Tom Creo

Season 4 with Glenn Close and Anthony Anderson is the season that got me hooked but "Trophy" in season 5 had me markin' out like no other show has or since.

Tom Creo

Oh yeah, I forgot about the blow job scene. LOL

Gunde

Man, "Trophy", what an awesome episode.

Osiris3657

My 2nd favorite show of all time...brilliant in all facets: acting, story, direction, action. 1st class stuff. Vic Mackey is one of the most memorable TV characters ever.

MrSmearkase

Man, I have to watch this show from the start again. I forgot all about the blowjob scene, and Anthony Anderson

sauce07

How could you foget that scene, they replayed it in almost every single "previously on..." segment after that episode.

MrSmearkase

But there are so many great scenes contained in the series that something so played out gets overshadowed throughout the series' run.

chino77

its funny that i never gave this show a chance because i always saw chicklas as "the commish" and not a bad ass. i did the same thing with breaking bad but i ended up watching season one after the emmy win. kinda wish i hadnt though so i could have a breaking bad marathon a few yrs from now. instead of waiting 9 months between seasons.

Tom Creo

One of the most remarkable things about the Shield is the focus of the storylines. Sure some were dropped as the series closed but many plot points lead up right to the finale without a contrived twist to make the series work. A great reward for viewers that were there from the beginning and making mostly every episode in its run important.

Yeah the finale was extremely rewarding but the next to last episode, "Possible Kill Screen", may just be the best work ever seen on TV. Extremely haunting.

Michael T Hudson

Great show from start to finish. I would also check out The Wire. They are very different but both excellent.

chino77

i tried watching the first episode of the wire 2yrs ago and couldnt make it past a half hour. for some reason it bored the hell out of me. i think i will give it another shot though.

leacha

Same here! My wife and I tried to watch it just couldn't stand it. About a year later I tried again and ended up enjoying the whole series.

TimeandTide

This.

In fact, The Shield was my all-time favorite show until I watched the entire run of The Wire last summer.

Anyway, you're in for a treat. The Shield gets better as it progresses.

NORML54601

An excellent show

Gunde

The Wire is like a great novel. Don't expect a lot of stuff to happen in the first chapter. It's however extremely rewarding in the long run.

brocklanders

The Shield isnt even in the same universe as The Wire. The Wire is the greatest drama in television history but the Shield is good but not great. The problem I had with the Shield was that the characters outside of Chiklis had decent to poor acting skills. This especially rang true with the guys on Mackey's team. Every single cop on Mackey's team are guys that will likely never work on a steady series again. Sure, it was nice to see some of the storylines reflecting Los Angeles culture and some of the stories were great but it comes across as an amateur show. I kept watching it and hoping it would get better once Glen Close and later Forest Whitaker came on board but the ancillary actors are so bad that it takes away from the solid plotlines.

I would recommend Breaking Bad if you want better plotlines and acting.

DJariya

Every single Cop on Mackey's team will likely never work on a steady series again??? Uhhh Hello, Walton Goggins (Shane) is on Justified as a series regular. One of the best new dramas from last season. And you didn't think Goggins was good on The Shield? ..Good Lord.

Kenny Johnson (Lem) was a series regular on Saving Grace

David Rees Snell (Ronnie) has worked steadily as a special guest star on various TV series. He did multiple episodes of Shawn Ryan's other series The Unit.

Alex O'Loughlin (Kevin Hiatt, even though it was only 1 season) is the lead on Hawaii Five-O

And not to mention Chiklis being the lead on No Oridinary Family on ABC. Pretty much all the other supporting actors including CCH Pounder, Benito Martinez, and even Jay Karnes have worked steadily since the show ended at least as special guest stars.

If you look at The Wire and The Shield's casts. More actors from The Shield have went on to work steadily in TV and film.

Gunde

I have to really disagree here. Walton Goggins was the best actor on The Shield.
The entire show had great acting. Including some amazing guest actors.
Your comments are completely baffling to me.

DJariya

With No disrespect to The Wire actors, but what has most of them done after their show ended?

Dominic West did a laughable and cartoonish performance on The Punisher

Idris Elba did that Fatal Attraction rip-off, a guest stint on the Office and The Losers and that British show Luther which probably won't air legally in the U.S. for awhile.

Tristan Wilds is a lead on 90210

As far the quality of work goes, The Shield actors have definitely gotten much better gigs.

The exception could be Lance Reddick as he's a lead on Fringe.

DJariya

I agree 100%. Goggins performance in the 7th season was tremendous. And he's doing quality work now on Justified.

Ayre

One could argue that the Wire provides a realism with actors that were and are relative uknowns ... raw talent can beget raw performance, which with the right direction can yield authenticity. More well know actors can distract. In other words, the Wire is good (not better) because it strives for authentic rather than stellar performances.

Wallace from the wire is Vince on FNL. Another show that strives for realistic performances.

andy434343

The Shield is one of my favorite shows, it is by no means a feel good show, but that is one of the reasons I thought it was so good. The characters in this show go through A LOT, and you see how they end up because of the consequences of their choices, or you see how people end up because of the choices made by other people who are in their lives. I guess that sounds pretty vague now that I proofread it......

chino77

yea thats what i hear. im sure its a great show and i gave up on it to quickly.

PopcornTreeCt

It's not as good as The Wire. What else do you need to know?

DeputyDave

Yeah, sorry. I love the Wire and agree it's brilliant (and maybe it some ways "better") but the Shield is my all time favorite multi-season series.