Review of Shield, The: Complete First Season

Introduction

Yet another TV cop show makes an appearance, this one imaginatively titled, The Shield. Steven Bochco had a lot to answer for when he created the compelling NYPD Blue ten years ago. Its documentary style of filming (otherwise known as "shaky camera") with rapid cutting brought an intensity and rejuvenation to a staid drama format. There have been lots of cop shows since, including some decent homegrown ones, but none have been brutal enough with its characters and storylines. Not since perhaps The Sweeney has a television series gotten tough and it`s been a long time coming.

The series in the US was questionable enough with its violent content and portrayal of law enforcement as amoral that the main TV networks wouldn`t back the series. A lot of pressure came from advertisers and moral high ground campaigners that this series should not be made. It was left to cable outfit FX Network to get behind the show, which proved a masterstroke. Not only has the series been commissioned beyond series 2, but its won awards too. A different roster of advertisers not afraid to buy slots in The Shield has proven its worth too. The UK gets the series on Five, which is proving just as popular.

The Shield, with its morally ambiguous cops, aggressive look and feel and potent stories has garnered a lot of attention. It`s not all rogue cops and corruption however, there are good cops too and the questioning of ones methods to solve crime is there to see. As fictitious as the series is, it paints a harsh picture of Farmington, the made up L.A. area; drugs, sexual abuse, child molestation and a lot of gang related activity too isn`t the kind of thing that goes down well with the California Tourist Board.

The one standout here is Michael Chiklis as cop Vic Mackey. He`s head of the Strike Team and is a tough guy that makes Ross Kemp`s Grant Mitchell look like Dame Barbara Cartland. He`s uncompromising, ruthless, greedy and resembles a pitbull. He`s reason enough to watch this series unfold. 13 episodes of questionable morals, good cops, bad cops and Vic Mackey.

Video

Presented with a 1.78:1 anamorphic video transfer, there`s some debate if this is the correct aspect since the region 1 disc is fullframe. Regardless, The Shield still looks very good. Grain is kept to a minimum with colours and detail remaining quite high. The way the camera moves is dependent on the scene and always adds impact to the storytelling. The more subdued moments are handled sensitively too with fewer of the fast cuts that fill the rest of the show.

Audio

With just a DD2.0 soundtrack, The Shield comes across well. Dialogue is clear and music is punchy and dynamic throughout with the L.A. feel in its Latino and rock music. While it might have been interesting to hear a 5.1 track, this 2.0 soundtrack just works.

Features

Four discs packaged in an attractive digipack with the bull himself, Michael Chiklis, on the cover. Static easy to navigate menus with four episodes on the first three discs and the final one on the last disc with a few extras. The main extra here is the audio commentary on all episodes and this is nothing short of superb. The rest of the supplementals are okay.

• Audio Commentary (subtitled) - All the episodes feature commentaries from different members of the cast and crew. Each show is introduced and led by show creator Shawn Ryan, who asks questions of the cast/crew and covers huge ground. Not only scene specific stuff but also general background too. The excellent rapport between them all comes across well and makes the commentary all the more worth listening to. The Shield is definitely a benchmark in terms of television series commentaries. An excellent feature.

• Making of The Shield (subtitled) (21:26) - As short as this is, it`s good to watch and provides an overview with the cast and crew about the show, its creation and its characters. Worth seeing at least once.

• The Shield FX Featurette (subtitled) (2:27) - This is more like a trailer for the show that runs on the FX cable station in the US.

• Casting Tapes (subtitled): Michael Chiklis (1:18), Catherine Dent (1:54), Walton Goggins (1:59), Michael Jace (3:10), Kenneth Johnson (2:10), Jay Karnes (2:07), Benito Martinez (1:39) and CCH Pounder (3:39). Just a simple DV camera set-up as the cast read lines. I played a few of them but rapidly lost interest.

• Deleted Scenes (subtitled) - 17 widescreen deleted scenes with a brief intro from Shawn Ryan as to why these were cut out. All in all these are interesting to see once or twice.

• Season 1 Epilogue (subtitled) (0:23) - Writer Shawn Ryan and actor Michael Chiklis provide the high concept for Season 2 of the show in just 23 seconds!

The main show features English and Dutch subtitles, while all the extras have English and Dutch ones.

Conclusion

I saw the region 1 pilot episode not long ago and that was my first taste of something different; I was instantly hooked. You can imagine my salivated delight when the region 2 boxset came my way and it`s widescreen enhanced to boot. I spent an intense two nights watching everything and to say that I wanted more afterwards would be an understatement of huge proportions. The Shield simply defies the conventions of previous cop shows. Yes there`s the fine line between good cop and bad cop and we know who the villains are, and while we might not agree with some of the methods employed by rogue officers, we do agree on one thing: we want the trouble sorted.

Michael Chiklis plays Vic Mackey, a greedy rogue cop more akin to a pitbull in every department - though tender and caring with those that he cares about - and he`s a man that gets the job done. He heads up a strike team of uncompromising officers with police connections higher up enabling him to do his job in the way he sees fit. Chiklis was made for this part and he certainly stands out from the rest of the cast.

His nemesis is David Aceveda (Benito Martinez), a police captain with political aspirations and the one that tries very hard to bring down Vic Mackey and corruption in his police house. He`s hardly saintly himself and does questionable things too, though when push comes to shove, he relies on Mackey to do things the Mackey way.

The rest of the cast are also strong and coupled with the writing carve out interesting characters. There`s rookie black cop Julien (Michael Jace) who has a big personal issue to deal with, while his cop partner Danny (Catherine Dent) is a little unsure of herself as she carries on with a married fellow cop and looks at promotion. Holland `Dutch` Wagenbach (Jay Karnes) is the intellectual cop who is the opposite of Mackey but nonetheless committed to solving crime in a more intelligent way, which leaves their personalities to rub against each other. Dutch`s partner Claudette (CCH Pounder) is a tough cookie just content with solving problems without taking sides as to how others do their job. Ask her a question and you`ll pretty much get a straight no nonsense answer. Two other members of Mackey`s strike team, Curtis `Lemonhead` Lemansky (Kenneth Johnson) and Shane Vendrell (Walt Goggins) show their true colours too under Mackey`s command with both being a bit extreme.

There`s all manner of different storylines in play too such as David bringing down Vic, Julien`s repressed homosexuality, Dutch`s serial killer hunt, gang hits, and the riots and cop killers towards the end of the series. There`s never a dull moment in the entire series. The writing, the acting, the action, the music, everything works well together and creator Shawn Ryan has created some compelling television.

This DVD set is worth watching back-to-back, and then you can check out the interesting audio commentary too. This is the way television on DVD should be produced. Recommended.