The Shield is not your average TV cop show. In the opening episode of the first season the “hero”, detective Vic Mackey, murders undercover cop Terry Crowley, who has been placed inside Mackey’s Strike Team to gather evidence of corruption. Over the course of the next five seasons, Vic and the team commit a hefty catalogue of criminal acts including obstruction of justice, extortion, theft and finally armed robbery. This is also a show that’s constantly pushing the limits of how much gore, sex and violence can be shown on cable.

But for me, what this show is really about is family, and how far a man will go to protect and provide for that family. In Vic’s case, “family” not only covers his wife and children, but the rest of the strike team, Shane Vendrell, Curtis “Lem” Lemansky and Ronnie Gardocki. These are not evil men, although they commit evil acts. They are fiercely loyal to each other. Out on the streets, facing down gangs, constantly putting their lives on the line, using whatever methods necessary to keep their district safe, they are ruthlessly effective.

For Vic and his team, the ends definitely justify the means. In their view, they simply don’t get adequately rewarded for what they do, so they take a little here and there to make up for that. Unfortunately for them, life is not that simple and their lives began to spiral downward after Crowley’s killing. Only Vic and Shane know the truth about what really went down, the others believing the killing was the result of a drug bust gone bad.

Tragedy struck the family at the end of season five (the show’s best season so far) when Lem was killed by a grenade tossed into his car by Shane, worried that Lem was going to come clean about the team’s crooked past to Forest Whitaker’s obsessive IAD detective Lt Jon Kavanaugh. The opening episode of season 6 begins and ends with two powerful sequences set to the late Johnny Cash singing “I Hung My Head”. The team gather at Lem’s grave and Vic makes it clear he will go to any lengths to avenge Lem’s murder as he embarks on a frantic hunt for the latino drug lord Guardo, who he mistakenly believes is responsible. Shane is trying unsuccessfully to deal with the guilt of what he’s done, putting himself in harm’s way during a tense hostage situation at a methadone clinic. Time is running out for Kavanaugh’s investigation, and he is driven to desperate measures to put Vic away.

The second episode sees the departure of Forest Whitaker, whose magnificent performance was such a highlight of the previous season. Kavanaugh’s failure to convict Mackey leads to him planting evidence implicating Vic in Lem’s murder. Vic is slowly unravelling, kidnapping Guardo’s girlfriend in an attempt to force him to return from Mexico, despite Shane and Ronnie’s misgivings. Newly promoted Captain Claudette Wyms and former partner “Dutch” Wagenbach are suspicious of the evidence provided by Vic’s former informant Emolia, and eventually the truth is revealed, resulting in Kavanaugh’s arrest and a final confrontation with Vic through the bars of a prison cell.

One of the show’s strengths lies in it’s unusually well developed supporting characters. Veteran actress CCH Pounder, as Claudette Wyms, has never been better than the moment when she faces down Kavanaugh and orders him out of the room so she can begin to question Emolia, gradually breaking her down by pointing out that she has been used by both Vic and Kavanaugh. Jay Karnes’ sympathetic performance as Holland “Dutch” Wagenbach, struggling to cope with the promotion of his former partner and his infatuation with a female rookie is a masterpiece of understatement.

Cathy Cahlin Ryan’s portrayal of Vic’s estranged wife Corrine, Catherine Dent’s Danny Sofer, forced to return to work early after giving birth to Vic’s baby in order to get her promotion, and Michael Jace’s sexually conflicted Officer Julian Lowe are just some of the other noteworthy performances in a series that just keeps getting better. It’s a tribute to the general high standard that they aren’t overshadowed by the central characters of Vic and Shane, played so well by Michael Chiklis and Walton Goggins. Former precinct Captain now turned Councilman David Aceveda seems to have been sidelined during these early episodes which is slightly disappointing but I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of him.

This ranks as some of the best TV drama ever – gripping, suspenseful, brilliantly written and acted. If you’re not watching it, you should be. If you’ve never seen The Shield before, do yourself a favour, grab the first five seasons on DVD, stack up season six on the Tivo, and take a week off.