Bene Cumb
Although this series is rather "old" and shown on our TV channel some time ago, I began watching it some months ago - as I have realized that, for overall picture and comprehension, such series should be watched in succession, no mixing of seasons and episodes and seeing them all. But 88 episodes take some time...I cannot say that The Shield captivated me from the first episodes: rough environment, nervous atmosphere, and a certain murder of a certain cop made me doubt how the following events and relations would resolve, how would I personally see the arm of the law fighting for "good" in complex areas of LA. True, it is mostly realistic, as the series itself is loosely based on real events, but it is so different from the issues the police in my country has to deal with. But then, gradually and soon, I began to grow accustomed, and "broke into" the characters and events, had compassion for and became disgusted, and was anxious to see how some tricky events would be settled or fade away. As most characters are so versatile and performances so strong, it was a relief to focus on them when a case became too knotty; apart from the actors I have been following a long time (Glenn Close and Forest Whitaker, for example), I took note of many others whose career and other works aroused my interest (starting from Michael Chiklis). Well, one might wonder how so many torts and felonies could last so long, with touch and go, but all in all, The Shield is a good and realistic series, depicting the problems resulting from drug use, racial seclusion, possession of firearms, and general poverty in a metropolis, particularly known for glamorous Hollywood. Not a family watch though.
felixoteiza
At its core The Shield is the tale of the trials & tribulations of the Strike Team, a special four-men squad that has been put together to fight crime, gangsterism and drug trafficking in the mean streets of LA and which ends up doing the same things they are supposedly fighting, to improve their own economic situation, as they recognize themselves, while waddling neck deep in a sea of denial and self righteousness.As I wrote in my SOA review, it is practically impossible to judge that series without comparing it to TS; and the opposite is true. Only that in this case the comparison is not a happy one, as it clearly is in other cases like say, Cheers and Frazier, where the talent and the overall quality of the first series percolates, even enhanced, to the spin off, with good acting, hilarious plots and subplots and above all, superb writing all over. But such is not the case here. There are so many things that worked to perfection in TS and that are nowhere to be seen in SOA, that the only listing of them would take this whole review so let's just mention the most flagrant of them. The complete lack of realism in SOA, while even the smallest bit of a situation, conflict, character in TS reeks of unabashed realism, especially the last, from an always overexcited Shane to a conflicted Aceveda to bit players such as the prostitute who wouldn't bother calling the police because she had "the mouth full of dick" at the time. Or Vic Mackey dealing with the problem of having two autistic children. That is one of the things that make TS such a great series, when it comes to realism, compared to which SOA looks more like the febrile violent fantasies of an overexcited six year old or the daydreaming of a dead bored 9-to-5 office worker.(The IRA playing cynical political games with a kidnapped baby, really, Sutter?)I can't imagine one single element on which Ryan struck a note less than perfect here, from the fictional police station—a converted church of all places! where sinners/perps must tell of their sins/crimes to a priest/cop over a background of tinted glass windows!—to the lead character. I can't remember either another series where action, drama, even tragedy, meshes, so flawlessly, even harmoniously, with unabashed humor, as in those hilarious bits usually provided by bit players, generally witnesses, as for ex. the couple who had come up to give testimony on a crime and that, as the result of their unending fighting, end up instead in the cage facing criminal charges; or when Vic connects the monitor to show a nosy reporter how they could see what's happening in the interrogation room only to see his pal Shane banging a detained prostitute! Speaking of which, as Chiklis put it so many times in the DVD interviews, Vic is a man who spends his life juggling with four balls but who has to be prepared at any moment to receive the fifth one and then send it flawlessly up with the rest. It has been said many times that what characterizes the men of the Strike Team is their great capacity for denial, but in Vic's case we may add also that he is a master of improvisation. One of the things I marveled most about watching TS, which enjoyed the most also, is how he could react in a fraction of a second to a new, unexpected bit of information, presence, development, that could have surely made his entire building collapse in a cloud of guilt and damnation, yet he is always capable of pulling off his sleeve some little masterpieces of improvisation, for example when explaining to Cpt. Rawling why he didn't inform her of the Shane/Army/Antoine situation down to waving Hi to his daughter in the midst of a beating he is giving to a baddie. And Chiklis is the perfect man and body for the part—another magic touch by Ryan—not only because his oozing energy and earnest disposition but also for his physical features. He is not tall and athletic, but short and heavyset, which emphasizes even more the burdens and tribulations he is carrying for the entire series, so he'll never give us the impression of the guy who swiftly, flawlessly, takes care of business, no matter how difficult that may be, but that of the regular guy arduously, painfully struggling with oh so many things at the same time! With someone like say, Ron Perlman in the role, all that pathos could have been lost, Perlman's character would have just stared at the problem, at the people causing it, paused for a moment and then simply muttered that he would take care of it. (BTW, to be fair, in no way I am belittling him, if there is ONE thing great about SOA, that is Ron Perlman).TS must be the only one TV series of which I have watched the entire collection of DVD meetings and interviews. Of special interest to me were the videos of the meetings of the staff where they discuss future plots and subplots and the further development of current ones, like the story for example where one Armenian girl has her sister killed and they, the staff, try to put together the relationship she will have with Vic. For anyone like myself who has always wanted to know how all these TV plots and story lines come to life that was an invaluable piece of information. Thanks to the people who made this possible. And thanks specially to Shawn Ryan, for such great series.All in all, a classic, to keep in you collection and take it out to watch whenever you feel the need for a guilty pleasure. 9/10.
donwords
I was hooked right away on the Shield episodes on Hulu and watched every season except the very last with avid interest. Little things bothered me. The badge worn on the wrong side of the chest, for one. The captain's bars worn 90 degrees out from the correct way. The constant insubordination from officers and detectives that would never be tolerated in a real police organization. But worst of all, the thing that ultimately turned me completely off, was the corruption, the endless lies and thievery and even murders. By the time I was into the last season there was just nobody left I felt like rooting for - I despised almost everyone in the cast. All in all, a good show that could have been great with a different story line and better filming techniques. (The hand held cameras just about made me ill, literally.)
