"The Shield" Family Meeting (2008)

Director:

Clark Johnson

Writers:

Shawn Ryan (creator)
Shawn Ryan (written by)

TV Series:

"The Shield" (2002)

Original Air Date:

25 November 2008 (Season 7, Episode 13)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Police | Death | Bar | Criminal Investigation | Shoot

Cast

Michael Chiklis	...	Detective Vic Mackey
CCH Pounder	...	Captain Claudette Wyms
Benito Martinez	...	David Aceveda
Jay Karnes	...	Detective Holland Wagenbach
Walton Goggins	...	Detective Shane Vendrell
Michael Jace	...	Detective Julien Lowe
David Rees Snell	...	Detective Ronnie Gardocki
Catherine Dent	...	Officer Danni Sofer
Cathy Cahlin Ryan	...	Corrine Mackey
David Marciano	...	Detective Steve Billiings
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mark Atteberry	...	Marshall Reynolds
Joanne Baron	...	Barbara
Autumn Chiklis	...	Cassidy Mackey
Kyle Gallner	...	Lloyd
Paula Garcés	...	Officer Tina Hanlon
Michele Hicks	...	Mara (as Michelle Hicks)
Laurie Holden	...	Agent Olivia Murray
Clark Johnson	...	Handsome Marshall
Stu 'Large' Riley	...	Stu
Sandra Sanchez	...	News Reporter
Tamika Simpkins	...	Freeman's Wife
Aaron Skinner	...	ICE Agent
Roy Vongtama	...	EMT

Runtime:

60 min

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Company:

MiddKid Productions

Trivia:

Last show of the series.

Quotes:

Claudette Wyms: [reading Shane's suicide note] "I guess enough painkillers can make even the worst kind of hurt go away. The thing you need to know is that Mara was innocent, and Jackson was innocent. They didn't know what they were drinking and their last moments together were happy ones. They left the way I first found them...
[...]

Soundtrack:

Los Angeles

Even the best things have to end

Almost 20 years ago, Steven Bochco shocked the world when he created "NYPD Blue". The show was realistic and raw. It pushed the envelope in terms of language, violence, and sexuality. It kept people riveted for years. Then almost 10 years later, Shawn Ryan pushed the envelope even further with his masterpiece, "The Shield." The language was more pervasive. The violence was more graphic. And the sexuality was more explicit. But in taking things to another level, Ryan made a show that will leave impressions with its audience long after the final credits roll. Vic Mackey became the ultimate anti-hero. In the VERY FIRST EPISODE, he shows his true colors when he shoots a fellow cop, who was going to rat him out to the Justice Department. He cuddles up to drug dealers just as easily as he plants evidence on them. Vic and his Strike Team lied, stole, framed people, and even killed. Yet here we were STILL ROOTING for Vic and his crew, despite our own moral dilemmas about doing so. And we loved every minute of it for seven years. Each season just kept us gritting our teeth, watching Vic and his team sink deeper and deeper into an abyss that we (secretly) prayed they might crawl out of. And we felt the pain that they felt when Lem destroyed most of the Armenian Train money, when Vic was being hounded by Lt. Kavanaugh from Internal Affairs, when Shane felt compelled to silence Lem. And the very final episode left us completely breathless, knowing the end is at hand. Some of the "justice" was inevitable (Shane). Some was expected (Ronnie). And some was, as the tagline put it, "twisted" (Vic). The images that perfectly sums up this show are these. Vic telling a perp in Season 1, "Good cop and bad cop left for the day. I'm a different kind of cop." And Vic, Ronnie, and Shane giving Lem his "21-gun salute" at his grave. Bravo, Mr. Ryan. Bravo.