I think The Shield is one of ...
Question: I think
The Shield is one of the two or three best shows on TV right now. However, I am disappointed that it has lost its edge compared to Season 1. What made the show so different was that Mackey was alternately a scumbag and a hero, so you were never sure how to feel about him. That tension seems to have completely disappeared as Mackey is being portrayed more and more like a typical
Dirty Harry, a crusading cop who only bends the rules and beats up people we all know are guilty. Do you think this has anything to do with the fact that
Michael Chiklis has become a producer and is directing some of the episodes?
Answer: Mackey's lost his edge? Granted, this question came in before the Feb. 28 episode, in which Mackey took great, gleeful pleasure in eavesdropping on Kavanaugh's disturbing scene with his ex-wife (
Gina Torres) and said to Lem: "At least we found his weak spot." Mackey is still as much a monster as he is a crusader, and from the start he has had a soft spot for victimized women and kids who are caught in the cross fire of the corrupt wars he brokers. But if the character has suppressed his more evil instincts lately, it's because the noose is tightening and because he's even more obviously a target than before. For me, that has made the character more, not less, interesting — even at times credible. This season,
The Shield is nothing but edge, and if
Forest Whitaker doesn't walk away with an Emmy (especially after his explosion in the Feb. 28 episode and his scenes opposite
Anthony Anderson's cunning Antwon Mitchell), there is no justice.
