Getting around to The Shield

I have a confession to make. I never watched the last season of The Shield.

It's sitting on my DVR, in its entirety, just waiting for me to get around to it and mocking me every time I go to select something to watch.

It all began when I didn't get time to watch the season premiere. By the time I was able to get around to it, there was a second episode already recorded. I thought about it, then decided I just wasn't up for The Shield. And than another week went by, and, well, I decided to just wait and have a marathon some day when I was more in the mood.

The Shield is one of those shows you have to be in the mood to watch. Or Battlestar Galactica and Lost, too. You can't really just plunk down with some essays to grade and casually glance over at those shows the way you can with an NCIS or a Law and Order or even The Daily Show. You gotta pay attention to a serious drama.

And with The Shield, you have the added bonus of a grim view of humanity. Sometimes the dark nature of The Shield just makes it hard to drum up the energy to watch it.

I loved The Shield. I still remember when the very first commercial stopped me and my then roommate cold in our living room. It was played backwards, and you learn at the end that this guy had just shot a criminal in cold blood, and that the guy was a cop. A cop who looked a lot like the Commish. We were plunked in front of the TV for the premiere. We didn't even wait for Tivo to frontload, we watched commercials and everything. And Former Roommate NEVER watched commercials.

But it's tough to work up the investment in an episode of the show because it's just so grim and complex. It's effected my ability to watch other shows too. I tried to get into Sons of Anarchy but it was just too heavy and knowing I already had The Shield backing up on my DVR made me quit recording it. I did watch The Riches, but it suffered the same fate as The Shield. I think I finally watched the last season about three months after it aired.

So maybe it's just FX shows. But even though I do watch Battlestar Galactica within the next week, I always end up waiting until I can pay careful attention.

So tonight I turned on my TV and saw that I was recording both Leverage and DEA, shows The Beefcake likes to watch. I can't watch them until he gets here tomorrow, so as I was scrolling through the shows and movies I already had recorded, I remembered The Shield. And now I'm watching it.

But I'm only writing this post between important plot points because this shit is intense.