Family Meeting

Almost 20 years ago, Steven Bochco shocked the world when he created "NYPD Blue". The show was realistic and raw. It pushed the envelope in terms of language, violence, and sexuality. It kept people riveted for years. Then almost 10 years later, Shawn Ryan pushed the envelope even further with his masterpiece, "The Shield." The language was more pervasive. The violence was more graphic. And the sexuality was more explicit. But in taking things to another level, Ryan made a show that will leave impressions with its audience long after the final credits roll. Vic Mackey became the ultimate anti-hero. In the VERY FIRST EPISODE, he shows his true colors when he shoots a fellow cop, who was going to rat him out to the Justice Department. He cuddles up to drug dealers just as easily as he plants evidence on them. Vic and his Strike Team lied, stole, framed people, and even killed. Yet here we were STILL ROOTING for Vic and his crew, despite our own moral dilemmas about doing so. And we loved every minute of it for seven years. Each season just kept us gritting our teeth, watching Vic and his team sink deeper and deeper into an abyss that we (secretly) prayed they might crawl out of. And we felt the pain that they felt when Lem destroyed most of the Armenian Train money, when Vic was being hounded by Lt. Kavanaugh from Internal Affairs, when Shane felt compelled to silence Lem. And the very final episode left us completely breathless, knowing the end is at hand. Some of the "justice" was inevitable (Shane). Some was expected (Ronnie). And some was, as the tagline put it, "twisted" (Vic). The images that perfectly sums up this show are these. Vic telling a perp in Season 1, "Good cop and bad cop left for the day. I'm a different kind of cop." And Vic, Ronnie, and Shane giving Lem his "21-gun salute" at his grave. Bravo, Mr. Ryan. Bravo.

Everything from the first episode culminated here.

The story comes to an end but life as cops still goes by.

The finale was poetic but shocking.

We see the real Vic.

Michael Chiklis gives his best performance.

The ending is so sad but perfect I cried 3 times.

It is the climax of the entire show.

Ends when it has to without going longer than it should and getting boring.

Better than Breaking Bad's ending.

My favorite show comes to an end.

2 parts, 2 10/10s.

It's harder to fight the enemy, it's gruelingly difficult to fight the enemy within. Mackey's "punishment" is the slap on the wrist compares to every member of his original strike team. The leader, the most cunning and calculated one survives.

The ending opens one more question to be answer. "What will Mackey do?". A man like Mackey will probably have his revenge before he'd take his own life. The audience can examine Mackey's decisions throughout the series and contemplate a guess. Whatever Mackey's planning, it's not going to end well.

Not quite. Too many loose ends not tied up. Did Dutch do it? Where did Vic go? Did Aceveda do it? Did Ron even last a day in prison? Though the writing was great and the acting, just as great, the finale was lacking. I thought that the loose ends would all be tied up. Did they leave things open for a sequel? The series was good, but the last 5 minutes just let the air out of the entire series. Sorry.

Where's part 3?

Better Than Felina of Breaking Bad, Better Than Hello Elliot of Mr. ROBOT, become My top 2 Best Episode of ALL time and top 1 Best Finales of television, WHY THIS IS STILL 9.7???? Its 9.8 at minimum. THE depth and conclusion to Ronnie, Vic, Shane and The Downfall of Strike Team IS One of the Best arcs I've seen in TV, Family Meeting IS not The Only that deserves a higher note like a 9.8, Possible Kill Screen deserved a 9.5, Postpartum deserves a 9.4 and Parricide deserves a 9.2, IMDb should fiz The Shield notes immediatly because It's Too underated, I recomendo everyones to watch The Shield, It's Really worth to watch.