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Life & Arts

FX's 'Shield' as gritty as ever

The TV Guide

Seth Mintz

What would you do and how far would you go to have everything that you want? This is the central question on FX's brilliant, brutal, and intense drama, The Shield, airing 9 p.m. Tuesdays.

Detective Vic Mackey (Emmy winner Michael Chiklis), leader of an elite strike team in inner-city Los Angeles, decides he will do whatever he must to keep his city safe, have power and provide for his family and friends.

Mackey is arguably the most thought-provoking character on television. He is the definitive the anti-hero. He has murdered a fellow officer, embroiled himself in corruption, had affairs, stolen money from an Armenian mob, constantly lied and kept things from his superiors. He is extremely brutal to those who cross him.

Except for his greed, all Mackey does is an attempt to try and better his family and the city he lives in.

Morals and ethics play a large role in how Mackey deals with his family, his job and his coworkers. He and his estranged wife Corrine (Cathy Cahlin Ryan) are the parents of two autistic children and a teenage girl. To try to escape the hardships of his home life, Mackey has two separate affairs and gets into many fights with Corrine.

Mackey, despite some of his actions, loves his family. He robs the Armenian mob in an attempt to make sure his family will always have enough money. He cares about them deeply, but cannot escape the distractions of his life.

Mackey's strike team is the other part of his life. The team is composed of Mackey, his best friend Shane Vendrell (Walton Goggins), Curtis "Lemonhead" Lemansky (Kenneth Johnson) and Ronnie Gardocki (David Rees Snell).

Like Mackey, the rest of the team does whatever it takes to catch criminals, often through corruption and brutality. Though they are in no way perfect, the team tries valiantly to keep criminals off the streets and citizens safe.

No good character is without a foil. This season, Internal Affairs Division Lieutenant Tom Kavanaugh (Forest Whitaker) comes into investigate Mackey and the team because he suspects they murdered their former team member -- and he's right.

Because Kavanaugh needs all the help he can get to bring down Mackey, he brings in Mackey's former boss and current City Councilman David Aceveda (Benito Martinez). Aceveda has long suspected Mackey intentionally killed his former partner but has never had enough evidence to convict Mackey or any of the team.

This is now season five of The Shield, and it is good as ever. The addition of Whitaker's hard-thinking character to the cast has brought a true foe for Chiklis' Mackey. The writing and acting are first rate, and this show is as good as anything on any network.

The Shield is easily one of the best shows on TV. Its gritty style, realness, wonderful acting and perfect cast make it a can't-miss. Vic Mackey is one of those rare characters that will make you think about what you would do if you were in his shoes. There are few characters on TV that can have viewers on the edge of their seats like Mackey can. It's good to be bad, and Vic Mackey is an anti-hero who lives up to that credo every day. 

So go do something good: Watch the baddest good guy ever, and enjoy the truly amazing The Shield.

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