The Shield

After watching 89 episodes of 7 seasons of US TV's The Shield DVD box set over the last 4 months, I finally reached the end the other day. It's 'the story of an inner-city Los Angeles police precinct where some of the cops aren't above breaking the rules or working against their associates to both keep the streets safe and their self-interests intact.'


An awesome made-for-TV series, engaging beyond the norm of television. Dating from 2002-08, it was shown on FiveUSA UK Channel at 11pm on Sunday nights, a time guaranteed not to hit the jackpot in our household.

Vic Mackey, the lead character played by Michael Chiklis, is so watchable as the bad-but-good detective who does everything his way. The sub-plots in each episode all wind cleverly around each other - both the writing and the editing are excellent. The visual work, done by two hand-held cameramen, is what is said to give The Shield its unique look and feel.


Forest Whitaker (who won an Oscar for The Last King of Africa) plays an internal investigator Jon Kavanaugh who Mackey consistently manages to stay one step ahead of,  and Glenn Close, who briefly takes over as the police station Captain; both feature in just a couple of the seasons.

IMDB 8.9/10 - and worth every decimal point above the 8. 


89 x 45min episodes (plus the voiceovers and deleted scenes) amount to nearly three days of my life - a sobering thought, but only lost sleep, really. To think I have never even watched a single episode of The Sopranos, yet. Only 5 more seasons to watch of West Wing, too... No wonder TV is so much more 'on demand' nowadays. No adverts, either, if you use the boxed DVD sets.