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Good.. but not great I have been a die hard fan of The Shield since the very first episode. With all of the different crime shows on television, I have always thought of The Shield as the best one out there, simply because it is a cop show with actual continuity and not a case by case format. The acting and writing on The Shield is top notch, and it offers a very controversial look at the cops of Los Angeles. The first two seasons of The Shield were both amazing and two of the best seasons that I have ever seen from any show period. Unfortunately, the third season of The Shield was like many shows last year - 24, Alias, etc.. It was just not as good as the previous seasons before it. One of the things that makes The Shield such a good show is that even though the main characters are on the right side of the law, they often act even worse than the criminals at times. They do what they want, when they want to do it. Due to the events of season two regarding the money train, the Strike Team scale back their actions and play it safe. We did not get to see the same type of "take no prisoners" attitude from the Strike Team, which really hurt the season. The other downside, is that the other side of the show that involves Dutch and Claudette taking down criminals, is spent chasing after a sexual predator for most of the season. Now despite the fantastic development in the storyline and the great build up to the finish, the closing of the case is kind of anti-climactic. On the bright side however, the reason this season still rates a solid four stars, is because of the brilliant development of Captain David Aceveda. Aceveda has to go through a lot this season, and there is one event in particular that deals with him being sexually assaulted on the job. It is quite disturbing, and it weighs on him throughout the whole season. My other favorite thing about the third season besides the direction they went with Aceveda, was the cliffhanger left in the season three finale. It really makes you want to tune in for the fourth season because the fate of the Strike Team is left up in the air. When shows like The Shield, do such a good job with their first seasons, and then somehow manage to do an even better with season number two, you get spoiled and expect good things from season three. If you compare the third season of The Shield, to the two previous ones, it fails to continue the tradition of each season being better than the last. Overall however, season three of The Shield is still entertaining and solid despite the fact that it was not quite as good. The writing is superb, the continuity is refreshing, and the acting is excellent. A solid 4 stars...