I’m kinda surprised there isn’t already a thread on this. It got all kinds of raves by the critics, plus it had a somewhat high profile due to the “extreme language and content” discussions in various media outlets.
I thought it was amazing.
It’s a cop show built around serious moral ambiguity. The lead character, Mackey, played by an unrecognizable Michael Chiklis (“The Commish”), is most assuredly not the hero; he’s an evil bastard cop who lives according to his own rules. Mackey’s boss is a captain who wants to nail the cop not because it’s the right thing to do but because it’ll make him look good in an eventual mayoral campaign. Of the two sympathetically-portrayed cops, one (CCH Pounder, in one of her best roles) is weary, tired, and almost too fed up to do her job; the other is an egghead who gets the job done given enough time, but who gets defensive when asked to produce results immediately.
Evil bastard Mackey runs the streets his own way. He apparently takes bribes and otherwise colludes with criminals, because it has the practical effect of reducing violent crime. He openly mocks his captain’s efforts to rein him in, and implies he has friends and defenders high in the department. And when he thinks he’s cornered, he lashes out like a dangerous animal. But the pilot episode also let him accomplish something really important nobody else could handle. How’s that for ambiguity?
If the show has a downside (based on the single episode aired thus far), it’s that it’s almost too dark. There’s no obvious hero, nobody we can root for. There’s also a lot of profanity, violence, and even nudity (and not the teasing back-of-the-breast curve patented by “NYPD Blue,” either), most of it well-integrated and organic to the show. To a lot of people, this will seem like a wallow in filth and corruption for no good purpose. To me, it’s a bracing look at policework unprecedented in television. Remember the lightning-cracking energy “NYPD Blue” had when it first premiered, before it turned into a soap opera? “The Shield” is like that. If they go too far with the nastiness and dark melodrama, obviously it’ll get old and pointless. But so far they’re walking the tightrope, and I can’t wait for next week.
Trivia notes: The pilot episode was directed by Clark Johnson, the fedora-topped Meldrick on “Homicide: Life on the Street,” and two cast members were borrowed from the same show. Also, the original title of this show was “Rampart,” until the LAPD objected, which should give you an idea of the show’s style and themes.
