A blog about television by TIME’s TV critic James Poniewozik.

Dead Tree Alert: To (Self-)Serve and Protect

In this week's issue of TIME, a look back at The Shield and very-spoiler-light look ahead to its final two episodes, including some themes I've been writing about here: 

The show's themes and Chiklis' brooding, minotaur-like physicality invite comparison with that Urtext of male antiheroes, The Sopranos. But our relationship with Mackey is more complicated--and self-implicating--than ours was with Tony Soprano. Tony was roguish and funny; we even rooted for him against other Mob bosses. But we had more distance from him because he was a criminal and a sociopath, beyond redemption and beyond our experience.

Vic Mackey may not be one of us either. But he is one of ours.

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  • 1

    Great article.

    It's hard to get a good grasp on what this show wants to say, beyond the nail-biting entertainment value. Over seven seasons, it's numbed my perception of Vic's good and evil so entirely, I don't have any desires for his ending - happy or violent (or other). This is a compliment, I think. I don't mean to imply that I don't care - I'm definitely interested, intellectually, with how Vic ends up. And yet it feels impossible to have an emotional stake - very strange.

  • 2

    Vic conveys a world of emotions through his eyes.
    Kudos to you for recognizing that, however I must fault you for one thing.

    Vic is not a racist.
    He was a strong advocate for Tavon and that season went out of its way to establish Shane as the insecure racist Marc Furhman kind of cop as opposed to Vic's equal opportunity brand of crooked thuggery.

    What has Vic done to show racism?
    Hm, that stuck out to me...

    Good article though.

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