The Shield

The Shield is probably the only long-form drama I have watched multiple times besides Dexter and Family Guy. Do not judge me. Family Guy is my go-to sleep show because apparently nothing soothes my nervous system like cutaway gags and Peter Griffin making the same noise for forty-five seconds. My brain is a complicated medical mystery.

This show is solid from the beginning all the way through its seven-season descent into moral hell. Yes, there is plenty of filler lurking in the middle of some seasons. Occasionally the story wanders off to inspect its own asshole before remembering that Vic Mackey has another catastrophic decision to make. Even so, the central characters and long-term consequences are strong enough to keep the whole filthy machine moving.

The guest stars are fucking excellent. Glenn Close comes in as Captain Monica Rawling, while Forest Whitaker arrives as Internal Affairs Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh. Both completely own their seasons without feeling like celebrities parachuting into somebody else's show. Close brings steel-plated authority, and Whitaker turns Kavanaugh into a walking pressure cooker powered by obsession, rage, and enough nervous energy to make the television vibrate.

Shane is still a bastard. Then again, so is Vic. Nearly everyone spends seven seasons making terrible decisions, covering up the previous terrible decisions, and then making newer, somehow even worse decisions to protect the original terrible decisions. It is like watching a pyramid scheme where the product is trauma and every salesperson carries a badge.

There are no happy endings here, and that is exactly why the ending works. Nobody gets to ride into the sunset after destroying every life within screaming distance. The show remembers its sins, presents the bill, and makes everyone pay in the currency that hurts them most. Nine out of ten corrupt bastards.