The Shield: Season One

One of the Only Shows on TV Worth Watching!
I love this show! I first got into it after reading some of the reviews posted here on these Season One dvds, so I thought I would give it a try and I purchased this complete season. I am truly glad that I did. I was hooked from the first episode to the last and I am now watching Season 2 on FX. What makes this show far better than all the other cop shows is that the production value is more in line with HBO or a movie than a cable television show. The acting is extremely good as are the scripts and dialogue. Even though Vic and his team are labeled "dirty" cops you can't help but root for them in the end. Michael Chiklis deserved his Golden Globe award for best actor, he takes on this role as if Vic Mackey was himself in a former life. I was also glad this show won the award for best drama series on TV. If you haven't seen the show yet and are unsure if you would like it, give it a try. It's a bit brutal and graphic, but by the time you finish the final episode, "Circles," you will...

The best cop-drama series on TV bar none
Shawn Ryan's raw, gritty and excellent The Shield on the FX Channel gives the well-worn cop-drama genre a lethal dose of adrenaline. The Shield is not your dad's old type of cop show. Where shows like Law and Order (and its many spin-offs) shows cops at their honorable best, Ryan's series shows that there are also tragically flawed men who wear police blues.

The Shield and its main character Vic Mackey (excellently played by Michael Chiklis) shows the dark, seedy underbelly of police work in a multi-ethnic district of Los Angeles. The show uses the real-life, scandal of the LAPD's RAMPART Division and runs with it. Instead of South Central, the show primarily uses the fictional LA district of Farmington as their base of operation. It is an area rife with gang activity, violence and drug-dealing. There's also the racial divisions between the Latino and black communities always in danger of bursting into open violence. Through all this lies Vic Mackey and his RAMPART-like...

Mercilessly unflinching L.A. police drama!!
Thank God for cable TV!

"The Shield" is the most intense new cop series in a decade. The action centers around an proto-experimental police precinct in South Central L.A. The action is violent and intense and pulls no punches. Series lead Michael Chiklis stars as Vic Mackey, leader of an elite squad within the precinct. Mackey is corrupt, amoral, but a great and effective cop. Even when you want to hate him you can't help but root for him. The precinct house's new Lieutenant makes no secret about wanting to bust Mackey as part of his political aspirations, but Mackey isn't going down without a fight. And he certainly has the fight in him.

The final scene in the first episode set the tone for what kind of cop Mackey can be. But throughout the whole first season viewers are treated to a level of grittiness and action rarely seen on television. Always intense!

One particularly satisfying story arc in the first season centers around one of the precinct's new detectives...

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