^^;
*POST AUTHOR*
This is why I’m always the one doing the experimental posts (see my Office “review”…on second thought, please don’t).
We’re working on ways to make us stand out from places doing the same thing, reviewing episodes. One thing we’re considering is allowing dedicated commenters to do a “guest review” for us every so often. If anyone wants to show they have the right stuff to do this, leave a comment to one of our reviews with your own review and we’ll be watching.
As for The Shield, I’ll do you better next week.
I think the end for Mackey is certain now that Corinne has decided to turn her back. Now with him not being “useful” to ICE and Corinne turning to Claudette and Dutch, it is obvious to me that the writing is on the wall. Corinne has been put through a lot and put up with all of the lies and now she is going to be an unexpected loose end.
I am pretty sure Corinne would have been ok with lying, had Mara not convinced her that Vic took the first shot at Shane, not the other way round.
As far as Billings goes, it is clear that he is a foil for Dutch… Billings is lazy, socially aware, more human, while Dutch lives in his head with theories and talk, and overthinks everything. I loved how Dutch was on Billings for lying about the child molester, but led the mother on to gain information about the son he thinks is a potential serial killer. I think Dutch has a touch of Billings’ ability to lie about a case, while Billings is a better cop than he is usually given credit for.
I know this is unimportant at this juncture, but what happened with the “Julian is gay” story? I know he got married at some point, is he still married? I feel like the story got dropped, but I am curious if anyone can shed some light.
I do not like the short format at all. The Shield is such a complex show and to see it reduced to a few short sentences is soooo wrong.
I would also love to see a review of Sons of Anarchy.