I've spent the past few years trying to catch up on all the great cable dramas of recent vintage that I missed (in part because until recently, most of them weren't covered here in Canada until a network would pick them up after they had started airing). It's been a mostly rewarding experience, but can be an expensive one (particularly at HBO DVD prices — thankfully, other cable networks, like FX, don't charge as much as HBO), as well as a risky one, as I don't generally like to purchase DVDs of things I haven't seen.
For The Shield, I was able to get around the cost and risk by craftily buying season one for my brother-in-law's birthday, hoping he'd take it from there (lending them to me along the way, of course). The plan was such a success (he went out and bought the rest of the seasons available on DVD) that he just might be getting The Sopranos for Christmas.
My hesitance with The Shield came down to the fact that the cop show genre is one that I stopped being interested in sometime around season three of Homicide: Life on the Streets. But that didn't stop me from checking out The Wire, which turned out pretty well (as in, overcoming my cop show bias to watch The Wire lead me to experience the greatest series in the history of television). Of course, what I liked about The Wire was that it was so much more than a cop show, to the degree that it superseded the genre.
This is not the case with The Shield, which is firmly a genre show. However, it succeeds not by superseding the genre, but rather by subverting it. Creator Shawn Ryan works within the genre and its conventions of brotherhood, quickly solved crimes, and determined officers, and uses them to tell the story of a different brand of police officer. Instead of yet another show featuring righteous officers of the law pursuing those who mean society harm in the age-old story of good guys vs bad guys, The Shield is instead interested in what happens when the bad guy is given a badge.
Michael Chiklis stars as Detective Vic Mackey, leader of an experimental LAPD Strike Team designed to combat gang violence (based on the real life Rampart Division CRASH unit of the LAPD). Mackey and his Strike Team will do anything they deem necessary to manage the gang situation in their district, all the while finding ways to cut a profit for themselves off of the drug trade in the district. New Captain David Aceveda (Benito Martinez) is suspicious of the Strike Team's methods, hoping to catch the corrupt Mackey in order to further his political agenda.
Article comments
1 - Lisa Solod Warren
I am now watching the last season in real time, having followed it from the beginning, in real time.
The Shield is one of the most interesting, complex and most inventive "cop" shows ever.... the cast is a dream, the evolution over the seasons is right on. You will adore all of it. Rent the rest of the seasons, now, catch up, and then finish out this last season.
I can't believe everyone who loves really intelligent, beautiflly written and acted television isn't addicted to this series!
Cheers and enjoy.
2 - Andy
I'm excited to watch the rest of the series, as I've heard it only gets better from here. I have access to borrowing the rest of the seasons on DVD (until the current one, obviously).
Sadly, I won't be able to catch up; but I think I should have 2-6 watched in time for 7 on DVD.
3 - Mat Brewster
I've always had problems with that first episode too. Vic is a great character and most of the things he does I can forgive, but how do you get past that?
4 - Andy
Without having seen the rest of the series, I almost wonder if Ryan had it to take back, if he'd still have Vic do what he does. On the one hand, it's a shocking moment that set the series apart, but on the other, it is really hard to reconcile. Especially when you compare the Vic of the final couple episodes reacting to another cop's actions to Vic of the pilot.