The Shield was a TV show that ran on FX from 2002-2008 about a corrupt set of cops in Los Angeles. The idea was based on the LAPD Rampart Division's corrupt anti-gang unit. The show featured Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) and his strike team, as well as detectives Wyms (CCH Pounder), Wagenbach (Jay Karnes), and the boss, Aceveda (Benito Zambrano). The show was all action and adrenaline, and here are the reasons why now is the perfect time to re-watch the series:
Good Cop vs Bad Cop vs Worst Cop
From the first frame of The Shield, we understand this is a different show about cops. Vic Mackey is not a good cop: he’s a thief, who steals drugs from one gang and gives them to another, just so he can get a cut of the money. He’s violent, and he’ll do anything if it works for his advantage, be it legal or not. He might have a big arrest count, but it’s in a “the end justifies the means” kind of way.
Sometimes, that kind of work was used for good, as in the first episode, where, to find out where a pedophile has hidden a 7-year-old kid, and after all interrogation methods fail, it’s time for Mackey, the worst cop to appear. “Good cop and bad cop left for the day. I’m a different kind of cop,” he says, before using a phone book to beat the location information out of the perp. In the first episode, alone, Mackey does this (the camera in the interrogation room was a comical number of times off, so he could do there what he pleased); he punches a man hiding drugs, and worse of all, he murders another cop in cold blood. Terry Crowley (Reed Diamond) is the cop, and he just started working with the strike team, as a mole to gather information on their crimes and report them. From that first sin, the show kept going down, and Mackey and his strike team became more "bad cop-to-worst cop" and less good cop, and it was a joy to watch all of it.
It might not be on the list for best TV cop shows and police procedurals, but it was ahead of its time, as it was one of the first shows where cops were not all good. As creator and showrunner Shawn Ryan told The Ringer: “I’d like to think that the show did more to disabuse the public of the notion that all cops are pure and simple heroes” and advance the idea “that cops are human beings, some of whom have flaws and go and make big mistakes.”
Great Acting
The Shield had a great cast of unknown actors wanting to change the image Hollywood had of them. Starting with Chiklis: an affable, comical presence on the show The Commish, he went to the gym, shaved his head, and became the charismatic, dangerous, and violent Mackey. He wasn’t the only one. This was Walton Goggins' breakthrough role before becoming a big part of Justified’s best episodes, and Tarantino took notice; one of Frank Grillo’s first, and many others who, since then, have been part of our TV lives: Jay Karnes, CCH Pounder, Benito Martinez, Catherine Dent, David Rees Snell, or Kenny Johnson (still playing affable cops).
The later seasons brought in incredible and renowned guest stars such as Glenn Close, Forest Whitaker, Lauren Holden, Michael Peña, and Anthony Anderson. Most of those guest stars played characters trying to take down Mackey, and surprisingly, the audience still sided with the corrupt cop, even when the number of misdeeds was spectacularly extensive. The show was great for actors, and it was one of the first antihero shows, after Tony Soprano, but before Walter White or Don Draper. The Shield got some awards to prove it. Michael Chiklis won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (CCH Pounder and Glenn Close were also nominated in other years), and the show was also the first basic cable series to win a Golden Globe for Best Television Drama.
Adrenaline-Fueled Everything
In the first episode, they kill Crowley, and from there, the show never stops putting the foot on the accelerator in every story, relationship, and action scene. The Shield was adrenaline-fueled everything, and it never stopped in its seven seasons. Sometimes it was tough to see the things the criminals did. There were gangs who sexually assaulted and killed, Armenians who cut off their victims' feet and left them as a warning, psychopaths, serial killers, and pedophiles… but Mackey and his team were as bad as them. Using some of those same criminals for their advantage (working with them and even protecting them for money), and when the bad guys did something absolutely outrageous, Mackey could send them to prison or worse (there was a certain gang leader whose face Mackey ended burning on a stove).
We want you to see the show, so we’re trying really hard not to spoil anything, but let’s say that everything the strike team does has consequences, and those make the latter seasons more dramatic, heartbreaking, tense, incredible, and morally complicated. Especially the ending, which was one of the best in any TV show ever. It’s unexpected, but makes total sense. It’s sad but deserved. It’s a one-of-one. Walton Goggins told us about the ending: “I've been thinking about this for seven years, and I think that (creator) Shawn (Ryan) honored the audience's commitment to seven years of watching this show. I think that he ended it the way that he began it, from the heart and from a place of passion.” The ending was so good that the whole team is afraid of a revival, and what it would do to that perfect finish. About a revival, Ryan told Digital Spy: “It's a very high bar for me. I would have to have, in my mind, something that not only didn't detract from what I think is one of the better endings in TV series history, but something that would be additive, and that's a high bar”.
For all these reasons, we believe you should re-watch (or watch if you missed it the first time around) The Shield. An incredibly morally challenging cop show with action, great performances, and characters you hate to root for; especially Vic Makey himself, a different kind of cop.