Prime Video has added all seven seasons of one of the greatest TV shows ever

The cop drama has been compared to Line of Duty and The Wire. But where does it rank for you in the best TV series ever debate?

Created by Shawn Ryan (recent Netflix hit The Night Agent), the series follows a gang of corrupt Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) cops called The Strike Team.

Led by the brutish Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis, in an Emmy and Golden Globe-winning performance), the team uses illegal methods to maintain law and order, whilst also engaging in a series of undercover dealings secretly in order to get rich.

Mackey and his squad's misdeeds, however, eventually come home to roost.

The Shield ran from 2002 to 2008 and during that time also featured among its cast such notable names as CCH Pounder, Forest Whitaker, Franka Potente, Glenn Close, Laurie Holden, Laura Harring, Michael Peña and Walton Goggins (the show was his big break).

And thanks to its incredibly dark and gritty story, its hard-boiled writing, its three-dimensional characters, its energetic direction and its great performances, the cop drama has ranked high on many 'best TV shows ever' lists, alongside the likes of Breaking Bad, The Sopranos and The Wire.

Earning an average critics score of 90% and audience score of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes across its seven seasons, you can read a sample of some of the reviews of The Shield's first batch of episodes below:

Globe and Mail: "There isn't a single decent person in The Shield and that makes it the both the most devastating critique of America and the must-watch show of the season."

San Francisco Chronicle: "The writing is superb, the acting performances top notch, and there are plenty of other nuances that, compacted, make this cop show one painful punch in the gut."

Sydney Morning Herald: "The show grabs the viewer by the throat from the very first episode - the shocking ending of which sets up seven seasons of superb drama."

Time Magazine: "By this week's season finale, [Vic Mackey] has become the most memorable, divisive and hard-to-pin-down character of the TV season."

How to Watch

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All seven seasons of The Shield are streaming on Prime Video in the UK and Ireland right now.

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