The Shield

I've just finished watching the third DVD of The Shield's Season Three. It's an amazingly great show!

All the characters are seemingly well developed, and they all have their quirks and faults. There are, as well, no black or white sides, but a grey nether region which much of the cast occupies. Michael Chiklis plays Detective Vic Mackey, one of the main characters who has two autistic kids, is separated, and is the head of a police force strike team not earning enough to sufficiently pay for all his expenses. The Shield's main IMDB details list some great, underrated actors, and the writers are truly top notch. It is a gritty, realistic, crime and police drama. The camera work is also different from other shows, and it truly needs to be seen to be appreciated. Now that seasons one through three are out on DVD, if you haven't yet seen it, now's the time.

While there are no visual effects in the show, this is still one entertaining drama that will definitely keep you watching. I washooked when FX sent me a sampler box of several of their Emmy contenders, which included The Shield. Naturally I had to add them to my list of future DVD rentals. The show does not disappoint.

A quick blurb about the show from today.

Conservative activist Brent Bozell's Parents Television Council has launched a campaign to urge advertisers to drop sponsorship of the FX cable network hit, The Shield, which it said, "depicts the most explicit sexual content and nudity, obscene language, and graphic violence imaginable." The PTC pointed out that FX airs on basic cable, "which means that if you have a cable subscription so your children can watch The Disney Channel, Nickelodeon or The History Channel, there's a good chance they could have stumbled across this horrific content by mistake." The PTC urged members "to send a loud-and-clear message to FX and the show's sponsors that we're not going away until they either get rid of the obscene filth on this show, or stop forcing us to subsidize it." Producers of the program have pointed out that it airs at 10:00 p.m., that viewers are warned of the graphic content, that the program can be blocked with the V-chip and that cable subscribers can ask their company to block it at their homes.