Nominated for 4 Emmys and 4 Golden Globes, including Best Television Series - Drama, The Shield is one of the top police dramas of the past decade. The brainchild of creator Shawn Ryan, writer for such hit shows as Nash Bridges (1996) and Angel (1999), The Shield made history in 2003 by becoming the first basic cable series to win a Golden Globe for Best Drama Series (in the past, only non-ad supported shows such as The Sopranos and Sex And The City have done so well). The hour-long drama boasts a strong, well-rounded cast who, along with the writers/producers, have managed to make The Shield the longest running series on the FX Network
The Shield centers around an inner-city Los Angeles police precinct where the lines between right and wrong are often blurred. An ongoing power struggle between a group of corrupt, yet effective, cops and their new boss, Capt. David Aceveda (Benito Martinez), remains the focal point of the show. Det. Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis, of The Commish) heads up an elite unit known as the Strike Team. An effective leader who bends the rules when they fit his aims, Mackey often butts heads with the by-the-book Aceveda who weighs his own political ambitions against the cost of bringing down Mackey and his associates. Veteran Det. Claudette Wyms (CCH Pounder, of ER) knows the ropes, admires Mackey, but also knows how to play sides of the game. For the 2005 season, Glenn Close - star of such films as The Natural (1984), Fatal Attraction (1987), and Air Force One (1997) - joined the cast as Capt. Monica Rawling. Together, this celebrated cast maintains an internal tension among themselves while carrying out a unified fight against the criminal element - a fight that keeps the streets of L.A. safe
The Shield DVD features a number of exciting episodes including the season premiere in which the Strike Team has tightened its stranglehold over the precinct. Capt. Aceveda tries to crack down on the corruption in his force by recruiting an insider (Det. Terry Crowley) to help take down Vic Mackey, but the operation only results in the Crowley's death. In the interim, Det. Wyms and her partner Det. "Dutch" Wagenbach (Jay Karnes) investigate the murder of a woman only to discover that her missing daughter was sold off to a child molester by her drug addict father Other notable episodes from Season 1 include "Dawg Days" in which Mackey attempts to establish a cease-fire between two rival gangs whose ongoing feud threatens the peace, and "Dragonchasers" in which Mackey tries to help a crack addict quit so she can maintain custody of her son while Dutch tracks down a serial killer
Below is a list of episodes included on The Shield (Season 1) DVD:
Episode 1 (Pilot) Air Date: 03-12-2002
Episode 2 (Our Gang) Air Date: 03-19-2002
Episode 3 (The Spread) Air Date: 03-26-2002
Episode 4 (Dawg Days) Air Date: 04-02-2002
Episode 5 (Blowback) Air Date: 04-09-2002
Episode 6 (Cherrypoppers) Air Date: 04-16-2002
Episode 7 (Pay in Pain) Air Date: 04-23-2002
Episode 8 (Cupid & Psycho) Air Date: 04-30-2002
Episode 9 (Throwaway) Air Date: 05-07-2002
Episode 10 (Dragon Chasers) Air Date: 05-14-2002
Episode 11 (Carnivores) Air Date: 05-21-2002
Episode 12 (Two Days of Blood) Air Date: 05-28-2003
Episode 13 (Circles) Air Date: 06-04-2003
By: Britt Gillette -
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Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of The Shield (DVD).
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