C.C.H.

The Good Mr. Rich was very kind to me on my birthday, and he set my shit up with the first season of FX's "The Shield" on DVD. This is a high act of rule-ification, as the awesomehood of "The Shield" now owns my ass into indentured perpetuity. This is why I love when people rain down gifts of TV shows on DVD (take the opportunity to browse my Amazon wishlist on your way out -- you set me up, I'll flash ya a little neck via my iSight webcam). The Salad and his Wife-o-matic 5000 gobbled up the first season and went back for more, post haste.

You know, everyone raves about the realism, the performance of Michael Chiklis, etc... and those are all laudable aspects. It's a great show. But I'm here to throw a klieg on Carol Christine Hilaria Pounder, aka C.C.H. Pounder, aka Det. Claudette Wyms on the show. Where you been all my life? You wanna know what makes this programme better than all the other cop shows of the past 15 years? C.C.H., that's what. To my knowledge, not since Tyne Daly has there been a lady cop who's NOT a lady cop. The role of Wyms was written for a guy, but they cast her instead -- and didn't change a lick of dialogue in the process. She's awesomely strong, awesomely fearless, awesomely skilled -- awesomely awesome.

Pounder bolts into the ground a show that might otherwise start to float away into implausibility on the merit of some of the pulpier/soapier aspects. With her service, the show is given the range to go places and retain gravity and almost total plausibility, the lifeblood of this L.A.-based series.

Buy up stacks of this show's DVDs -- Pounder deserves a raise.