Fully demanding of your attention at every moment: The Shield and The Wire

Episode 7 ("Exiled") of Season 6 of "The Shield" deals with a lot of plot points (it always seems that in a season series there's a lot of plot to wrap up at about the 70% marker, right?), but still a tense and demanding episode. Mackey has threatened to kill Shane and says he never wants to see him again, bu we know these two do have to face off eventually. Shane gathers all the evidence he has about the crimes and and Mackey have committed on the force and let's Mackey know that he will unload this confession if Mackey makes his move. Shane seems to be setting up some kind of elaborate sting or heist, but it's not clear what his motive is. Money for a getaway? The dramatic problem is that the protagonist (Mackey) is kind of out of things in most of this episode, it's more about Shane, who's always in Mackey's shadow. Mackey/Chiklis is the fuel that drives this engine, and The Shield is nothing without his active presence. Well, not nothing - I still admire the great and smart writing and scripting. As M. notes, they don't make it easy for you - they don't actually "explain" anything, as so many cop dramas do. You just see it and hear and it and have to figure out what everyone's thinking and doing. It has a somewhat documentary look, lots of handheld cameras and ambient noise (the phones in the station, or "the barn"; the moving camera every time they bust into a stash house, guns drawn, which is every episode). In that way, The Shield is a lot like The Wire, fully demanding of your attention at every moment.