The Shield - Season 4 [2004]

Amazon.co.uk Review

With the addition of Glenn Close to its already excellent cast, The Shield entered its fourth season with tensions high and tempers flaring. Aceveda (Benito Martinez) has gained political clout on the City Council, and former Farmington district officer Monica Rawling (Close) is introduced as the new Captain of "the Barn," where she immediately confronts a maelstrom of personal and professional turmoil. His strike team now splintered, Mackey (Michael Chiklis) has returned to routine detective duty, while Shane (Walton Goggins) and new partner "Army" Renta (Michael Peña) are neck-deep in trouble with Farmington's "untouchable" drug-lord, Antwon Mitchell, a new villain played to perfection by actor/comedian Anthony Anderson. This seemingly traitorous predicament places Shane at further odds with former strike-teammates Mackie, Lemon (Kenneth Johnson) and Ronnie (David Rees Snell), and while Wyms (CCH Pounder) resents Rawling's promotion, the "Dutch" (Jay Karnes) makes a selfish backroom deal that causes further friction with Wyms and Mackey. Tensions are intensified by Rawling's aggressive seizure of homes and property paid for with drug money -- an effective campaign that forces "Danny" (Catherine Dent) and Julien (Michael Jace) and the entire police force to take sides in a hotly divisive civil rights debate that culminates in the murder of two Farmington cops.

Although some critics felt Close was too refined for a series as gritty as The Shield, she quickly found her place in the show's tight ensemble, earning an Emmy nomination (along with Pounder) and giving Mackey a formidable boss who earns his respect. And while Aceveda wrestles with psychosexual demons resulting from his humiliation in season 3, the high-stakes threat of Antwon Mitchell embroils the Barn in a cauldron of mistrust and political upheaval. More than any previous season, this 13-episode story arc is character-based and internally driven by clashing agendas. Sub-plots run the gamut of neighborhood killings and gang-banger conflict, but as always The Shield also finds room for plenty of mordant wit and tension-relieving sarcasm. Like all previous Shield DVDs, this four-disc set includes informative episode commentaries from the entire cast (including Close) engaged in revealing discussions of their creative process with creator Shawn Ryan and several primary writers and directors. Best of all, the "Under the Skin" documentary is a way-above-average, 60-minute survey of The Shield's day-to-day production, offering plenty of behind-the-scenes footage and eloquent insight about the challenge of maintaining high-quality drama during a fast-paced guerilla production schedule. It's essential viewing for Shield fans and anyone considering a career in television. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

Hmmmmmmmm............2008-01-28

Imagine my surprise when i read that the average rating for this series was only four stars! I am an accidental fan of The Shield after spotting the first series for a ridiculously cheap price, season 4 is fantastic and as you can guess, seasons 2 and 3 were none too shabby either. Whilst i respect the fact that there is much less strike team action in this series, it is important to realise that for the show to continue and evolve, that the realism remains, there is no way that the strike team would be able to continue without it stretching the boundaries of what is true. This is what is so great about this show, the fact that at no point do you feel it is over the top. The cast are superb and the storylines much more character driven which for me came as a welcome change of pace! However i am now waiting for Season Five which should be arriving any day noe, and if the reviews i have read are accurate it should be mind blowing!

Too short but still brilliant!.......2008-01-21

Firstly I would like to side with the comment about Glenn Close being miscast. I don't believe that her character was given enough time to develop and relied on a 'one horse' facet, seizure policy. In so doing she was left as a mis mash along with Aceveda and never really looked as if she was going to last through to a further series.
That aside all I would say is try and watch the Net and come away with a real panic over getting the next series to see how it all starts to pan out.

simply brilliant.......2007-09-16

The Shield has done it again, a simply great series 4, as good as the others, Vic continues to be as brutal and as efficient as ever before. Glenn Close is a very realistic ruthless captain. The usuals deliver some fantastic episodes, Dutch continues to be the butt of the jokes. Sipmly amazin, 26 quid well spent, I can't wait for the fifth series to come out on DVD

My favourite season so far.......2007-07-31

In my opinion The Shield is one of America's finest, certainly from this decade. I love the style in which this is filmed, it is done in a I think something very violent is about to happen but it doesn't style and so when it does actually happen it is very, very effective but whether it does or it doesn't, one thing is for certain, each episode is very addictive and it absolutely flys by, even more so on these boxsets minus all those ghastly adverts, wonderful. I have never been much of a fan of these kind of shows where it goes into their personal lives but sometimes there are exceptions and it must be something special and this is certainly just that, because of the way each episode ends, it is also a very can't wait for the next episode type of programme.

Judging by other comments, this season doesn't seem too popular but everybody is entitled to their own opinion and I am no different because as far as I am concerned, this is the best season I have ever seen for at least three reasons, first of all I just enjoyed this more than any other series and found it more addictive, secondly it was the introduction of the absolutely repulsive drug-lord Antwon Mitchell (played brilliantly by Anthony Anderson), what a magnificent TV villain and lastly, in my opinion an equally magnificent performance and new character, detective Monica Rawling (Glenn Close), look out for that classic in joke reference to her perfomance in the film FATAL ATTRACTION after she see's some video footage when she says something along the lines of I NEVER THOUGHT I WAS A PRUDE BUT AFTER SEEING THAT, I AM NOT SO SURE, classic. Seriously though, I was particularly impressed with the perfomance in this by Glenn Close because I have never been a really big fan of hers, she starts off very tough but fair but we don't see much of her personality and history but as this series goes on, we get to see right into her character and I truly believed she was a character who had a very interesting history just from her behaviour and this is credit to the perfomance of Glenn Close.

As for Mackey (Michael Chiklis) and the rest of the strike team, they are all as good as they have ever been and so are the rest, the consistently amusing and unique Dutch (Jay Karnes) and the brilliant and consistently slimy (in my opinion) and arch enemy of Mackey, Aceveda (Benito Martinez) who will do anything to make himself look good. There is one thing about this fourth series that I wasn't personally keen of though and that was Shane's (Walton Goggins) girlfriend, I personally hated the way that she came in between him and Mackey but it wasn't enough to stop me from being well and truly hooked. ONE OF AMERICA'S FINEST.

disappointment.......2007-07-28

I loved the previous three series of The Shield but was extremely disapponted with this one - mainly because of Glenn Close, who I thought was miscast. The usual actors were still great.

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