Looking at the season 7 comments on this site, pretty much everyone felt the same way.  (I did too.)  And SPOILER

Not sure about this, but I think they left off the glare-corrective lenses (same technique as the Mexican sequences in Traffic) to give the gritty, blown-out look.

@avclub-07083a9024530b20bdd9ef8b38fc6e79:disqus :  on the whole "Vic Mackey—good or evil?" I think you can see his morality as a series of priorities, and this gets demonstrated through the entire series:

I always think that the character of Hiatt was Team Ryan's one attempt to go meta.

Vic does have the boorish manners of a Yalie, yes.

Summer (or late spring) project coming up!

@avclub-a1967e6de4ca99fb2635d94b99453928:disqus :  I believe that about the writers having no overarching narrative until season 3; Ryan says that it was Landgraf's idea that made him start working towards an ending.  But that still works, because the idea of drama is about accepting the consequences of what's already…

Apparently for a while, Team Ryan wanted the ad campaign to be The Shield:  It's So Wrong.  (This may have been a real thing.)

Agreed.  There was Michael Jace not wanting to play a gay character (which actually did wonders for his performance—you can feel the revulsion) but also a decision from Shawn Ryan not to pursue that story after Julien was married.  Ryan said that people who marry to deny their homosexuality run into problems with…

When I got my boxed set, I was disappointed that there wasn't a SHIELD BITCH—ZMF sticker on it.

If you're looking for great depth of character, you'll find more of it on other shows.  The Shield is Sophoclean, and the characters of Greek drama were forceful, not complex.  (The Wire, from what I've seen, is Dickensian or maybe Zola-ish, The Sopranos is Chekovian.)

MORE SERIES SPOILERS

My comparison was always between The Sopranos and The Shield:  the former was a perfect, groomed, jewels-for-eyes, every-detail-attended-to, stuffed and mounted dog.  The Shield is a big messy eating, fetching, shits-in-your-desk sometimes living German shepherd.  You can admire the former, but it's the second one…

From what I've seen of The Wire it may well change my mind, and I will happily come back from the future and add an edit to my original post if that happens.  I unironically enjoy finding out I'm wrong about things; it means I learned something.

I meant "most successful."  Fixed that in editing, thanks for the catch.  Just on the level of plot, the money train robbery brings Shane in contact with the Armenians in season 6, which will lead to the events of season 7 and the botched hit on Shane.  You probably could cut out seasons 2 and 3, yes, but I really do…

I'll get into this later, but you're absolutely right that the dialogue is the weakest link on The Shield, and you're also right that it doesn't matter.  The best dialogue on this show is the most direct and forceful, with no attempt to be clever.  But the quality of dialogue doesn't matter because this is a show…

My first reaction to seeing Vic was "Thing.  Motherfucker looks just like The Thing."

The Greatness of The Shield, part one:  story and structure

The Greatness of The Shield, part zero:  it’s not great yet

(Jumps up and playfully bops the Dutchman on the head with clipboard)