TV Review: The Shield
February 12, 2006
Let me tell you about my two favorite television confrontations of the year so far. The first was, naturally, on “Lost” a few weeks ago when Mr. Eko, the former Nigerian warlord turned born again priest, dragged Charlie through the jungle to find the downed drug plan that miraculously tied into his back story, and ran smack straight into the island’s relatively unseen “security system”, a gurgling swirl of black smoke that seemingly read Eko’s history like a book, deeming him worthy to exist as part of Dharma’s experiment in goodness and redemption. The confrontation was one of those quintessential “Lost” moments that fans drool over, a gigantic mythological chestnut plopped in the middle of a character’s personal storyline, exposing as much about the certain character as it does about the genetic makeup of the island. As Eko stood stock still, staring down the shifting beast, the divide between fear and courage was at its high point for the season, and normally this momentous staring contest would constitute its own column (it certainly has been the best scene in “Lost” since the show came back from its winter hiatus), but not today, I’ll let it rest for a bit to segue into my second boss confrontation, the good cop, bad cop, good cop, rat cop face-off on FX’s brilliant “The Shield” between our conflicted hero Vic Mackey, and Internal Affairs watchdog Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh, who, unlike Eko’s soul reading monster, deems Mackey very much unfit to serve any longer in his police force. Like master strategists, the two cops, one the leader of the notorious street smart group, the Strike Team, a group known for their liberal use of the law to apprehend drug dealers, gang bangers, and murderers, and the other a quietly observant I.A. Lieutenant in charge of bringing down the department liability Strike Team, have gone head to head to outsmart each other in their pursuit of the ultimate goal, for Mackey, a continued existence as a figurehead in the department, and for Kavanaugh nothing less than Vic behind bars, where he probably should belong. On this show, like always, the conflict is whether Mackey deserves to prevail as the hero, given his uncanny ability to bring down drug rings and other violent street factions, or finally get his comeuppance, for a career of kickbacks, beatings, book fudging, law bending, and, at the heart of the investigation, the murder of a fellow cop, way back in 2002’s pilot episode. If Vic were on “Lost” island, starting into the deep pits of the black reaper monster, you better believe he’d end up in a tree with his face ripped off, but in Farmington, where he’s the king, it’s going to take a lot more than one I.A. Lieutenant to bring down his crafty gang of flawed supermen.
Five episodes into its fifth, and possibly last season, “The Shield” remains as gritty and entertaining as ever, presenting these now familiar detectives and cops with storylines that threaten to bring the entire structure to its knees. Everybody has problems this season, and they start with Vic (Michael Chiklis) and his Strike Team, when Lem (Kenneth Johnson) is brought in by Kavanaugh (Forest Whitaker) for a brick of heroin he stole off of a banger last season, as leverage, that unfortunately was witnessed by Vic’s snitchy informant, who is working both sides for the best deal. The heroin isn’t the big score I.A. is looking for, what they want is Vic on tape, confessing to the murder of Terry Cawley, an undercover I.A. cop he brutally assassinating in the pilot episode, an act which Lem knew nothing about. Lem, who is the one with the greatest conscious of the group (lest we forget his burning the money train lute in season three), confronts Vic on the allegations, which Vic wiggles out of with his usual keen sense for manipulation, and the focus quickly shifts to outsmarting the bug on Lem’s chest, figuring out a way to humiliate the crafty Kavanaugh, and ultimately, ducking the biggest hunting party they’ve ever faced, a lynch mob that stretches from the rank and file in the department to Councilman David Aceveda (Benito Martinez), who still holds grudges against Vic from his days as the Barn’s Captain. Faced with the task of outsmarting Internal Affairs, while dealing with the pressures of his job, as well as his family, Vic hires criminal defense lawyer Becca Doyle (Laura Harring), who reluctantly takes the case, thinking it could be a nice way to humiliate Los Angeles superiors, and suggests Vic go it alone, without his team, something he doesn’t care for. “You don’t understand,” he retorts, with great Mackeyesque gusto, “we’re not the typical lowlifes that you represent. We’re a family. We’re surviving this together, or we go down together.” Through five seasons of ups and downs, near death, near abandonment, and finally, near dismemberment, the Strike Team, for now, remains as strong as ever, but that doesn’t mean it’ll last just the same, for if we known anything about “The Shield”, it’s that anything can, and usual does, happen.
The focus of the season may be on the survival of the Strike Team, and the so far futile investigation by Kavanaugh, but the show has always been about the Barn as a whole, and Vic’s team aren’t the only ones with problems. Former beat cop Danny (Catherine Dent) is stuck behind a desk, nine months pregnant with a baby whose daddy has yet to be named (I’d put odds on Vic), while former partner Julian (Michael Jace) is having a difficult time training the young, and slightly too eager to please Tina (Paula Garces), a hot to trot rookie who uses her sexy looks to try to mask the fact that she’s a bad cop. Dutch (Jay Karnes), and Claudette (CCH Pounder) get their usual one case per week, cases ranging in topic from stolen fetuses (seriously), to a dangerous school riot that played out along with the season opener’s furious race riots, but where Claudette is usually Dutch’s equal, this season she’s been sluggish and sick, concerning her crackerjack partner, who worries about her health, and their strong partnership. Elsewhere, David Aceveda’s compelling prostitute fetish from last season has been abandoned so he can assist in the bring down of Vic, while Vic’s ex-wife has to watch out for aggressive undercover I.A. cops propositioning her with kindness and Juicy Fruit gum, when what they really want is a window into Vic’s past. Like the best of cop shows, “The Shield” is able to blend all of these personal crisis with episode-long street crime cases that stretch the boundaries of what the loose canon FX station can properly get away with concerning violence, nudity, and swearing. The show is at its best when, like last week, when Vic turned an undercover sting operation to get bad prescription drugs off the streets, into an exercise in humiliating I.A., Aceveda, and Kavanaugh (sending the usually cool headed Lieutenant into a rage), the personal troubles help dictate the professional actions, lending a realism to story lines that are often shocking and sensational. When Vic and Kavanaugh finally met face to face in episodes three and four, fireworks went off, the cat confronting the mouse, with the mouse, brilliantly, outsmarting the cat.
I believe, unfortunately, that the show will end after this season, and with rampant speculation about how it will end, if Mackey will prevail, or wind up answering for his past, it will conclude with much anticipation and intrigue. Maybe not as much as “The Sopranos”, which faces a similar decision on what to do with Tony when the end nears, but for hardcore fans, Vic and the Strike Team’s future is very much a hot topic. If FX decides to pick it up for a sixth season, or, more importantly, the core group of producers, writers, directors, and actors who have been busting their humps for five strong seasons now, want to continue the adventures of the Strike Team, than that’ll be just fine with me, for there hasn’t been a cop show this riveting since the early days of “NYPD Blue”, and to lose it would be a shame. The acting has always been first rate, with Michael Chiklis leading the way with his mesmerizing ferociousness as the cocksure Mackey, and the addition of class act Forest Whitaker into the mix as Kavanaugh, has filled in perfectly the void left by last year’s powerhouse turns from Anthony Anderson and Glenn Close. Kavanaugh is ultimately the season’s villain, but unlike past villains, he’s actually morally superior to our heroes, making “The Shield”, finally, begin to question if Mackey is truly good, bad, or misunderstood. Like Tony Soprano, “Deadwood’s” Al Swearengen, and “Lost’s” Sawyer, Vic Mackey tows the line between lovable villain and questionable hero, and I have a feeling that if he goes down, it’s going to be both understandable, and brutally hard to watch. But that’s the genius of “The Shield”, a show that pushes the boundaries of taste with sex and violence akin to the roughest of pay cable shows, but never has us questioning the sincerity of its motives, or the realism of its world weary, and street smart “law” enforcers, quotes definitely intended.
“The Shield” airs Tuesdays at 10 on FX, and again Fridays at 11.
by Adam Suraf