JuicyTalk
Breaking Bad revolutionized television shows in the late 2000s, but FX’s crime thriller masterpiece, The Shield, deserves as much recognition as the AMC series. For many, Breaking Bad is the pinnacle of great television, and rightly so. With Bryan Cranston perfectly portraying the descent of a chemistry teacher into the bowels of drug dealing, it’s easy to be drawn to the crime drama.
TV shows like Breaking Bad are hard to come by, as nothing could compare to the intense, high-stakes series. However, some hidden gems flew under the radar that are just as good. One such show aired its season finale the same year that Breaking Bad premiered on AMC.
The Shield Is One Of The Most Underrated TV Shows Of The Early 2000s
The Shield Deserves More Recognition As One Of The Best Crime Dramas Of The Early 2000s
The early 2000s were filled with lots of crime dramas that rose to unprecedented levels of success with audiences and critics alike, such as The Wire and Prison Break. But The Shield remained one of the most underrated crime thrillers from the noughties that went unnoticed by a large audience for many years.
Related
The Same Year Breaking Bad Came Out, One Of The Best Crime Dramas Of All Time Aired Its Finale
The same year Breaking Bad hit the airwaves with a jaw-dropping series premiere, a different groundbreaking crime drama, The Shield, ended its run.
Centering around a Los Angeles police officer, Vic Mackey, and his Strike Team, who often blurred the line between right and wrong when it came to enforcing the law, The Shield immediately showed that it was a different kind of crime drama. The morally ambiguous series offered a brutal but honest look into the dark side of law enforcement that many shows didn’t want to delve into.
When one mentions the Golden Age of Television, TV shows like Breaking Bad and The Wire are often on the list, but The Shield is usually left out.
With the number of TV shows that shy away from showing police corruption, The Shield is a refreshing series because it doesn’t hold back the punches. The show’s protagonist, Mackey, is extremely flawed and is in it for himself most of the time, but nonetheless holds audiences’ attention as one of TV’s best antiheroes, because underneath the darkness is someone who cares about his community.
The Shield Deserves The Same Love As The Wire And Breaking Bad
The Shield Is Just As Entertaining As Breaking Bad And The Wire
Like Breaking Bad and The Wire, The Shield pushed the boundaries when it came to crime dramas as it was chock-full of morally gray characters. Still, The Shield aired during the time when shows like The Wire and The Sopranos had become audience favorites, so it was easy for the series to get lost in the crowd.
When one mentions the Golden Age of Television, TV shows like Breaking Bad and The Wire are often on the list, but The Shield is usually left out. However, it deserves so much more recognition than what it gets. The crime drama offered a gritty look at the thin line between justice and corruption, with nuanced and bold characters who show that even the good guys can sometimes do bad things.
The Shield, just like The Wire and Breaking Bad, wasn’t afraid to delve into uncharted waters and deliver something that hadn’t been done on TV before. Each season of The Shield raised the stakes with the Strike Team engaging in activities that are far from right, putting them closer to getting arrested. Seventeen years after The Shield concluded, the series is still worth watching.
-
-
Breaking Bad
10/10
- Release Date
-
2008 – 2013-00-00
- Showrunner
-
Vince Gilligan
- Directors
-
Vince Gilligan, Michelle Maclaren
- Writers
-
Peter Gould, Gennifer Hutchison, Vince Gilligan, George Mastras, Moira Walley-Beckett, Sam Catlin, Thomas Schnauz
