The end is nigh

The pennultimate episode of The Shield. It continued in much the same way as the rest of the show; lots of unintelligable shouting, running about, rubbish dialogue, and below par acting.

The theme that had been developing over the past few episodes that I'd dubbed "At home with the Vendrells" finally made sense. We had endured multiple scenes of red neck racist thug Shane and his money-grabbing wife enjoying tender moments of domestic life whilst on the run, committing murders and robberies in front of their infant child, at the same time worrying about his future. I struggled to care about their fate. They have not been sympathetic characters and seeing them gather around a piano in a house they've broken into, isn't going to change that for me.

But then we had the pay-off for this.

(don't read ahead if you haven't seen it yet and intend to watch it)



Shane blowing his brains out, then the discovery of his wife and son dead, laid out on the bed, her with flowers in her hands, the son with a toy that we'd seen Shane purchase earlier.

It shocked me and I will admit almost brought me to tears.

And I think this may crystalise my problem with The Shield. It isn't all bad. Sometimes it is very good. It had the potential to be really great television, but mostly it squandered that in a chase for cheap thrills and ratings.