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True, but it's still more because it's not enough for free shipping since they upped the limit to 35 dollars.

Actor Michael Jace, who played Julien on the show, has been charged with the murder of his wife.

Recently finished watching the S1-S3 of The Shield for the first time - Truly incredible, brutal, and raw crime drama. Now I know why this show has been so talked about & gotten so many accolades over the years. All of the cast is top-notch, but IMHO special kudos goes to Michael Chiklis as Vic Mackey & CCH Pounder as Detective Claudette Wyms...I have watched a lot of TV series over the years and seen a lot of great shows - however, this is unquestionably one of the best.

One of the most interesting aspects to the show is the contrast between Mackey's group & their bull in the china shop approach vs. the more analytical approach of detectives Dutch & Wyms.

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One of my favorite S1 scenes was when Dutch suspected that guy as the suspected that guy as the s. killer, and interrogated him @ the station; I liked how he used psychology to get the guy to freely admit to his crimes - brilliant. Dutch's emotional breakdown in his car at the very end of that episode was unexpected, but was an understandable reaction to what had happened...

Also, extremely surprising was the

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brutal elimination of Terry (Reed Diamond) so early on in the series - I did not see that coming, especially since I thought the character's storyline would be more drawn-out.

Also interesting to see how the big-shot administrators/suits in charge distance themselves from Vic & his crew throughout the season due to his tactics, until they need him...

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I liked how the scumbag P.O.S. Gilroy's machinations & back-stabbing caught up to him in the finale o S1...Truly awesome..

Also, Shane is a real P.O.S. -

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what he did to Trevon near the beginning of S3 was unconsionable; Trevon was clearing the air with him & was the better man for it, and Shane didn't even accept the apology - even though Trevon didn't have to say anything to him (he was only doing this because Mackey had requested this). Hopefully Shane will get what's coming to him later in the series!

Wanted to mention that prior to seeing Season 3, I felt that Captain Aceveda was nothing more than an opportunistic suit who only cared about how what he did re: his job was going to affect his chances of running for Mayor. However,

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in S3 the character was made much more sympathetic after he was assaulted by that junkie, and then you could see how this had understandly really shaken him up. Afterwards, he really stepped up by taking out that other junkie in the convenience store. And, one of the best scenes in the series was in S3, E10 when he got the guy who had done it to him in the interrogation room, turned off the cameras, and told the guy what he would do to him & his family if the guy ever mentioned what had happened - wow, truly brillant acting here.

All of the episodes are great, but IMHO special accolades go to S3, E11, which was directed by David Mamet, one of my favorite film directors - excellent! R. Pigeon (A Mamet regular) played a significant (if not large) role in this...

Re: some of the actors, it's interesting to see that they've been in earlier crime dramas; i.e., RD was featured on the excellent '90's series Homicide: Life in the Street, and the actor who played Gilroy was on Miami Vice back in the '80's...

Speaking of H:LOTS, the shaky camera & documentary style-approach in The Shield reminded me of that earlier Baltimore-based series...

Also, not a criticism, but just an observation: JJ Abrams' films have nothing on The Shield - the lens flare on this show (especially the night scenes) is just unbelievable...

Reed Diamond was utterly brilliant on Homicide. His slow, steady decline from good natured new guy to cynical prick was a gutsy story arc to follow, especially for the time and he deserves special mention not only for how well he played but also his willingness to embrace the character's path without reservation or hesitation (at least any that show on screen.) It can't have been easy or comfortable but that show rarely took the easy way out.

Sorry for the offramp onto another show but I wanted to mention that.

Polybius wrote:Reed Diamond was utterly brilliant on Homicide. His slow, steady decline from good natured new guy to cynical prick was a gutsy story arc to follow, especially for the time and he deserves special mention not only for how well he played but also his willingness to embrace the character's path without reservation or hesitation (at least any that show on screen.) It can't have been easy or comfortable but that show rarely took the easy way out.

Sorry for the offramp onto another show but I wanted to mention that.

Agree about RD - I was shocked when his RD's character on The Shield

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died at the end of the first episode...

IIRC, RD was also briefly in the underrated suspense/espionage series Dollhouse back in the 200X's (starring Eliza D.)...

Re: H: LOTS, excellent show; I reviewed the whole series a while back. I'll start another thread (couldn't find one dedicated to the show)...

Continuing with The Shield - currently on S4; extremely impressed that Glenn Close is on this show - great actress, and I actually think her role here as the police captain is her all-time best.

As I said in an earlier post, my two favorite characters on the show are Vic Mackey & Claudette Wyms; IMHO M. Chiklis and CCH Pounder aren't just acting here, they truly became these characters - very impressive. Like how Wyms works with "Dutch" Wagenbach (sp?);

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the sequences when they worked on & then solved the heinous break-ins of the elderly women was excellent.

Also, Shane is a real P.O.S. -

Spoiler

what he did to Trevon near the beginning of S3 was unconsionable; Trevon was clearing the air with him & was the better man for it, and Shane didn't even accept the apology - even though Trevon didn't have to say anything to him (he was only doing this because Mackey had requested this).

Hopefully Shane will get what's coming to him later in the series!

At least Vic Mackey, as brutal as he is, has somewhat of a consience & has his act together, unlike Shane

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(you could even say that Mackey's elimination of the "snitch" in S1, EP1, while reprehensible, was to protect him & his team).

Especially enjoyed the S3, E11 episode, which was directed by David Mamet, one of my favorite film directors - excellent! R. Pigeon (A Mamet regular) played a significant (if not large) role in this...

Wanted to mention that prior to seeing Season 3, I felt that Captain Aceveda was nothing more than an opportunistic suit who only cared about how what he did re: his job was going to affect his chances of running for Mayor.

Spoiler

However, in S3 the character was made much more sympathetic after he was assaulted by that junkie, and then you could see how this had understandly really shaken him up. Afterwards, he really stepped up by taking out that other junkie in the convenience store. And, one of the best scenes in the series was in S3, E10 when he got the guy who had done it to him in the interrogation room, turned off the cameras, and told the guy what he would do to him & his family if the guy ever mentioned what had happened - wow, truly brillant acting here.

Recently finished watching S7 of The Shield - amazing - this was more than just a TV series, it was truly a sublime experience...Brilliant! Excellent final season...

It was nice to see Tevon back &

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confronting Shane about what he & Mara had done to him - I guess this was a foreshadowing of what would happen to Shane later...

One of my favorite scenes was when

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that gangster was confessing to the department who had put him up to trying to take out Ronnie Gardacki - Shane could see the gig was up, and quickly hauled @$$ out of there.. It seemed like the last couple of seasons were leading up to that point...

It was fitting to see Shane's life

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unravel after he went on the run...first the house he & his family were squatting in was exposed by the real-estate agent, then all of the money he had was stolen, etc. However, it's too bad he had to take his wife & kid with him before he took himself out...

I was surprised & appalled that Vic Mackay

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betrayed Ronnie (in the final episode) by confessing everything that he had done to the government, in exchange for the immunity deal - what a reprehensible low-life P.O.S....Especially after Ronnie had trusted him with his life...

All in all, the finale was superb -

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However, it's unfortunate nothing really bad happened to Vic, other than probably never seeing his family again....

Also liked the guest stars, including Laurie H. (Andrea from TWD series), as well as C. Johnson (from Homicide: Life on the Street) -

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he was the relocation agent who had a small cameo at the end, explaining to Carin & her kids what the new neighborhood they were moving to was like...

Also liked the little touches - Steve Billings as the lazy partner to Wagenbach was fairly spot-on; he did the minimum amount of work & was also trying to sue the department for a bogus injury/disability - what a tool. I have known people like that who do very little work, and feel entitled to get something for nothing...

Shawn Ryan just announced on Twitter that Sony and Fox are moving forward with a 4K conversion of the show, and that he hopes it will be complete in time for the 15th anniversary of the pilot, March 2017.

Presumably this, like the Complete Series DVD set, will present the entire show in widescreen despite the first 5 seasons having originally aired in 4:3

I believe so, but I think the creator manually reframed every episode, so it's not like the Wire

domino harvey wrote: Fri Jul 27, 2018 3:36 pm I believe so, but I think the creator manually reframed every episode, so it's not like the Wire

According to David Simon, he did reframe some shots to get the best compositions when The Wire was expanded to 1.78:1 for its Blu-ray release. If a show was shot wider on film (as Simon's show was), then cropped for 4:3 broadcast, there is some room for adjustment to achieve a good-looking widescreen image and you will actually see more information in the frame than when the program was first broadcast (again, this is true of The Wire on Blu-ray). If a show was shot full-frame 4:3 and composed with little safe area, you're left with having to reframe practically every shot to get the 16:9 composition, but you're still going to crop out information that was there when originally broadcasted. "Manually reframing every episode" sounds like the latter, so these seasons of The Shield could end up looking far more compromised than how The Wire looks.

"swo" - what did the DVD editions of The Shield look like?

The Shield was shot the same way. Wide, but composed for the central 4:3 space only. It'll work fine in widescreen I'm sure, but only in the way a 1.85:1 movie still works when presented open matte.

This is what Shawn Ryan has had to say about it on Twitter

1. Our three year journey to upgrade The Shield for 4K streaming and Blu-Ray DVD is coming to a completion this winter, just in time for the 10 Year Anniversary of our Series Finale episode. Couldn't be more proud to reintroduce the show to a new digital audience. #ShieldOnBlu

2. I want to thank @MillCreekEnt for doing such a tremendous job putting together the exclusive Blu-Ray edition of the show. Also want to thank @SPTV, @FXNetworks and Fox Tv Studios for their support on the restoration of The Shield. #ShieldOnBlu

3. As part of @MillCreekEnt's added features for the Blu-Ray, they are filming a roundtable tomorrow with myself and eleven of The Shield series regulars. Tweet any questions you'd like us to answer with the hashtag #ShieldCastAndCrew.

4. Not related to the Blu-Ray release, but am also thrilled that on streaming sites, The Shield series finale episode will now be aired as it originally aired on FX and not the extended foreign version that we were forced to cut together afterwards.

5. All that said, pre-order and buy the @MillCreekEnt Blu-Ray which is going to have a ton of cool features that you can't get on streaming. Can't tell you how psyched I am for people to see the show in this format. Looks great but gritty.

6. And a final big thanks to Rita Belda and her team that oversaw this painstaking, seemingly never-ending effort to do our show justice in this digital conversion. #ShieldOnBlu

Excited by this. The Shield has a strong case as being the greatest TV series until the third season of Twin Peaks put that over top (with the caveat that there are certainly great shows I haven't seen), so anything that gets more eyes on it is good.

Roger Ryan wrote: Fri Jul 27, 2018 5:05 pm"swo" - what did the DVD editions of The Shield look like?

(sorry swo)

The ones Fox put out initially were in 4:3. When the rights switched over to Sony, they were in 1.78:1. I'm not sure when the switch happened, but by the end of the show's run Sony had them out on new DVD editions in the different ratio.

This might have changed now because of the new transfers but Hulu had every season in 4:3. I've seen a couple episodes in the wider format and thought there was less of the chaotic nature of the show when the frame has room to breathe.

domino harvey wrote: Fri Jul 27, 2018 3:36 pm I believe so, but I think the creator manually reframed every episode, so it's not like the Wire

Exactly.

Also, it's worth noting that all seasons of The Shield apparently aired internationally in 1.78:1 and were released overseas on DVD in 1.78:1, so while the ideal presentation might be both ratios, it simply isn't a situation like The Wire, where there was a deliberate choice to compose only for 1.33:1 in spite of the advent of widescreen TV in the USA, which HBO then spent millions to screw with in opening the Super 35 image to 1.78:1. Also, I'm pretty sure at least one episode of The Shield was originally broadcast in the USA in 1.78:1, as well, for deliberate reasons.

The only reason I probably won't be buying The Shield is because it's a Mill Creek release and they have mediocre standards. If Sony can release an upscaled Fraggle Rock complete series on their own label, then they can release The Shield, too. Hopefully, Sony will release the show internationally, or perhaps a better licensee will come along. People have apparently been asking Indicator if they can get the license in the UK, and I would much rather buy that release than one from Mill Creek.

flyonthewall2983 wrote: Sat Jul 28, 2018 3:25 pmI've seen a couple episodes in the wider format and thought there was less of the chaotic nature of the show when the frame has room to breathe.

For anyone who wants to quickly compare a few shots, there are four 4:3/16:9 comparisons in the DVD Talk review of the 2009 Sony set. The reviewer mentions that it was intended to be 4:3 because "the creators wanted this series to look and feel like a documentary." The idea of a show that premiered in 2002 that wanted the shaky handheld-camera footage look being shown in widescreen seems a little odd to me in principle (I haven't watched The Shield or in this format, nor would I particularly want to). Obviously viewers today are more accustomed to shaky (pseudo-)documentary camera technique being viewed in widescreen as that's long since become the international standard for HDTV.

McCrutchy wrote: Sat Jul 28, 2018 4:13 pmThe only reason I probably won't be buying The Shield is because it's a Mill Creek release and they have mediocre standards. If Sony can release an upscaled Fraggle Rock complete series on their own label, then they can release The Shield, too. Hopefully, Sony will release the show internationally, or perhaps a better licensee will come along. People have apparently been asking Indicator if they can get the license in the UK, and I would much rather buy that release than one from Mill Creek.

I'm withholding judgment on that until the reviews come in. This is something that the creator took a vested interest in, which gives me hope that it maybe is of a higher standard than your average Mill Creek release.

One of the episodes apparently uses a broadcast version different than what was on the DVD of one episode edited to shorten certain aspects of a sexual assault, so of course the Blu-ray.com forum have decided the entire set should be chucked

Which episode specifically? Because the scene that comes to mind was probably one of the more powerfully disturbing scenes of the show and had repercussions in the plot moving forward from that moment.

"Mum"

So the uncensored version never appeared anywhere other than on the DVD?

I'm still miffed we don't have an uncensored version (as it was originally broadcast) of the penis episode of NewsRadio