As I'm sure you're aware I've had a bit of a writing lapse over the past few months. Now I don't know exactly what the cause of this is, but in an effort to push past this I've decided to go back to a few basics, in particular I plan to revisit The Shield (aka my favourite show) in its entirety over the next few months. Now I'm not going to write about every single episode; instead I'm going to pick out key episodes, moments, characters and observations and write about them in this series I've decided to title "Urban Jungle".

For those of you who haven't seen The Shield I can't recommend it enough - it's a dark, brutal, unforgiving walk through a world of corruption, violence and lies. A story that spans eighty eight episodes over seven seasons as it charts the times of a small elite force of policemen and the other officers who surround their lives.

I've cited it as my all time favourite show on many occasions and while I do accept it's not for everyone - the dark nature of the show means some people may find that it's too much, but for those who are willing to step beyond the grim exterior there is a world filled with complicated characters, ambiguous situations and various types of unpleasantness.

My revisit to the series starts on Friday with a look at the Pilot episode, what it tried to achieve, what it brings to the show and why it had such an impact on myself and forced me to re-evaluate all television as a consequence.