“The Shield: Season 6″ Review

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“The Shield” carries the distinction of being my favorite television series of all time. Now I’m not much of a TV watcher. I love “MacGyver” and “The Incredible Hulk” and even “Dawson’s Creek” of all things. Of late, “South Park” and “The Shield” are the only two television series currently on the air that I think are worthy of my attention. I’ve sort of unofficially boycotted TV for the most part since “reality television” became an inoperable cancer on the medium. What’s more, the general lack of creativity that goes into scripted series these days is stunningly heinous. There’s another “Knight Rider” TV show!?

That people can still find something tolerable on the airwaves is less a result of there actually being anything decent on, but rather evidence of their ridiculously low standards. How do I know this? Well, I’m hard pressed to stumble on a fan of “The Shield,” but you could throw a rock in this town and ostensibly hit someone who knows the name of the brand new fourth judge on “American Idol.” In fact, I would encourage you to throw rocks at people with that information stored in their brainpans.

Anyway, I love “The Shield.” From the final moments of the pilot episode when Michael Chiklis’ Det. Vic Mackey shoots one of his own men in the face, I was hooked. The series has been relentless in terms of upending audience expectations. That I still sympathize with Mackey — brutal, criminally brilliant and bald-headed — after all his evil-doing over the course of six seasons is not only a tribute to Chilklis’ performance, but the genius of the writing staff.

Season six picks up immediately after the curtain fell on the previous season. Mackey’s being forced into retirement and desperate to find the killer of a former member of his anti-gang Strike Team, Curtis “Lem” Lemansky (Kenneth Johnson). Lem was being investigated by Internal Affairs attack dog Jon Kavanaugh (Forest Whitaker at his finest) throughout season five and looking at some serious jail time. When another member of the Strike Team, Shane Vendrell (Walton Goggins) feared Lem would cut a deal with IAD for a reduced sentence, even if it meant his fellow teammates would go to prison, Vendrell dropped a grenade in his friend’s lap and blew him to pieces. Season six kicks off with Mackey looking for his pound of flesh, believing Lem’s killer to be an El Salvadoran crime lord, not one of his own men.

And what an addicting season it is. I went through all ten episodes in 2 days. If I had one complaint, it would be that there weren’t the usual 13 eps in this season. That’s pretty much it.

This is a show that just works for me in a way that most television programs don’t. The writing, the performances, the visual treatment — everything’s so bold in its execution. I saw a poster the other day for that vanilla show “Heroes” with a tagline that read, “Good Will Battle Evil.” I said to myself, “No, s***.” That said, I think “Heroes” sort of exemplifies the weak-kneed approach to storytelling most network shows take: be safe!

“The Shield” is not safe. It also takes the battle between good and evil — sort of a given in all storytelling, by the by, not just “Heroes” — and turns it on its ear. Even Dirty Harry would cringe at some of Vic Mackey’s policework. But that’s what’s great about the show. Mackey is a fascinating character in that he’ll kill one of his own men, who to be fair, was a rat. Yet when Shane confesses to killing Lem, he loses it. This of course comes after Mackey finally gets his hands on the El Salvadoran gangster and beats him nearly to death with a chain before ultimately blowing his brains out.

Mackey has a sense of justice, of what’s right and wrong. It simply doesn’t always jibe with the laws he’s sworn to uphold. What’s terrific about his character, and the show in general, is that as an audience, we see the world through Mackey’s prism. It’s an ensemble show, but Mackey does most of the heavy-lifting as far as advancing the plot. And we get where he’s coming from. Without him enforcing the laws and/or keeping the peace, things would actually be a hell of a lot worse.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about anti-heroes in modern storytelling. Is Vic Mackey an anti-hero? I think the pendulum swings back and forth between his acts of heroism and anti-heroism in the series, sometimes within the same scene. He’s absolutely not a villain. At his core is a man who’s become lost in his quest for justice. He manages to corrupt all those around him. But he is at the end of the day a great character and a deeply flawed hero. As such, I absolutely can’t wait to see what happens to him in the seventh and final season.

-Brad Lohan

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