In praise of The Shield
Reprinted from a message board post. Author: me.
For those just watching with this season, do yourself a favor and rent the [previous] seasons ASAP. The money train storyline is especially great, although it’s the least-involved with the current stuff. (Seasons one and four, on the other hand, directly lead into the current chaos.)
I think [a] comparison with Tony Soprano is a good one. Tony is, without reservation, a guy in an ugly business, doing ugly, evil things. But he’s also a man who loves his family (although not perfectly, or even close to it) and his friends. We see him in his own context, so while we appreciate that he’s a villain — a point brought home several times a season, when we see him commit murder or even worse — we also root for him to succeed in his environment, where he’s hardly the biggest villain in town. The series will almost certainly end with the FBI busting him for good, and that’ll be apt, but until then, it’s exciting to see how close they can come without him getting busted. (I watch it on DVD and don’t have HBO, so no idea what’s going on in the current run.)
Det. Vic Mackey is even more interesting, especially since we tend to know a lot more about this fictionalized version of LA’s Rampart Division and its corrupt anti-gang task forces [than we do the New Jersey organized crime scene]. Unlike Tony, Vic doesn’t think of himself as a bad guy. He’s a “good guy” doing “what needs to be done,” either to beat the really bad guys (which he does), to mitigate the unwinnable crime problems (which he does) … or to compensate him and his men for what they perceive to be an underpaid and thankless position.
And really, for the most part, that last one is the only thing most viewers tend to really take issue with. It’s one thing to maneuver gang politics so that a major boss goes to prison and the new #1 is someone he has more control over (and drugs are diverted away from schools and open gang warfare is kept to a minimum), it’s another to see Shane extorting oral sex from prostitutes.
Since Vic’s successes, unlike Tony’s, are based on his wit and charm, and not the army of goombas he can bring to bear on a problem, it’s exciting to watch him work, especially in the face of ever-increasing odds. Because — for those who came in late — the higher-ups KNOW that Vic’s dirty. He was best buddies with an assistant chief for years until that character was eventually caught with his hand in the cookie jar. In that role, Vic did a lot of the brass’ dirty work and when he says he now feels like this is a political witch hunt, he’s not entirely wrong. Sure, he deserves to go to jail, but those who turned him loose and turned a blind eye to what he was doing will go free. Vic and Shane were able to kill Terry because they had been tipped off by others in law enforcement.
He is not the only dirty cop in Los Angeles, and he’s arguably not even the dirtiest on the show. (See last season for what Shane unleashed looks like.) Without Vic, Lemonhead probably wouldn’t be dirty, but without Vic, Shane would be one of the biggest criminals in LA, and he’d be hiding behind a badge. As it is, he’s channeling these guys (along with Ronnie, who I always feel sorry for, since he gets so little plot time) towards what is arguably the greater good … most of the time.
So yeah, people root for Vic. They also rooted for Captain Monica Rawlings when she was going after him and just like a lot of us rooted for Terry in the pilot.
I suspect this series will end with Vic eating a bullet and taking the blame for the crimes of the Strike Team and, knowing Vic, leaving [police captain turned city councilman] Acaveda holding the bag, one way or the other.
Villain- and anti-hero-centered series aren’t for everyone. The Shield doesn’t get an M rating just for the occasional bare butt.
No Comments »
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>
