Shield S4 post-watching

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You know, I guess it is my least favorite season.  It's not as intense as the preceding two nor the two that follow it.  As a matter of fact, Glenn Close and Anthony Anderson are basically the only super-high points of the season, and without them, it just would have been kinda mediocre.

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I also think that how they got Antwon Mitchell in the end was kinda deus ex machina-y--a convenient excuse mentioned as a side plot in a few episodes, but not really a part of Antwon's main storyline.  This also jarred me during my first viewing.  I recalled it as being one of the weakest plot turns of the series

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Already in season 5, and the difference really is night and day.  Forest Whitaker is insane.  Such a great antihero.  or antivillain.  Or whatever.

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And since it is a key point of S5, after watching the series twice, I find it somewhat difficult to accept that Vic would have killed Terry Crowley in the first place.  Everything that's taken place since then shows that Vic is way smarter than that, and I am sure he could have handled the situation without killing him.

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[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I beg to differ.

Season 3 is by far the weakest season.  The plot is very disjointed and you can tell the writers had an "Oh shit!" moment and changed the plot entirely.  My beefs with Season 3:

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1) The Decoy Squad - Had nothing really of any substance other than to make the Strike Team, already crumbling from the pressure of the marked money, sweat a little.  No character development.  This was the "oh shit" moment of the show because you can tell the writers were planning a Strike Team vs. Decoy Squad season but decided to give it up halfway in favor of more involvement with the Armenian mob and local gangs.  The Decoy Squad was dropped and except for a mention in S4 and the episode of getting the discharged former Marine hitman, they were ignored.  Like Tavon.

2) Speaking of which, their abandonment of Tavon.  Killing off Tavon (story-wise) in favor of Mara and Shane's clusterfuck of a relationship?  Tsk tsk.

3) The marked bills subplot ran too long.  S3 is the longest season and not a shock, it drags on the longest.  The season could have been trimmed an episode or two, almost all of it dealing with the marked bills.  The Strike Team went through far worse moments that were executed faster than getting a safe, which took 2-3 episodes all in all.  Too long.

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Season 4 on the other hand was one of the best seasons of the show.  The only one better is Season 2.  Maybe Season 5 is on par with Season 4 but S4 gets a lot more shit than it deserves.

[Van Cruncheon]

S3 had the sexy time with aceveda

[TVC15]

Did they ever explain (season 6 spoiler):

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How the mexican businessman dude got the picture of Acevada?  Back in season 3, when Acevada was grilling the person he was manraped by, he pretty well established that the dude didn't know how to get the photos off the phone and that (more importantly) he didn't show the photos to anyone.  I'm guessing they will fudge on either one or both of those points.  I paid close attention to when Acevada was grilling him this time around

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[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Did they ever explain (season 6 spoiler):

spoiler (click to show/hide)

How the mexican businessman dude got the picture of Acevada?  Back in season 3, when Acevada was grilling the person he was manraped by, he pretty well established that the dude didn't know how to get the photos off the phone and that (more importantly) he didn't show the photos to anyone.  I'm guessing they will fudge on either one or both of those points.  I paid close attention to when Acevada was grilling him this time around

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Well...

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Juan never admitted he didn't though.  In the interrogation in S3, Juan said he had it on his camera phone.  Aceveda then said to walk him through the steps.  Juan only paused briefly before Aceveda went into a tirade, moving away from the subject of the picture to him following Juan around.  Therefore, it was never established if the pictures were spread about.  Apparently they were.

In that scenario, someone probably sold the pictures to this developer for the purposes of blackmail.  A politician's mouth on some dong will compromise a lot of their power if they don't want it released.

Although this isn't the first time The Shield has fudged some details in order to make a story work.  Whether it be Matthew's degenerative autism or differing names for some of the side characters in the earlier episodes.

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