Michael Chiklis Brings Ironic Experience to The Shield

Michael Chiklis plays the corrupt police officer with his own ethics and rules in the uniquely twisted cop show: The Shield. In The Commish, Chiklis played a friendly and compassionate police commissioner who could and would not be corrupted. In The Shield, Chiklis's character (Vic Mackey) is at once a devout family man and loyal friend, but also someone who subverts the law over and over again by stealing, selling drugs and participating in organized crime. Vic Mackey isn't without morals, he just doesn't follow the normal rules.

Mackey is the ringleader of a gang of corrupt cops who balance personal gain with reducing violence and chaos on the streets. On the one hand, Mackey's select group continually breaks the law, creating drama in the series (because they narrowly risk being caught in many cases). On the other hand, the viewer is not left unsympathetic, as the group often profits by undermining criminals an usually at the expense of violent offenders. Also, they don't spend their illicit earnings on frivolous things, but often on families or loved ones. Due to these added factors, it is difficult not to at once question the activities of Vic Mackey and his gang while also inevitably worrying about their potential exposure or capture.

Vic Mackey's activities are known or suspected by his superiors at times. Sometimes, this serves simply to increase the level of drama for viewers. However, it also makes The Shield a more interesting show overall. Head detectives, the police commissioner and even the mayor have had to decide at time whether to look the other way because of the bottom line: crime is held to more acceptable levels with Vic Mackey on the streets. The Shield avoids the typical stagnation of a cop show by constantly introducing new plot elements and characters to keep viewers guessing. Also, the show works both for occasional viewers (as each episode can stand alone) but also contains plot arcs for loyal watchers.

The series clearly complicates otherwise simple moral dilemmas by showing multiple perspectives on issues many would believe to be black-and-white. Rather than the typical good-versus-bad mentality of many cop shows, The Shield raises fundamental ethical questions, such as: is controlling crime and balancing power on the streets acceptable if it means fewer people get hurt? To the show's credit, many of these questions are left up to the viewer to decide, and not fully resolved within the plot of the series itself. Unlike The Commish, where Chiklis' character was relatively simple and one-dimensional, The Shield features both the moral and the immoral sides of the law, the easy-to-understand and the fascinatingly complex at the same time.