Network television's nastiest show is back, and any fan of good TV should be ecstatic.
FX's "The Shield" is a knock-your-teeth-out cop drama unlike any other. It follows the exploits of Vic Mackey - played by the immortal Michael Chiklis - and his special unit Strike Team, who lord over a fictional L.A. district like mob kings. They police some of the city's most dangerous gangs, but they also have a hand in drug dealing and prostitution, protecting certain criminal elements and eliminating others.
They believe in protecting and serving - themselves.
Season four began last week with the Strike Team disbanded and Mackey humping a lousy job running a surveillance crew. He has to connect with a new captain who means to implement radical gang-control policies, which might disrupt his turn-a-blind-eye approach to some of the more important gangs killing and slanging under his disintegrating veil of protection.
"Shield" newcomer Glenn Close - one of Hollywood's best actresses - plays Captain Monica Rawling. Her presence on the screen brings validity to a show that needed none.
What sets "The Shield" apart from other television is its rich combination of graphic violence and compelling storytelling. Fast and vulgar, the show's gritty presentation - it's shot on location with hand-held cameras - makes looking away an exercise in futility.
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Things happen on "The Shield" you would never expect to see outside the friendly confines of HBO. Here are some examples:
A drug dealer's face is mashed hard into a burning stovetop.
Two rival gang leaders spend a night fighting hand to hand in a locked trailer until one of them is dead.
A foreign mob contingent executes its defectors by cutting off their feet first, then their heads.
A hooker hostage situation ends in a bloody melee.
No one is safe here. One vital member of the police force - Captain Aceveda, Mackey's boss - was once forced at gunpoint to perform oral sex on a deadly gangbanger.
But the show's most memorable moment came in the premiere episode four years ago when Mackey executed an innocent cop and then covered up the killing. Viewers knew then that this show was special - a celebration of amorality on par with "The Sopranos" where anything can happen.
In fact, Mackey would be too deplorable a character if not for the mesmerizing work by Chiklis. He looks like a cannonball. His bald head, black leather jacket, sharp eyes and gravely voice make for a perfect stressed-out lawman.
Scenes revolving around Mackey's family, his justifiably bitter ex-wife and two autistic children, would normally drag down an intense show like "The Shield." But here they add a depth that makes Mackey more three-dimensional than any anti-hero around.
"The Shield" is too brilliant to be denied. The insane moments of hard-core violence help knit together a storyline that's tight and intense. Nothing is done without a purpose behind it. Not one brutal moment feels wasted.
It's violence for the sake of storytelling, not violence for the sake of violence.
And it's also the most watchable and addictive one-hour show on television. "The Shield" is a must-see for any fan of TV drama.
"The Shield"
Tuesdays on FX.
Grade: A
