Just a heads up, I never watch FX (I've seen every episode of MASH and it seems like that's almost all they show) so I didn't know this was on.. FX will be playing the entire first season of The Shield over the next 5 days. It actually started last night (luckily my ReplayTV caught it, I have never seen the first season) but you'll be able to pick it up from the 4th episode on if you start tonight.

I caught the first three episodes last night. I had never seen the show before and one of my friends had been ranting about how good it was, that I decided to check it out.

What an amazing show! Can't wait to see three more episodes tonight. I might just have to get the season 1 box set when it comes out now...

I'll be doing my own marathon when the DVD comes out on Tuesday, but I might catch a few episodes between now and then.

how graphic do these episodes get??

would they be able to air on network television with the same content or not??

looking forward to the dvds

Very graphic.

Four letter words and crude language, nudity, some nasty violence. Wouldn't air on network TV in a million years.

And, of course, it's one of the best shows on TV right now. Typical.

I dunno. The “bad” words could easily be dubbed over. The violence has been done. The only possible problem would be the naked dead lady (1st episode?) where they did the nipple-ectomy and the strategically-placed potholder.

Oh, and then there’s the “N” word.

It’s not like they’ve never taken something that should never been shown on the nets and “softened” it to placate the masses.

But I don't think they're ready for

But "dubbing over" the language changes the tone of the show, and I think ultimately it would suffer.

One of the reasons I like the writing is because the people seem to talk like normal people (well, at least, normal cops.) I used to work for a news station, and both the news people and the cops used foul language quite frequently.