The Shield, an underrated masterpiece

 

When you talk about great crime TV shows names like The Sopranos, the Wire, Breaking Bad get brought up but you hardly hear people mention The Shield. To neglect to mention The Shield from the greatest TV shows of all time should be a punishable offence. The Shield goes on my Mount Rushmore of great TV shows along with The Sopranos, The Wire and Breaking Bad. It is by far the greatest cop show of all time. (On a side note I watched The Oz and Peakey Blinders and I thought they were overrated and not worth my time.)

The Shield like the Sopranos has the anti-hero main character, Vic Mackey, the corrupt cop who leads the Strike Team as they use coercion to solve crimes and take a share of the drugs in drug busts. The series runs for seven seasons where the Strike Team solve crimes whilst simultaneously committing crimes. The corrupt cops get themselves deeper into trouble until all hell breaks loose, the plot unravels and chaos ensues. 

Yes, the show was nominated for many awards and won a few but in my opinion the show deserves more. It was exciting from the first episode until the last. There were plenty of twists and turns and as a viewer you are perpetually at the edge of your seat, biting your fingernails in anticipation. The characters are flawed yet relatable. The dialogue is crisp, witty and humorous. The plots delve into all manner of social issues from homophobia, sexism, racism, poverty and everything else under the sun. It really is a masterful tale. My only criticism is that there was no movie after the finale. The final scene was open ended and not very conclusive. We are left wondering where did Vic Mackey head to as he left the office. 

Moral of the story

There are many lessons to be learned from The Shield. One of the first lessons is that sometimes to catch the wolf you must be the wolf. For the police to catch criminals sometimes they must employ underhanded tactics. If the cops try to be holier than thou they make their jobs much tougher. Take RICO for example. The FBI had to bend the rules to destroy the mafia and in the end it worked. Criminals should not expect to be treated with kid gloves and the full weight of the law must descend on them. Like Machiavelli wrote, it is better to be feared than loved. The police should be feared first and loved later. Thus, the Shield shows that bending the rules sometimes works magic in solving crimes. 

It is all well and good to turn a blind eye when police rough up criminals. The problem lies in who will police the police when they break the law. Can society trust that police will hold each other to account. Another lesson from The Shield is that society should be armed. A community that can protect itself from criminals is a safe community. We should not just rely on the police but the community must have neighbourhood watches and weapons to keep the bad guys on their toes. Police are humans and humans can be corrupted. A the the end of the day, society must police itself.

I admired The Shield so much I attempted to write a book that delved into social issues such as crime, poverty and police corruption. Obviously I did not do as well as The Shield but I tried my best. My book is entitled Fishers of Men : Street Gangs and Secret Societies. I attempted to created complex plotlines involving multiple characters. It is a love story between racial lines. You can check it out on Amazon if you are interested. Link below.

https://www.amazon.com/Fishers-Men-Street-Secret-Societies/dp/B0CRQBNBQR