The Lonely Goatherd Blog And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats - Matthew 25:32
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Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
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All original content on MoreThings.com copyright 2008 Albert Barger or the respective authors
March 13, 2003
The Shield DIALING IT DOWN A NOTCH
[Morethings index for The Shield]
Season 2, Episode 10 "Coyotes"
Air date: 3-11-03
The show seemed oddly just a little light in tone, at least relative to the general tone of the series. Quick review makes me realize that this may be the least violent episode of the series to date. There were no murders, tortures, or even major fist fight. The worst direct act of violence was the new Strike Team trainee kicking over a perps chair before Lemonhead pulled him off.
This toning down of violence suits me. It's a little bit of cleansing the palette so as not to be so jaded that the depictions of violence are ineffective. There'll doubtless be some ugly stuff next week to make up for it. They gave the the ol' ultra-violence a bit of a rest.
In fact, the show does not suffer from this less violent tone. They got great drama and intrigue from the Gilroy resolution. It set tests for Vic in terms of his ideas of loyalties and practical personal considerations.�Not having people shot or tortured to death doesn't mean that there's nothing going on.
Note how hard he's struggling to keep it between some kind of lines, but hasn't quite figured out where they are. He'd have a LOT more legitimate reason to just eliminate Gilroy than he ever had for Terry in the pilot.
The denouement was outstanding. Having Gilroy pay what turned out to be his own hitman, then handing those instructions to Shane slammed the lid pretty well tight shut on Gilroy- without having to kill him.
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Danny and Julien's story with the pregnant Latina who wants to kill her ex-boyfriend's baby presents a tough social situation. Seeing her stretched out eight months pregnant and purposely getting herself cut up in a knife fight has to hit you.�
It's never brought up exactly, but when you see this, would you still think this woman should be recognized to have a right to kill that child? Really? If I were a judge with this woman and her story in front of me, I'd be looking for a reasonable legal excuse to ORDER an emergency c-section delivery.
Note how this situation reflects deep into other social issues, but not by being set up for such purpose. They didn't work up a story line about abortion. Indeed the word is never used. They appear to have written the story mostly as a reflection on Danny, and her personality and life situation. We get the other social ramifications as a natural outgrowth of character based storytelling rather than being bludgeoned with "issues."
