The Shield - Season 7 - Complete [DVD] [2009]

It might not have enjoyed the fanfare of some, but across seven seasons, The Shield has emerged as one of the finest cop dramas that US TV has produced. It’s not quite The Wire, but it’s got plenty of its own to recommend it anyway.

This boxset features the seventh and final season of The Shield, and it once more has as its centrepiece Michael Chiklis as Vic Mackey. Mackey is a brilliant creation, a hard-edged cop who, you could politely say, works in the grey areas to get the job done. Naturally, there are consequences to this, and season seven has the impact of Mackey’s ways spread right across it.

It all particularly comes to a head in the episodes that bring The Shield to a close, and these prove to be the highlight of a very strong final season. There’s no chance it’s going to be spoiled here, but believe what people have been saying: the ending to The Shield is flat-out brilliant, and a fitting testament to the quality of what’s gone before. It’s three-dimensional drama of real substance.

It’s sad to see The Shield come to the end of its journey, but it leaves us with a complete, rounded, gritty and uncompromising drama, that surely will win a growing fanbase as more and more discover it on DVD. And season seven? It’s hard to think of a better send off for the show… ---Jon Foster