The Shield – Season Six (Sony DVD)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B     Extras: B-     Episodes: B

 

 

Vic Mackey returns to show us what DVD is all about with The Shield: Season Six.  The series that has always overflowed with controversy, corruption, and commitment truly kicks it up a notch this season.

 

The Shield is known to be a series that viewers had to have watched from the very beginning to understand.  The series is full of powerful twists and turns, both emotionally and physically, that would be lost to a newcomer.

 

Warning: Some spoilers + newcomers will be lost!

 

 

Without revealing too much, Season Six starts where Season Five left off after Lem’s untimely death.  The Strike Team is flustered and angered by the events and in deep need of something to pull them back together.  A certain individual refuses to let things go and begins to plant evidence and strong arm witnesses to lie about the Strike Team, while other Strike Team members are down right suicidal.  Vic is about to be pushed out of his career and into early retirement, but refuses to go without a fight.  As the season progresses, Vic’s promise to bring down Lem’s killer adds a degree of intensity that the series has never seen before.  Though only ten episodes long, this is by far one of the best seasons of The Shield.

 

After viewing the full ten episodes of Season Six, it seemed as though that around episode 6 or 7 the season took an intensity dive.  For as best as this reviewer can figure, the writers, directors (as well as the cast) were not aware of a Seventh Season of the hit series until about half way through Season Six.  The intensity that flows through the first 6 episodes or so of the season under review here, make it seem as though all stops were pulled out to lead to an epic conclusion.  Somewhere along the line, however, the cast and crew became aware of a Seventh Season and slowed the chaos down.

 

The technical features of this 4-Disc set aren’t without a degree of criminal corruption, but good nevertheless.  The picture is once again presented in an intentionally gritty image, BUT has been upgraded to a far more appealing 1.78 X 1 Widescreen.  The Widescreen image is a nice feature this time around, but the picture quality whereas solid in depth and video black, it is color poor and still has some light/dark issues.  The sound this season is also upgraded from a drab stereo track to a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround.  The surrounds project better, are fuller, and brings a stronger atmosphere to the series that was lost in previous DVD releases.

 

If having the great series on DVD wasn’t enough already, Sony also includes a nice amount of extras that highlight the ins and outs of the series as well.  Eight of the ten episodes in Season Six includes an audio commentary track.  With that said, the commentaries range from ‘ok, this is boring’ to a ‘free for all party.’  The writers and directors seem to be the more focused and boring commentators, but the actors bring excitement and enthusiasm as they fight to get a word in on all the great scenes.  Eight episodes also include deleted scenes that neither add nor detract from the series, but it is nice to get a bigger helping of The Shield.  Also included in the extras are several featurettes that include ‘Saturn’s Sons’ featurette, ‘Two Directors’ featurette, and ‘Full Circle: Frank Potente’ featurette.  The featurettes are all nice and give great insight into the series as it comes to a close.

 

More so than ever Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) proves that two wrongs sometimes do make a right.  His hardened cop exterior coupled with a strong internal turmoil makes for an engaging and insanely captivating character.  Feel the wrath and force of the Strike Team with The Shield: Season Six.

 

 

-   Michael P. Dougherty II