Rescue Me

Created by Shawn Ryan, the weekly, 60-minute cop drama The Shield may well have been the most cynical and uncompromising series ever developed for "basic" cable. The emphasis was on a tough, crime-infested L.A. police precinct and an elite team of troubleshooters headed by hard-bitten Detective Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis, light-years removed from The Commish). Undeniably efficient when it came to rounding up perps and cracking tough cases, Mackey was also relentlessly sadistic and foul-mouthed -- not to mention corrupt to the bone. Vic's self-serving, cold-blooded tactics (and blatant graft-taking) were tolerated by his comparatively honest partner Det. Claudette Wyms (C.C.H. Pounder), but only because it yielded results, and, frankly, there was no other method to deal with the dirty job at hand. The other detective denizens of Vic's precinct included the borderline-psychotic Shane Vendrell (Walt Goggins), the troubled, religiously inclined Julien Lowe (Michael Jace), the well-named Lemonhead Lemansky (Kenneth Johnson), and resident "choirboy" Dutch Wagenback (Jay Karnes), whose fondness for female officer Danielle Sofer (Catherine Dent) was compromised by the fact that Danielle was enmeshed in an after-hours affair with the very-married Vic Mackey. Meanwhile, new precinct Captain Aceveda (Benito Martinez), whose own integrity tended to vacillate if it impeded his political ambitions, made it his mission in life to expose and "break" Mackey. As the series' ad copy put it, "The road to justice is twisted" -- and so were many of the characters. The Shield made its FX network bow on March 12, 2002.

A maverick U.S marshal enforces the law his way in his Kentucky hometown.

Two detectives—one from the U.S., one from Mexico—must work together to track down a killer who is operating on both sides of the border.

The son of a Middle East dictator reluctantly leaves the U.S. to return to his home country.

Two KGB spies pose as an American married couple living in 1980s Washington, D.C.

Several of the production people responsible for The Sopranos were also behind the equally quirky FX network series Damages. Glenn Close, who'd been asked to star in this series on the strength of her work as police captain Monica Rawling on another FX offering, The Shield, was cast as barracuda-like Manhattan power attorney Patty Hewes. As ruthless and calculating as the high-profile criminals that she went after in court, Patty spent most of the series' first season pursuing a class-action suit against billionaire Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson), a shady Ken Lay-style corporate CEO. It was clear from the get-go that Frobisher was willing to do anything to stop Patty in her tracks, possibly even including ordering a few murders. The first-season storyline literally began at the end, as Patty's idealistic protégée Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne), half-naked and caked with blood, ran through the streets of New York (were the show was filmed) and made a beeline for her office, where her first words were "I need a lawyer!" The rest of the season built up to this crucial moment, with what series creator Todd Kessler described as the inevitability of a Greek tragedy. (It was planned for Patty Hewes to handle a different case in each successive season, each introduced with a similarly tantalizing "teaser.") Throughout the drama, the thin line between "hero" and "villain" grew progressively thinner, in the tradition of The Shield. In addition to Glenn Close and Rose Byrne, the regular cast included Tate Donovan as Patty's much-maligned subordinate Tom Shayes and Zeljko Ivanek as sly defense attorney Ray Fiske. Debuting July 24, 2007, on FX, Damages was also briefly carried by MyNetwork TV beginning August 1 of that year.