Watch the Shield

This cop drama doesn’t get enough love as a GOATED show

Photo via FX Networks

SPOILER ALERT for plot points of The Shield

Whenever there are debates about the greatest television shows of all time, the usual suspects dominate the conversation: The Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad, Seinfeld, Game of Thrones, etc. But one show rarely comes up—and if it does, it’s too far down the list.

I’m talking about The Shield.

This FX cop drama, which ran on FX from 2002 to 2008, was groundbreaking. It’s about Vic Mackey, a rogue detective running an elite gang unit in a fictional L.A. precinct. His crew—the Strike Team—does everything you assume dirty cops do. They beat suspects, steal drugs, shake down gang leaders, cut deals with criminals, and violate civil rights like it’s part of the job description.

On the flip side, they’re also effective. They get guns off the street, dismantle crews, and make communities feel safer—even if their methods are unconstitutional. The show sits in that grey area that prestige shows began grappling with in the early 2000s. Mackey shrewdly navigates the blurred lines between a dirty cop and a productive law enforcement official. At the same time, his superiors either try to take him down or exploit him for their own political gain.

From the jump, The Shield stands out from other cop dramas. In the pilot, Mackey murders a fellow officer because he learns the guy is a plant sent to bring him down. Most shows would build that cat-and-mouse tension over seasons. The Shield ends it before the credits roll. That’s the tone. It’s a raw and morally brutal show.

I don’t want to give away too many storylines, but the show pushes the boundaries in ways I don’t think people would expect. It circumvents your expectations. Even more than The Wire, which resembles a documentary analyzing real societal issues through the lens of Baltimore’s flaws. Plus, I’d argue the Wire isn’t strictly a cop drama even though the police are heavily featured throughout the show. The Shield is undoubtedly a cop show. Everything is told from the perspective of the police.

I watched FX a lot as a kid because it was one of the only channels that regularly aired action and adventure movies. I vividly remember the gritty FX promos that hinted at something darker, something different. It was certainly popular at the start. Michael Chiklis, who plays Vic Mackey, won an Emmy for the first season. The show also won the Golden Globe for Best TV Drama in that first season. So why doesn’t it get the same flowers as the others?

I think timing and platform play a significant role in this. The Shield never had the viral second life that other shows got. It didn’t blow up on Netflix like Breaking Bad, which was basically resurrected once the platform added the early seasons. The Wire wasn’t a hit during its original run, but HBO constantly replays it, and it’s become a rite of passage for anyone who cares about TV. Twitter debates alone kept it alive. Plus, the Wire was so overwhelmingly critically acclaimed that it was destined to find a second life.

The Shield is now on Hulu—that’s where I rewatch it every year—but it never had a streaming moment. Prestige TV is as much about legacy as it is about quality. For whatever reason, The Shield didn’t stick around the zeitgeist the way The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, or Breaking Bad did.

Still, I’d argue that aside from The Wire, there isn’t a GOATED show more relevant today than The Shield. It’s all there: overpolicing, elite units with no oversight, racial politics, internal corruption, and the weaponization of public safety. Vic Mackey is the poster child for unchecked policing power. He runs a tactical squad with zero accountability. Watching him and his crew take people off the streets without warrants, and then scrolling through social media and seeing ICE agents do the same thing is eerie.

Back in the early 2000s, post 9/11, when the show aired, the moral question was “What are we willing to accept from cops to keep us safe?” Watching The Shield today, that question flips to “Were they ever trying to keep us safe?”

I’ve been thinking about this more because I’m working on a book about real-life elite police units—teams like Mackey’s that were unleashed with a badge and a mandate to reduce violent crime at any cost. I just finished re-watching it, and I’m amazed at how current it feels. It’s not some relic from the past; it’s a mirror to what’s happening today.

This may be controversial, but I think Mackey is my favorite of all the classic TV antiheroes. I’m not saying he’s good, but there’s a twisted logic to him, a code that’s consistent throughout the whole show. He’s more honest about who he is than Walter White and Tony Soprano. He’s closer to Omar Little.

The performances are superb, but I have to give a special shoutout to Forest Whitaker as Jon Kavanaugh, the obsessive, off-the-rails internal affairs officer who tries to bring Mackey down. Plus, the series finale is top three, and it ain’t three.

So if prestige TV is about complexity, tension, and moral struggles, then The Shield is one of the genre’s rawest and realest masterpieces. It deserves your attention.

-Edited by Christina Santi