Starring Michael Chiklis, Forest Whitaker, Catherine Dent, Walton Goggins, Michael Jace, Kenny Johnson, Jay Karnes, Benito Martinez, CCH Pounder
Written By:
Directed By: Shawn Ryan
Studio: 20th Century Fox
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Coming off one of it’s best season’s to date with Glenn Close as the new police chief at the barn, The Shield is back for another powerful season. This year, Forest Whitaker has joined the cast, and man, I can’t remember this series having two huge rival characters going at it like Michael Chiklis and Forest Whitaker’s Mackey and Kavanaugh respectively. With Close’s departure, Whitaker really takes the spotlight away from Chiklis and proves why he is now an Oscar winner. The Shield Season Five DVD is now out, and features all 11 episodes with a slew of great extras.

Internal Affairs is on to the Strike Team and Detective Vic Mackey, and it gets even more heated when one IA Lieutenant, Jon Kavanaugh (Whitaker) sets up shop right in the barn. Vic Mackey and the strike team have to behave even more now that Internal Affairs is in house and keeping a very watchful eye on the team. Kavanaugh is kind of a crooked, somewhat questionable cop to begin with, and it doesn’t help much that he is IAD as well. He has a lot of power and is obsessed with taking down Vic Mackey and his team. While all this is going on inside the barn, the City of Farmington is dealing with severe racial tensions,and its typical run of inner city issues like illegal drug rings, prostitution, and gang bangers. Each season you can expect those type of crimes to pop up and I think each season some get more gross and creepy. For instance, the granny rapist. No matter what it takes, you want the strike team and the Detectives to track that creep down and bring him to justice. What I like about that is, we really don’t get to see who did certain crimes until the Detectives or the strike team uncovers them in the interrogation of the suspects.

Forest Whitaker was a welcome addition. As much as The Shield is one of my favorite shows on television, it could get stale if the same type of crime related stories keep popping up. Whitaker was excellent as Kavanaugh and I can only hope he’s back for Season Six. He is a good person who has a tough job as a so to speak “Rat” since he works for a division that brings down fellow cops. So many fans love Vic Mackey, Kavanaugh’s viewed as the villain this season as well as getting some help from Season Four’s villain, Antwon Mitchell (Anthony Anderson.) Kavanaugh changes as the season progresses as a decent cop who just becomes so enraged with Mackey, its visible in his face and presence, and now its his only mission. As far as the rest of the cast go, they are still solid and very strong including Michael Chiklis and this season Kenny Johnson comes forward with powerful scenes.

Plenty of special features can be found on a fourth disc of the DVD set including audio commentary by various cast and crew for every episode and its insightful to each story. I enjoyed the Season 6 Prequel which shows Vic, Shane, and Ron at the grave site of their fellow member, and it shows them reminiscing and flashing back to some moments they all shared a few years back. The other feature I also enjoyed was a TV Panel Discussion with Michael Chiklis, Forest Whitaker, and Creator Shawn Ryan. Monitored by a writer for Entertainment Weekly, the men answer plenty of questions and give real good insight into what happens during the show and how the character of Jon Kavanaugh came into being. Rounding out the extras are 25 deleted scenes which can be found on each disc, I.A.D featurette, Delivering The Baby Documentary, and a Scott Brazil Tribute, who was a producer and director on the show and passed away in 2006.

As far as television drama’s go, The Shield is one of the best with top notch acting, storylines, directing and action and drama. Michael Chiklis and Forest Whitaker shine in Season Five and I hope the show sticks around for a little while.

Features:
-All 11 Season Five Episodes
-Audio Commentary on All Episodes
-25 Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary
-Season 6 Prequel
-Special Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Surround CC

Video:
Standard 1.33:1 Color

Subtitles:
English, Spanish

Favorite Scenes: Extraction, Trophy, Kavanaugh, Of Mice and Lem, PostPartum
Rating: NR
Running Time: 546 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: