Customer Reviews

The Shield: Season Five

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Since this has been out for a while, and if you're researching season 5, hopefully you've already seen the 4 before it, I'll make it short.

I've seen every episode of The Shield, and the finale of this season is one of the best episodes of TV - of ANY show - that I've ever seen.

I think it's the second best season (second only to season 1) that this show has ever had.

If you're a fan of the show, what are you waiting for?

The Shield is a great series where you'll soon find yourself supporting the bad guys

This was one of the very best shows ever on TV. Great writing, acting and directing. While the Commentaries are interesting for fans of the show, you should watch all of the episodes first (and the deleted scenes) and then go back and watch the Commentaries for the episodes and the Delivering the Baby Featurete. There are major spoilers of later episodes in the earlier Commentaries of this Fifth Season in particular. There were some in Season 4 as well, and also Season 6, but not as bad as this Season. If you did not see the show on TV and are watching it for the first time of DVD, and you are going to watch the Commentaries, you will want to do it this way to enjoy the full effect of this Season. The Delivering the Baby Featurete appears on an early Disc and likewise gives away the major turn of events in a later episode. It should have at least been put on the end of the disc where the episode actually appeared, so you would logically watch it after the episode in question. This series held up very well upon re-viewing, with me having forgotten many of the elaborate details of the stories. Other than that one complaint, everything else about these Discs was excellent. Very clear, widescreen transfer and no annoying FX logo on the screen!

DVDs come in 2 slim dvd cases that are in a paper box, pretty straight forward. I'm not gonna comment on the show except to say that if you like cops, or drugs, or action, or whatever frankly it doesn't matter, go see this show it's great.

I own all seven seasons of The Shield; if you like the show, this was one of the better seasons.

Simply the best police series on TV and this season is certainly the best so far. The writers and the actors are pure talent here. Just amazing.

Season 6 was great, though frustratingly short. But it was clear from the start that it was the set-up for whatever the final season is going to bring. I will also say that Season 6 is MUCH better on the 2nd and 3rd viewings-- there are some great details, subtleties, and setups that I didn't catch the first time through. And there are the usual numbers of great 'Shield' moments.

This is a season that most people will not like, I think. However, it's nothing more then a setup for the final season. Season 6 was originally supposed to be tacked onto season 5, making it one long season with season 6 to be the last. However it was felt that season 5 was too long and FX wanted it broken up. Then they asked for another season after 6, and here we are.

It's still a great season with a lot to offer.

This series has just come out in the U.K (although it appears to have been edited and is short about 20 minutes). Why is it taking so long to be released in the U.S?

I'm not ready to write off The Shield yet -- it's been a TV addiction on par with The Wire and Sopranos for five stellar seasons now -- but as much as I hate to say it, Season Six takes the show in directions that have serious shark-jumping potential. I won't get into spoilers or specifics for those who wait for the DVDs, but I will say that something just felt "off" this season: the writers seemed to be just making things up from episode to episode, new characters (like the blandly handsome Hiatt or Franka Potente's Armenian mob heiress) are flat and uninteresting, and old characters now seem ineffectual or inconsistent, especially Claudette's and Julian's disappointingly passive new roles.

The Shield was always a show that skirted the limits of plausibility, often with breathtaking results, but I think somewhere, somehow the makers of the show weren't on top of their game this time. There are some still-riveting moments/episodes, but other storylines seem to limp along or go in disappointing, soap-opera-type directions. I might be wrong, but I could have sworn that on the extras for the Season 5 DVD set, creator Shawn Ryan had said that Season 6 would be the final season, but obviously we know now this isn't the case. Maybe everyone tried to stretch things out for an extra season, and some narrative momentum got lost? In any case, I really hope that when everyone regrouped to film the final season, they did so with the intention of getting back the magic and character-based tensions that made the first five seasons so special.