The Shield

The Shield is an American police drama television series on FX Networks. The show is notable for its controversial portrayal of corrupt police officers. The first season gained the most Emmy nominations ever for a basic cable drama. The series was created by Shawn Ryan.

Cast

• Detective Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) - Leader of the Strike Team, corrupt cop, devoted father.
• Detective Shane Vendrell (Walton Goggins) - Vic's friend and member of the Strike Team. His short temper and racism often lead to trouble as does his intense need for the approval of Vic. Shane is the only person who knows that Vic murdered Terry Crowley in the pilot episode.
• Detective Curtis "Lem" Lemansky (Kenny Johnson) - Member of the strike team and the group's conscience, Lem (or "Lemonhead" as he is referred to in the first couple of episodes of the season) is a good natured detective whose sense of ethics often put himself at odds with his fellow teammates, especially Shane. However despite his deeply rooted sense of right and wrong, Lem is willing to go along with his teammate's schemes as he considers his teammates to be his surrogate family.
• Detective Ronnie Gardocki (David Rees Snell) - Member of the Strike Team, Ronnie is the team's surveillance expert and is knowledgeable with regards to a wide range electronical equipment. He's also the most mysterious of the Strike Team, as very little is known about Ronnie and his background. Ronnie also has a very close friendship with Vic and was the only member of the Strike Team to remain friends with Vic when the team broke up at the end of season three.
• Captain David Aceveda (Benito Martinez) - Politically ambitious police captain. Leaves "the Barn" for a seat on the City Council at the beginning of Season 4, although remains a regular character. His rivalry with Vic is based upon his hatred for Vic's corrupt antics though Aceveda is willing to look the other way if it suits his needs. Was forced to perform oral sex on a Hispanic gang member in season three, which has left considerable emotional scars for Aceveda.
• Detective Claudette Wyms (CCH Pounder) - A veteran detective who has seen just about everything in her time as a cop, Claudette is the self-appointed voice of morality at the Barn and who often butts heads with Vic over his tactics. At the end of season two, Claudette was being groomed to take over running the Barn as the new Captain but lost the promotion when she exposed a public defender who routinely lost her cases as a drug addict who routinely went to court high on drugs, resulting in countless convictions being overturned as a result. Has a rather symbiotic relationship with her partner Dutch, who is able to keep Claudette grounded emotionally so as to keep her from letting her personal grudges and vendettas keep her from seeing the big picture towards their jobs as detectives.
• Detective Holland "Dutch" Wagenbach (Jay Karnes) - Claudette's partner, Dutch is an intellectual detective with few people skills, a rather large ego, and an obsession with serial killers and psychological profiling of serial killers and rapists. Dutch has an extremely explosive rivalry with Vic Mackey, who routinely torments Dutch in public so as to keep Dutch in a state of permenant humiliation, which culminated with Dutch dating Vic's ex-wife behind his back as a form of revenge against Vic. Is looked down upon by his fellow cops as a "rube" due to the fact that his wife cheated on him and became pregnant by her lover, who she then left Dutch for. This combined with a traumatic childhood which involved being bullied by classmates and dealing with a cold and unloving father has Dutch carrying around a large amount of anger at the world and those around him, which comes out at rather inappropriate times. Has a rather symbiotic relationship with his partner Claudette, who counterbalances Dutch's detached psychological means of solving violent crimes with a more empathic touch and who turned down an chance to replace Monica Rawlings as Captain of the Barn, out of loyalty to Claudette.
• Officer Danielle "Danny" Sofer (Catherine Dent) - Patrol officer who aspires to become a detective. She's also Vic's mistress, carrying on an on-again, off-again sexual relationship with him.
• Officer Julien Lowe (Michael Jace) - Begins the series as Officer Sofer's trainee but quickly goes on to be her best friend, despite their constant bickering over moral issues regarding Julien's conservative views. A closet homosexual who had his sexuality used by Vic to blackmail him when Julien saw Vic and the Strike Team steal drugs from a crime scene, the deeply religious Julien engaged in a controversial religious program where he was "reprogrammed" into being a heterosexual (and even married), much to his partner's moral outrage. After being outed by a former lover, Julien was brutally beaten by a group of homophobic cops who were fired due to budget cutbacks and were bitter that Julien kept his job. His job as a police officer and culminated with him openly opposing the policies of Captain Monica Rawling during her tenure as Captain.
• Assistant Chief Ben Gilroy (John Diehl) - Vic's long-time friend and supporter, Gilroy was exposed as a being involved in a crooked real estate landgrab, as well as running over an Hispanic gang member and murdering the only witness who could link him to the hit and run. Later fled to Mexico while out on bail where he died a brutal death on the streets.
• Detective Tavon Garris (Brian White) (as of Season 2) - A late addition to the Strike Team, he was well liked by Vic who began grooming Tavon as a possible protege much to the horror of Shane. Their feud ended in a fight in Shane's apartment, with Mara sneaking up behind Tavon, and cracking him in the back of the head with an iron. Tavon left in his van, but his impaired condition caused him to crash his van into a parked car, leaving him in a coma. Fearing what would happen if the truth about the fight would become public knowledge, Shane manipulated both Vic and Lem into convincing Tavon (who couldn't remember what happened) that he nearly killed the then pregnant Mara in a furious rage. The character's fate is unknown, though it was hinted at by Vic that Tavon's injuries were severe enough to have him be taken off active duty.
• Captain Monica Rawling (Glenn Close) (as of Season 4) - Succeeds Aceveda as captain of the Farmington precinct. A morally strong woman, she tried to redeem Vic and Ronnie by involving them in a controversial asset forfeiture program designed to clean up Farmington. The program, however, turned out to be horribly unpopular with the citizens of Farmington. Rawling was later fired from her job for invalidating a plea bargain between the federal police and drug kingpin Antwon Mitchell, so as to bring Antwon to justice for ordering the deaths of two cops.
• Armando "Army" Renta (Michael Pena) (as of Season 4) - A Marine reservist returned from Iraq, Army became Shane's partner when Shane left the Strike Team at the end of season three. Extremely naive, Army allowed himself to be drawn into an alliance between Shane and drug kinpin Antwon Mitchell that ended with both men being beaten up and framed for the murder of a young girl who gave up evidence that resulted in the police shutting down one of Antwon's major drug labs. In the end, Army and Shane were freed from Antwon's clutches by Vic via some creative lying on his part, but Army refused to take a lie detector test that would exonorate the two of accusations of a police conspiracy against Antwon over the death of the girl. While Shane and Captain Monica Rawlings were livid at Army's refusal to take the test, Vic and Lem both separately told Army that they were ok with his decision and allowed Army to walk away from the Strike Team.
• Antwon Mitchell (Anthony Anderson) (as of Season 4) - A drug kingpin who, having been released from jail after a lengthy prison sentence, tries to reinvent himself as an upstanding black community leader out to aid the black citizens of Farmington, while secretly securing power as the main drug boss in the district. Has a longstanding rivalry with Captain Monica Rawlings, who is determined to bring him down and Detective Shane Vendrell, who is on Antwon's payroll helping him eliminate his rivals. In the end, Antwon is brought down after he kills a girl with Shane and his partner's guns and uses it to blackmail the two into killing Vic. In the end, Shane and his police partner, Army, use hidden camera footage of Antwon restating his "kill Vic and be released from being blackmailed" deal (and some creative lying) to force Antwon to plead guilty to murder and attempting to order the death of a police officer. But Antwon has the last laugh, as before he goes away, he orders the killing of two patrol officers and manipulates an immunity deal for the two killings, though his immunity deal is ultimately voided when Captain Rawlings sacrifices her job to nullify the deal.
• Detective Steve Billings (David Marciano) (as of Season 4) - Wishy-washy detective who routinely took credit for Dutch and Claudette's detective work in season four, when the two were temporarily banned from officially working on major police investigations. When Detective Dutch Wagenbach discovered that Billings stood by and watched a murder take place out of cowardice, he blackmailed Billings to discover who was behind a series of mean-spirited pranks being pulled against him, in exchange for Dutch's silence. When he discovered that Billings wasn't hunting for the culprit and had even started pulling similar pranks on Dutch, the two detectives physically attacked each other in the Barn's parking lot while the rest of the police officers looked on and egged the fighting on before Claudette put a stop to it.
• Detective Terry Crowley (Reed Diamond) (episodes 1 - 2) - a new recruit, Crowley was placed in Vic's unit by Aceveda to find out if they were illegaly smuggling drugs and - upon discovering this - was murdered by the team. Diamond was advertised as a main cast member in season 1 (and appeared in the pilot's opening credits), to surprise viewers about his death in the first episode. His only subsequent appearance on the show came in Co-Pilot, a flashback episode in Season 2.