new season of the Vic

return of the Mack

Neither ‘Most Brutal Show on TV’ nor ‘Best Exploration of Urban Conflict’, ‘The Shield’ DOES take silver in both categories. And from the looks of the Season-4 primo it should continue it’s run for the gold.
Last nights ep brought in ‘The Barn’-burner Monica Rawling aka The Closer, old-schooling Vic Mackey on how to reap respect from the set-reppers and the thin blue line. Witness: Tough white lady cop jacks shank, ID and swagger from a young IX-man who claims never knowing his pops… Close (without a beat missed): ‘I probably knew him…’ (OOOOOh! No she di’n’t!) I imagine homey left throwing up a Paul-Hardcastle-stammered “N-N-N-Nineteen…”
Shane Vendrell’s straight white smile (just talking teeth) makes him look like an ‘extra’ at a Hollywood casting…(oh, you thought cops weren’t in on the call backs? Fall back!) but his grill was on chill as he stepped up the path both crooked and dark with even more abandon than last season. The typically un-shook Vic was left snarl-less.
The Closer even flipped the switch to ‘survival mode’ on The Dutch Master Chiller, Wagenbach. Dutch was still wobbly from Vic’s ‘free kittens’ jokes last season.
The AA meeting with some 19th Street residents had Spike-ish overblown overtones (Wake Up!) but I loved how the new probation-free post-pimping ‘preacher’ Antwon Mitchell took the ‘chuuch’ straight to the badges. The news of the death of his arresting officer brought a mild chuckle.
Officer J. Lowe (no typo) (once waiting for the ‘right man’ before realizing the ‘right man’ was Christ) tries to convert three kids on two wheelers into one ‘hood watch group’. The trio’s not singing but upon eyeing stepping-up Sofer their rap game draws on O’Shea’s ol’ ways…

without a gun they can't get none
But don't let it be a black and a white one
Cause they'll slam ya down to the street top
Black police showin out for the white cop

Now, I suppose it’s more realistic than quoting SOME contemporaries but are the Shield scriptwriters enforcing the folk tradition for boyz in the hood… or are they just showing their age? I’m curious what the young’ns are really quoting these days?
Uptown they might shout “they better take me in cuffs” but what’s REALLY ‘Hood’? (L.A.? Holler if you hear me..)