The Begining of the end: The Shield

The Shield Season 7 is showing on television, which I should be grateful for as it has saved us spending money on it. This is to be the final season, bringing to an end my love-hate relationship with the show.

It was business as usual with the first episode with all of its hallmarks present and correct:

• Gratuitous violence – Vic poking someone in a bullet wound with his gun and gang members with limbs hacked off.
• Ridiculous Dialogue – “We need to make the Armenians think the Mexicans are the worst thing since the Turks”
• Vic and co creating more crime than they are preventing - (see above)
• Stellar bad acting from Vic (Chiklis) – worse than the dialogue are his angry silent pouts.
• A sub-plot involving Dutch that is much more interesting than the main part of the show - great story involving an old case and Billing's suing the department.