Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2224 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-06-08
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Number of discs: 28
• Running time: 3480 minutes

Synopsis
Transgressing the seemingly rock-solid boundaries of regular television programming, THE SHIELD refuses the strictures of black-and-white depictions of clear-cut moral dilemmas in favour of an ambiguity that will challenge even the most jaded viewers. Detective Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis, THE COMMISH) leads the elite Strike Team in the fictional L.A. district of Farmington, employing dubious but effective crime fighting methods as a tough, successful, but corrupt cop. The other detectives and cops on the force disapprove of the team's methods, while the precinct head, Captain David Aceveda (Benito Martinez), is just as corrupt as Mackey. The stoic, upright Detective Claudette Wyms (CCH Pounder, ER), who understands both sides of the game, provides a much needed balance and rationality to the mix. The charismatic Mackey strikes just the right pitch so as to be the least sympathetic antihero television has yet seen, while the controversial themes and violent nature of the content manage the effect of making audiences really think about what they're watching. This collection presents all seven seasons of the series.

Customer Reviews

THIS CONTAINS THE EDITED EDITIONS OF SEASON 5 AND 6!
The Shield is one of best cop shows of all time and this boxset is quite satisfactory. BUT the feature length season finales of Seasons 5 and 6 have been cut. It shouldn't come as a surprise, the Region 2 individual boxsets were edited in the same way, hence all the irate reviews here on Amazon. The Region 1 boxsets were intact. For all the diehard Shield fans who love watching the show in sequence, watching this one may cause confusion.
Eg in Season 5 not all of Kavanagh's exchange with Corrine is displayed, plus Danny doesn't confront her baby's father. Yet in Season 6 Danny and father's identity is common knowledge. These issues aside, why pay for dvds with edited episodes when they were broadcast in full on TV.
If you want the full package you're better off buy the individual boxsets. For such an eagerly awaited arrival, it is such as a disappointment.

Welcome to the Barn
Vic Mackey runs the Strike team from L.A's Farmington police station. A rapid response task force, they bend rules to achieve goals, often running into trouble with both superiors and local government. It soon becomes obvious that the team are corrupt and willing to go to any lengths to protect themselves. The problem is that they are pretty good at covering their tracks and they also produce results which makes nailing them difficult. As the episodes progress so does the depth of their lawlessness and so they must go to increasingly more complicated lengths to keep themselves one step ahead of the ever growing crowd of those trying to prove their crimes.
The shield rose way above the run of the mill police procedural thanks to razor sharp scripting which managed to make every episode exciting yet believable and producing fully rounded personalities in so many different characters.
The standard of acting was among the most consistantly high of any TV programme.
Michael Chiklis somehow managed to make the truly wicked and ruthless Vic come across as both human and likeable. His leadership is deeply flawed and ultimately self centered to the point of destruction. His strike team partners are equally well drawn characters. Walton Goggins really impresses as Shane Vendrell,the hopeless redneck with a hair trigger temper and very little brain who is willing to follow Vic to hell and back and eventually does. As Lemansky, Kenny Johnson gives a counterpoint to Vic & Shanes' gung-ho attitude with a measured performance of someone in over his head whose doubts grow with each episode. The real stand-out performance must surely be the excellent Benito Martinez as police chief David Aceveda who starts out as a clean as a whistle chief who eventually enters politics and finds his hands getting as dirty as those of his enemy Mackey.
Added to the mix are a police station full of kooks, confused, selfish and downright weird cops whose worlds all collide with the strike team. The strike teams families whose lives are slowly pulled apart by their actions. Not to be ignored also are the guest appearances. Especially Glenn Close who turns up for a season as the new chief who backs Vic and tries to sort out the whole mess and the truly inspired Forrest Whittaker whose performance as an internal investigations officer trailing Vic, unravelling mentally over one and a half series, is a powerhouse performance that shakes up even this already amazing programme.
The whole 7 series' are high octane storylines that simply do not let up. There are no slow 'filler' episodes and each one see's the stakes raised for all involved. This whole programme could have been superb just looking at the interaction between the police characters but when you add the amazing array of cases they investigate and the villains they chase,(Anthony Johnson as the unflappable kingpin Antwon Mitchell is superb), then this really takes off as something quite special.
The action is in the raw and is bloody and violent, as is the language at times, so be warned.
If you have enjoyed the wire then you'll probably love this.
Yet another TV classic has come to an end but what a ride it has been with the boys from the strike team.

A top quality US drama all in one box
Here it is all 7 series of this exceptional cop show in one package. If you are unfamiliar with the premise then in essence it's about a group of corrupt cops led by the legendary Vic Mackey who go to greater and greater lengths to cover their tracks from their colleagues. It is so multilayered that an immoral act in episode one is still nagging at them in the last season of the show even though they have gone on to do far worse things. However the cops themselves while on the take are also trying to fight against the rising tide of gangs and drugs on the streets of LA and it is often showed just how hopeless this cause is. In the meantime there are powers trying to take them down which would seem the right thing to do except their moral crusade is tainted by their own self interests.

The tone isn't quite as "real" as the Wire, there are graphic scenes of rape, torture and there are occasional shoot outs. You will have to brace yourself for lots of swearing, some mutilation and of course nudity too. But this is by no means a teenage action series either, the moral landscape is so complex and the writing so interesting that both Forest Whittaker and Glenn Close have been on board for a series each. Forest Whittaker in particular really goes to town playing a particularly loathsome officer from internal affairs going head-to-head with Vic and his team. Indeed Michael Chiklis does such a good portrayal of Vic that even though he is a dangerous and dirty cop he is by no means inhuman or a 2 dimensional cliché.

So is it consistent all the way through? Don't worry I won't give anything away but allow me to compare to other great US TV series. The Sopranos is the grand daddy of these high profile dramas but I, like many, thought it had run of steam by halfway through the last series, basically it finished a little too late. The Shield (like the Wire) however keeps the quality all the way through right down to the fact that the last 2 episodes are still surprising to the regular viewer. It seems every time they solve one problem another pops up and each time they try to fix something it's usually getting them in deeper and deeper into criminality it's almost Shakespearean how much weight Vic is carrying on his conscious by series 7. The acting is top notch, the writing exceptional and the atmosphere of sweaty claustrophobia second to none. If you are looking for a new drama series to immerse yourself in then welcome to Farmington.