“The Shield” opens with a murder, and spends seven seasons refusing to let anyone forget it.
FX aired the crime drama from March 12, 2002, to November 25, 2008. Shawn Ryan created it. Michael Chiklis stars as Vic Mackey, who runs the Strike Team, a corrupt Los Angeles Police Department unit loosely based on the Rampart Division police scandal. The show is set in the fictional Farmington district — “the Farm” — and the converted church the division works out of, “the Barn.”
Trailer, via FX Networks.
Vic Mackey and the Strike Team
Mackey, Shane Vendrell, Curtis Lemansky and Ronnie Gardocki work the Farm, a district full of gang violence, drug trafficking and prostitution. They use criminal methods to coerce information, stage arrests and take a share of drug busts. Their success rate is high enough that Captain David Aceveda leaves them alone, even while he suspects them, because their numbers feed his run for mayor.
Then the pilot ends with Mackey shooting Terry Crowley, the recruit planted on his team, and framing a suspect for it. That death hangs over every season that follows.
A Cast That Carries the Barn
The Shield is an ensemble show, and the supporting cast does the heavy lifting. Catherine Dent plays Sgt. Danielle “Danny” Sofer. Walton Goggins plays Vendrell. Kenny Johnson plays Curtis Lemansky. Michael Jace plays Julien Lowe. Jay Karnes plays Dutch Wagenbach. Benito Martinez plays Aceveda. CCH Pounder plays Claudette Wyms.
The subplots run deep: Aceveda’s political climb and his sexual assault, Mackey’s failing marriage and two autistic children, Danny becoming a mother, Vendrell’s new marriage, Lemansky’s fear for his own safety.
What the Show Won
The awards record is not decorative. It is the clearest evidence that The Shield was doing something television had not done before.
- Primetime Emmy, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series — Michael Chiklis, 2002
- Golden Globe, Best Actor – Television Series Drama — Michael Chiklis, 2003
- Golden Globe, Best Television Series – Drama — 2003
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| Series premiere | March 12, 2002 |
| Series finale | November 25, 2008 |
| Seasons | 7 |
| Episodes | 88 |
Six Primetime Emmy nominations across the run.
Why It Still Holds
The Shield earns its reputation because it never softens Mackey into a hero. He is a man who kills a colleague in episode one and keeps working. The show asks you to follow him anyway, and it makes that uncomfortable for 88 episodes.
The Crowley killing is the engine. Everything else — Aceveda’s ambition, the Strike Team’s take, the bodies — runs off it. A lesser show would have resolved it. The Shield lets it rot.
The Farm is a place where the cops are as dangerous as the gangs, and the show says so without a speech. That is the whole argument, and it holds up.
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