One To Watch - The Shield

Television Series: The Shield
Starring: Michael Chiklis, Walton Goggins, Catherine Dent, Benito Martinez
Creators: Shawn Ryan

When I tell people about The Shield the general replies fall along the lines of “a friend’s raved about it, I really need to check it out.” I’m still yet to come across any of my friends’ friends who have passed on this awesome recommendation. Not that hard, considering the title of this blog.

So this yarn isn’t an overview of The Shield, as such. It’s more of homage. Those who dig reading James Ellroy novels, this is up your street. I’d be extremely surprised if Ellroy fiends haven’t come across this yet. The grainy and raw-as-fuck cinematography is one of a kind in modern day television. A distinguished vein creator, Shawn Ryan, and cinematographer, Rohn Schmidt, tapped into throughout the seven seasons of one of the finest cop series to grace television.

Naturally, a good series isn’t complete without a slew of awe-inspiring characters and Vic Mackey (played by Michael Chiklis- No Ordinary Family) and Shane Vendrell (played by Walton Goggins - Justified) spearhead a gritty no-holds-barred cast. There's even grounds for debate that Vic Mackey is as bad ass as Tony Soprano. That debate can wait for another day, perhaps? 

The inexorable waves of emotion you experience when watching The Shield leaves you running on empty. It’s as physically exhausting as Oz, coupled with the brains and brawn of Ellroy’s LA Quartet series.

The first six seasons of The Shield is in association with all your cutting edge goodness that’s appeared on television; however it is Season Seven that’s placed The Shield amongst the vanguard of greatness. Your regulars, The Wire, The Sopranos, Oz, Six Feet Under and in more recent times, Breaking Bad and Mad Men: All era defining pieces of work in their own right, however the aforementioned isn’t complete without The Shield. It's as simple as that.

IMBD page.

By Simon K.