The Shield arrives on All 4
David Farnor | On 24, Apr 2019
The whole of award-winning cop drama The Shield is now available to stream on All 4 for free.
Known for breaking conventions of the genre, the popular and acclaimed series from Sony Pictures Television plays out in the tough, morally ambiguous world of an inner-city Los Angeles police precinct, where the line between good and evil is crossed every day. Michael Chiklis (Fantastic Four, American Horror Story, Gotham) is Detective Vic Mackey, an effective but corrupt cop who operates under his own set of rules as leader of the elite Strike Team. The young precinct head, Capt. David Aceveda (Benito Martinez – How to Get Away with Murder, Kill Your Darlings), doesn’t like Mackey’s tactics and wants him off the force, but veteran Det. Claudette Wyms (CCH Pounder – Avatar, Sons of Anarchy) understands Mackey and knows how to play both sides of the fence. In the fourth season, Glenn Close (The Wife, Damages, The Lion in Winter) joins an outstanding cast that also features Catherine Dent (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and Walton Goggins (The Hateful Eight, Lincoln).
“When we made The Shield we were trying to do something very similar to what a lot of streaming shows are doing now,” creator Shawn Ryan told us in an interview last year.
“I would say that the bar is higher now than when we first started,” he added. “There’s a lot more competition for talent now. People, I think, when they watch a TV show, they expect high production values, in ways that 15+ years ago, they didn’t.”
Over its seven-season run, The Shield secured 50 award nominations, picking up Golden Globes wins for Best Television Drama and Best Actor, and an Emmy award for Chilklis. Now, all 88 episodes are available to watch and download on Channel 4’s VOD platform. It’s the latest US box set to be released on All 4, joining Community, 30 Rock, The Goldbergs, 90210 and Dawson’s Creek.
“The best anti-hero on the small screen since Walter White – but this came first,” we wrote in our review of the show. “The Shield is dark and dripping with masculinity, it is often angry and brutal, but plays everything to a smart degree, with a final run of episodes that turn what is essentially a hard-nosed procedural drama into something extraordinary,”