Product Description

"Conscience is a killer" is the catchphrase that made season 5 of The Shield the most intense season of the series to date. These 11 tightly scripted episodes comprise the first half of a 21-episode arc with series creator Shawn Ryan referring to the sixth season (broadcast in 2007) as "Season 5.1." This is The Shield at its finest culminating in a climactic 11th episode ("Postpartum") that ricochets the series toward a complex range of dramatic complications. Jumping the shark? Not a chance pal--not when you've got soon-to-be Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker in his outstanding guest-star role as Det. John Kavanaugh the upright tormented Internal Affairs cop determined to destroy Det. Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) and his corrupt LAPD Strike Team. As Kavanaugh mounts an obsessive campaign to reveal Mackey's shameful secrets conscience is a killer in the Strike Team's midst: Ronnie (David Rees Snell) maintains a stoical voice of reason but as Mackey recruits (and seduces) a savvy lawyer (Laura Harring) to defend against Kavanaugh's harassment Curtis "Lemonhead" Lemansky (Kenneth Johnson never better) desperately protects the Strike Team with a sacrificial gambit that provokes Shane (Walton Goggins) to commit a crime that's both shockingly tragic and dramatically ingenious since it forcefully propels The Shield toward a bold and unpredictable future.System Requirements:Running Time: 546 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 043396250307 Manufacturer No: 25030

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7460 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
• Dubbed in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 4
• Dimensions: .75 pounds
• Running time: 498 minutes

Customer Reviews

Wow.
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?

A step sideways, not back
I have to agree somewhat with a previous reviewer in that it seems the writers found out about halfway through writing S6 that there was going to be an S7, because while the first five or six episodes really start to ratchet things up, the back half sort of continually slows down, to the point where the season-ender really seems to "kill you with quiet," to paraphrase another review I'd read.

Additionally, a lot of people may feel that the "big crime" plotline involving a dozen or so hacked-up bodies, an undercover agent and several shady Hispanic figures, was a little too complicated to follow. I didn't think so, but I can see where that might come from.

That said, where that story eventually goes sets up a FANTASTIC plotline for the final season. However, I did find myself waiting for a lot of reckoning between different characters that never came, which reinforces my belief that maybe things were on track for S6 to cap the series, then S7 got a green light, and all of a sudden the writers had to buy a little time.

Regardless, with the notable exception of 'The Wire,' 'The Shield' is still the best, most engaging cop show on TV.

Great season, great last episode, BUT....
As much as I like actor Forest Whitaker, the man mumbles too much. His enunciation is often poor and unclear. You absolutely HAVE to watch his scenes in this season with the subtitles on. What good is it to be a fine actor if no one can understand you when you speak?

So as for this Season 5 DVD -- great season, good story arcs. But you will need to use the subtitle track to understand Lt. Jon Kavanaugh's lines.