When it debuted in 2002, the FX cop drama was like nothing else on TV.
When " Bawitdaba " kick on during the last five minutes of the pilot ofThe Shield , coupled with the image of a constabulary officer crack open a door and slipping on a backwards baseball game cap , it ’s only natural to feel your venter act . The song , released as the third 1 from Kid Rock ’s 1998 breakthroughDevil Without a drive , is a churning mixture of bombast , gritstone , and intensity level , opening with the singer shouting his name as a way to strike out his arrival as a hellraiser . Memorably , the CD itself had an image ofa middle finger on it . In its own way , the cop dramaThe Shield , which debuted 20 years ago this week , kept the same energy across seven time of year .
Starring Michael Chiklis , then better known for his theatrical role in the early - to - mid ' 90s connection copper dramedyThe Commish , The Shieldarrived with a nü - metal kick on March 12 , 2002 . The pilot , penned by Maker Shawn Ryan , famously terminate with Chiklis ' bald - headed cop Vic Mackey shooting a fellow officer , a rat infiltrating Mackey ’s elect Strike Team gang played by Reed Diamond , mighty in the headway with little hesitation . It ’s the original wickedness that drove the blanched - knuckle drama of the series , delivering Emmys , reinvent Chiklis as a prestige telecasting hard - ass , and putting FX — then the home ofX - Filesre - runs and the Howard Stern - produced sitcomSon of the Beach — on the mathematical function as a place for original scheduling suffuse with sardonic bite , aggressive style , and ethical ambiguity . The show was n’t interested in cookie - cutter solvent or heavy moralizing . Like Kid Rock sings on " Bawitdaba , " " This is for the enquiry that do n’t have an answer . "
I keep bring in up Kid Rock , anobviously goofyandloathsome form , not to jab sport atThe Shield , a show I obsessed over in its heyday , but to establish linguistic context . It would be unjust to characterizeThe Shieldas purely a patch of tour - of - the - century macho kitsch , likeNYPD Bluewith aWoodstock ' 99ticket instead of a badge . But it ’s interesting to consider its larger place in the pecking order of so - bid " Golden Age " TV dramas : The Sopranos , The Wire , Deadwood , Breaking Bad , andMad Menall palpate comparatively secure in their plaza in the conversation as nostalgia target . They still reliably get books , retrospective essay , and Twitter memes . The malarky of taste perception can shift , depending on the succeeder of a resurgence or the timber of a survey - up serial , but they continue the bequest read that many modernistic series , in particular the 1 walking down the well - trodden " difficult men " path , are value against . The Shieldis a trickier brute .
Michael Chiklis in ‘The Shield’|FX
The slipperiness is baked right into the pilot , which can be jarring and exhilarating to determine in 2022 . As much as the show is remember for Mackey murdering another bull in cold-blooded parentage , the first instalment also prominently features other less note upon expression ofThe Shield’sappeal : a deep understanding of procedural storytelling mix with more revealing quality - focus moment . Over the course of study of the instalment , you see Mackey in a number of different situation : unstrain at a backyard family BBQ , unashamedly hitting on colleague Danielle " Danny " Sofer ( Catherine Dent ) , antagonise his new honcho Captain David Aceveda ( Benito Martinez ) , rough in up a suspect , scolding a gender actor for not expend fourth dimension with her kid , and yukking it up in " The Barn , " the cramp Los Angeles police station located in an old Baptist church service where the drama unfolded .
From the beginning , The Shieldtoyed with conventions in a mode that ’s often best done by artists who are keenly aware of the rule they ’re go . In a recentEntertainment Weeklyoral history , the writer Glen Mazzara , who work with Ryan on the web dramaNash span , notes that the show ’s origination , even the Kid Rock needle drop curtain , comes from an impulse to tilt " spirited , more naturalistic , law-breaking - get material " that the CBS cop series star Don Johnson could not palm . ( In addition to Ryan and Mazzara , Nash Bridgeswas make by Carlton Cuse , who would go on to serve as co - showrunner onLostwith Damon Lindelof , anotherBridgeswriter . ) In the same manner David Chase canalise his thwarting writing on connection shows likeThe Rockford FilesandNorthern ExposureintoThe Sopranos , the writing staff ofThe Shieldbucked against cop show conventions . Their hostility come up from a place of authorization .
In a post - True Detectiveclimate , one where circumscribed series and even individual season are often framed as " 10 - 60 minutes movies " by their creators , the narrative efficiency ofThe Shield’spilot is enthralling . The honest-to-goodness - school craftsmanship of the writing pairs well with the graphic , horrifying subject field matter . Yes , the case operate by detective Claudette Wyms ( CCH Pounder ) and Holland " Dutch " Wagenbach ( Jay Karnes ) take a small fry getting abduct and sold to a pedophile . But the agency the secret gets solved , including a serial publication of tense query scenes , return the unspoilt work ofHomicideandNYPD Blue , the acclaimed meshing cop show of the ' 90s . As much asThe Shieldpushed the gasbag , it was still very much " TV " : dependable , satisfying , and formulaic in ways that could still be surprising and compelling .
That rigorous commitment to suspense , flex the jailer to the characters as they got in over their heads , served the show well across its 88 episodes , culminate in the tragical " Family Meeting , " still one of the proficient series finis ever made . ( The last few seasons hinge even more on the performance ofWalton Goggins , who only has a handful of lines in the pilot as Mackey ’s spiky - haired right - hired man man Shane Vendrell . ) AsThe Shieldbecame more of a phenomenon and brought moving-picture show stars into the intermixture , casting Glenn Close as a new captain and Forest Whitaker as an IA investigator in key incompatible roles , it never lose its aesthetic bearings or its ability to arouse . The wonky camera , the startling close - ups , and eventhe cheesy theme songstayed the same . The core of what made the show tick was right there from the jump .
When assessing the impact ofThe Shield , it ’s easygoing to get catch up in a serial of mostly short - sighted head : WouldThe Shieldget made today ? Is it too forgiving of its swaggering antihero ? Too in awe of their braggadocio and sadism ? Morecopagandamasquerading as a critical review of putrefaction ? Not unlike the endlessly relitigated social media debates about " makingBlazing Saddlestoday , " that retroactive line of thought process misses out on the fact that a show likeThe Shield , like any movie or book , is clearly the product of a hyper - specific meter . partly inspired by theRampart dirt of the late ' 90s , Ryan wrestled with the radioactive dust of real account while also messing with TV cop clichés . The show ’s urgency is inseparable from its queasier aspects .
That ’s perhaps why unlikeBreaking Bad , The Sopranos , or FX ’s other underrated criminal offence dramaJustified , there ’s not too much talk of revisiting these character . ( Ryan didfloat the possibilityin theEWoral history , but it did n’t fathom like something he ’s actively pursuing . ) Along with the even more high - octane ( and politically chaotic)24 , which debut in November of 2001 , and the similarly in - your - face cop ride - along thrillerTraining Day , which wonDenzel Washingtonan Oscar in March 2002,The Shieldsignaled a broader shift in how American pop cultivation see badge - wave antiheroes in the post-9/11 environment . You could set about to re - contextualize Vic Mackey for the present-day moment . Or you could merely revisit the show in all its grimy , " Bawitdaba"-worshipping glory .
Walton Goggins and Michael Chiklis in the pilot of ‘The Shield’|FX
‘The Shield’ creator Shawn Ryan and the cast at the Golden Globes|KMazur/WireImage
