Critic Reviews
| 100 |
San Francisco Chronicle Tim Goodman
What remains compelling about The Shield as it heads into its last hurrah are the gray areas and ethical gradations of the characters that have defined it. |
| 100 |
New York Post Adam Buckman
For better or worse, The Shield set the standard for what is now permissible on basic cable. It's one of those shows I can't imagine living without. |
| 100 |
Newsday Verne Gay
The Shield (this season and every season) is an intoxicating head-gamer of a show that grabs you by the throat. |
| 91 |
Entertainment Weekly Ken Tucker
Season openers don't get much more incendiary: There are severed feet, a ''beef'' between rival Armenian, Mexican, and Salvadoran gangs, and a murder committed by another member of Vic's Strike Team. |
| 90 |
Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan
All I can say, at this point, is that the first eight episodes of Season 7 are tight, unrelenting, complicated, fierce, wonderfully acted. |
| 90 |
Philadelphia Daily News Ellen Gray
The Shield, which, based on the three I've seen so far, looks to be going out the way it came in: fast and furious, bloody but unbowed. |
| 80 |
Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker
You couldn't wander in at this point and not be lost. Yet here's one series worth catching up with on DVD. |
| 80 |
New York Daily News David Hinckley
He has always been wrapped a little tight but now he's about to explode, and Chiklis plays it beautifully, making it sound as if he must measure every phrase so that just opening his mouth doesn't release all the frustration in a nuclear blast. |
| 80 |
TV Guide Matt Roush
Nothing about the seventh and final season of The Shield feels like a show running out of gas. |
| 80 |
Variety Stuart Levine
For the uninitiated, the show's dense plotline has become a head-scratching web of scorned relationships between Armenians, Mexicans, corrupt politicians, dirty cops, police commissioners and Mackey, of course, in the center of it all, doing whatever it takes to hang on to his badge. For the longtime fan, however, the story is complex yet riveting, making complete sense, especially after witnessing Mackey's hellacious journey to get here. |
| 80 |
Newark Star-Ledger Alan Sepinwall
Chiklis always sells his end of it, and when he has a great actor opposite him, you don't really notice how puzzling the story arcs would get. |
| 80 |
Kansas City Star Aaron Barnhart
Things may end badly for Vic, or not, but this I know for sure: The next time The Shield cheats its viewers will be the first. |
| 75 |
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen
Tonight's season premiere does a fairly good job of wrapping up the sixth season finale and setting the stage to move forward but there's still a fair amount of cleanup to be done. |
| 63 |
Baltimore Sun David Zurawik
Mackey is right where I left him years ago: again facing a disciplinary hearing that might mean the end of his career. As The Shield starts its seventh and final season, maybe it is time to say goodbye. |
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