Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #244 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-01-28
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 603 minutes

Amazon.co.uk

Shane... oh, Shane... what have you done? "Conscience is a killer" is the catchphrase that made season 5 of The Shield the most intense season of the series to date. These 11 tightly scripted episodes comprise the first half of a 21-episode arc, with series creator Shawn Ryan referring to the sixth season (broadcast in 2007) as "Season 5.1." This is The Shield at its finest, culminating in a climactic 11th episode ("Postpartum") that ricochets the series toward a complex range of dramatic complications. Jumping the shark? Not a chance, pal--not when you've got soon-to-be Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker in his outstanding guest-star role as Det. John Kavanaugh, the upright, tormented Internal Affairs cop determined to destroy Det. Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) and his corrupt LAPD Strike Team. As Kavanaugh mounts an obsessive campaign to reveal Mackey's shameful secrets, conscience is a killer in the Strike Team's midst: Ronnie (David Rees Snell) maintains a stoical voice of reason, but as Mackey recruits (and seduces) a savvy lawyer (Laura Harring) to defend against Kavanaugh's harassment, Curtis "Lemonhead" Lemansky (Kenneth Johnson, never better) desperately protects the Strike Team with a sacrificial gambit that provokes Shane (Walton Goggins) to commit a crime that's both shockingly tragic and dramatically ingenious, since it forcefully propels The Shield toward a bold and unpredictable future.

Supporting-character arcs are equally fresh and involving: Officer Danny Sofer (Catherine Dent) is eight months pregnant with Mackey's child; Wyms (CCH Pounder) struggles with a disabling case of lupus before assuming Captaincy of "The Barn"; Dutch (Jay Karnes) is reluctantly teamed with the ethically challenged ex-Captain Billings (David Marciano), leading to a perfect blend of comic relief; and while Aceveda (Benito Martinez) is frantically wedged between Mackey and Kavanaugh, beat-cop Julien (Michael Jace) copes with an eager but incompetent rookie (Paula Garces) who benefits from Dutch's self-serving mentorship. And while season 5 dishes up plenty of crime-fighting action, it's Kavanaugh's presence (and Whitaker's offbeat, intimidating performance) that keeps these 11 episodes focused with laser-like intensity. (Kudos also to Cathy Cahlin Ryan for her superb work as Mackey's anguished but cool-headed wife.)

As usual with The Shield, the DVD bonus features are outstanding, emphasizing the series' cast and crew as a close-knit family, deeply affected by the departure of a major cast member and the death (on April 17, 2006, from complications of Lyme Disease and Lou Gehrig's Disease) of veteran director/producer Scott Brazil, whose contributions to The Shield were nothing less than essential. Beloved by all, Brazil is honored with a memorial featurette, and the powerful 88-minute documentary "Delivering the Baby: The Making of Episode 511" intimately chronicles the production of "Postpartum" and its emotional impact on everyone involved. Audio commentaries for all 11 episodes add to the series' rich familial history (these rank among the best TV-related DVD commentaries ever), and the "TV Academy Panel" is a well-moderated Q&A (by Entertainment Weekly reporter Lynnette Rice) with Chiklis, Ryan, and Whitaker. In the "I.A.D." featurette, The Shield's police consultants analyze Whitaker's character and the essential role of the Internal Affairs Division, and a wealth of deleted scenes prove, yet again, that The Shield maintains its excellence even on the cutting-room floor. No doubt about it, season 5 will leave you begging for season 6. --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, 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. Series five sees Internal Affairs cop Det. John Kavanaugh (Forest Whitaker in an astounding performance) attempt to bring down Mackey and the corrupt Strike Team. Mackey recruits a lawyer (Laura Harring) to defend him against Kavanaugh's determined efforts. But will it be enough? 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 the fifth series in its entirety.

Customer Reviews

Shafted by Sony
The Shield is the best series that has been...
Having all the previous seasons on Disc I settled in for a weekend watching Season 5 and it was awesome...so why the 1 star...the one star is for Sony shafting us over the season finale.
We loyal fans (and pocket fillers of Sony)deserve better than this.
They have left us short on this one..

Truly quality television!
This installment to The Shield saga is just as good as the others have been. Right away you are introduced to the IAD rat Kavanaugh, who is only as brilliant as he is detestable, and unsurprisingly excellently portrayed by Forest Whitaker. Kavanaugh relentlessly pursues the Strike team for their numerous misgivings throughout the previous four seasons. Vic, Shane, Lem and Ronnie seem to have put all differences behind them at the start of the series, but as Kavanaugh sinks his teeth into every potential lead, the team suffers, and the always loveable Lemanski is exposed. All the shocks, squirms and grit are still there as you would expect from this masterfully written and shot series, and the story gets stronger as it lurches towards its devestating conclusion. I defy anybody not to enjoy the Shield - buy now!
I never saw the originally aired final episode and cannot comment on the ommissions, however I do not feel the season is left hanging from the released version.

Well developed plot
OK, I know people are criticising the fact that the last episode was cut. That's been said enough, so I'll leave that behind.

One of the things I like about this series is that they are quite clever in how they develop the plot. Occurrences from Series past are brought back into the fray, and it all fits together well. No "dead characters being brought back to life" in the Shield!

A good Series in a good show. Keep 'em coming!