Dark Blue
TNT’s constant advertising for Dark Blue during the NBA playoffs and the fact that I used to love The Practice back in the day has been enough to suck me in to watching the first couple of episodes of the show. I suppose it’s well-executed enough to be watchable, but the basic thesis of the show—that it would be really awesome if the LAPD had more unaccountable rogue police units—is both absurd and reprehensible.
Meanwhile, last night I finally got around to watching a few episodes of Season 2 of The Shield on Netflix. It’s not the best thing I’ve ever seen, but as an alternate treatment of the very same “unaccountable rogue LAPD unit on basic cable” concept it sure is a lot better. Also manages to work in the fact that in some ways an unaccountable rogue policy unit might be problematic. A little corruption maybe!
55 Responses to “Dark Blue”
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July 29th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
We disagree on a lot of things, Matt, but you absolutely nail this one.
July 29th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Sounds like a local CIA.
July 29th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Is there no hint that the rogue police unit that seems to be awesome at first will later turn out to be not awesome, for dramatic effect? That’s a pretty common TV trick.
July 29th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Have you noticed that there are some nursing shows building on the same premise – rogue nurses like Hawthorne? There’s another one but I can’t remember the name. Also offensive.
July 29th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Wow, “The Practice.” Haven’t thought about that show in years. Has there ever been a more popular and acclaimed show that dropped as far off the cultural radar so fast? I don’t even think it’s on in syndication.
July 29th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
I know Yglesias doesn’t read these comments, but: you need to keep watching. I discounted The Shield after its first season, and then went back to it over a year later; it’s the only dramatic show I can think of that continued to get better over the course of its run. The place the show gets to in its final three seasons is outstanding, and one of the joys is realizing how everything that happens in those final seasons is a direct result of everything from the first seasons.
It’s not the best thing I’ve ever seen, either, but it was remarkably consistent and went out on a powerhouse episode.
July 29th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
LS, I think you’re thinking of “Nurse Jackie”? (I almost wrote “Nurse Betty,” but that sounded wrong. That one’s a Neil LaBute movie.)
July 29th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
The Shield was a great, entertaining show, better than most stuff on the boob tube. Vic Mackey definitly had that cynical Dirty Harry/ Rorschach philosophy like many a cop. Even McNulty on The Wire was sort of rogue.
Weird that our President was a fan of the Wire and his favorite character was Omar Little. So not surprising that he said he thought what Crowley did to Gates was stupid and not surprising that a week later Biden is out distributing beaucoup stimulus money to police departments across the nation.
July 29th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Dark Blue lost me in the first minute of the show with a torture scene while an undercover cop observed. Nice.
TL, The Practice is shown on FX on weekend mornings.
July 29th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Incidentally, Jay Karnes (the actor who played Dutch Wagenbach) has a story about being somewhere (a convention or something?) with a bunch of police officers who were all saying things like “you need to lay off of Vic Mackey! He’s doing what needs to be done!” and Karnes, kind of astounded, came back by pointing out that, “uh, guys, at the end of the pilot episode he shoots another cop in the head.”
Silence. Then one guy says very quietly “that guy was a rat.”
July 29th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
I’m currently almost through Season 6 of the Shield, and I strongly second Medrawt’s comments. You can’t judge that show based on just watching a few episodes of an arbitrarily picked season. The arcing storyline is key to understanding both the show’s characters and themes, and it does just keep getting better as it goes on. The possible exception is that I currently still like Season 5 just a bit better than Season 6, if only on account of Forest Whitaker’s amazing character in the former. Then again, as previously mentioned, I still haven’t finished Season 6.
July 29th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Count me as a third voice urging you to keep watching The Shield. We just finished the last season. I will say no more.
July 29th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Matthew, you are part of a rogue policy unit.
July 29th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Dark Blue is just plain stupid.
For instance: Polygraph tests are already notoriously inaccurate at truth detection, but they’re extra special innacurate when the subject is being held at gunpoint.
And The Shield? Worth it, if only for the series ending. (It’s similar to the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark.)
July 29th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
I haven’t seen Dark Blue, but perhaps the polygraph at gunpoint is being use inversely from the normal (flawed) usage? Someone who can keep their presentation and blood pressure steady during a polygraph administered at gunpoint is clearly someone who cannot be trusted.
(Which is sort of like: “Tie her to a stone and throw her in the river! If she floats, the river rejected her for being evil, so burn her at the stake! If she drowns, she was pure!”)
July 29th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Weird that our President was a fan of the Wire and his favorite character was Omar Little.
That is indeed weird, but also ballsy of him to say it. The politically safe choice of favorite characters would have been Lester, the cool, smart, basically honest guy who plays the long game.
July 29th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Some specifics about “rogue units”:
1) Chicago has paid out $20 Million (so far) in lawsuit settlements , has spent $17 Million on investigations, and has seen dozens of people on Death Row have their sentences commuted because of a rogue unit: See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Burge
2) Not to mention that murderers have probably escaped because the police tortured some guy into to falsely confessing to murders.
July 29th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
And The Shield? Worth it, if only for the series ending. (It’s similar to the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark.)
While I really liked the last season of The Shield, I was surprised at how preposterous the some aspects of the conclusion were. Not to get into details [WARNING: VAGUE SPOILERS FOLLOW], but it’s conception of the way immunity and evidence would work simply had no basis in the U.S. legal system.
July 29th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
I’ll add to the praise for The Shield.
Some of the plot elements get a little absurd (the Money Train robbery and chick from The Bourne Identity as Armenian master mob boss for example) but the payoffs are worth it. And the acting is simply top notch across the board, Glenn Close, Forest Whitaker and Anthony Anderson were amazing gets for them as supporting characters.
The continuing story arc shows have pretty much ruined old style single episode TV for me now, I’d rather watch a silly, campy series like True Blood instead of well made single episode shows like Leverage or Law & Order. The single episode shows all seem too rushed and oversimplified now, they have to cram too much plot into 40 minutes.
July 29th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Re: The politically safe choice of favorite characters would have been Lester, the cool, smart, basically honest guy who plays the long game.
Have you seen Season Five? Lester goes rogue, in a very, very big way.
And about real world lawsuits, etc., the latest episode of The Closer* wraps up with a character reciting a list of monetary damages and overturned cases that LA has endured.
* I’m a bit ashamed to say I watch this, as it seems to be lining itself up to be the Matlock of the twenty-one-teens, demographic-wise.
July 29th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
TL,
the last episode was a little late to complain about that, the preposterous elements were there from the start.
The over the top elements like that are what make The Shield a fantasy as opposed to the realism of The Wire.
July 29th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
(Okay, that typo I just made was too ridiculous not to correct: By “twenty-one-teens,” I meant “twenty-teens,” meaning the years 2011-2020. I conflated the century number with the year numbers, and wound up with something totally messed up.)
July 29th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
But on the TeeVee the “rouge” police unit is filled up with a bunch of upstanding, never do wrong cops (obviously excepting the Shield) because that is the way things are written. The problem comes in when some Republican mistakes that with reality a la 24 and thinks these types of units are just A-OK.
July 29th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Wow, “The Practice.” Haven’t thought about that show in years. Has there ever been a more popular and acclaimed show that dropped as far off the cultural radar so fast? I don’t even think it’s on in syndication.
Ally McBeal. Also, coincidentally, a David E. Kelly legal show set in Boston.
Few even remember today that The Practice spun off into Boston Legal….
July 29th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
I know Yglesias doesn’t read these comments, but: you need to keep watching.
Why do people think I don’t read the comments?
July 29th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Eric k – Point taken, but it’s not the unrealistic genre elements that I had a problem with, which I was always able to roll with and were half the fun of the show. It was things like [WARNING: SPECIFIC SPOILERS AHEAD] the feds having magical powers of immunity that absolved Vic of his state crimes, or Ronnie’s arrest (and assumed conviction) based on an unsworn statement that would never in a million years be admissible.
Maybe I’m nitpicky, but I guess I held The Shield’s writing to a higher standard after all those years.
July 29th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
if we’re handing out kudos to the Shield, don’t forget the most AWESOME CCH Pounder
July 29th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
If we weight it by the magnitude of peak popularity, X Files dropped hardest and fastest of all.
July 29th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
(CCH Pounder is now a regular on Warehouse 13.)
July 29th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
I’ll add my voice to the choir of supporters of The Shield. While the characters and acting were incredible, I think what sealed it for me was the fact that there were consequences for all of the actions taken by the characters. And not always good consequences, either, the series finale being only the most obvious. I easily rate it as one of the best series that’s ever been on TV.
July 29th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
“Wow, “The Practice.” Haven’t thought about that show in years. Has there ever been a more popular and acclaimed show that dropped as far off the cultural radar so fast?”
The series mostly deserved it, except for a brilliant final season with James Spader. I don’t think any program has ever confronted and de-mythologized its own premise like that season did. “The Practice” was always about how the law forced good people to do terrible things, but never really acknowledged that if you do enough terrible things you stop being a good person. Then in comes Alan Shore as a bad person who does terrible things, but he still had more of a moral sense than any of the supposedly good characters remaining on the show.
Mike
July 29th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Oh, and for acting on The Shield, while there were many incredible performances, none were finer than Walton Goggins as Shane Vendrell. That man deserves an award of some sort and it’s criminal that he’s been overlooked by the Emmys year after year.
July 29th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
“Why do people think I don’t read the comments?”
Uh, because people frequently make pretty good criticisms of your reasoning that never seem to penetrate with you?
Mike
July 29th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Why do people think I don’t read the comments?
In case you haven’t noticed already, we’re a suspicious and bitchy lot.
Also, can we be sure you’re the real Matt Yglesias? What happened to the Ochre Bar of Authenticity?
July 29th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
“Wow, “The Practice.” Haven’t thought about that show in years. Has there ever been a more popular and acclaimed show that dropped as far off the cultural radar so fast?”
One that never got popular traction, but had an initially huge critical success was Murder One. That got tinkered with way too much in the middle of its first season, lost its star (and focus) at the end of that season … (I just re-watched the first season on Hulu.)
July 29th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
I think if you want to get all literary, “the Shield” is naturalistic, while “The Wire” is realistic.
July 29th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
erik k
the last episode was a little late to complain about that, the preposterous elements were there from the start.
The over the top elements like that are what make The Shield a fantasy as opposed to the realism of The Wire.
I loved the Shield and I loved the Wire. The Shield was very realistic, too much so I guess for some sheltered liberals I guess.
July 29th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
that it would be really awesome if the LAPD had more unaccountable rogue police units—is both absurd and reprehensible.
The worst thing about it is that it’s partly based on reality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAPD_Rampart_Division
July 29th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
I think the reason for the rapid cultural plunge of The Practice and The X-Files is related. A large part of their success was their novelty. For the X-Files, the novelty is obvious. For The Practice, it is less apparent. While we’ve seen a lot of lawyer shows, we never saw a sympathetic portraytel of the “sausage making” side of law. We saw nasty lawyers for evil clients using “Plan B” on other shows, but on the practice, they made us like it.
The novelty of the practice reduces its re-watch value, but it has a further affect. Other shows incorporated the novel elements of The Practice. The dramatic zinger of an old episode has gone from shocking to trite.
July 29th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
So, to other old fogeys out there, has anyone tried rewatching “Hill Street Blues”? Does it hold up? It’s probably the father of all these shows, right down to the “Previously, on Hill Street Blues” intro to every episode (except the first).
July 29th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Njorl, I’m working backward on re-watching Bochco stuff, but the earliest I’m at is St. Elsewhere. Hill Street Blues would be next in line.
July 29th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Have you seen Season Five? Lester goes rogue, in a very, very big way.
OK, I admit the “basically” in “basically honest” was doing a lot of work in my initial comment.
July 29th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Poptarts,
The Shield was far more unrealistic than The Wire, not in absurd Michael Bay action movie style, but in many ways beyond just the immunity thing in the final episode.
Njorl’s naturalistic vs realistic is a good meme.
And why is it that militaristic assholes like you turn everything into a I’m more macho than you pansy liberals thing? Seeing the Shield as somewhat over the top while grounded in a fundamental realism isn’t a left-right, hawk-dove judgment.
If someone considers Mackey a hero and his fate a tragic case of liberal do gooders defeating a good cop, then yeah we have something to argue about. But that is the same mentality that thinks Jeesup was the hero of A Few Good Men. People who think like that are sick fucks who aren’t worth wasting time talking to.
July 29th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Njorl,
Hill St Blues holds up pretty well because the acting and story telling are so damn good. I see it and Homicide as basically the best that Network TV could do at the time given the constraints, it would have been great if Bocho in his prime could have basically done Hill St rev 2 on HBO the way Simon basically did Homicide rev 2 as The Wire.
July 29th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
The Shield is definitely worthwhile viewing.
July 29th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
In The Shield, Vic Mackey is basically an erection with a face on it.
He tells us more about ourselves and our media culture than he does about LA or the police.
July 29th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
In The Shield, Vic Mackey is basically an erection with a face on it.
Is that a reference to Chiklis’s bald head?
July 29th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
And why is it that militaristic assholes like you turn everything into a I’m more macho than you pansy liberals thing? Seeing the Shield as somewhat over the top while grounded in a fundamental realism isn’t a left-right, hawk-dove judgment.
If someone considers Mackey a hero and his fate a tragic case of liberal do gooders defeating a good cop, then yeah we have something to argue about. But that is the same mentality that thinks Jeesup was the hero of A Few Good Men. People who think like that are sick fucks who aren’t worth wasting time talking to.
Sorry I kind of flew off the handle b/c I thought you were dissing The Shield, like the guy calling Mackey a walking erection.
July 29th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Captain Noble: … and the pulsing vein in his neck. But mostly, his behavior. And that’s not intended as a diss on the show. I think it’s how they planned it to look.
And who said anything about “walking”? Mackey mostly runs, struts or marches.
July 29th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
(PS: In Chiklis’ other roles, I’ve never noted any such phallo-centric behavior. The dude can act.)
July 29th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Poptarts,
Work on your reading comprehension, I have several posts in this thread saying how much I recommend The Shield.
July 29th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Maybe this is a trend. A few weeks ago I was flipping channels when I landed on a new series starring Veronica Mars’s dad as a SWAT officer for whom blocking streets, surrounding buildings, and knocking down doors is all in a good day’s work.
I watched it till the “Let’s welcome our new home invasion overlords” vibe made me sick. Took about ten minutes.
July 29th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Let me add to the ‘Matt-watch-the-Shield’ chorus. I avoided it at first,went to it in the penultimate season, and became hooked enough to go back & catch up. Shane, Dutch & Mackey—all top notch; any outlandish plot elements more than surpassed by superb acting and insight into police depravity & human behavior. I liked Wire better (esp. Season 2 & the docks), but compared to all other police dramas–I mean, c’mon! It rocked.
July 31st, 2009 at 5:24 pm
[...] watched episode three of TNT’s Dark Blue last night and the show continues to be driven by the absurd and reprehensible notion that the world would be a better place if there were more [...]
July 31st, 2009 at 5:24 pm
[...] watched episode three of TNT’s Dark Blue last night and the show continues to be driven by the absurd and reprehensible notion that the world would be a better place if there were more [...]