The Shield came onto the air with a bang, a potent mix of violence and machismo and humor. For those who watched it week-by-week through the first season, the way that the show unfolded into higher and higher levels of corruption was staggering.
This show kept going at a manic pace for 6 more seasons. I'm pretty sure that many viewers got fatigue when watching it every week, as I did; it didn't aim to stay in the same place for any length of time. In the end it plays like a massive 50-hour movie or mini-series about police corruption, that never stops moving and never stops kicking ass.
It was a bit on the hyper-real side, always upping the ante on violence and depravity. More like a video game than a realistic depiction of the world. But the characters kept you hooked into it. Including Jay Karnes' remarkable performance as "Dutch". I can't find any good youtube clips of him, much less the infamous "kitten strangling" incident, but i can find a lot of Michael Chiklis' strutting performance as Vic Mackie.
This show established (within the pilot episode) great characters whose opinions and likely courses of action were known to us - like chess pieces on a board. What we didn't know was how the game of life would play out for them. And then it threw them into a wild ride that didn't let up for a long time. For those who like entertainment with a hint of machismo in it, this show can't be beat. The testosterone is leaking out of its pores, week after week.
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