The Shield: Season Seven (1 Viewer)

The final season of The Shield starts on Tuesday, September 2.

Does anyone know if the Shield will be broadcast on HiDef? I don't get FX station in HiDef on Comcast.

I could be wrong but I don't think FX has an HD channel.

So who thinks Vic will go out in a blaze of glory and gunfire or go out with a whimper in a jail cell?!?!

DirecTV has FX in HD, but Dish doesn't. Even on Direct I don't know if The Shield will actually be broadcast in HD, though. All I know is I can't wait for these final episodes. Should be awesome.

Yeah, technically The Shield is intended to be seen at 1.33 so it may not be.

I've seen no evidence that Vic pays any emotional cost for anything. IMO, he has long since buried his emotions to the point where he's pretty much willing to do anything to accomplish his goals. Did he care about his wife? Sure. But he'll lie to her and cheat on her. Does it hurt him to lose her. Sure, but he'll just fill the void some other way. Or maybe convince her to come back. What won't happen is he won't see the error of his ways and reform. Vic is Vic, for better or worse. I once knew a cop a lot like Vic, and the only thing that changed him was getting old (he no longer had the energy or physicality to do what he previously did, and he eventually was marginalized and "retired" from the force). God knows what Vic would do without his badge.

I agree that a fate worse than death or jail to Vic would be to lose his badge for good.

That might be more of a Sopranos style of ending though. The Shield was always about gritty storyline and plots not really the avante garde storytelling that The Sopranos adopted.

tick tock tick tock.....

Waiting anxiously............

I think he is going out in a blaze of glory... or I think he will be offed while he sleeps or something. But I think either way Vic is going down.........

What a great first episode........

That was a freaking sweet opening sequence with that Social Distortion song playing and the reveal of Vic and Ronnie coming out in Shane's apartment.

Anything with Billings makes me laugh and those big sunglasses were no exception.

Great opening to a hopefully great season!

Great episode but no HD...ugh. Also, did anyone else think the video quality was extra poor? I know 'The Shield' has always gone for that "grainy" look, but this just seemed far below even past seasons. Not sure if it had something to do with being on FXHD, but the broadcast not actually being HD. (I have DirecTV.)

Great start to the season, but I too thought the video quality looked worse than previous seasons(even by non-HD standards). I wonder if all 13 episodes will look that bad.

This might be a reach but do you think the quality might be intentional since Vic's life will start to deteriorate?

Having just watched the S6 DVDs, it looked basically the same to me. Keep in mind that the show is shot on 16mm.

And correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think that there can be an HD broacast when the show is 4x3.

I think you are right about this one....

I thought the film grain looked about normal to me.

The PQ was definitely down from past seasons, but as I said, it could have to do with the fact that I was watching a non-HD broadcast on FXHD. I'm not sure what you mean about the show being 4:3...the bottom line is it wasn't filmed in HD, so it's not HD (regardless of aspect ratio). Even when they showed that season 1 recap it looked noticeably better than last night's episode.

Now I'm not following you. If it was shot on film, an HD presentation should look better than an SD presentation (although for The Shield, it'll only be slightly better since it's 16mm) but since the show is shot 4x3, I believe you wouldn't get the same resolution as you would from a show that is shot 16x9. That being said, I freely admit that I'm no expert so I could be wrong about the lower resolution of a 4x3 picture.

EDIT: Just out of curiosity, when the Direct TV folks are saying that they didn't show it in HD, did they stretch the frame or show it in 4x3?

HD does not equal "16:9". A picture made up of 1080 or 720 lines from the top of the screen to the bottom is HD whether the aspect ratio is 1.33:1, 1.66:1, 2.35:1 or anything in between. Any series shot, edited and preserved on film can get an HD transfer, just as any theatrical film can get an HD transfer, regardless of apsect ratio.

I thought the opener was great. This season is going to be a wild ride. Didn't notice any difference in the quality of the 16mm photography, but then, in my area Comcast only carries FX on the digital SD tier, which pretty much sucks all the time.

Regards,

Joe