Farmington... Where the Cops are as bad as the Criminals. (The Shield)

Member Name: Gemma_C

Product:	The Shield
Date:	03/04/09 (146 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Action packed and addicting storylines.

Disadvantages: Sometimes there's too much violence for me.

I love watching TV shows, much more than films, and especially ones that involve police, crimes and murder. Some favourites of mine are Dexter, CSI, Without a Trace, Criminal Minds... you get the picture.
When I heard about The Shield I was intrigued and bought it on Amazon (using Amazon vouchers, thanks DooYoo!) and I am very pleased I did, as now I'm hooked!

The main character of this show is Vic Mackey who leads the 'Strike Team' in a fictional district in Los Angeles, thus making his team the 'Farmington Strike Team.' Vic leads his 4 man team to fight crime in his own way, and it quickly becomes clear Vic isn't the cleanest of cops as he uses illegal and not exactly ethical ways as he goes about cleaning the streets, and makes extra money by running drug protection schemes! He will often frame suspects, plant drugs and force gang members to give confessions by threatening and carrying out violence, all the workings of a very dirty cop. However if a crime involves a child or a fellow police officer than Vic gets very angry and goes out of his way to catch the culprit and deal with him. Unbelieveably he also has a wife and 3 children, but it's clear his relationship with his wife isn't well and we quickly watch the breakdown of his marriage within the first 2 seasons alone.
In the first series a 5th undercover policeman is added to the team, however Vic finds out he's undercover and so deals with him in his way. In another series another fifth member is added, but this also doesn't end well, proving Vic works best with his 4 man team.
Farmington district is full of drugs, prostitutes and gangs, plenty to keep Vic busy.. but certainly not keep him out of trouble!

There are also other characters and we often follow their storylines, often interlinking with the strike teams actions. David Aceveda is the captain of the 'farm' (this shortened name for Farmington station is often used) whilst also trying to aspire politically and seemingly trying to figure just what Vic is up to with the strike team.
There's also detective's Dutch and Claudette and their storylines are often interesting as they deal with solving murders, hunting serial killers and interrogating suspects. Things build up in series 2 when Claudette starts to suspect something Vic has illegally done and there's lots of tension watching to see if Claudette can catch him out.
We meet Danny, the training officer to Julien who is secretly gay and very religious. He tries to hide the fact he's gay and it's constantly a battle with himself as he apologises to God as he see's it as so wrong. We see him taking therapy classes to try and 'cure' the fact he's gay and he becomes involved with a woman, despite Danny trying to tell him to be himself. Danny also becomes involved in a shooting of a Muslim man and ends up struggling to deal with the fallout.

I'm only half way through season 3 of The Shield but it's safe to say I'm hooked! There's always something new happening in each episode whilst also carrying on continuing storylines. There is a great episode in Season 2 which is set just as the Farmington station is being set up and shows how the characters meet each other and also the storyline as to why Farmington station is being set up, this was a great episode.

The Shield does at times get a bit too violent for me, I'm not one for things involving too many guns usually, but I would say this isn't constant and isn't too much of a bad point.

The Shield currently has 6 seasons on disc with season 7 on it's way in June. Each series of The Shield is only £9.98 on Amazon, a great bargain!

Summary: A great show not just about a dirty cop, but a dysfunctional police unit.