To me the show isn't about their work as cops at all, it's about their personal lives. The "bad cop" image is there, and they certainly play it up in the promos to make it look more edgy, but the episodes themselves tend to be more about Michael Chiklis' relationship with his family, and the cops' relationships with each other, etc. Unlike NYPD Blue, where you start with a crime and Dennis Franz beats people up until they catch the guy who did it, The Shield tends to start with the cops, and they just happen to be doing police work in the background, in my opinion.
When Scopulus originally posted this, I hadn't seen the episode (we always catch one of the many reruns later in the week because Tuesday nights are very busy). But now I can comment on it: I thought the amount of the oral rape scene that they showed was a little much, it could have just been implied a little more, but as a plot element in and of itself, I didn't mind it--but maybe that's just because I've been hoping that character would have something awful happen to him for a few episodes now.
