I have to admit that I am not really a fan of cop shows on TV, but The Shield is the exception to the rule for me. In my personal opinion, it is the best cop show I have ever seen. Now being in the mindset I was in when The Shield was in it's early years I thought 'oh great, another crappy cop show to add to the ever growing list of a million other crappy cop shows' and did not give it much thought, so it was not until years later that I was re-introduced to the show by a friend.
The thing you have to take into account with The Shield is that, unlike most other cop shows, you can not just watch random episodes here and there because, unlike other cop shows, there is one EPIC ongoing storyline that runs through the entire 7 seasons of the show, not separate stories for each episode. If you just want to check out an episode to see what the show is like make sure you watch the pilot episode (Season 1 Episode 1) and if it does not blow your mind in that very first episode then don't bother with the rest of the show. (Blew my mind when I watched it, did not expect what happened at all)
Things that make The Shield awesome:
look like Paul Blart: Mall Cop
. Although he is the main character there are many times through the show when you don't know if you love him or hate him, or if he is the good guy or the bad guy. Most people would say he is both (but mostly bad). You love to hate him and hate to love him. You will call him pathetic yet praise him like a hero. You will want him dead yet feel sorry and sympathise with him. On Bravo TV's countdown of the 100 Greatest Television Characters, Michael Chiklis described Mackey as "a cross between Hannibal Lecter and Dirty Harry." Also he probably has the biggest Wikipedia page dedicated to a single character from a single TV show I have seen.Epic story. And when I say epic, I mean a non stop, action packed, edge of you seat, continuous story that spans the entire 7 years of the show. None of that 'chasing a different bad guy every show' bullshit, or even every season. If you can not watch every single episode, do not bother watching it at all because every episode is vital to the story.
Guest stars are another thing that The Shield does completely different to other shows. When you see a guest star appear on a show you usually expect them for a single episode, maybe two if they have a good character. When a guest star appears on The Shield, they stick around for an entire fucking season! Or even 2 seasons if they are awesome enough. And I'm not talking about crappy celebrities trying to break into acting as guest stars, I'm talking awesome actors like Glenn Close, Forest Whitaker, and Anthony Anderson.The show finished back in 2008 and when it did it left a massive hole in my show watching activities that needed to be filled. And after looking around I found out that many of the production team from The Shield had moved onto another show called Sons of Anarchy
. I'm not going to go far into SoA right now but it is another fantastic show and just started its 3rd season.TLDR; The Shield is fucking awesome and you should watch it.
Also check out this video of 'Solving Crimes the Vic Mackey Way':
