The Shield
The Shield title card
Genre	Drama
Created by	Shawn Ryan
Starring	Michael Chiklis Catherine Dent Reed Diamond Paula Garces Walton Goggins Michael Jace Kenneth Johnson Jay Karnes David Marciano Benito Martinez Cathy Cahlin Ryan David Rees Snell Glenn Close CCH Pounder
Opening theme	"Just Another Day" by Vivian Ann Romero, Ernesto J. Bautista & Rodney Alejandro
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	7
No. of episodes	87 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	approx. 45 min.
Broadcast
Original channel	FX Networks
Picture format	480i (SDTV)
Original run	March 12, 2002 – November 25, 2008
External links
IMDb profile

The Shield is an American police-drama television series shown on FX Networks in the U.S. and other networks internationally. The show is known for its controversial portrayal of corrupt police officers and was originally advertised as "Rampart"¹ in reference to the true life Rampart Division police scandal, which the show's Strike Team is loosely based upon. The first season gained the most Emmy nominations for a basic cable drama. The series was created by Shawn Ryan and The Barn Productions for Fox Television Studios and Sony Pictures Television (formerly Columbia TriStar Television).

Notable film actors who took extended roles on the show included Glenn Close and Anthony Anderson in season 4 and Forest Whitaker in seasons 5 and 6. The Shield is currently in its 7th and final season, which began airing on September 2 2008.²³

About the series

The Shield is about an experimental division of the Los Angeles Police Department set up in the fictional Farmington district ("the Farm") of Los Angeles, using a converted church ("the Barn") as their police station, and featuring a group of detectives called the Strike Team who will stop at nothing to bring their version of justice to the streets. Michael Chiklis has top billing with his portrayal of Strike Team leader Vic Mackey. The show has an ensemble cast that will normally run a number of separate story lines through each episode.

Detective Vic Mackey is the leader of the Strike Team, a four-man anti-gang unit based on the LAPD's real-life Rampart Division CRASH unit (Rampart was seriously considered as the series name and was even used in some early promotional ads for the series⁴). The Strike Team uses a variety of illegal and unethical methods to maintain peace on the streets, while making a profit through illegal drug protection schemes and robbery. The Strike Team isn't above planting drugs on and coercing confessions out of gang members or framing them. Attempts to give the team a fifth member have frequently led to near-catastrophe for the group.

The Shield has a variety of subplots, notably David Aceveda's political aspirations and internal confrontation of a previous sexual assault; Vic Mackey's struggle to cope with a failing marriage; and Julien Lowe's internal conflicts between his belief in the teachings of the Bible and his latent homosexuality.

Common themes are the citizens' distrust of police, the social impact of drugs and gang warfare, and the conflict between ethics and political expediency. Most characters are portrayed as having both vice and virtue. For example, Vic's loving relationship with his children contrasts with his thuggish attitude towards police work; in addition, his brutality is generally directed at those who seem well deserving of such treatment — in Season 2, the Strike Team prepares to rob the "Armenian Money Train," a money laundering operation of the Armenian Mafia. Another episode had Mackey cornering a serial rapist, then letting him be attacked by a police dog before calling the dog off.

Season Overviews

Main article: List of The Shield episodes

Season 1

Season 1 premiered March 12 2002. It gives an introduction to The Strike Team and the other characters of the Barn. Important plotlines are the aftermath of Vic's murder of Terry Crowley and Captain Aceveda's scheming to bring Vic and the Strike Team down; Dutch and Claudette's attempts at tracking down a serial killer; Julien's training under Danny and his struggle with his homosexuality; Vic's use of Rondell Robinson to control the local drug trade and the fallout; as well as the corrupt actions of Ben Gilroy.

Season 2

Season 2 premiered January 7 2003. The season mostly revolves around a brutal new drug-lord, Armadillo--a sadistic child rapist, who likes to set his rivals on fire using a tire necklace and gasoline--who begins to take over the drug trade in Farmington. Meanwhile, Officer Sofer is involved in a shooting of a Muslim man and has to deal with the fallout. This season is also heavily concerned with the Strike Team's plan to rip off the money train of the Armenian Mob, which ends up going down in the season finale.

Season 3

Season 3 premiered March 9 2004. The season mainly revolves around the aftermath of the Money Train Heist and its effects on the Strike Team, as the Armenian mob and also David Aceveda begins to suspect the Strike Team. In order to save the team, Lem (Curtis "Lemonhead" Lemansky) burns a majority of the money, ultimately leading to a confrontation which causes the Strike Team to split up in the season finale. The Armenian mob sends Margos Dezerian to wipe out the Strike Team. Dezerian leaves a trail of murders, resulting in his own execution at the hands of Mackey. Claudette had been promised a promotion to captain and throughout the season was in a supervising role, while Aceveda prepared to move onto city council. Near the end of the season an assistant district attorney was shot, and Wyms and Dutch discovered she had been a heavy drug user for the past 3 years. Wyms explored further and became very unpopular with the D.A. and around the Barn because she was (against orders) reopening the assistant DA's closed cases. This resulted in her being denied her promotion to captain of the Farmington District.

Season 4

Season 4 premiered March 15 2005, with the addition of Glenn Close taking over the role as Farmington's new captain, Monica Rawling. The season dealt with the fallout from the Strike Team disbandment. Shane Vendrell, with new partner Army, enters into a dangerous situation with major drug lord Antwon Mitchell (Anthony Anderson), and seemingly accepts an order to kill Vic Mackey. The police were outraged after two officers were kidnapped and subsequently found murdered. In the end, the Strike Team is re-formed and manages to successfully put Antwon in prison. The season also deals with the controversial asset forfeiture policies of the new captain; Julien's opposition to these policies; and David Aceveda (now a City Councilman) dealing with the psychological aftermath of his sexual assault incident from the previous season. The season concludes with Captain Rawling losing her job over a dispute with the DEA. This plot twist reflected a real-life need for Glenn Close to return to New York.

One of the season's secondary plots involves Claudette and Dutch's marginalization as detectives because of Claudette's refusal to apologize to the DA for reopening the cases of a public defender who was discovered to be a functioning drug addict. Claudette's moral stand resulted in many of the prosecutor's cases being overturned. This cost Claudette her shot at becoming Farmington Captain. Dutch eventually resolved the situation by making a back-room deal with the DA to "keep Claudette in line" and do favors for the office in return for breaking back into action.

Season 5

Season 5 premiered January 10 2006. The season revolved around Internal Affairs Department Lt. Jon Kavanaugh's (played by Forest Whitaker) investigation into the Strike Team, representing one of the greatest threats the team has ever faced. As a result of Kavanaugh turning one of Vic's informants, IAD became aware of Lem stealing heroin which he never turned in. Having found the heroin, IAD is capable of arresting Lem, but Kavanaugh wants him to incriminate the whole team and has him wear a wire, which he warns the team of and they use it to embarrass IAD. Kavanaugh puts on any form of pressure he can, finds out about Vic's share of the Money Train money, and ultimately arrests Lem having made a deal with Antwon Mitchell to put Lem there if convicted. Vic stands with him and gets bail, while Shane is worried he'll be turned. Claudette finally gets her shot as the captain of the Barn which she reluctantly accepts. The season concluded with Shane Vendrell murdering his friend and fellow team member Lem with a hand grenade.

"Wins and Losses"

The producers of The Shield produced a 15-minute "promosode", which premiered on Google on February 15 2007 to bridge the gap between Seasons 5 and 6. The episode focuses on the aftermath of Lem's death, including his funeral and flashbacks as co-workers reflect upon Det. Lemansky's life. The episode was said to have cost between $500,000 and $1 million to produce and was on Bud.TV for a 4 week period and later released to AOL and other media outlets.⁵ The "promosode" is also one of the special features included on the Season 5 DVD set.

Season 6

Season 6 premiered on FX on April 3 2007. Continuing directly after season 5, Vic and the Strike Team are distraught over Lem's death. Shane has been overcome by guilt and becomes reckless and suicidal. Kavanaugh refuses to let the case die and resorts to planting evidence and coercing witnesses to lie about the Strike Team and specifically, Vic. Dutch and Claudette begin to suspect his integrity and Kavanaugh finally confesses to his actions and finds himself under arrest. Vic learns from Claudette that the Chief plans to force him into early retirement — and vows to wreak bloody vengeance on Lem's killer before losing his badge. Claudette learns that the Barn could be shut down if no improvements are made by the time quarterly crime statistics are released. The Armenian mob boss is portrayed by German actress Franka Potente.

Season 6 was originally intended to be aired as the second half of Season 5 (in the same way that HBO split up the last season of The Sopranos). However, FX decided instead to refer to these ten episodes as "Season 6."

Season 7

Season 7 premiered September 2 2008⁶⁷, and will consist of 13 one-hour episodes. This is the final season according to its creator and the network.⁸ This has also been confirmed by commercials on FX, billing this year as "the Final Act."

After dealing with the immediate danger of Diro Kesakhian's hired assassin Ari Zadofian, the formidable Mackey, Gardocki, Vendrell and Aceveda form a strained alliance in order to manufacture a gang war between the Armenian mafia under Ellis Rezian and the Mexican cartels represented by Cruz Pezuela. Afterwards, Vic and Ronnie hatch a plan to have both Shane and Rezian assassinated by Pezuela's gang. Shane escapes, however, and puts a retaliatory hit on his former partner Gardocki, intending to kill Vic himself. This fails as well, and Shane is outed when his co-conspirator, a drug dealer, confesses. Rather than serve out his remaining 10 days on duty, Mackey quits early and begins hunting for Shane, who has gone on the run with his wife and son, planning to kill both Shane and Mara because they can both implicate him in several murders. Pezuela brings in the deadly Beltran, only to be beaten down by Aceveda. After removing Pezuela from the picture, taking down Beltran becomes the major focus of ICE.

While on the run, Shane tries to trick two drug addicts and steal their cash. As things go awry, Mara steps in and guns down a woman amongst the addicts and incapacitates one of them. He loses his vehicle in the chaos and Mara loses all her hope, asking Shane to take her home. In exchange for the imminent capture of Beltran for ICE, Vic betrays Ronnie Gardocki by signing for immunity and pleading to all the crimes he has committed, including the execution-style slayings of Terry Crowley, Margos Dezerian, Guardo Lima, and many others, in the hopes that he will be protected under ICE's promise. Although Olivia Murray ponders how Vic could do what he did, Vic has only one response: "I've done worse."

Characters

Main article: List of characters from The Shield

Strike Team

• Detective Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) is a corrupt police officer and former leader of the Strike Team; he steals from drug dealers, beats and tortures suspects, and has committed murder more than once, including a fellow police officer. A quintessential Machiavellian, Mackey sees his tactics as a means to an end. For example, he rationalizes the Money Train heist by saying "they didn't earn that money, so I have no problem taking it". He is extremely good at manipulating those around him by first threatening them or raising the spectre of danger, and then offering them a way out of that danger. He has formerly been almost addicted to seducing women, but that tendency has tapered off. Vic perceives himself as a loyal father and partner, and does, indeed, seem to intend to fulfil those roles, but his pathological desire to control everyone and everything around him results in hurting those closest to him, primarily his ex-wife and daughter, but also Lemansky. He does run to the aid of innocent people, but people stop being "innocent" very quickly for him. Mackey's family life is one of the many plotlines followed throughout the series. His marriage to his wife, a nurse, failed after numerous instances of infidelity on Mackey's part (at least one of which was his relationship with Officer Sofer, which resulted in a child). Mackey and his wife have three children, two of whom have autism. The special education needs of Mackey's children are one of many sources of stress (monetary and emotional) for Mackey, as well as his daughter's discovery of his many illegal activities, which of course diminishes him in her eyes. Season 7 in particular demonstrates the growing rift between Vic and Corrine as Corrine becomes involved with the Police in taking Mackey down.

• Detective Shane Vendrell (Walton Goggins) was Vic Mackey's best friend and partner before the strike team was formed. Cast as a stereotypical redneck (complete with southern accent, a love of country music, and racism), his attempts at emulating Vic's manipulative machinations usually fail, at which point Vic has to bail him out. He has a wife, Mara, as well as a young son, Jackson. Shane requested a transfer from the Strike Team after he confessed to Vic that he killed fellow team member Curtis Lemansky. Vic threatened to kill Shane if he saw him again. He later cancelled his request to transfer to his old spot in vice because Vic was faced forced retirement as a result of his many crimes. Shane is well aware that Ronnie and Vic want to kill him after he appears to be set up by the two to be killed with the Armenian gang he has started working with. Shane himself goes to kill Vic but isn't given the opportunity. During season 7, Shane will spend much of the episodes as a renegade cop and fugitive with his son and wife, who is pregnant, on the run. Shane has no further illusions about the final resolution between him and Vic and knows that given a chance, Vic will kill him and Mara to save himself.

• Detective Curtis "Lem" Lemansky (Kenny Johnson) was a cop with a conscience. He had a history of working with kids, and maintained a soft-spot for them. His loyalty to Vic and the Strike Team led him to go along with most of their illegal schemes, although he didn't know about all of them. An original member of the Strike team, Shane Vendrell killed Lemansky in the finale of the fifth season because he, Shane, was under the mistaken impression that Lemansky was going to rat on the rest of the team. Lem was unmarried and had no children.

• Detective Ronnie Gardocki (David Rees Snell) is the Strike Team's surveillance and electronics expert. Though little is known about Ronnie, he has proven more and more in recent times to be the most solid, emotionally stable member of the Strike Team and has remained loyal to Vic out of enlightened self-interest, knowing that divisions between them would only lead to bad ends for both. The scars on his face, given to him by Armadillo in Season 2, are proof of his loyalty to the team. He is not married, preferring instead the company of Asian prostitutes. In the final season, he becomes the official leader of the Strike Team before Captain Claudette Whims shuts it down. During season 7 we see his intense anger over his and Mackey's inability to gain revenge on Shane for Lem's murder. He and Vic concoct a plan to have Shane killed by the Armenian gang that knew about the Money Train robbery. Ronnie is targeted by a drug dealer hired by Shane to kill him. After the drug dealer confesses and Shane flees, Claudette disbands the strike team, forcing Ronnie to become a "suit and tie" detective while trying to help Vic and stay out of prison.

• Officer Julien Lowe (Michael Jace) is the newest addition to the Strike Team. During the formation of a new Strike Team, Claudette offered Julien to Kevin Hiatt as a possible addition to the team. Claudette made the offer to Julien, who was hesitant, mainly because of the thought of being partnered with Vic on a daily basis. After being assured that Mackey was going to be moved out of the team, Julien accepted the promotion and is now an official member of the Strike Team. Despite his desire to be a fully functioning member of the strike team, Julien knows that he remains on the outside of the clique. During season 7 he is asked to choose which side he will be on when Claudette finally has a case to go after Mackey and Vendrell.

Administration and police

• Councilman David Aceveda (Benito Martinez) is a politically ambitious former police captain elected to the Los Angeles City Council. He is one of Vic Mackey's main rivals, although often they have forged uneasy alliances for various reasons. He was orally raped at gunpoint, which eventually drove him to arrange a deal with druglord Antwon Mitchell to kill his rapist in prison. During the final season, Aceveda is faced with the growing influence of a Cruz Pezuela who offers to seemingly help David get elected as the next Mayor. Although receptive to his help at first, Aceveda realizes that Pezuela is dirty and attempts to distance himself only to find the Pezuela has photographs of the sexual assault. The last season deals with him and Vic cooperating one last time as they attempt to take Pezuela and possibly the Mexican cartel down.

• Captain Claudette Wyms (CCH Pounder) is a veteran detective. Claudette, along with her partner Dutch, can be viewed as the voice of morality at the Barn; as a result, she is often at odds with Vic over his tactics. Later in the series, Claudette revealed to Dutch that she has had lupus for fifteen years. In season 5, she is appointed Captain after several attempts in previous years. After finally being promoted to captain, Claudette proves to be at least as capable as her predecessors. However, during the final season, her Lupus returns and begins to interfere with her ability to do her job.

• Detective Holland "Dutch" Wagenbach (Jay Karnes) is characterized by many as a socially inept nerd even though he is a successful police detective. Assigned to the Farmington District of Los Angeles, he is often the first called to investigate violent crimes because of his specialization in criminal profiling and serial killers. Along with his partner, Detective Claudette Wyms, Dutch is widely considered to be the moral center of the show owing to his willingness to do the right thing in spite of the temptation to engage in illegal police activities. A scene in one episode showed him strangling a live cat after questioning an actual serial killer about what he sees in his victim's eyes.⁹ The series never follows-up on that ominous scene, but neither does Dutch ever perform a similar act of cruelty. Vic and Shane, in a flashback, immediately decide to pick on Dutch, as if they were seniors and he a freshman, and Dutch's clearly vengeful relationship with Vic's ex-wife did not help, but after Dutch actually challenges Vic to a fight in Season 3, Vic ends the bullying.

• Sergeant Danielle "Danny" Sofer (Catherine Dent) is a patrol officer who aspires to become a detective. She has an on-again-off-again sexual relationship with Vic and a complicated history with Dutch. She is assigned desk duty as a result of her pregnancy and takes maternity leave after the birth of her son, Lee. The identity of the father was initially unknown; later, in the sixth season episode "Chasing Ghosts," it was heavily implied that it was Vic. Shortly afterwards, Danny returned from maternity leave early so that she could take the position of Sergeant at the Barn. In Season Seven Vic threatens to force Danny to take a paternity test.

Reception

The Shield has won critical praise for its realism, particularly in its portrayal of gang violence in Los Angeles.¹⁰ Although names of actual gangs are not used, the portrayals are based on real gangs.¹¹ Latino gangs with names such as "Los Magnificos" (or "Los Mags"), the Byzantine Latinos (or "Byz-Lats") and the "Toros" are a constant thorn in the Strike Team's side in the early seasons of the show, whilst African American gangs become more prominent in later episodes. In particular, a gang calling itself the "One-Niners" is central to the plot of Season 4. Like the notorious real-life Blood and Crip gangs, the One-Niners identify themselves strongly with one color (in this case purple), wearing it on various items of clothing. To enhance its realism, the show makes very little use of background music until the end of each episode.

Time magazine's James Poniewozik named it one of the Top 10 Returning Series of 2007, ranking it at #8.¹²

There is some controversy around the show's depiction of police corruption.¹³ The Strike Team's illegal activities are often backed up with convincing rationalizations by its members, while various police and government authorities who try to bring them to justice or otherwise criticize them are often portrayed negatively.^{citation needed} Some argue that this technique presents the reality of police corruption and brutality and attempts to explain it intelligently without demonizing it.¹⁴ Others argue that the show is essentially a defense of police corruption and brutality, portraying effective police work as impossible without such tactics and presenting Vic Mackey, in particular, as a hero despite his extensive corruption.¹⁵

Other media

Soundtrack

On September 5, 2005, The Shield: Music from the Streets was released by Lakeshore Entertainment. The soundtrack features 19 tracks, including two versions of the theme song and tracks ranging from artists such as Black Label Society to Kelis.

Video games

After a rocky development cycle, The Shield, the video game, was released for the PlayStation 2 on January 9 2007 and for the PC on January 22 2007. It is a third person shooter that bridges the gap between the third and fourth seasons by exploring the gang war between the Byz-Lats and the One-Niners. It received generally negative reviews, receiving a 3.9 out of 10 from GameSpot.com.¹⁶

DVD

In Region 1, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released The Shield on DVD for seasons 1 - 5. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment releases it elsewhere, and holds the rights for all Region 1 season sets of The Shield as of 2008, including seasons 6 and 7. ¹⁷ Region 1 sets (released by 20th Century Fox) are displayed in 4:3 (fullscreen), while international releases (distributed by Sony Pictures) display 16:9 (widescreen). Sony Pictures re-released seasons 1-5 on March 25th 2008, all seasons in region 1 are now displayed in 16:9 widescreen, as they are in international releases. There are several differences between the S1 & S2 boxsets, with slightly fewer extras on the R2 boxsets and with episode 5:11 drastically shortened.

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

The Shield

• Official Site from Sony Pictures Television
• Official FX website
• The Shield at the Internet Movie Database
• The Shield at TV.com