TVSquad

The FX panels on Tuesday were pretty uneventful, aside from the news from network president John Landgraf. There was supposed to be a panel for It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but that was mysteriously dropped from the schedule. I'm guessing that the boys figured they'd get too hammered at the FOX party the night before to handle questions from the reporters. Indeed, I witnessed Rob McElhenny and Glenn Howerton try to ride the Tilt-a-Whirl at the Santa Monica pier right after they pounded a couple of beers. Maybe canceling the panel was a smart idea.

Anyway, the three shows that paneled were Damages, Sons of Anarchy, and The Shield. More on what transpired after the jump.

It's coming. Finally. Tuesday, September 2nd. There's been lots of speculation about when The Shield's seventh and final season would return. First it was supposed to be last month. Then, because of the writer's strike, it got bumped to September - but nothing was confirmed. Well now it's official. FX has updated The Shield website and 9/2/2008 is the day "The Final Act" begins. 13 episodes and it's over for good. In the meantime, FX has added some fantastic cast on cast interviews to the site featuring CCH Pounder, Benito Martinez, Michael Chiklis, and... wait for it... Kenny Johnson. Lem, back from the dead! Well, not really, but after the jump I embedded one of the interviews between Chiklis and Johnson where they talk about Lem's demise. It's good stuff and based on the set-up of the site, it looks like more interviews will be added each week. I'm hoping they bring back some other old favorites like they did with Lem. I'd love to see Walton Goggins face-off with Anthony Anderson, considering the history Shane and Antwon have. Who'd you like to see?

It's always a good thing when an Oscar winner deigns to do TV, and based on her past efforts, I have high hopes for The Tower knowing that Marcia Gay Harden has joined the cast. The Tower, is a new CBS pilot about a group of Chicago reporters. Marcia Gay Harden is going to play Zoe, the millionaire owner of the newspaper, the leader of the pack.

Since winning the 2001 best supporting Oscar for Pollack, which was directed and co-starred her husband Ed Harris, Marcia's gone back and forth between TV and features. She received another Oscar nom for Mystic River in 2004, and last season did a memorable -- and Emmy nominated -- turn as a determined, driven FBI agent on Law & Order: SVU.

(S06E10) "...but understand, you are nothing more than a fly on one of my many shits." - Pezuela

The beginning of the end. We've got one more season of The Shield to go and I have to say that I'm pretty excited for what's been set up. It's going to be a lot to cover with only thirteen episodes remaining in life of the series. Then again, this season only had ten installments and look how many different stories came out of it. From the aftermath of Lem's death to the biggest conspiracy the Farmington district has ever seen, we got it all in season six.

(S06E09) "Too many shit-heads. Not enough pillows." - Vic

Despite the fact that I love Vic Mackey, I still laugh a little any time he makes some comment about people in jail. The luck this guy has had! He could just as easily be behind bars. But as this episode taught us, it more often than not just falls into his lap. You'd think karma would have come and bit him in the ass by now, but his good fortune never seems to cease.

(S06E08) "We're not clean in this either. And I'm not spending the rest of my life wearing state property." -Ronnie

I'm gonna make a bold statement that'll probably insult some readers: If you don't watch this show, you're dumb. Plain and simple. Nothing else on TV is as well-written, layered, and intricate as The Shield. There's another well-known cable drama with a prominent anti-hero about to end its run. Something about the Jersey mob and its high strung boss. You know that guy I'm talking about? Well, he can't hold a candle to Vic Mackey.

(S06E07) "He's not going to say anything to anybody because I know everything he's done." -Shane

There it is folks. The one thing that can actually make Vic Mackey look terrified. The knowledge in Shane's (apparently not so small) brain. We knew this was coming though. It's almost like watching an episode of Survivor. An alliance has been broken and now it's every man for himself. Who knows what and how they can use it to gain leverage.

I'll be honest though. Shane is proving to be far more effective in covering his tracks than I would have ever imagined. It almost makes you wonder how many times he's gone over this type of scenario in his head, even before the incident with Lem. The guy has put plenty of thought into his actions and it seems like Vic may have a legitimate reason to worry. How do you stop a guy that knows exactly what you know?

(S06E05) "You ever think about just coming clean? About everything?" -Shane

I suppose I should be used to it by now, but with the ups and downs that most great shows go through, it's weird to watch something and never be disappointed at the end of it. The Shield is just always good and I think it's remarkable.

So if that didn't spell it out, I liked this episode - a lot. Just solid from all points. Plenty of vintage Dutch, a blast from the past with the return of Vic's old partner, and a gut-wrenching confession from Shane made for one hell of an hour.

(S06E03) "This thing's gonna get a lot uglier before it gets better." -Vic

Well... it's official. I'm fairly certain I can't say a bad thing about this show. It's too good. Period. I'll even go as far as saying that it might be one of the finest cop dramas ever to be made and there's still 20 episodes (7 this season and 13 in the final) left before it's over for good.

There's just so many layers and subtle things that make this show so great (this episode in particular), that I know I won't recall all of them. That's how you know a show's good.

So we picked up with last week's kidnapping of Nadia (Guardo's girl) and Vic was forced to go to some extreme lengths to find the peace he's been looking for.

(S06E01) This is why I love TV. This was the second time I've seen this episode (you've got to love press screeners) and I was just as riveted as the first time I saw it. With the way last season ended, people have been waiting a long time for this. It was worth the wait because last night's season six premiere of The Shield was arguably one of the best episodes of the series to date.

Picking up just about a week after Shane killed Lem, the late Det. Lemansky has been buried minus the pomp of a proper police funeral. Turns out that Aceveda and his new political cronies made sure that the city knew Lem was "dirty." Naturally, Vic is not thrilled with that and along with Shane and Ronnie (who now has a much more expanded role), they begin looking for whoever killed Lem.

I think the big event of this episode wasn't all that shocking to most of us, given what was shown in last week's preview. One thing that did hit me as a potential cool twist was possibility that the Strike Team would find a new home outside the Barn, and I'm not talking about jail.

I have to say that I thought Vic was losing his edge quite a bit when talking with his lawyer, though thankfully the writers made up for it during the meeting with Corinne. Vic was ready to throw out some incredibly lame excuses for taking $65k for his family, though his chose to take his licks and make sure his kids are taken care of.