you're right, the consistency is good on this one (which is nice considering some of the inconsistencies we've had elsewhere!) - mac can be a bit righteous at times but i also think that his good bits (and like you, i mean in terms of personality, at least most of the time
) outweigh it, and it does make him a more rounded character. i suspect a lot of the consistency is down to gary, he does seem to be very good at making sure his characters work and fit in to the story, so i imagine he's quite determined to make mac's character fit.
i liked him in s1, distant and miserable are things i like. don't get me wrong, i like his lighter side too that we've seen since s1, but i always relate to miserable and distant so i liked him that way.
me too - i don't know if it'll be war flashback related though - i think the type of trauma for mac in this case is more likely to be resulting from the fact that his friends and colleagues are in a less than good way, and even perhaps from the fact that he, as their boss, is supposed to look out for them and even to a degree, protect them, and he didn't that time so i think maybe there might be some kind of guilt/anger thing going on. not that he could've protected them - he was just as much a victim of the shoot out as they were, but i get the impression he feels it's his professional duty to make sure they're ok, and he's their friend too so that feeling would be even stronger. i'm hoping this season will go into all their emotional responses a bit - after all they've said in interviews (well, gary and melina both have i think) that it's nice now to focus on the characters as much as the crime scenes, and that they're able to because the show's been going long enough that people are interested in the characters as much as the crime scenes. i just hope they follow through on that really - i love the crime scene stuff, it's what the show is about, but more of them and how they're coping would be fantastic. especially mac
He definitely does have his good bits, personality/character wise, and for me the positives by far outweigh the negatives. The fact that he's hot helps.:devil: He can be too righteous sometimes, but then all the characters have flaws, they all have moments when I just want to reach through the tv screen and shake them!
I do enjoy miserable and distant (OT fact -I also like House a lot, and he can be a real SOB, LOL!). I like Mac's lighter side too, and how we've seen him warm up to the team. But he still maintains his distance from them at times. I think what you wrote about him in the spoilers discussion thread, about how he's reacting to the Flack situation, was really really interesting, and bang on about his character (are you
sure you're not married to him, secretly?:lol
. You wrote how he seems aware of the problems with Flack but holds back on reaching out because he knows how uncomfortable that can be because he's been in Flack's place. I think that's very true of Mac. Also, he's very socially awkward at times, not in a geeky way like Adam, more like he just find it hard to know how to reach out to others. I think that's because of his past - he was an officer in the Marines, and officers are supposed to look out for their people but also they have to remain distant to some extent and also they're expected to hold emotion in in times of stress. At least that's the impression I get from various military history/biographies I've read. Also, an important part of military training is being able to control emotion. I guess an important part of holding rank in the military is being able to control yourself as well. I think Mac is very much about control, especially of his emotions, and he feels he can only let his emotions out in certain circumstances.
So I'll be very interested to see how Mac reaches out to Flack, or tries to help him, because although he's been exactly where Flack is now, that doesn't make it any easier for him to know what to do. Mac I think is very concious of boundary issues especially when it comes to people's personal lives-he told Quinn he doesn't get involved in his team's personal lives. So while he may be concerned about Flack and want to help him some how, I think he must be very concerned about intruding on his pain.
I am also very interested to see what Mac does when he finds out Flack shot that creep who killed Angell. Some people here say Mac doesn't see gray areas, only black and white and that is true but it's not completely true, IMO. I think sometimes he
does see gray areas, or at least recognize that everything isn't always completely black or white -
-when he said he could understand Lessing's message, even if he disagreed with his method of spreading it, in COTP
-when he told Flack and I think Danny that if someone hurt his sister the way those 3 drug dealers did to that young woman in Enough, he'd kill them
-in And Here's to You Mrs Azrael when he said every human being was entitled to a dignified death. I don't think he was outright implying euthanasia is acceptable, but it suggested he could understand why someone might do it
-in the episode last season, can't remember which, he went to arrest a woman who killed the man who raped her, I think, and he told her though it was his job, he didn't like having to do it.
-in the s5 episode where Lucy was born, and Mac found out that woman had hired a contract killer to kill the man who killed her daughter, but then changed her mind, and Mac let her go.
Given how close he is to Flack, and that Flack is very much a black/white guy like Mac himself, and that he no doubt sympathizes a great deal with Flack over his loss, but also that Mac still does have a pretty black/white view of the world (with exceptions) and of course what is expected of him as a detective - it will be interesting to see what he does. It should create a really interesting conflict for him.
