The Shield - Season 7 [DVD] [2009]

This is more the story of a relationship than a cop drama; superb performances from the 2020 version of a 1930s hard-boiled, morally ambiguous detective - yet someone you find yourself in nodding acceptance of his confrontational ways and balls-out directness of action - in the form of Vick Mackie (Chiklis), someone you cannot help rooting for until the end in a ‘get the job’ done sort of way, even if other cops get in the line of fire; at the same time we have the relationship of two stunning performances from CCH Pounder (a modern-day Cleopatra Jones for the 2000s) and Jay Karnes (the most awkward detective, less like the 1970s Jim Rockford than anyone could possibly be), their relationship is the truly wonderful sub-plot in this epic tale, of mutual concern, brilliant teamwork, muck ups, minor victories; but overall - for me? CCH Pounder’s ‘bad day’ when Walon the undercover cop turns on her for a dangerous mistake – her reaction is embarrassed, realistic, believable and is a master-class in acting. Forest Whitaker takes amazing risks with his character that completely pay-off, we end up hating his character and his pretence of self-effacing joviality, a characteristic that only someone with complete confidence could utilise, it’s a brave choice and it works – and he’s on the side of the law! All this genuinely challenges our moral compass and to go ‘Vick Mackie’ on something should be a new verb. I salute the acting and production skills of Michael Chiklis and thank you for an amazing series. A quite remarkable piece of work.

Without doubt one of the finest cop shows to come out of the U.S.A.I have seen every episode of the Shield and watched this series through twice and will watch again.The premise of the Shield is very different, the main characters are bad, violent corrupt cops whose lives gradually fall apartas the Police and F.B.I catch up with them.There is a linear story line from the first episode to the last with diversions along the way.The acting is brilliant, this show is very gritty and extremely brutal in places. However the violence is never gratuitous.The whole series has a beginning, a middle and a very brilliant end, the final episode is one of the best final episodes i have ever seen to a series.I won't include spoilers, this show is far too good for that, just buy every episode and enjoy.You will not be disappointed but be aware, bad language and gruesome violence are quite graphic.The Shield is in my all time top ten of all shows ever. Sensational.

Having missed Shawn Ryan's "The Shield" series on TV (don't know how), and having endured the longest coldest winter of my lifetime, and almost lost the will to live with the endless repeats of C.S.I., Morse, Midsomer, etc, I was persuaded by a friend to try this cop series out. And what a revelation it proved to be!Admittedly, I was a little shocked at first at how dodgy Detective Vic Mackey was, and wondered if I could cope with the 'hero' being The Law on the Wrong side of the Law, (but then I do love 'Dexter'), so I stuck with it. And then, following the antics of our four corrupt cops (think 'Training Day' X 4, then add some), I became an addict, cheering Michael Chiklis's character on, as he and his entourage (including the enigmatic Walton Goggins as Detective Shane Vendrell - stellar performance) tackle drug-dealers, murderers, rapists, gangs at war with each other, the community and the police, whilst all the while being targetted by their own Internal Investigations (Lt. Jon Kavenagh played by Forest Whittaker - Series 5), and a succession of bosses, Captains David Acevada (Benito Martinez), Monica Rawlings (Glenn Close - Season 4), and latterly Claudette Wymms (CCH Pounder).Because V.M.'s Strike Team are so fringe, they deal out justice to the bad guys in ways you find your inner vigilante-self applauding, a perplexing guilty pleasure, and yet you want them to get away with it.Throughout the winter I purchased every boxed set, (mostly thru Amazon) anxious for more of Vic Mackey and Co.'s adventures. If I had thought that NYPD Blue was the best ever police drama I would see in my life, this series surpassed it. Series 7 is, as it says, and very sadly, the Final Act, the last series.

The Shield was never a conventional cops and robbers series, and in Series 7 it's not really even cops and cops. It's a study of moral and personal disintegration, which reaches a grimly predestined conclusion. There's always been a strong religious sub-text to The Shield, from the opening moments in a de-consecrated Church, the Barn, itself an indication of how a suburb of the City of Angels has become a bestial cesspit, appropriately called Farmington. Series 7 is about the desperate search for redemption of the remaining members of the Strike Team, through an increasingly desperate moral nightmare of violence and betrayal, where the members of the Team resort to trying to kill each other, and where there are many Judases, but no Jesus. Redemption, of a sort, comes to Mackey after his confession to the federal agency which has mysteriously intervened to save him, but no forgiveness. Perversely, Shane and Mara find a kind of redemption in their mutual love, even as Mackey's own wife finally turns against him. Hell, said the theologians, is separation from God. If Shane thought that he and his family would be reunited in heaven, the Mackey, separated from everyone and everything he has ever valued, could be said to be in Hell at the end. The fact that he's alive simply means he has more time to suffer. This is the extraordinary conclusion of one of the most astonishing drama series of modern times.