Justified - Season 2

The first season of Justified was a very good cop show, often ignoring an overarching story in favor of occasionally familiar stand-alone cases for Tim Olyphant's Raylan Givens to solve, but loaded with good acting, great dialogue, and a ton of culturual flavor specific to the southern region it takes place in, and finished strong with a bloody, multi-episode conflict between Walton Goggins' Boyd Crowder and his father. The second season looked like it might do the same thing at first, though the early cases connected much more directly to the grander story threads that begin in the first episode and it wasn't very long at all before the plot kicked into high gear. Tangential subplots still sprang up, but everything felt much tighter this time, like the writers sat down and hammered out a full story before they even thought of doing anything else, and it resulted in a deeper, better show this time around. It wasn't perfect, but I fully expect it to end up as one of my five favorite TV dramas of this year. And if it doesn't... well, I can't wait to see what could possibly be in store from the rest of the medium.

Raylan was a big reason the show was so fun in the first place, bringing a thrilling sense of old fashioned justice to some otherwise ordinary story ideas. What's remarkable is that the show hardly even needed him to be like that this year to be great. Of course Raylan doesn't hurt anything, and he's still a very interesting guy. But he became much more just a part of the series' incredibly rich tapestry of interwoven, unfriendly families, and I would say he's probably only the third most intriguing guy on his own show at best. Boyd spends a good amount of time not sure what he wants as the season starts, but he eventually gets back in the game and is as fascinating as ever. And most impressive was Margo Martindale as Mags Bennet, a woman who at first seems to be a friendly, motherly shopkeeper, but turns out to run illegal activities in her county with a frightening verve and keen intellect. We see how Raylan wasn't the only person to grow up there with that old sense of right and wrong and how things should be dealt with, and the exploration of the history of the Givens, Bennet, and Crowder clans while those rivalries reignite in the modern day is exciting and compelling every step of the way.

The show's still violent (in the surprising and poetic way that only the best shows are), but the shootouts don't carry the stories quite the way they did last time. Mags has three sons who help her business (the standout being Dickie who's played by Jeremy Davies, and who you never quite get a handle on the true nature of), Boyd has a new relationship with Ava and a new crew to run with, Raylan has a relationship with his coworkers that continues to develop in fits and starts (Rachel and Tim still hardly count as characters, but Art is great) and an ex-wife with husband issues and a continued uneasy alliance with Boyd, and the way the show lets all of these little pieces get thrown into a blender and come out in unexpected patterns and combinations never stops being fun to watch. Throw in a nefarious mining company looking to get rich off their home turf, and there's a lot to juggle in just 13 episodes, but the cast and crew were definitely up to the task. The plot they cooked up came to a satisfying resolution without forgetting to leave a few threads ready for the third season to pick up and run with next year, a season I am now early in the process of being unable to wait for. I'm not sure I really care about Raylan's home life as much as they wanted us to, but otherwise Justified is as entertaining a cop show as you're ever likely to see.

Justified - Season 1

The only reason I didn't watch Justified when it premiered early last year was that I wanted to see Walton Goggins' acclaimed work there before moving on to the new show he was in. Sort of silly, but I'm glad I did in anyway so my impressions of Shane remained uncolored. The DVD came out in time to catch up before season two begins in a couple weeks, so there's nothing really lost anyway. Justified is a hybrid of police procedurals and serialized drama, set in the deep South of Kentucky and starring Timothy Olyphant as author Elmore Leonard's Raylan Givens, an old-fashioned lawman living in a modern age. The style is sort of a mix of elements from westerns and detective novels, with Givens having both the keen wit and lightning trigger finger necessary to work as the protagonist of either. He doesn't quite fit in to today's world, shown in the premiere when he's shipped from Miami back to his hometown after he kills a man in broad daylight, and put on the low end of the totem pole in the Marshall's office. There's something dark hidden under his cool exterior, and the first season does a good job of exploring that a bit while leaving some mystery intact, and establishing him as one of the most interesting and entertaining protagonists on TV.

There's more to the show than just him though, as he has to deal with his estranged father, the criminal network and family of old friend Boyd played by Goggins, and a multitude of other issues that arise from week to week. The show juggles stand-alone cases with the more long-term elements pretty deftly, especially as the season goes on and the two become more integrated. Only the premiere and maybe the last three episodes don't have any elements unrelated to the central story, but you hardly notice one way or the other just because the weekly stuff is so generally strong. Not every one is a grand mystery, but even the most obvious ones are amazingly enjoyable thanks to near-universally great writing and casting, and when things tie back into larger goings-on it feels like a bonus rather than a relief. The dialogue is sharp, the whole cast is interesting enough with Olyphant and Goggins at the center, and the violence is remarkably bloody and well-filmed for a cable show.

Really, there's not much about the show not to like. Maybe if it was more focused on a story and the main characters rather than having fun with a bunch of different one-offs, it could have pulled off something even greater in the end. But even with the divided attention, they managed to complete a really entertaining and satisfying arc through these first thirteen episodes, basically having their cake and eating it too. There's enough left open to keep the possibilities of the next season exciting, especially with some of the choices a couple characters make by the end, and it's just a well-produced, funny show that you can check out once in a while or watch every week. It makes you wonder why networks can't get this stuff right - so often you either get a serialized show that doesn't go anywhere or an episodic one with highly fluctuating levels of quality from one episode to the next, and Justified handles both aspects with ease. I guess it just comes down to the quality of the source material, the writing, and the casting - Justified is filled to the brim with talented character actors who just aren't famous enough to be on movie posters. It's not perfect, but it's as solid as shows with its somewhat modest aspirations can get.

The Shield - Season 7

The Shield is quite easily one of the most tightly and heavily plotted shows I've ever seen. There's hardly a moment to breathe ever, as someone is always in trouble, there's always a problem to take care of, and always a case to solve. I'm not sure if it would be different if it was on a premium channel and had a bit more leniency with running time. I'd be interested in seeing what they would have tried, because they got away with a hell of a lot for a cable show. I would guess the pacing would stay the same though, it feels like a deliberate choice by creator Shawn Ryan and his writers. This style is both an asset and detriment to the show, in my opinion. The action is almost always tense and exciting, with a pit forming in your gut as you wait for what's next, just knowing it's not going to be good. But this also leads to some contrivances in the plot, overly convenient plot turns and logical leaps so that it can all keep humming along, and it's just a bit too outlandish sometimes to really put itself in that highest echelon of best shows ever for me.

That method of storytelling did help with one aspect though - bringing the story to an end. A lot of my favorite series have had endings that were controversial at best or unsatisfying at worst, whether because they didn't have the opportunity to end properly or the way they worked didn't allow for tidy conclusions. But The Shield's final season and final episode in particular are the best of the series, and bring its various character arcs and plot threads to perfect and usually devastating ends. I really can't say anything about the specifics, because you just need to see it if you care at all. It might have been just a bit more effective if parts didn't feel ripped from the headlines, but it was still an incredibly successful way to finish this story. Long ago when I was talking about season one, I was impressed by the way they balanced Vick's good and bad sides, making you consider whether his crimes were justified by his busts. By the end of the final episode, that question is answered definitively, and the final moments of the show end his story in the only way they could have. What a series.

The Shield - Season 6

Another season, another boatload of problems for Vick Mackey to sort through. At this point it's getting pretty difficult to talk about it without getting into spoiler territory, but suffice it to say that the walls are closing in. The individual shock value cases from week to week are becoming part of the background more and more, as the other cops are reduced to minor soap opera antics as they continue to be marginalized. He needs to find out what happened to his friend, content with a replacement as he's getting pushed out of a job, and worry about retaliation for past wrongdoings. It's amazing that they consistently manage to keep the crap piled so high without it ever falling over; Mackey's always one wrong move away from getting caught or killed or worse, but he always finds a way out with his brain or good luck without it seeming like deus ex machina or something. Just impeccably crafted crime drama there.

There are issues with the rest of the cast though. Adding Julian to the strike team and promoting Claudette were good moves, giving them things to do that keep them around in the plot without reaching too hard. They also managed to keep the wife involved in more interesting ways than the whole nurse thing. But Dutch's rivalry with Billings just seems like small potatoes compared to any of the life-or-death stakes Mackey's involved with, and the continuing subplot with the problematic rookie was just irritating most of the time, though they finish the season there on a decent note. Danny's stuff isn't terrible either, and I have to commend them for finally making Aceveda useful again by the end of the season. There are only 13 episodes left, and based on how this last one ended, I can only imagine how messed up it's going to get.

The Shield - Season 5

If season 4 was intense, season 5 kicked that feeling into overdrive. A bumbling detective recurring character has taken over the captaincy of the station, but unlike previous years, the guy who commandeers his office is who Vick really has to worry about. Forest Whitaker guests all season long as Lieutenant Kavanaugh, a member of Internal Affairs who has it out for the strike team. It's an inspired performance, the best on the show, as he plays a man creepily obsessed with bringing down corrupt cops, willing to do a few uncouth things himself to get it done. He's provided the single greatest threat thus far to Vick's continued success, and he's just as scary when he loses as when he wins.

New subplots for the other cops to keep them busy. There's pregnancies and new, troublesome rookies to train and personal squabbles that get in the way of casework and yadda yadda. Claudette and Dutch's investigations are still generally interesting if a bit too focused on shock value still, but I really could do without a lot of the padding of all their personal crap. Luckily the end of the season puts Claudette in the position she should be, primed to face off against Vick. That's a conflict that has plenty left in the tank for the final two seasons. Also, the end of the arc for the strike team itself is pretty incredible, both in the sense of being a bit hard to believe and also an effectively shocking way to tie off a thread that was starting to get out of control. It's clearly going to lead to more conflict down the road, and probably a showdown as dramatic as anything in the last decade, just going on how the characters have been built over the course of years now. Definitely excited for the last 23 episodes.

The Shield - Season 4

This was definitely the best season since the first. It's clear the show's status jumped a bit somewhere between the third and this one, as it stocks up on some pretty famous talent to fill out the cast, notably Glenn Close as the new captain of the station, and Anthony Anderson as a drug kingpin recently released from prison and right back in the game. Vick's strike team broke up at the end of the last season, so the beginning of this one has him trying to fix his image and get in good with the captain, while Shane and his partner end up getting in way too deep with the bad guys. He thinks he's in control of the situation, but before long the rug is pulled out from under him and he needs the old team's help to set things right.

What follows is some of the most tense TV I've seen since... well, the last season of Breaking Bad, I guess. It's not just about keeping their dirty little secrets out of the spotlight anymore, as there's some real danger that they or people they love might not survive to see the end of it. I only really remember Anderson from comedic roles previously, but he's a great menacing presence as the main villain of the season, and he has some really intense scenes that you can't predict the outcome of. Of course I knew that things would generally be okay by the end because there's three more seasons, but it's still really good stuff.

Close is also pretty fantastic as the new captain. Her storyline is about how it doesn't matter how much sense a policy makes or how well it prevents crime, some people aren't going to like it. She has to battle public perception, higher ups in the department, and the government, and ultimately things don't go as planned. Dutch and Claudette have their typical back and forth while investigating a few fairly interesting criminals, and the fallout of Aceveda's ordeal continues. Unfortunately, I felt even more tired of Danny and Julien's storylines. Not a whole lot of actual consequence really happens to them, and to be honest they just work better facilitating the police work of the other, more significant characters. Also, it's kind of funny how they shoehorned Vick's wife into more screen time by having her seem to be the nurse on call every single time they have to show up at the hospital. Three seasons left, two of which are shorter than usual, so we're cooking with gas now.

The Shield - Season 3

In two subsequent seasons, The Shield has failed to captivate me as much as in its first year, yet it's still more intriguing than the shock value police show I thought it was, and the continuing downward spiral of Vick Mackey's life as his family and career as a dirty cop begin to circle the drain. Everything that can go wrong seems to, as he has trouble keeping his team operating on the same level while worrying about the aftermath of their hit on the Armenians in season two and trying to keep new member Tavon in the dark without losing his talents. Really, what happens after they rip off a dangerous gang gets just as much attention as the planning of said hit, and it's interesting to see a show focus so heavily on the consequences on every single thing that can happen in these situations. There's no time for rest, something's always springing a leak that needs plugging before anyone else gets too close.

And Mackey's not the only one with problems. Dutch again becomes obsessed with a serial suspect, and goes to some dark places trying to understand him. Claudette continues to butt heads with Aceveda, who was supposed to give his job up by now, over what's right for the department and what's the right thing to do. Aceveda himself faces a pretty huge personal crisis after something that happens in the field. The two uniforms the show likes to give attention to still feel like side attractions, rarely bringing much that's truly interesting to the show. They did some things with Julian's homosexuality before that was pretty tough material, but I feel like they only have as much screen time as they do at this point because they have to. Likewise, as the troubles at home for Vick increase, they've become more of a real concern, although I think it's just a way to pile more worries on him while everything goes sideways. It's well done, and I felt like the season as a whole was a bit closer to the first's quality than the third. Supposedly the show only gets better from here, which I'm looking forward to, because now it's sort of sitting in the realm of "really good" and not quite what I'd call a great series.

The Shield - Season 2

The second season of The Shield didn't have the impact for me that the first did, though it was still a well produced, interesting 585 minutes of television. It follows more or less the same formula. Vick and his strike team frequently break the law to make sure they get an arrest, or sometimes just for personal gain. Aceveda continues to disapprove of his methods, though this season he ends up helping him cover things up a bit to protect his run for city council. Claudette and Dutch continue to provide a lot of the B stories, investigating unusual cases each week, although this time Claudette is more of Vick's true foil, as his techniques begin to cause issues with her own work. And Danny and Julien have their own problems to carry around while they tend to facilitate the others' stories. It's not a terribly unique formula, but it's one that totally works to create a show that both serves as an entertaining weekly cop show and a much more compelling long term drama about corruption and the cost of justice.

I guess the problem this time around was the tension between Vick's methods and his results really wasn't there in the second half of the season. It was huge in the beginning, as he and his crew clash with a particularly brutal drug dealer from Mexico, and he has to interfere with ongoing investigations to save his own ass. But eventually that plot resolves itself, and while it's in a way that causes further issues for others, it doesn't really for Vick. The tension between him and Claudette dims only slightly, but there's not much really pressing it harder after that point. His problems become more domestic for the remainder of the season, and that stuff is handled pretty well, it's just not as compelling as the central question that got me really intrigued by the show in the first place. I always appreciated how The Sopranos (there's that comparison again) mixed crime and family problems for Tony, but The Shield just doesn't do it as well. It's been at its best when Vick is one slip up away from finally getting caught in the act, and I hope there's more of that in season 3.

Predators

It's pretty clear with this film that producer Robert Rodriguez and director Nimród Antal set out to do two things. The first was to pay tribute to one of the best action movies of the 80s. The second was to be the only film since the original featuring the titular antagonists to actually be entertaining. It mostly succeeded on both fronts. It's not a great movie, and it honestly handcuffs itself quite a bit by adhering so steadfastly to the story beats set in place by Predator, but it does succeed by combining science fiction, action, and a bit of horror in a similar way. There's nothing terribly original or surprising about the movie, but it has a few likable characters, some brutal and exciting action scenes, and some solid fan service without overdoing it.

There have been comparisons made between Predators and Aliens, both sequels to classic monster movies that up the stakes, which is obviously something they were going for. That's pretty much where the similarities end for me, though. It points to the difference between truly great sequels and merely solidly entertaining ones like this. Anything Predators and Aliens have in common is something that the Predator already did, excepting multiple antagonists. Aliens changed the game by following up a tense, claustrophobic thriller with bombastic large scale action, while Predators just copies Predator with more blood and special effects. It's an approach that works well enough, but it makes any parallels with superior movies seem hollow.

Anyway, the movie itself. It kicks off with a bang as the heroes are forcefully introduced to the wilderness and continues in a fairly wonderful slow burn as they try to figure out where they are and why they were picked. The danger ratchets up slowly, before they eventually discover what they're really up against, and after a slight detour involving a pretty great scene of exposition where everything is laid out by a wonderfully unhinged Laurence Fishburne, it starts to get really violent. I don't think the balls-out violence of the second half is as effective as the slow burn of the first, but I guess I went to see the movie for some Predator violence after all, so I can't complain that much. The mix of characters adds some fun and humor to what could have been a pretty flat script, and Adrien Brody somehow pulls off the gruff loner act without looking like a fool. That was key, because while he's no Dutch, he does manage to keep the movie going as the tough hero, something I wasn't really expecting to see him do quite so well. A lot of the cast is recognizable, including Rodriguez' cousin Danny Trejo as an early victim, Topher Grace as a doctor who doesn't seem to belong, and Walton Goggins from The Shield as a version of his completely trashy persona that's on the wrong side of the law this time.

So anyway, the gang of survivors gets slowly whittled down over time by their hunters, before the telegraphed climactic conclusion where the shirts come off in favor of mud as the humans make their last stand. It's a pretty predictable movie, which is one of the reasons its reliance on reminding you of why Predator was awesome makes for a slightly less impressive final product. Maybe that was necessary though, because the other movies with predators in them tried to take them to difference places or situations and it just didn't work out. It's interesting how the film makes it clear that it's in the same universe as the original, yet completely ignores anything else that may or may not have happened. It seems like a genuine attempt to make the series relevant again after the pandering yet generally terrible crossovers with that other alien series, and I'd be interested in seeing more of what they can do even if the conclusion and ending weren't nearly as strong as the beginning. There were some issues with the foundation of the premise and a few odd directorial choices here and there, but it was mostly a fun time at the movies.

The Shield - Season 1

I watched the first two episodes of The Shield some time ago, and then forgot about it for a while. I can't say why for sure. I know I didn't find it as compelling as I did when I picked it back up. I guess I just wasn't interested in what seemed like a normal cop show with a bit of a manufactured edge. That's not really fair though, and giving it a bit more time, it didn't take long before I was hooked and momentum carried me through the rest of the 13 episode season. The Shield definitely revels in being a cable show. It swears a little bit, there's some pretty sexual and violent stuff, and the plots episode to episode are nothing if not always attempting something you can't see on the networks. And while it's entertaining enough to run on its shock value and competent cast alone, what makes it so engrossing is what turned me off a bit when I first saw it - the dark side of star Michael Chiklis' character, Vick Mackey.

He's not morally ambiguous. That suggests some level of remorse over what he does. Vick and his strike team are downright bad men. He cheats on his wife. He makes deals with criminals. He steals evidence for his own profit. And in the first freaking episode, he kills someone he shouldn't just to keep the status quo. He's an anti-hero along the lines of Tony Soprano, except with the added despicableness of having the law on his side to protect him. And yet... when he's confronted with his corruption, I found myself justifying his actions to myself. When I first realized I was doing this, I couldn't believe it. But at least early on, the show's greatest strength is this. Despite his crimes, Mackey and his team do make the city a bit of a better place. They limit gang violence by brokering deals, they use unorthodox methods to take down criminals they might not have had a chance to stop otherwise, they're fiercely defensive of their fellow law officers. Is what he does okay when put next to all of the good he definitely does? Probably not, but that the show even makes you ask this question is a small miracle. It helps that the people trying to stop him are often not quite on the level either, but it's definitely an accomplishment. I don't know how they're going to keep it up, but I'm certainly interested in seeing.