The Shield

One of my favorite TV shows, "The Shield" came to an end yesterday. The series finale was last night. For those who haven't seen or heard about it, it is the story of four cops in a crime ridden LA neighborhood. These cops are members of a special 'strike team' that is meant to target gangs and drug dealers. The detectives are corrupt, but not incompetent. A couple of them are even family guys and really care about them. If 'gritty' could be applied to a show, this would be it. It featured superlative performances from pretty much the entire cast (lead by Michael Chiklis as the lead detective of the strike team) and along the way they had top notch actors (Glenn Close, Forrest Whitaker) join the cast for a season or two.

What made the show so compelling were the story lines they were willing to explore - given that the show was on cable (FX) and late night, they were able to delve into a number of areas that would be taboo for network tv. You felt that this how cops really behaved - not like the PC stuff you see on Law & Order or CSI. There was no glamor - they spoke, acted, and dressed the way you would expect in 'real life.' No character was entirely good or bad - you probably wouldn't approve, but you mostly understood their motivation.

It is not an easy show to watch - the language is often profane and there is a lot of violence and is meant for, as the pre-show warning says, "For Mature Audiences" only. It is not all guns and yelling though - there is significant story line involving another detective who uses old fashioned reasoning and analysis to solve crimes and a reasonable share of tender moments. As the series wound down, the story line involving one of the strike team members who has a falling out with the rest of the team was truly gut wrenching. And he was a guy who didn't inspire a lot of sympathy during most of the series.

Overall, I highly recommend the show. If you liked 'Pulp Fiction' I think you will like this one. Compared to "The Shield" even "The Sopranos" is a bit too glamorous, but that could be because "The Sopranos" was a larger, more sweeping saga, while "The Shield" is more myopic and small scale, but yet, utterly compelling.