The Shield Series Two - The Memorable TV DVD Review

WHAT’S IT ABOUT THEN?

A police drama set in a Los Angeles precinct whose headquarters are based in a converted church which is nicknamed "The Barn". The principal character is Detective Vic Mackey who leads the plainclothes Strike Team. He is a typical maverick cop, hard, uncompromising, aggressive - but un-typically he is also crooked. He and his team are effective and get results but are not above bending or breaking the law to get those results and if they can line their own pockets for their "retirement fund" all the better.

Mackey's boss is Captain Aceveda who is aware of Mackey's unconventional methods but turns a blind-eye because he gets results and Aceveda has political ambitions that he doesn't want derailed with a scandal. Other featured characters work in uniform or in the general CID area - including Claudette Wyms a no-nonsense black woman detective who has her suspicions and a general dislike for Mackey.

It is a developing story series with plotlines progressing over the course of the episodes. In season 2 we see story arc's in which Mackey and Aceveda come to an uneasy agreement about how they will co-operate with each other when an auditor begins an investigation into the precinct's effectiveness; Mackey's ongoing deteriorating relationship with his wife; and a plan by the Strike Team to appropriate some underworld money.

One episode in this season puts the ongoing stories on hold to show us what happened a few years previously when The Barn was first set up and all the characters met each other for the first time - and the pressures that caused Mackey to "step over the line" for the first time.

Is It Any Good?

Fantastic and compelling. It would probably be a good-albeit-routine cop show anyway but the intimidating central Vic Mackey character sets it apart as one of the best. He is an anti-hero - at times the ultimate good-guy getting results, putting away the drug dealers, and stamping down on street-crime, but then he turns and shows his nasty, violent and greedy side as he and his team act like a law unto themselves. Michael Chiklis puts in a riveting performance and won awards for the first season.

Although Mackey is the main reason to watch, it is also an ensemble piece in which all the officers are good interesting characters - not everyone is a dirty cop and we see some regular police work being carried out too.

I had no pre-conceptions of the show - never having seen it or heard anything about it before. So watching episode 1 of this second series it took me a while to "get it". I assumed it would be just another routine cop show with a maverick-but-basically-good-and-honest cop. So about half-way into the episode when Vic and his team were visiting a lock-up to hide a stash I was asking myself "why are they doing this, are they all corrupt or something?". It was then that I understood the main point of the series. So that is just to say you don't need to have seen season 1 or any episodes on TV before to get into season 2.

The episodes contain mild profanities but no really strong language (F-words). Although occasionally these are used in the extras.

ANY SPECIAL FEATURES?

There are some good extras on this four disk set. Overall there are 13 episodes with 4 episodes on each of the first three disks and the straggler on the fourth disk along with the main extras package.

Commentaries. Each disk has one episode with a commentary track all hosted by creator Shawn Ryan with various guests. Disk 1 is actors (including the star Michael Chiklis), 2 is writers, 3 is casting directors, and 4 is studio executives. All are interesting and well worth listening to. Mostly they are general conversations about the series rather than specific comments about the episodes - although be warned the actors' commentary on episode 1 does give away a few spoilers for what happens in later episodes.

Disk 4 extras. Deleted scenes from various episodes (37 in all); an example of how an important scene changed from its first editing cut to final aired version; a feature on sound-editing showing the different sound layers that go to make up the finished mix for a scene; a directors' discussion panel (48 mins); and a behind the scenes documentary on the final-shooting day of season 2 (25 mins).