Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2564 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-05-28
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 572 minutes

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Dramatically speaking, the third season of The Shield is dysfunctional in the best sense of the word. Relationships fester in a quagmire of personal and professional conflict and clashing agendas inspire some of the finest episodes of this volatile series. Detective Mackey (Michael Chiklis) struggles to save his crumbling family (including two autistic children) while his strike team endures internal tensions over their secret stash of stolen drug money. Shane (Walton Goggins) clashes with teammate Tavon (Brian J. White) with near-fatal consequences, and his demanding fiancée tests his loyalty to Mackey. Captain Aceveda (Benito Martinez) suffers unspeakable humiliation en route to city council promotion, engaging Wyms (CCH Pounder) in a battle of wills over proper command of "The Barn." Dutch (Jay Karnes) pursues the "cuddler rapist" case and confronts the dark side of his soul, while Danny (Catherine Dent) revives her career and is re-partnered with Julien (Michael Jace), who suppresses his homosexuality in a desperate quest for conventional marriage and family. After Lemon (Kenneth Johnson) attempts a drastic solution to their "money train" worries, the shaken strike team faces a deeply uncertain future.

As always, The Shield juggles multiple plotlines with relentless pacing and narrative economy, packing substantial character developments into all 15 action-packed episodes. This season's inclusion of a competitive decoy squad offers humour and professional sacrifice, and the pivotal David Mamet-directed episode "Strays" arrives at a shocking conclusion, with Mamet regulars Clark Gregg and Rebecca Pidgeon (Mamet's wife) giving outstanding guest star performances. Series star Chiklis (whose pugnacious mug dominates the DVD packaging) makes his directorial debut on "Slipknot," and eight episodes include informative, entertaining commentaries by the principal cast and crew. A generous archive of deleted scenes illustrates the agonising decisions required by the time constraints of episodic TV, and the making-of documentary offers an intimate look at the series' collaborative writing process. With major developments (including a new role for Glenn Close) in store for Season 4, these episodes maintain the high standard of provocative drama that loyal Shield fans have come to expect. --Jeff Shannon

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, FANTASTIC FOUR) leads the elite Strike Team in the fictional LA district of Farmington. He employs dubious but effective crime fighting methods as a tough, effective, but corrupt cop. The other detectives and cops on the force disapprove of the Team's methods, to say the least, while the precinct head, Captain David Aceveda (Benito Martinez) is just as corrupt as Mackey, but his political aspirations lead him into a campaign to end the detective's career. 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 retaining his audience, who refuses to write him off quite yet. Meanwhile, the controversial themes and violent nature of the content manages the effect--inconsistent at best in TV programming--of making audiences really think about what they're watching.

Customer Reviews

Macks Back........finally on region 2
The Strike Team are still desperately trying to cover their tracks in the multi million dollar robbery of Armenian drug money, Dutch and Claudette continue to investigate stomach churning rapes and murders and the Farmington gangsters continue to deal and kill one another. You would think The Shield couldn't continue at this intense pace forever but it still shows no sign of letting up in the brilliant third season.

Vic and his team of dirty cops are really starting to feel the pressure. The Armenian mob won't stop until they find their stolen money, Aceveda won't stop until he implicates Vic in some wrong doing and Vics estranged wife still doesn't want him back. Local gang bangers are trying to acquire automatic weapons and the violence on the streets never ends. On top of all this, another specialist unit, The Decoy Team have been sent into Farmington to help regain control of the streets which the Strike Team take as a personal insult.

The stories are still top-notch, the action blistering and the criminals are still the worst kind of scumbags. The Shield remains one of the most intense, violent and brutal shows on TV and I can confirm that season 4 is brilliant too. It's a terrible shame that it took so long to release this on region 2 dvd as so many people are missing out on the best thing on the box.

Like This? Try: The Wire Seasons 1-3

Another great season
'The Shield' goes from strength to strength with every season and manages to pull something out of the hat to impress. In season 3, we start to witness the collapse of the strike team and for many reasons its the turning point of the entire show.

After the Armenian Money Train heist from season 2, Vic and his boys are trying to keep a low profile and not attract the attention of Aceveda, who has chosen to delay his departure from the Barn. But with the arrival of a new "decoy squad", the tension begins to mount, especially when the Strike Team become targets of the Armenian mob.

As usual, individual episodes have their own storylines but the overall arc is much stronger than last the first two seasons. With every episode, the team deteriorates and with Shane starting a family and Lem fearing for their lives, loyalties start to fade. For once, its good to see a show that puts characters first and everything that takes place is done for the benefit of characters rather than for the sake of it. The season finale is emotionally charged and very powerful without the need to resort to loud action-packed sequences.

Also, there are some juicy plots surrounding other characters such as Aceveda who faces a major personal crisis after a frightening encounter with two junkies. Meanwhile, Dutch hunts a serial rapist in one of the best plots on TV and the conclusion to it is compelling to watch. Also, unusually for her, Claudette rocks the boat and makes a controversial decision which could jeopardise her career.

With so many rich storylines going on, and with the benefit of being two episodes longer than usual, Season 3 really ups the ante for the show and breaks new ground in style. Its a shame it took so long to get a region 2 release though, because a lot of fans will have gone elsewhere by now for a copy.

Scorchio!
This is like consuming a quart of strength-6 Javanese coffee and a pack of 20 high nicotine-yield. At the same time. Quickly. Indeed these can be the only accompaniments to watching the Shield.

If the Wire is a theme-developing symphony, the Shield is pure punk rock.

Murderously addictive, breathlessly elliptical, dizzyingly filmed, one of the Shield's virtues is it makes all other cop shows (especially British ones - "New Tricks" anyone?) feel yawn-makingly tame and pedestrian. The Bill on ITV - not such a bad programme really - has recently tried to adopt the Shield's Steadicam technique to sex up its appearance. But it doesn't work because ...it's not the Shield.
Its other attribute is it knows "issues" are born out of excellent drama, not drama out of issues. There is more examination of contemporay societal subject material in the Shield than the whole of the BBC's "drama" output in the last decade, but the writing and storyboarding lead you to reflect on and question your own ideas by their quality, not by grandstanding and set piece speechmaking.

The only minor flaw with this DVD is the commentaries. A lot of them are insightful and sometimes funny, but a little too often the actors lapse into self-congratulation and cosy back-slapping. Just watch the episodes. Back to back. Rapid fire. It really is the best hit you can get.