Being a huge fan of THE SHIELD, I was stoked when I read a while ago that Frank (THE GREEN MILE) Darabont was able to direct his own episode of this amazing show.

I just got to see it and... WOW!

WARNING!
MASSIVE SUPER-DUPER SPOILERS BELOW









LOOK... I WARNED YOU...








NO TURNING BACK NOW, KIDS...










OK, this season, there are a LOT of things going on. Lem's death, Vic's "retirement", that mystery baby, the new Strike team, etc. and Darabont's episode (which DOESN'T air this Tuesday, but a week from this Tuesday), is, by far, one of the best episodes of the show EVER.

I know episode 5 hasn't aired yet (that's the one coming this Tuesday), but, when you see what happens in the LAST MINUTE of Episode 5 [Tuesday's show], you'll definitely be stoked to find out what Darabont gets to tackle! The end of 5 kicked me square in the balls... if you are a fan of the show, you know things are just... well... gonna get REAL bad soon.

Darabont handles all these sub-plots effortlessly and even gets to "solve" some things (baby-daddy revealed!) and bring in some new problems to plague poor Vic... Vic's daughter finds out some nasty stuff about her father... through a friend who's dad is a lawyer. He also gets to direct his own shoot-out(!!!) and an "up-the-skirt" moment with a woman during interrogation. Also, that young female officer is back (from her short PR stint with the LAPD) and she gets to cause some tension in "The Barn" with both Danielle and Dutch! Can't wait to see how this all plays out.

Oh yeah, in typical THE SHIELD "end of the episode" kick to the balls... the last 5-6 minutes or so of episode 6 is one of the most tense sequences in THE SHIELD's history! Brilliant! Woo boy... episode 7 can't be here soon enough.

The direction/style is spot-on and he does a great job with THE SHIELDs trademark "shaky-cam" stuff. Darabont got to pick a good one for his SHIELD debut... I hope he gets to direct (or even write!) more in the rumored to come final Season 7!


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Regards,
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Don May, Jr.
President, Synapse Films
www.synapse-films.com
Blogspot: www.synapsefilms.blogspot.com

Darabont credits his experience directing this as what inspired him to finally pull the trigger on THE MIST. Seems he was jazzed by the 'run 'n gun' pace of episodic tv (as opposed to the glacial, perfectionistic, 'Important Movie' approach he took on his previous films), going so far as to hire the episode's crew to shoot the thing in 28 days or so.

Best episode of the year by far. I thought the season started off a little shakily--I was afraid they were going to drag out Cavanaugh's role when it was clear it was time for him to exit--and tonight's reckoning between Shane and Mackey has been a long time coming. Except for the scenes between his daughter and the baby, the pace didn't slow down once, and the final confrontation was well-handled, especially since it's one we've seen before, as they acknowledge.

So where does it go from here? Any guesses?

As it stands now, there's one more season left, and after tonight I can't imagine how Shane could possibly be around for it. It looks like Mackey worked out his retirement crisis as well as any lingering questions about his role in Gordo's disappearance, so that ties up those two plot strands neatly at the season halfway point. Will he and Shane come to an uneasy truce after a few episodes of escalating blackmail? Will Kenneth (I think that's his name) make it as the new leader of the strike team or will he meet the fate of Terry, Lem and the guy who went through the windshield? And will Dutch get slapped with a sexual harassment suit by Tina? What do y'all think?

For those of you who can't wait to watch the final two episodes of this season -- the season has already run in its entirety on French TV. Which means that if you know your way around BitTorrent, you can watch them immediately.

They're awesome!