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DVD : Shield-5th Season [dvd/4 Disc/1.33/eng-sp Sub]-nla |
- Tremenda TemporadaTremenda la trama de esta temporada. Ha mejorado muchisimo desde el inicio. El hombre parece muy real en su actuación. Esperamos la 6.
Rating:
- Complete classicIt's no secret by now that The Shield is one of the smartest and most compelling shows ever to hit TV, and last year's fifth season sees it going as strong as ever, maybe even stronger. Even if you've already watched all the episodes first run on FX, the DVD set is still highly worth acquiring, partly for the ridiculous amount of special features it includes, but more because there's such a wealth of details you'll always pick up on something you missed the first time around. Much of season five is devoted to exploring the lingering effects--legal, psychological, and otherwise--of prior bad acts, even on those who won't admit to any wrongdoing. This season sees their history of questionable ethics coming back to haunt Vic Mackey and his subordinates on the Strike Team, forcing Vic to deal head-on with the mountain of ill will he's left in his wake whether he wants to or not. That said, Vic, unlike the central character on a certain even more acclaimed show that just concluded, has little time for navel-gazing or introspection, as the streets of LA are still plagued by crime and The Shield's narrative pace remains just as kinetic and relentless as ever. This season opens with a full-scale race war in progress at a local high school, and things don't get any cleaner from there.
The biggest newsmaker from this season, of course, was the introduction of Forest Whitaker to the cast as dogged Internal Affairs Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh, and rightfully so, as Kavanaugh's pursuit of Mackey and the Strike Team for their history of guiltless rule breaking predictably provides the show with its central conflict. The squeaky-clean, moralistic Kavanaugh quickly emerges as a living embodiment of the legacy of Vic's actions, but Whitaker's intense, occasionally explosive performance is more than enough to turn him into a memorable character in his own right. Occasionally, the Kavanaugh/Mackey angle does venture ever so slightly into soap-opera territory, thanks largely to some uncharacteristically overwritten dialogue, but a little bit of undue melodrama is hardly a cause for concern. Kavanaugh's introduction ends up being especially fascinating for the contradiction it represents between his character and Mackey's. With the odd rhythms of Whitaker's performance providing a nice counterpoint to Michael Chiklis's full-speed-ahead bluster as Vic, Kavanaugh emerges as a sort of anti-Vic--he's done everything right to get to where he is, but his methods are so frequently manipulative and underhanded, and his demeanor so often bloodless and creepy, that you can't help but root against him. For his part, Vic, in spite of his flexible and generally self-serving moral code, turns out to legitimately believe in all the high-minded talk about friendship and loyalty that he's always professed, revealing once again that there's more to him than the crooked cop The Shield's viewers have come to know and love. The end result is that Vic actually manages to become a somewhat sympathetic character, struggling to do the right thing and hold his team together in the face of Kavanaugh's increasingly obsessive and personal pursuit. The show certainly doesn't ask viewers to take sides, as there's ample opportunity to see where both characters are coming from, but it does do a great job of playing devil's advocate in making Kavanaugh the villain (or more accurately anti-villain) to Vic's well established anti-hero persona.
Naturally, there's plenty going on with The Shield's other familiar characters as well. One of the show's best points has always been the way it highlighted the stresses faced by disparate people thrown together into a confined space to do a difficult and dangerous job under intense pressure, and this season is no exception, finding new situations for longstanding characters and throwing in a couple new ones to keep the dynamics from getting tired. Julien (no longer paired with the pregnant Danny), who had spent the previous two seasons establishing himself as the Barn's principled good guy after some difficult struggles with his homosexuality, finds himself thrust into the role of stern authority figure when he becomes training officer to a smoking-hot but mistake-prone female rookie, while Dutch and Claudette's professional relationship and personal friendship is threatened by a frustrating serial-killer investigation and Claudette's worsening health problems. Aceveda, in a plotline that intertwines with Vic's legal problems, is forced to cooperate with Kavanaugh's probe while trying to conceal his own tacit involvement in Vic's activities, highlighting once again his own amorality and all-consuming ambition. At the same time, everyone has to chafe under the leadership of detective-turned-Captain Billings, promoted to his new position to serve as a rubber-stamp for the higher-ups. Since he doesn't seem particularly courageous, decisive, or even smart, Billings may seem like a fish out of water at first, but I found him to be a welcome addition to the show's regular cast--he's sort of the show's everyman, the kind of guy who sneaks by on minimal effort like so many of us do at our jobs. Fortunately, while he doesn't add much to the show's testosterone factor, or really even to the plots, he more than compensates as a bastion of humor among all the ultra-serious goings-on.
This season, as usual, effectively balances its single-episode plots focusing on various murders, assaults, and gangland conflicts, with its longer, overarching character arcs, and doing it all with its usual breakneck speed and ruthless efficiency. It all builds up to a tense finale whose conclusion provides closure to a few storylines while providing a nail-biting transition to the sixth season. Oh, and it's obviously not out on DVD yet since it just ended and all, but season six is quite excellent as well, even if it represents a predictable drop in quality from this season. Needless to say, I'm already rigid in joyful anticipation of that DVD set, and if you love this show you should be too.
Rating:
- Too short, first disc badThe first disc was physically bad. It kept pausing, but then would continue on. Like tapes you rent that other people have marred with their fingerprints. With only two discs for the season, it was too minor for the price we paid. Like only a half a season for full price.
Rating:
- The Shield - Season 5What a fantastic series! The drama kept me riveted from the first and episodes 8 to 11! Wow!!!!!!!!! I watched it all in the one sitting, couldn't tear myself away. Would you believe that Channel 10 in Australia canned this after three episodes?
Rating:
- amazing show!This season becames very interesting and exiting with the new character Jon Kavanaugh... Forrest Whitaker is an amazing actor who plays very well the other side of Vic Mackey.
i really recomend this show, but you will need to see from season 1! you will never regret.
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