The Shield: The Complete Series Collection (Sony) – The Shield debuted on the FX cable channel early in 2002 and almost immediately shook up television by pushing the boundaries of violence and sexual content on commercial cable and blurring the line between good cop and bad cop with the most morally spellbinding character on TV. Michael Chiklis took home a well deserved Emmy Award for his fearless performance as maverick officer Vic Mackey, head of the controversial strike team and a man at once corrupt and dedicated, violent and protective, and utterly passionate in his job even while he’s skimming the evidence. But he’s just one compromised character in squad room swirling with conflict and contradiction: the politically ambitious Captain Aceveda (Benito Martinez), who uses command as a stepping stone for political advancement; Dutch (Jay Karnes), an intellectual social geek in a blue collar station whose abilities are ridiculed until he proves his chops in a painful interrogation; officer Lowe (Michael Jace), a church-going cop tortured by denial and self-repression; Vic’s best friend and loyal (if not too smart) second Shane (Walt Goggins), a hillbilly badass who can’t quite pull off Mackey’s balancing act of good cop/bad cop and allows his bad behavior to sink him in real trouble; and Detective Wyms (CCH Pounder), the rock of the station who wants nothing more than to take the reigns of leadership herself and shut down Mackey and his crew for good.

Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) and his Strike Force strike

The show ended its seven-season run in 2008 with a brilliant final season and one of the greatest series finales ever broadcast: every evil act and dirty deed that Mackey and his Strike Force ever perpetrated comes back on him as Shane goes on the run and his wife is confronted with the truth of his legacy. In between, creator Shawn Ryan and his crew kept the audience off balance with dramatic turns, dynamic characters and a portrait of the eco-system of urban crime and local cops, all without compromising the integrity of the show, the characters or the world they live in. There are some thrilling storylines, notably the “money train” heist and the Russian mob’s revenge, but the most interesting stories came out of the complications created by Mackey and his crew as they walked both sides of the street. And as the show gained respect, it attracted some high-powered talent that signed on for arcs lasting an entire season—Anthony Anderson as a firebrand gangleader, Glenn Close as a new boss in the barn, Forest Whitaker as an obsessive Internal Affairs officer—to add to the drama stoked in the regular cast. There are no saints in this squad, even among the most well-meaning. This is a show revels in the contradictions and compromises of the characters, but it understands exactly where everyone draws their moral lines. They just happen to draw them in different places.

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The Shield, one of the smartest, edgiest and most uncompromising crime shows on TV, ended its seven-season run in 2008 with a brilliant final season and one of the greatest series finales ever broadcast. Michael Chiklis’ Vic Mackey is one of the most distinctive TV characters ever created, a maverick officer at once corrupt and dedicated, violent and protective, and utterly passionate in his job while lining his pockets on side. But this season, every evil act and dirty deed that Mackey and his Strike Force ever perpetrated comes back on him as his one-time best friend Shane (Walton Goggins) goes on the run and his wife is confronted with the truth of his legacy. Creator Shawn Ryan and his crew keep surprising us with the turns the show takes yet never compromises the integrity of the show, the characters or the world they live in. Watching Vic’s world unravel is riveting, but every character gets to shine as the show takes its final bow. The Shield: Season Seven – The Final Act out on DVD in a four disc box set with commentary on every one of the thirteen episodes by various collections of the cast and crew and a well-made half-hour featurette on the development of the storyline and character arcs of the final season: Nobody Expects to Lose, Nobody Expects to Die: The Shield’s The Final Act.

The Jack Lemmon Film Collection features five comedies made between 1954 and 1964. These are not his most famous films but the earliest in the set chart the development of the young star and the best of them show off the talents that made him such an appealing, attractive leading man before he settled into the exasperated whine of the oppressed everyman in films like The Fortune Cookie, The Odd Couple and The Prisoner of Second Avenue. This collection rediscovers the confident, somewhat cocky yet cheerfully charismatic modern urban single male, a man of wit and wile and a cornerstone of decency. Read more »