Michael Chiklis stars as Detective Vic Mackey, who is the main focus of the show. He is married, and the father of 3 children, who have started to view him as a stranger as he becomes more and more involved with his work. He serves at the leader of the strike team which calls "The Barn" home. He and his crew are routinely put in charge of investigating gang and drug-related crime that comes through the precinct, and often they are put into life and death situations where they must be at their best to survive. With his 3 other strike team members, Mackey has pressed the law to its breaking point, and at times, breaks the law in the process of getting the job done his way. As he sees it, they do more good than bad when they are on the streets, so they feel they are just in most of the actions that they undertake. Season 6 of the show takes them further down the road of illegal activity and debates just how much good a cop must do to overcome his downfalls.

On the other side of things, we have 2 detectives (Holland 'Dutch' Wagenbach and Claudette Wyms) who will stop at nothing to get the job done, BUT will not cross the line of legality or morality. They are both great detectives that simply have a different way of doing things than Mackey and his crew. What this creates, is a lot of situations within the episodes where right and wrong meet head-first in a clash of wills. There are always 2 ways to do something, and this show really shows the differences between the two. Sometimes it takes a tough-nosed cop to get the job done, yet at other times, it takes the cunning thinking of a dedicated detective who puts in the extra hours to do the job right. All of the characters are very enjoyable to watch, and even though they clash with each other, at no time do I find myself disliking one of them, simply because another character does. In this, the sixth season of the show, additional characters are tossed into the mix, with the strike team also working with the detectives more closely, but the volatile environment is still very intense.

The end of the fifth season of The Shield ended with a bang, when fellow strike team member and detective Curtis (Lem) Lemansky was blown up by a grenade left behind by fellow main character Detective Shane Vendrell. Shane has seen it as the only way out when the characters were being boxed in to a corner by a crooked D.A. agent, and now season 6 starts off with Mackey seeking vengeance against anyone involved in the murder of Lem. He is not alone though, as Lem really had no enemies within the precinct, and Wyms as well as Dutch are almost positive he was killed to either cover up a secret of the strike team or that he was done in by a police officer. Shane on the other hand, has become overcome by the guilt he feels, and becomes very violent in is day-to-day, often putting others around him at risk. To make matters worse, with quarterly numbers looking very bad in this precinct, the station could be shut down if they don’t make some large busts very quickly. Further drama ensues when the chief tries to force Mackey into early retirement, and has the ammunition to do just that. The cop drama really causes some characters to self-implode as the season unravels, and each episode becomes more exciting than the last. Will Mackey figure out it was Shane? Will The Barn get shut down? Will the strike team evade prosecution for past wrongs?

This was probably the second best season of The Shield, coming in behind the high-powered fifth season, and it was as intense as television drama can get. The show has still not received as much recognition as it should for the high quality of writing and acting that it puts out, and the sixth season of the show was one of the best on television this past year. Michael Chiklis is in a world all his own, but when you throw Forest Whitaker and his character of Kavanaugh (The Internal Affairs agent) into the mix, you know there is going to be some impressive acting on the screen. The show also keeps up with some taught writing and scripts that are entirely original and extremely dramatic. If you have seen past seasons of The Shield then this is a can’t miss season that truly raises the bar for television drama. The cast remains strong, and as the season comes to a close, it really sets up some huge cliffhangers for what is going to happen in the seventh and final season of the show. The gritty sixth season is on 3 DVD’s, and truly does not pull any punches in its presentation. If you have been a fan of the show or any actors involved with it, this is a highly recommended purchase.










Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD