The Shield - Season 4

Obviously, I'm a little behind on things. The Shield is about to enter it's 7th (and final season) this spring on FX and here I am just getting around to finishing the 4th. I actually started watching this season over the summer and managed to get distracted with life halfway into it. Which is not the fault of the show show because in my estimation season 4 was simply incredible.

The addition of the very talented Glenn Close to the cast brought a whole new dynamic to this season of the show and provided a welcome (to me at least) change to the shows internal conflicts.
Sure it's fun to see Mackie and Aceveda butt heads with one another but at some point you need to change things up. As much as I loved the third season of the show, I just felt it was time to mix it up and with Aceveda moving up to City Council it gave him a whole new way to create confict with Mackie and the new Captain.

This season picks up a few months after the end of Season 3 with the strike team broken up over how things played out with the money train. Lem is off doing his thing, Shane has a new partner and tries to play things his way, Ronnie and Mackie are at the barn but have been unofficially blacklisted.
Enter newly appointed Captain Monica Rawling (Close) who has some bold new plans to shake up the criminals in Farmington. And while clashing at first, eventually Mackie and Rawling develop a trust and respect from each other and they are going to need it because the new king of the 19ers, Antwon Mitchell (Anthony Anderson in an excellent performance) is causing all sorts of trouble and he's just put Shane behind the 8 ball.

As the 13 episode season plays out you can really see how character driven this year was for the show. And just when you think things might work out for Mackie and the boys, something hits the fan which will have them under the magnifying glass for season 5.

Excellent acting across the board from Chiklis, Close, Martinez, Anderson and all the rest.

An excellent year for the show which has me all kinds of excited to start season 5 tonight. Several friends of mine say it's even better than 4. I'll let you know.

W