Quoting
Philip J. Fry (view post)
Sorry for not answering before, hadn't seen this post.
Anyway, I was thoroughly impressed. While, as you said, is in season 4 when it begins to really run at full steam (and holy hit, that last season), the first three seasons are still electric and captivating from the get go, which shows one of the show's main strengths: it's consistency. The Shield is one of those rare shows I can recall that don't have a single bad episode, let alone season and to boot, had it's very best season last and had probably the best final episode I've seen; it was also very consistent with it's characterizations, I mean, even if the characters changed (and they changed a lot), none of their actions ever really felt forced, they always felt in character. And visually speaking, it had one of the best uses of the guerrilla style of filmmaking, both for how it fit Farmington's setting and how it was staged: it was never confused and didn't feel gimmicky.
And thematically, like The Wire, it's one of those shows that feel more and more relevant with the passing of the years. Among our merry band of corrupt cops I found Shane specially interesting since I felt he was the most reflecting of the kind of policemen we've seen in the news: violent, short-tempered, racist and with a bit of a God complex.
So, anyway, fantastic show. I'm actually surprised it's not on the public discourse the same way as shows like Breaking Bad, The Wire and Mad Men are, it's on that stratosphere.