Main reason to watch The Shield: Chiklis, hands down

Finished Season 6 of "The Shield" and it's a pretty good concluding episode - and by no means is everything concluded. Shane makes a desperate attempt to made amends with Mackey/Chiklis by turning against the Armenian mobsters he's befriended, once he learns they will kill the families of police officers who'd crossed them in the past (i.e., Mackey) - and Shane tries to protect Mackey's wife and children. Inexplicably, he doesn't explain to them what he's doing, but he locks them in a trailer - this does protect them, but they think they've been kidnapped, so you know that (in Season 7) Shane will pay a price for this. Mackey, meanwhile, discovers that the Mexican mobsters have a whole cache of documents that they can use to blackmail everyone in power in LA; this discovery is clearly enough to get him to turn around the members of the review board and keep his job. I'm personally totally confused about the Armenian mafia and the role it plays or will play in this series - it's enough keeping straight the crossed loyalties of the Mexican, Salvadoran, and black gangs. Hope it simplifies in the next season. Interestingly, we're even developing a romantic subplot as Dutch, the very likable detective, realizes he's way out of his league with the beautiful Tina - he's humiliated after he sees her having sex with Hiatt - and he falls into the arms of the sergeant whose name I don't know, single mom and nice person. Lots of action, always very smart and sharp, throughout the whole season - but the main reason to watch it is Chiklis, hands down.

Mackey's desperate attempt to stay in the game: The Shield

Vic Mackey is now very close to the "hearing" that will knock him into retirement - he knows the deal has been fixed - and in one last desperate effort to keep his job as head of the strike team he vows to find the Salvadorans who chopped up 12 Mexican gangsters. Pretty gruesome stuff. Mackey does manage to capture two, whom he grimly delivers the Mexicans for vengeance, but this seems not nearly enough to placate Captain Wims and let Mackey/Chiklis stay in the game. Not sure where he's going to head next in the final episode of Season 6 of "The Shield." This one, as usual with this series, includes a lot of strands. Shane, paired with Ronnie, is trying to bust the Armenian mobsters (but we know, and Mackey suspects, that Shane has something else going - in fact he's being paid by the Armenians to protect them from rival gangs). Also, Detective Billings seeking emotional vengeance against his partner, Dutch, by leading him to believe the hot young officer is interested in him. And finally there's the pursuit of the councilman, Acevedo, who Mackey believes interferes too much and may have exposed an undercover agent. How can these strands all tie together in one more episode? They probably can't. The Shield moves so fast though that you don't particularly worry about the finer plot points. Good to see in this episode that the focus coming back to Mackey. As noted in many other posts here, Mackey/Chiklis is the dubious heart of this series. An emblematic scene for The Shield is Mackey storming into an alley, about to make a bust, with his team members following in his wake, blurred and indistinct.

Mackey has to make Shane pay for Lem's death - right?: The Shield

I have to say that "The Shield" inevitably depends on Chiklis/Vic Mackey, and the less he's the dominant figure in the episode the weaker the episode is. Though Season 6, episode 8, is still pretty powerful, the season now is like a bomb ticking away, but not yet exploded. Shane continues to pursue his plan to get transferred out of "the barn," i.e., away from Mackey (who's threatened his life), and he's diligently trying to get together enough cash to move his family - mainly by pursuing shaky connections with, of all things, the Armenian mob. The beautiful woman running the mob while her dad's hospitalized - surprise appearance by Franka Potente (makes me think she'll continue to play a role in The Shield, you don't bring her in for one episode) pays Shane to take on various nasty assignments. Honestly, I'm not that interested in Shane, nor in Russell, the third cop on the team, who's just now realizing the depth of the dirt on Mackey (further evidence that those around Mackey are total nonentities). Mackey, in this episode, learns that Capt. Wims (CCH Pounder) plans to force him out regardless of how well he "plays with others." So Mackey now has nothing left to lose. He's got to confront Shane, though, and make him pay for Lem's death, right? Another interesting plot line developing as the federal agent under cover with the Salvadoran gang, Hernan?, has gone dark - and we suspect he may have been exposed by the developer who's close to the city councilman, Aceveda. Too many people talking too freely about the under cover agent, especially Wims - and that may come back to haunt her.

Fully demanding of your attention at every moment: The Shield and The Wire

Episode 7 ("Exiled") of Season 6 of "The Shield" deals with a lot of plot points (it always seems that in a season series there's a lot of plot to wrap up at about the 70% marker, right?), but still a tense and demanding episode. Mackey has threatened to kill Shane and says he never wants to see him again, bu we know these two do have to face off eventually. Shane gathers all the evidence he has about the crimes and and Mackey have committed on the force and let's Mackey know that he will unload this confession if Mackey makes his move. Shane seems to be setting up some kind of elaborate sting or heist, but it's not clear what his motive is. Money for a getaway? The dramatic problem is that the protagonist (Mackey) is kind of out of things in most of this episode, it's more about Shane, who's always in Mackey's shadow. Mackey/Chiklis is the fuel that drives this engine, and The Shield is nothing without his active presence. Well, not nothing - I still admire the great and smart writing and scripting. As M. notes, they don't make it easy for you - they don't actually "explain" anything, as so many cop dramas do. You just see it and hear and it and have to figure out what everyone's thinking and doing. It has a somewhat documentary look, lots of handheld cameras and ambient noise (the phones in the station, or "the barn"; the moving camera every time they bust into a stash house, guns drawn, which is every episode). In that way, The Shield is a lot like The Wire, fully demanding of your attention at every moment.

Mackey at last learns who killed Lem: The Shield

"The Shield" Season six, episode 6, continues the torrid pace of this extremely powerful cop drama that rises well above the expectations (my expectations) of the genre. In this episode, Mackey (Michael Chiklis) at last figures out that his partner/teammate Shane killed fellow teammate Lembrowski. Mackey is torn apart at the amazing betrayal by Shane - Mackey has threatened to kill whoever killed Lem but had no sense ever that it would be another copy - and also by the fact that he'd tortured and executed another man, Guardo, whom he thought had killed Lem. Tremendous, long confrontational scene between Mackey and Shane - and perhaps Mackey is disturbed by some of what Shane says, i.e., that he had to kill Lem because Lem would have broken and ratted them all out for a previous murder and many other dirty-cop crimes. Maybe part of Mackey agrees with that and understands it. Still, Shane drives away a marked man - how will they play this out in future episodes? Something odd developing between Mackey and the new guy on the team, Mackey's intended replacement. Are they bonding? I think not, that inevitably the force is not big enough for the two of them and they'll have to go man-to-man. Mackey angling to beat the forced retirement and stay on the job - which we know will happen. I know it's just a story, and there are certain conventions for telling the story within a 47-minute slot, but I'm always distrubed by how busy and eventful the detective's lives are - always three plot lines each episode, solving the gruesome crime of the day, pursuing Mackey's personal agenda (catching Lem's killer), and dealing with family/domestic crisis (though this theme is not dominant in The Shield).

The Wire/Sopranos/Shield - Which one is underrated?

Episode 5 of Season Six of "The Shield" (Haunts) was one of the best ever. Every night when I think about watching The Shield I think, oh yeah, another TV police drama, I kind of forget how really good it is - and I'm totally engrossed while watching. Honestly, this show earns comparisons with The Wire and the Sopranos, and gets overlooked because it's on network (much better to watch it on DVD and avoid the commercial breaks). I doesn't really have the depth of character and family relations of the Sopranos nor the subtle interplay among the rival police and gang factions of the The Wire - but within its tight (47 minute) time frame it creates a very solid drama with one extremely stong character, Vic Mackey/Chiklis. This episode again shows that Mackey, despite his violence and corruption, lives by a code; he goes with some rogue cops on a moonlighting freelance job to break up a drug ring, and he finds a line he won't cross - and punches out a sadistic excop. Meanwhile, Shane goes deeper than ever into his torment and guilt, gets beaten badly by the stepdad of the teenage girl he's been having sex with. His wife, whom we have seldom seen, learns of the affair, kicks him out of their house - but he comes back, bruised, addled, high on oxy, tearful, armed, suicidal, and has a very powerful scene in which he confesses - first time saying it aloud - that he killed Lem for fear that Lem would cut a deal and rat out his partners (Shane, Ronnie, Mackey) for past crimes. Great scene - but where does Shane go from here? How does he deal with this information that's now out in the open?

Keeping the rage inside - for a while: The Shield

Episode 4(?), The New Man, of "The Shield" Season 6, puts Mackey (Michael Chiklis) is a unprecedented position: he's the nice guy, trying to please the boss. His boss, Capt Claudette Wyms (CCH Pounder - who's also in Avatar!), tells Chiklis if he can "play well with others" she can recommend against his forced retirement (she later tells the new guy, Mackey's replacement, that it was a lie, just to get Mackey's cooperation). Mackey believes her and is uncharacteristically welcoming to the new guy, Hiatt?, from INS. The others on his team, Ronnie and especially Shane, are not welcoming, really resentful and spiteful toward Hiatt. Macky, meanwhile, seems much more at peace, having killed the guy (Guardo) whom he incorrectly believes assasinated his team member Lembrowski (Lem). In a reversal, Shane (who did kill Lem), is now broken up and seemingly angry that others have "forgotten" Lem. He's of course the most relieved of all, the heat's off him (he thinks), so he for the first time can be even tougher than Mackey about standing up for Lem. That's a lot of plot, but pretty easy to follow through the season. What's great about this episode is watching Mackey tryinig to be a nice guy - the episode builds around his attempt to protect a guy who wants to leave a gang. When the guy (Cervantes?) is shot to death, Mackey is in despair - and he goes absolutely insane, tearing up a the whole waiting room at the hospital ICU. The anger just explodes out of him. It's reminiscent of the great episode in season 5 when Kavanaugh (Forrest Whittaker) tears up his own apartment - a really quiet, tense guy who kept his rage inside, for a while.

Everyone's afraid of Mackey: The Shield

Mackey continues his fierce ways in episode 3, season 6, of "The Shield," in this episode tracking down the Mexican drug lord Guardo and torturing him to (near) death, then executing him. Mackey still believes Guardo killed Mackey's partner Lem, though we know that Guardo was innocent and another one of Mackey's team, Shane, was complicit (I can't remember exactly how that came about - might have to go back and watch that episode from season 5.) Shane, torn by fear and guilt, tries to dissuade Mackey from torturing Guardo. Of course when Mackey kills Guardo it takes a big load off Shane's mind; Mackey thinks he's closed out his quest for vengeance for Lem's death. Something tells me it won't be that easy and that Mackey will learn he'd killed the wrong guy. The torture scene is pretty awful. It's also awful to watch Shane and third partner - what is his name? - stand by as Mackey tortures someone. Everyone's afraid of Mackey - you want him on your side, you don't want him against you, but it's a form of torture in itself to be a member of his team. He draws his partners into hell - corruption, brutality, a code of selfrightousness and anger at everyone else on the force and in the world. I miss Forrest Wittaker (Kavangaugh), who now seems to be out of the plot - contract issues? or just the way the story line developed? He was a great counterweight to Mackey, and always interesting to see him act, to catch the way he phrases even the simplest observations.

Vic Mackey can never be at peace: The Shield

"The Shield" just keeps coming at you. I keep thinking, well, maybe I shouldn't watch it, it's not as sophisticated as The Wire, not as complex a Damages (thank Gog), not as literary as The Sopranos, and so on - but each time I check in for an episode I'm immediately caught up and totally attentive. Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis), with his bulletshaped head and linebacker's body, remains the angriest cop on TV, one of the dirtiest, the scariest. As Season 6 moves along (episode 2), we get closer to the inevitable point when Mackey leans that his partner Shane killed another partner (Lem, in Season 5), and then Mackey's wrath will be unleashed on Shane. We watch Shane wither through the first 2 episodes, terrified by Mackey's violence and his fierce loyalty to his band of brothers, the only thing Mackey cares about apparently. Mackey thinks the Mexican drug-lord Guardo killed Lem, and is in pursuit of Guardo. Shane (and the other partner, I don't know his name - the two fade into nonentity beside the maelstrom of Mackey's personality) has to go along with this, chasing Guardo, but he knows the truth will come out. He keeps trying to deflect Mackey, to get him to forget Lem, but it's not going to happen. The internal affairs investigator, played by the great Forrest Whittaker (see him in Criminal Justice, if you can, for an early look at his talent), seems to be done, caught and charged with forging evidence to nab Mackey. Great jailhouse scene as Forrest and Chiklis confront each other through the bars, and Forrest says he's at peace. Are you? he asks. Mackey/Chiklis says : Not yet. Two words of great irony, as we know he can never be at peace.

The angriest character on TV

Michale Chiklas (vic mackey?) is the angriest character on TV and one of the scariest. "The Shield" (season 6) is about as subtle as a sledgehammer, but it's pretty compelling, especially, maybe only, because of Mackey. For whatever reason, the other so-called tough cops that surround him seem about as tough as, well, a bunch of 2nd-tier TV actors, which they are, but Chiklas more than makes up and carries the show. Too much so at time. Every time he enters a crime scene you know he's going to kick through the door and then kick the shit out of somebody in a way that borders on murderous assault. Of course that makes him all the more scary, as we know entering season 6 that he is out for serious revenge on whoever planted a grenade in a car that killed one of his partners (Lem, end of season 5), and we know that it's one of the two remaining partners, I forget the names at the moment. To Mackey (sp?), everything's about loyalty, and we await the confrontation when he realizes one of his troop killed the other member. That's the overall plat; the great Forrest Whittaker, from internal affairs, is still checking out Mackey. His family life is still a mess. He's another one of these vulnerable heros, will break any ethical boundary or restriction, but if you're being held hostage he's the cop you want to come to the scene and rescue you. He's a terrifying figure, but fierce about his family (though unfaithful), someone you always want on your side but you never really want to be on his. The Shield build on a series of fast cuts, often with Mackey leading his men right toward us, they're blurred in the background, and his face is locked into scowl. I'll keep watching.