TVSquad

Remember this scene? It's from the season six finale of The Shield. Mackey is showing Aceveda all the dirt he's got on Cruz Pezuela and the Mexican mob. Seems like forever ago ... and it was. It's been almost a year and we're still waiting for a resolution. FX has been scant with news regarding the seventh season of its trademark show. Supposedly, it's returning in September so that its final thirteen episodes are not competing with the Olympics. It should be coming back sooner if you ask me. I don't really see too much audience intersection between fans of The Shield and fans of floor gymnastics routines.

Well, I finally found a question obscure enough to stump everyone.

Last week I asked...
On Michael Chiklis' short-lived sitcom, Daddio, what performer did his neighbor, Bobick, play way too loud on his stereo?

The answer is Tom Jones.

Here's another question from a reader that isn't quite as tough...
Luis Antonio Amaro wrote, "I need help on a 80's cartoon. People think I'm crazy when I mention this. A cartoon about a group of people whom changed into superheros. One was a sailor who turns into a rope, a clockstore owner who turns into an owl and I remember the leader being a baby who would change in his crip and takes off wearing a blanket for a cape and a baby bottle in his hand. I know theirs more charaters involve. Please say I'm not crazy."

(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.

I got another letter from an eager TV fan looking for information last week,

Tracy writes:
"In the late ninties their was a tv show on (upn?) about a bunch of high school students who attended highschool on a cruise ship while traveling the world.
I thought Kathrine Hiegl and or Ryan Gosling (possibly Ben Foster) were on it but none of their IMDB credits list it. Any clue what the show was called or who really was on it?"

Well, Tracy, I'm not sure about Katherine Heigl but Ryan Gosling was definitely on a show you described called Breaker High.

On to this week's question...

(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?

You've probably heard or read stories in the past of how real life can break into shows like Law & Order, Homicide: Life on the Street, and Rescue Me. What usually happens is some type of real emergency occurs while the actors are filming a made-up one for the television viewers. Or, someone will come up to an actor who portrays some kind of 'First Response' character on a show and demand that they arrest a neighbor or help them get their pet down from a tree.

Another example of this type of incident recently occurred with the cast of The Shield. This time, though, their interaction with real life was closer and a bit frightening.

(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.