I have watched this show since it first premiered in March of 2002. Just from the ads promoting the show as the first original F/X series, one could tell that this show was going to push things further than any cop show had ever done before. I had always been a dedicated and obsessed NYPD Blue viewer since its inception in 1993 and as The Shield was beginning its run, Blue was three years away from its end.
Ironic, considering that without Blue, The Shield might not have ever existed. Blue’s groundbreaking language, violence, nudity and of course one of the most memorable T.V. characters ever, Andy Sipowicz, broke new ground for network T.V. and set the stage nearly 10 years later for basic cable’s F/X’s first show, whose popularity spawned countless others ranging from superb (Nip/Tuck, Rescue Me) to less-than-memorable (Thief or Lucky anyone?) to right subject at the wrong time (the underrated Iraq war-based Over There that was cancelled just as it was starting to find its rhythm at the end of its first and only season.)
For that reason, one cannot just jump into a random season and expect to understand the intricacies of the main characters. This has never applied more to a Shield season than Season 5, just recently released to coincide with the premiere of Season 6. For those who want to get into the show from the beginning, you are advised not to read any further as Season 5 deals directly with the pilot episode of the show and how its lasting effects are still unraveling.
Much of the credit goes to the writers of the show and Chiklis as they would sculpt and create an even murkier and immoral version of Andy Sipowicz. Mackey is a dirty cop by every standard and dominates the show. He murders cops, he and his Strike Team plant evidence, beat confessions out of suspects, jeopardize fellow officers’ careers and lives and rob rival drug dealers and mobsters. Yet through Chiklis’s remarkable acting, you find yourself actually rooting for Vic and his crew as you get to see them in action and that at the end of the day, they have usually, done more good than bad. They get results and do the dirty and extremely dangerous jobs that no other cops want anything to do with.
The frightening thing that occurs is that despite that, you REALLY begin to admire and even look up to Vic on a masculine level because he’s willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done and is the father of his team. He may be an adulterous husband but he loves and adores his children, going so far as to plan a robbery of an Armenian mob money train so that he can pay for his autistic son’s expensive schooling. That is but one of many reasons why this show is so addictive on a psychological level because you constantly find yourself on the fence between right and wrong and sooner than you think, you’re rooting for Vic and the Strike Team to get out of whatever jam they’ve put themselves into.
Much of the show has depicted the Strike Team always being one step ahead of Aceveda, who when he was captain of the Farmington Police Department, was obsessed with bringing Mackey and the Strike Team down but was not above using them to get certain cases closed so as to further his political aspirations and make his precinct appear to be one that got the job done and responded to the public.
That would be to get to him by intimidating his Strike Team. Unfortunately, this intimidation falls squarely on the shoulders of Curtis “Lem” Lemansky (Kenneth Johnson), the only member of the Strike Team with a conscience, who unbeknownst to him had been witnessed at the end of season 4 stealing a brick of tar heroin, in an attempt to cover up a mess that Shane had carelessly left, by an undercover I.A. rat. Kavanaugh knows this from the rat firsthand and goes to work, with help from Aceveda, to pressure Lem into testifying that Mackey killed Crowley. The fact is that Lem and the other Strike Team member Ronnie (David Rees Snell) had no knowledge that Vic had murdered Crowley, only Shane did.
This is the central plot line throughout season 5 that slowly raises the tension until the excruciating final episode where the show, once again, takes itself to another level when Lem is murdered by Shane when he fears that Lem is going to give up the Strike Team. This is no where nears as uncomfortable and shocking as Aceveda’s oral rape at gunpoint back in season 3 but it is a close number 2 and hits you in a painful way that will leave you reeling for days. However, Shane has made it look like the work of a gang member that had been linked to illegal grenades so as to throw others, including Vic, off his trail. The last scene you are left with is a brooding, rabid Vic walking away from the murder scene with his remaining two Team members vowing to kill the man that killed Lem.
With Danny unable to hit the streets, her former partner Julien (Michael Jace) who has been struggling with his homosexuality since the first season is paired up with a HOT Latina rookie partner (Paula Garces) who is anything but a natural at police work and procedure. Aceveda is still maneuvering for higher political office while at the same time playing both Mackey and Kavanaugh against each other as he has secrets to hide from both that if revealed could destroy his future.
At this point Chiklis has made Vic Mackey one of the most original and thought-provoking characters ever on a series and has him fine-tuned from his gruff, muscular build, shiny bald noggin and unquestionable immorality. Whitaker matches Chiklis point for point in the intensity department as he makes his Kavanaugh a relentless pursuer that eventually loses his own morality as he starts to resort to ever more desperate and illegal tactics to squeeze Lem into giving up Vic. The Vic vs. Kavanaugh scenes are nothing short of magnificent and you will feel exhausted after each encounter. Remarkably enough, and true to the show’s own twisted morality and how you care for the Strike Team, despite the fact that Kavanaugh is a dedicated cop that is trying to bring down a truly dirty cop that deserves to fry for his sins, you end up loathing him and rooting for Vic to somehow stay one step ahead of him.
Eventually, you see Mackey’s moral grayness wear off on Kavanaugh as he decides that two can play that game. Anthony Anderson’s Antwon Mitchell from Season 4, and now in prison, becomes a useful tool for Kavanaugh later on. Whatever sympathy you had for Shane before this season, will completely evaporate by the end. It’s a credit to Walton Goggins that he has been able to uniquely play what has been for the most part a crude, racist, reckless character yet at times made you feel for him and even root for him as well. Up until the last few years, he had been a mouthy redneck who Vic and the others would frequently bail out of trouble like a little brother but you still accepted him as the dumbass of the Strike Team family.
But after Season 4, which saw him truly go over the edge with his own corruption and his murder of Lem this season, one can only hope he suffers all the way to hell. Then again, he is a product of Vic’s own creation. Remember that he is side by side with Mackey as he murders Crowley in the pilot. From that point on, Shane is never the same person or cop. The shocking ending of Season 5 would not have the emotionally gutting feeling were it not for the superb acting talents of not just Goggins but also Kenneth Johnson as Lem. True, Lem has gotten his hands dirty with the rest of the team but he has been the closest thing to a moral conscience they had.
Ronnie (David Rees Snell) has always been the least developed of the Strike Team members but he has usually been more than willing to do what Vic asks him. Lem, on the other hand, has not always willingly gone along with the Team’s intentions but rather went along with them simply because of his loyalty and devotion to his “family.” That’s what makes his death at the hands of one of his “brothers” all the more heartbreaking. It is here where one finally sees Vic’s and to an extent Shane’s sins and lies result in the death of someone they both loved. Watching Lem suffer throughout this season as Kavanaugh hounds him for the sins of his brothers will haunt you for some time. It’s no wonder the tagline for Season 5 was “Conscience Is A Killer.”
Sony, as has been their custom, with each season has provided standout extras that fans of the show will love to devour. As usual, each episode contains a commentary from multiple cast and crewmembers. The standouts as far as commentaries would be “Extraction” and “Jailbait” on Disc 1 which features the Strike Team themselves Chiklis, Goggins, Johnson and Snell and of course “Postpartum” the final episode of the season which had to have commentary by Goggins and Johnson. It does not disappoint. You will hear the word “Shakespearean” used more than once in these commentaries and if you know the show well, it’s not hard to see why.
There are 25 deleted scenes with optional commentary included throughout Discs 1-3 while Disc 4 is solely extras. They include a 15-minute prequel to Season 6, which I had been drooling over since I heard it would be included on it. It’s basically filler material that you won’t see between Seasons 5 and 6 but there is a wonderfully emotional flashback that Vic has at Lem’s funeral as he recalls Lem’s arm wrestling prowess and dedication to his team.
Also included is a superb 90-minute documentary “Delivering the Baby” which goes in depth into the creation and shooting of the emotionally shattering “Postpartum” episode which concludes with the shocking death of Lem; a 30-minute Panel discussion with Chiklis, Whitaker and series creator Shawn Ryan, a 10-minute Fox Movie Channel “Making a Scene” featurette, an 11-minute I.A.D. featurette that highlights real life police officers going in depth about Internal Affairs, and an emotional 25-minute tribute as cast and crew members eulogize the late executive producer of the show Scott Brazil.
If there’s one thing that frustrates me as well as other viewers I’m sure, is the fact that you have to wait a year for each new season. On top of that, Season 5 is the shortest of all the seasons at just 11 episodes. Until Season 5, an average season was between 13 and 15 episodes. However, one must know that Seasons 5 and 6 (totaling 21 episodes) were shot together and then split up in half for added dramatic effect.
After Season 6, there will be just one more in 2008 before The Shield finishes its run. It will be sad to see it go, but there will be no doubt that the show will go out on top where it has always been and will become the new standard by which all cop dramas will be judged. This is a no brainer buy if you’re a fan. If however, you’re fresh to the show, better for you to rent Seasons 1-4 before watching this one.
The Shield – The Complete Fifth Season is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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