Yeah, I've been watching this since it started. Great stuff, although you are right, sometimes it is hard to watch. F/X has a slate of shows on Tuesday nights, kind of like HBO's Sunday night at 9 p.m. group, that are "edgy" and interesting.
Yeah, especially the night I was channel-surfing and I saw a scene with the bald-headed cop shoving a gun into a woman's mouth... Very depressing. Needless to say, I switched it off. Hard to believe F/X once broadcast a series about antiques and collectibles and aired classic TV shows.
Been watching it since the beginning...and you just reminded me that I missed last night's episode!! Damn! Great show, by the way...
Don't worry; they'll show it 9 more times in the coming days. I've watched it, but the "gritty" camera work is so annoying that after a while my head starts to hurt. They do love and respect women on the show though....(Kidding!)
Until I pulled the plug on cable last year, I saw a couple of episodes of THE SHIELD. I like Chiklis a lot as an actor, and I really liked his previous series THE COMMISH. But SHIELD's violence and nihilism borders on pornography (and not in a good way ). Life is too short for me to take in stuff that makes me feel like showering after seeing it.
Chikles is really what keeps me coming back to the show. He is a actor working at the top of his acting "game" in this show. He's been given such a meaty and interesting part and takes full advantage of it. It is really uncompromisingly violent, bleak and intense. However, given the subject matter, special violent (thats my word) crimes police unit, it is totally appropriate. The camera movements and the grainy film stock both are integral in how the show's creator wants to impart this 'world' to you.
Chiklis has performed amazing career makeover. Moving from fluff kind of tv as THE COMMISH to this role. He doesn't play the role to like him but his intensity demands your attention. I TiVo it and then make sure I'm in the right mindset for the violence. - Ken
