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| The Shield | |
|---|---|
| Format | Crime Drama |
| Created by | Shawn Ryan |
| Starring | Michael Chiklis Walton Goggins Benito Martinez CCH Pounder Jay Karnes Catherine Dent Michael Jace Cathy Cahlin Ryan David Rees Snell Kenneth Johnson (2002 - 2006) |
| 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 | 75 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | approx. 47 min. |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | FX Networks |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) |
| Original run | March 12, 2002 – present |
| External links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| Common rating | |
|---|---|
| Australia | MA |
| Germany | 18 |
| New Zealand | R16 |
| Singapore | M18 |
| United States | TV-MA (FX) TV-14-DLV (syndication) |
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 in season 4 and Forest Whitaker in seasons 5 and 6. The Shield has finished its 6th season and has been renewed for its 7th and final season, which begins airing on September 2, 2008.[2] [3]
Contents |
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 series[4]). 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 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 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 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. 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 murdered, 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 premiered March 15, 2005, with the addition of Glenn Close taking over the role as Farmington's Captain. 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 team gets back together and manages to bring Antwon into jail. The season also deals with the controversial asset forfeiture policies of the new captain; Julien's opposition to these policies; and David Aceveda dealing with the psychological aftermath of his sexual assault incident from the previous season. The season concludes with Captain Rawlings 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 secondary plots involves Claudette and Dutch being continually put on the sidelines because of Claudette's refusal to apologize to the DA for reopening the cases of a public defender who was discovered to be high during many of her trials. Besides being an embarrassment to the DA's office, many of the convictions in question were overturned. This cost Claudette her shot at being the Farmington Captain and Dutch as her partner suffered being marginalized in the barn.
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, IA became aware of Lem stealing heroin which he never turned in. Having found the heroin, IA 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 IA. 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.
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 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. Dutch and Claudette begin to suspect his integrity. 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.
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."
According to Michael Ausiello at TV Guide, Season 7 will premiere on September 2, 2008[6][7], and will consist of 13 one-hour episodes. This will be the final season according to its creator and the network.[8] This has also been confirmed by a commercial on FX.
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. There are also a number of stories set in Korean neighborhoods as well as plots involving Armenian gangsters. To enhance its realism, the show makes very little use of background music.
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. 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]
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.
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]
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 5:12 drastically shortened.
| DVD title | Date released | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 (Fox) | Region 1 (Sony Pictures) | Region 2 | Region 4 | |
| The Complete First Season | January 7, 2003 | March 25, 2008 | July 21, 2003 | 2003 |
| The Complete Second Season | January 6, 2004 | March 25, 2008 | August 9, 2004 | April 5, 2005 |
| The Complete Third Season | February 22, 2005 | March 25, 2008 | May 28, 2007 | May 11, 2007 |
| The Complete Fourth Season | December 26, 2005 | March 25, 2008 | July 2, 2007 | November 15, 2007 |
| The Complete Fifth Season | March 27, 2007 | March 25, 2008 | January 28, 2008 | |
| The Complete Sixth Season | August 26, 2008 | March 24, 2008 | ||
| Preceded by Six Feet Under |
Golden Globe - Best Television Series - Drama 2003 |
Succeeded by 24 |
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