The Shield - The Complete Sixth Season

I have watched every episode of The Shield thus far. It is gritty, edgy, intense, and keeps you guessing. I have turned quite a few people into Shield fans. Mu understanding of the upcoming (current) season 7 is that it was originally meant to be the 2nd half of season 6, and that season 6 was to be the last season. If you like action, on the edge of your seat suspense excitement, watch The Shield!

I'm a big fan of the show and have purchased every season until now. But, I'm not happy with these new releases. All the previous seasons were released here in the US in 4x3 format even though a lot of fans of the show would have preferred the widescreen editions released everywhere else in the world. And now they've re-released all of the previous seasons in SD widescreen and season 6 is only offered in that format. I can't justify paying $40 to $50 for a ten episode season when the format doesn't match that of all the previous seasons. And that goes for the upcoming 7th season as well. Eventually, all of the seasons will be released in HD widescreen on Blu-ray. I'm just going to wait for that.

Season 6 of The Shield picks up where season 5 left off. A new storyline is introduced in the premier episode that I found confusing to follow the first time I watched but was able to follow on the second viewing. By the last episode of this season, what happens next in this storyline is key to Vic Mackey's future on the Strike Team.

Overall, the presentation of the DVDs is consistent with the Season 5 DVDs. Packaging is 2 DVDs per slim case, which takes up less room on the shelf. There are commentaries on 8 of the 10 episodes as well as deleted scenes with commentaries for 8 of 10 episodes. Listening to the commentaries is always entertaining and informative as we learn about how this show is developed. There are three behind the scenes features too.

I'm giving this DVD set 4.5 stars - the series and the extras are 5 star, but I take a half star away as this set is presented in widescreen. I believe it was originally broadcast on FX as fullscreen and I think that's a more appropriate 'in your face' presentation for a TV show like The Shield.

Before you watch this season you must watch seasons 1 through 5 first, you won't be disappointed!

Still as much fast-paced action as ever...yet it's different than previous seasons, and not for the better. Earlier, some reasonable people who were determined to fight crime in an imperfect system took some risks, keeping us all on the edge of our seats to see what would happen next -- and caring about it. Now, they have gone way over the edge into improbable scenarios and lost our empathy and our interest. This is the first Shield series where I lost emotional contact about 1/3 of the way through, and started watching my watch. Unless you're a die hard Shield fan, your money might be better spent on something else.

For all its hard-edges and testosterone-fuelled machismo, The Shield never fails to paint its principal characters as touchingly human, even if the moments are few and far between that we get to glimpse these more tender parts, and this is one of the elements of its success at being the most emotionally cathartic, intense, adrenaline-rush on the telly.

The Shield, in my albeit humble opinion, is the single best product ever recorded to celluloid with the intention of playing it back for entertainment purposes: bar nothing. It's the best thing that's ever graced my TV screen, and makes other top-drawer productions look pedestrian and even lame by comparison.

Season six is full-throttle, pedal to the metal in the style we've become accustomed to, but due to events leading up to the start of the season, the protagonists seem to be in the full throes of a ravaging tornado this season, even more than others.

Walt Goggins serves up the convincing intensity of a man who, already mentally questionable at the best of times, is fully unravelling and on a collision course with his own life and the lives of all the others around him as he becomes hopelessly suicidal and insanely reckless on a lone-ranger syle rampage that King Kong would be proud of.

Mackey is on top of his game, keeping a hundred balls in the air at once, making the tough decisions as always, but somehow, this season, you can sense that he is only human and there are things out there that are capable of crushing his game-plan, which has always been a success up to this point and is one of the most admirable things about the man.

The new guy steps up to the vacant spot on the Strike Team with the intention of replacing Mackey as the team leader, and the storyline revolving around his time at the Barn is a worthy one.

The early episode "Baptism by Fire", where Mackey goes "off the grid" to kidnap a Byz Lat gang-boss from his East LA ghetto stronghold, is one of the most insanely edgey and pumped-up things I have ever seen. Only The Shield can crank the intensity up to these levels, leaving all other movies and TV serials in the dust. The tension this programme can create is just unbelievable, it almost gets to the point where you need a hit of The Shield, you're no longer just watching it.

All in all, season six is superb. It juggles all the relevant parts and people in just the right way, and keeps on turning up the volume, even from points where you don't think it can anymore. It's insane. Season seven I have no doubt will be even crazier. I can't speak highly enough of this TV series, the quality of its creative and technical production and anyone and everyone who is and was involved in making it. There's never been anything else like it, it's a total trail-blazer that keeps getting better as each season goes past. Full marks 100% if 5 stars isn't good enough for ya.