It was such a great scene, tho. I mean, it was super sad but they executed perfectly, iirc. It was a very believable storyline, too, imo.

Lems death was pretty crucial in making the rest of the show what it was. I dont understand how you can stop watching.

Agreed, and I just didn't like what it was. To me, Lem's death dramatically changed what the show was about. I just didn't like that change and didn't enjoy the new direction.

Grunching, as I've only seen five seasons (just finished the season five finale). Loved Walton Groggins in the finale, particularly Lem's death scene. His work on Justified is insanely good, and this was an excellent glimpse at would who would go on to do, and what I hope he does in the last two seasons.

The issue I have with The Shield is while Vic clearly has a problem with his moral compass, killing Terry still manages to seem out of character. The unity and familial nature of the Strike Team is obviously developed as the series progresses, but killing a cop (even a rat cop) clashes with the Vic that develops, i.e., a cop who really is on the "good" side of law and order, but with an extreme machiavellian perspective.

Forrest Whitaker's character is definitely up there on my list of favorite characters I love to hate and want to kick in the balls.

I believe Shawn Ryan has stated that killing Terry was out of character, but he felt it was necessary to establish the tone of the series and a conscious attempt to start off with a splash. Storywise, I think in retrospect it marked the moment that the tragic ending became inevitable.

I'll put it this way without spoiling anything: I wasn't a fan of his work until season 6 and 7. Not that he wasn't great in the role, I was still somewhat indifferent. Season 7, he gave some of my favorite stuff OAT.

Wow just got through the box set of this and it's the greatest show I've ever seen.It beats The Sopranos by a small margin and I'm going to start The Wire next so I'll see how it compares.

My 3 favourite moments are,

Season 2 when Claudette and Dutch go to find the little girl who was informing on Armadillo,as they find her walking on the street she gets closer and you notice a plaster on her cheek,I remember thinking "oh god,no" just a devestating scene.

Season 3 when the Decoy Squad are doing a strip through the Barn cos they lost a bet with the Strike Team,Vic is laughing his ass off and says something like "I can't believe Shane and Tavon are missing this" not knowing about the fight they had and the consequences.

Finnaly the finale when Vic is being shown around his new job and the woman tells him to label his lunch so people will know it's his was fantastic,the look of pure devestation on his face was just perfect.He was going to have to spend 3 years with this kind of petty crap after his previous life of actually getting out on the streets and making a difference,this did not sit well with him.

Just finished S5 finale, feel like they reached their climax, am I right? Love the series but at the same time the writing isn't brilliant enough to make the follow up to a twist as this as good as last few eps of S5 imo. Hope I'm wrong.

5>>2>1>>4>>>>3 so far btw.

I'm just about to finish S4 and think the show's gotten worse since the addition of Glenn Close (she's not solely responsible, the writing has been worse or more boring too obv). Also, it really feels like they got another director and maybe director of photography somewhere in the middle of S4 (haven't checked it out though). S1-3 were great but I don't think I can rate them in relation to each other.

The last 3 are the best 3 imo. i think i would probably go for 5 as being the overall best though.

5 is definitely the best,6 is the weakest imo but still decent.Season 7 starts off weakish but really picks up around ep.5 and just becomes epic.
It's such a fantastic show and the way they kept up such a high quality all the way thorugh is really impressive.

Love it when this thread gets bumped

I really thought season 4 was a low point - not bad, but pretty mediocre. Season 5 gets things back on track in a big way. And it stays great through the end, imo.

Best ending to a series ever

Confirmed awesome (re: Walton Goggins). Really, REALLY phenomenal final season.

I finished watching The Shield right before Chicago Code premiered, leading to extreme excitement and a huge letdown. Chicago Code got a lot better, though, so I'm sad it got the ax.

This show deserves to be higher on most best tv lists, imo. And certainly is a must see for marathoners. What it lacked in depth of character development, and wasn't so much a social commentary the likes of The Wire, it made up for in well-scripted action, and an ability to evoke a lot of emotion with the formula it used. Most every show held it's own, and the seasons and flow of it worked to tell a really good full story.

And yes, the ending...perfect.

Agreed

And Agreed.

I keep hearing this, certainly getting my hopes up. I'm starting S5 right after I write this. No idea how it's going to play out, which is obv great. Now I just must try and keep myself out of this thread so I won't spoil it for myself!

Redux for your own sake gtfoh and finish the series, don't come back until you do ffs

Just this once lol. Awww man I don't think I've ever got teary over a tv series before. Just finished S5 finale. Awww maaan...

ya Redux, gtfo, srsly. i know you're prob. reading this even now, but stop. and seeing as you can't, it evoked that same sort of powerful emotion in me too. Only other show to do the same for me was Six Feet Under, and I've watched a lot.

Finished it. The whole series in twelve days, which probably hurt the viewing experience somewhat as there were some things that didn't have enough time to sink in.

The series finale was very good but dunno if I want to use any superlatives. I assume the one thing that took people's breath away was Vic's fate, which I agree was done nearly to perfection. Getting a pass for every single heinous deed you've done, including murders, yet ending up losing everything that matters to you - wow that's some hardcore bittersweetness (we don't know if he'll have a some kind of second chance to family life with Danny and Lee, though). Gotta rewatch the confession scene, it was so powerful and subtle yet brilliant acting by Chiklis.

I felt terrible for Ronnie. Just painfully awful. He always was the careful good guy with a sharp mind but ultimately got screwed by something (someone) that was impossible for him to predict; in the end all the talk about loyalty, brotherhood and family were just empty shells when it mattered the most. He had already had prepared himself for the immunity, too, which made it so much more bitter. He had no way of knowing, and then it hit him hard.

Walter Goggins did an outstanding job on Shane. The downward spiral was pretty hard to watch and there was a point when you just knew there wasn't going to be any redemption. The grim suicide and double homicide was something that I expected to happen. Dunno how I got so desensitized that I didn't feel anything over the actual deed though, considering that Shane killing Lem hit me way harder than I expected. I guess I had more resentment towards Shane that I realized. But yeah Shane trying to scrape money, medicine and food for his sick pregnant wife and son while being high on drugs and having this anguish over the whole inescapable situation was conveyed brilliantly by Goggins.

The one thing that left me bothered in the finale was Lloyd's case. Watching it unfold, police uncovering Lloyd's mother's burned clothes at Dutch's place, I became like 98% sure Lloyd had killed his mother and successfully framed Dutch for it. I mean as far as we are led to believe, Lloyd really is a budding criminal mastermind, an incurable narcissist. He's probably going to off his mom sooner or later anyway (not sure if this is a reasonable assumption for serial killers) and with Dutch having this interaction with his mom that had been witnessed by ppl in the Barn etc. and Dutch's obsession with Lloyd (note that Lloyd wasn't so widely assumed to be this cold murderer that Dutch claimed he was), this would've made a perfect continuum to Lloyd's budding serial killer career while ending Dutch's arc bizarrely in prison. Even Dutch's longtime friend and partner Claudette had her doubts about his involvement until she finally just made up her mind the other way. Someone speculated upon Dutch really killing the mom, which imo would make very little sense (yeah I remember him strangling that cat earlier). Not sure if Dutch ending up in jail for a murder he didn't commit would've exactly satisfied me more but it would've just fit so well imo. Mind you, even though I kinda hope he suffered innocently, Dutch is one of my top3 favorite characters in the show.

I thoroughly enjoyed the bits of comedy here and there, definitely made the show even better. The aforementioned jerryspringeresque love triangle between a fat white female and two brothas was indeed gold, it ending like it did was obv brutal and brought a whole different feel to it but what I especially liked was how they engaged the viewer in the eccentricity of the situation by showing how the cops on site looked at each other, as in saying "do you believe this s***". I guess that's not groundbreaking but I felt it strongly in this show in particular.

Great cast. Not many characters I didn't like. Other than season 4 (which I didn't really like that much), the quality stayed pretty even. On the whole, a great show.

Imo the shield is one of the top 5 series in the biz. Enjoyed it thoroughly from start to finish. Nice to see this thead bumped, as I believe it is underrated (I got 3 friends on to the show, but they were all skeptical at first).

Also, tears for Ronnie again. I am on my phone, but I found a pretty good interview with Ryan I will post later.

What the hell?

I'm watching Lie to Me season 2 episode 19 and it's practically a Shield reunion.

Halfway through it and there's already 5 Shield regulars starring in it. Pretty cool to see.

Shawn Ryan, creator of The Shield, was an executive producer on Lie to Me.

That explains it , thanks.