MovieChat Forums > The Shield (2002) Discussion > Season 5 - kind of a let down

Season 5 - kind of a let down

posted 8 years ago by rabbitmoon
4 replies | jump to latest

I've been gradually working my way through the show, and now nearing the end of Season 5. I'd been looking forward to this one as so many people say "wait til 5 - 5-7 are the best".

So far though I've found it the worst season. There aren't as many interesting b-story cases (that I enjoyed in the earlier seasons), but more importantly, the IAD stuff with Kavanaugh is excruciatingly stupid at times. The lengths he goes to is ridiculous, without any evidence. The whole Crawley investigation, when he takes them back to the crime scene, and invites Crawley's brother along too, to get all upset? Without ANY evidence against Mackey except a hunch? Its just ridiculous. Also, Whitakers acting gets annoying showy at times, staring between words with his mouth open, twitching his weird eyelid.

I liked Acaveda or Rawlings as captains, the prioritising and tensions balancing whether the ends justifies the means was interesting - but with dorky Billings, that whole thing is just pushed aside. He doesn't show any power, decisiveness or influence whatsoever.

I much preferred it when the team were working towards positive goals and making breakthroughs. Being constantly on the defense to stupid accusations and niggling from Kavanaugh isn't much fun to watch at all.

I guess I'm just confused as to why people rate this season so highly?

[–] PreachCaleb 8 years ago

That's a shame.

A lot of what you described is what many people like about season 5.

Whitaker is a powerhouse actor and has the intensity to match Vic Mackey. And he's not someone Vic can just intimidate or scare. His tactics make him a formidable opponent because he's relentless, and unlike other antagonists, he's on the legal side of the law. That puts the Strike Team at a huge disadvantage.

Billings of course is just there to act as puppet captain. He's not meant to have any power.

And the Strike Team being on the defensive is some of their best work. That's when they're the most intriguing. To see how they get out of the holes they've dug themselves in.

Let's be bad guys.

[–] Jan_El_Senor 8 years ago

Wait until you get to the end.

Please stop.

[–] Klockard23 8 years ago

People loved the chemistry that Vic and Kavanaugh shared as enemies and enjoyed seeing the chess match that played out between them. They were also intrigued by the gloomy/tragic atmosphere of the whole season, because between the dark cloud hanging over Lem's head as well as all of the Strike Team's sins (most notably revisiting the original sin, i.e. Terry's murder) coming back to haunt them, you could tell it was the beginning of the end.

Speaking for myself, I think nostalgia plays a part in why I love the season so much as well. When it first aired on television, they promoted it as the second final season (or rather, the first half of the final season, since the ten episodes that now comprise of Season 6 were originally to be considered the second half of S5), so knowing back then that you were seeing the prologue to the very end gave nearly every episode a lot more tension than it may have had if I had known there would be two seasons after this instead of only short(er) one.

S5 provided it's fair share of pretty powerful moments and episodes too, most notably Vic learning the truth about Emolia, Kavanaugh (and Aceveda) being made a fool of in 5x05, Lem's arrest, and of course, what went down on the finale.

[–] Hows_yer_arm_john 8 years ago

That's the problem of going into a series hearing "this ____ is the best season of all of em".

You built it up too much.