...alas, let's rumble on.

I saw a post somewhere online saying that 'The Shield' may not start up until summer, and I'd like to take this moment to implore any F/X official who happens to be trolling the Web for 'Sheild'-related posting and comes upon this one:

TO HELL WITH DIRT! SURE, COURTNEY COX WAS HOT ON THE FIRST SEASON OF 'FRIENDS,' BUT WHA... THA... FA...?

I just can't get into 'Dirt.' 'Damages?' Sure. The gypsy-family con show with Eddie Izzard - what was that called? - sure, I'm down. Not 'Dirt.'

ESPECIALLY NOT when it's been well-publicized that the whole of season seven is already in the can. I've read interviews with Chiklis, talking about directing the last episode, I've heard a few spoilers - nothing huge, but still - so LET'S GET THIS SHIZNIT ROLLIN'!

Now, I'll be honest: I don't know &$^! about &$&! when it comes to TV ratings, when the best time is to debut a new series, etc., etc., and I'm sure they want some time to package and release the sixth season on DVD and get some of those sales, but far as I know, 'The Shield' is F/X's highest-rated, most-critically-acclaimed show, sooooo OUT WITH IT!

I find myself sitting here wondering how Aceveda and Mackey are going to go after Pezuela and La Eme (the Mexican Mafia). First they have to get Mackey's job back; I can see that being the opening scene of the season... Mackey and Aceveda showing a state senator the CD marked 'The Campfire Boys' and then politely asking whether the Honorable Senator would mind intervening on Mackey's behalf in exchange for bringing this to his attention.

I've also seen YouTube videos someone took of the 'Shield' crew taping some scenes from the final season, where you see Mackey and Shane walking down the street and talking with some measure of civility. I'm very curious how the Armenian mob storyline is going to play out. Obviously, at some point, Shane's involvment in the money-train robbery will be revealed, but how? Will Mackey give him up? Is Dutch finally going to follow his original season-three instincts all the way through? (He was awful disappointed when Aceveda didn't seem to have spent too much effort looking into the Strike Team.)

And although I don't think he's coming back, I'd sure like to see a Kavanaugh update. He can't be doing too well in prison. In all honesty, I'd love to see him get sent to Longpoke--

Actually, hold on a second. I'd like to pose a question to the, uh, two or so fellow Blogstreamers that read these posts. Is is LONGPOKE or LOMPOC Prison? I've tried to look it up on Google, and I've seen both references. Is 'Longpoke' maybe a nickname for another facility? I digress.

Anyway, I'd love to see Kavanaugh get sent to Longpoke/Lompoc and cut a deal with Antwon for his life; something involving the Strike Team. But I've also heard that Anthony Anderson isn't on the new season, so no chance of that.

My top questions (and I apologize if I'm repeating myself, it's been a while since I've posted anything):

• How will they go after Pezuela?
• Will Dutch find out about the Strike Team re: the money train or Shane killing Lem or any of the other myriad of things they've done?

Actually, that brings up an interesting point. What if Dutch is investigating Shane, and finds "the document?" If Dutch stumbles upon his dumbass blackmail diary of all the Strike Team's dirt, he'll have them all by the balls. As a matter of fact, Dutch finding that document is the one thing that might be able to reunite the team behind a common goal: stop the Dutchman. Christ, what if Mackey started the series by murdering Terry Crowley and ended it by capping the Dutchman? That would be unbelievable!

Now I'm just fantasizing, ha ha. 

As we hurtle toward the final season of 'The Shield,' my favorite police drama of all time (props to my favorite SHOW of all time, 'The Wire,' but it's almost selling it short to call it a cop show... it's more about the Baltimore drug trade in general), I have high hopes... maybe too high.

Then again, the writers of 'The Shield' have been able to keep the series consistently exciting, still taking hairpin turns into its sixth season and leading The Faithful Viewer down roads he or she did not expect (although I have to say, my girl seems to have an uncanny ability to accurately guess what's going to happen next).

I still stand by my assessment that Vic will be the only member of the original Strike Team left standing at the end of the series. It's just such a fantastic image: Mackey all alone, gun in hand and no one to kill, his work with the LAPD done and his job gone, his family in ruins and no real friends to speak of. A lot of people seem to think Mackey's going to get his comeuppance at the end of the series, but I have my doubts.

To my eye, the whole point of the series is to show that, even in an extreme scenario of cops and criminals (at least to SOME degree) working together to maintain peace, it's just not possible. As Mackey has opined on One Niners, Byz Lats and bangers all over Farmington: "[They're] gonna be shitheads their whole lives." Someone's always waiting in the wings to play King of the Mountain. In the third season....

.... I'll have to write about that later... BACK TO WORK!

Okay, so I guess what I meant is NOT that this was the WEAKEST of the "Shield" finales, but rather the most open-ended. To me, however, that spells weak. Everyone already knew it was coming back for a final season, so leaving us with so many unanswered questions wasn't really that necessary.

Sorry, but there wasn't a single storyline resolved in the finale. Mackey's job, that's it. Who DIDN'T know he was gonna be back next year? That hardly counts.

And yes, this sets up tons of intriguing storylines for the final run, but what about all of us who sat through this season, well, frankly, expecting more?

Lots of things happened, but not much HAPPENED, if you know what I mean. The whole season switched gears midway, into a San Marcos storyline that seemed to alienate a lot of viewers (not me, but it appeared that a lot of people had trouble following the ins and outs). And then, on top of that, NEITHER of those storylines had any sort of meaningful payoff. Sure, they will next season, but this kinda reminded me of the way the sixth 'Sopranos' season just kind of whimpered out at the end. I remember thinking, 'That's IT?! It's fucking Christmas and the whole season is OVER?!?!'

My only hope is that they already have most of the seventh season in the can, but I just know we're going to have to wait until at least Jan. '08 (PLEASE, F/X, DON'T PUT 'DIRT' SEASON 2 ON. JUST START UP 'THE SHIELD' IN JANUARY) or, God help us all, SPRING '08 like this year.

I kept waiting for all of the reckoning that the promos were talking about in an oh-so-serious voice.

And then there was some waiting.

And some more waiting.

I'm tuning in for the midnight encore, and maybe I'll have a better perspective then, but my initial impression is that just about every storyline I was waiting to see resolved pretty much went unresolved. A quick head count:

- RECKONING: Between Billings and the Dutchman
- RECKONING: Between Shane and Mackey
- RECKONING: Between Shane and the Armenians
- RECKONING/HUMOROUS DIALOGUE: Between the Dutchman and Hiatt and/or Tina
- RECKONING: Between Hiatt and Mackey
- RECKONING: Between Mackey and the LAPD Appeals Review Board

Don't get me wrong, I thought it was a great episode, but by the end, it kind of felt like the next-to-last episode instead of the season finale.

I'm happy at having been right about Pezuela being next year's Big Baddie, as well as the 'Wire'-like detour into big-time city politics, but not at the expense of having so many questions unanswered.

Hiatt's exit was pretty boring. Vic definitely showed him up over the last couple episodes, and proved he was clearly Hiatt's superior on the streets (like Mackey said toward the beginning of the season, the guys that were too smart to get caught by Hiatt when he was working INS made their way to Farmington), but he basically got fired for doing what Wyms asked: play by the rules. So she looks awfully hypocritical canning him for essentially not playing fast and loose enough. What she's asking is impossible. She wants someone LIKE Vic, but NOT Vic. How's she going to deal with his continued presence in the Barn next season, by the way?

Of course, the writers were a little vague on that as well. DOES this Pezuela case go high enough on the food chain for Mackey to keep his job? The look on Aceveda's face (and his driving Vic's car away) seems to say yes. But he just walked out on the appeals board (and the fam), and he did it in order to pull over this Arinboles guy for no legitimate reason, beat his ass and steal his limo. Surely Arinboles is going to tell Pezuela some bald-headed cop did it, and he'll know it was Mackey. And for that matter, where is Mackey taking that limo?

Maybe all these questions are to keep us salivating for next season, which of course I am, but I still can't help feeling a but unsatisfied. This is definitely the weakest ending of any of the seasons.

No Billings/Dutch action was disappointing as well. Dutch is too smart to have not figured out what happened. I couldn't believe he didn't ask Tina if she'd lost her cellphone recently. HOWEVER, it would be hilarious to see the Dutchman make out an insurance fraud case against Billings. He doesn't live in Farmington, though, far as I know (the CRIME, technically speaking, took place there, though.... I'm out of my depth on that one; either way, I wouldn't put it past Dutch to at least look INTO it).

Not sure what the kiss with Danny means; she almost kissed him in S2, but this one was sort of in a moment of emotional chaos, so who knows what may happen there. Will Dutch become stepdaddy to Mackey's other son?

Not to change the subject, but... HOW IN THE F*%! is Cletus Van Damme gonna grab the Armenian godfather's windpipe, threaten the acting boss in the middle of a backstabbing power struggle and walk away without losing his feet? And then Diro just lets him back in the hospital room? This whole Armenian storyline did not have any kind of payoff. I'll be honest, I thought Shane was going to be dead before this episode was over (Hiatt, too, for that matter, which ties back into the Armenian storyline... I was hoping they would go kill-crazy for the Strike Team and chop off Hiatt's feet by mistake).

The whole first half of the season built up to Vic finding out for sure that Shane killed Lem, and I was certain the back nine would be Vic finding a way to get revenge. Maybe that's coming next season, but like I said before, compared to the slam-bang endings of other 'Shield' seasons, this one just didn't pack the knockout punch I expected. It sets up a lot of interesting possibilities, certainly, but... well... maybe more after the midnight showing; lemme get another one under my belt first ha ha ha.

...until the season finale. Commence anticipatory slobbering...