The Shield is an American crime drama television series starring Michael Chiklis that premiered on March 12, 2002, on FX in the United States, and concluded on November 25, 2008, after seven seasons.

At the center of the division is the Strike Team, led by Detectives Vic Mackey, Shane Vendrell, Curtis Lemansky, and Ronnie Gardocki.

Mackey and the Strike Team use criminal methods to coerce information and stage arrests and take a share of various drug busts.

The pilot episode concludes with Mackey, suspicious of the loyalty of the latest Strike Team recruit, Terry Crowley, fatally shooting him during an arrest and framing their suspect.

This includes detectives Holland "Dutch" Wagenbach, Steve Billings and Claudette Wyms, uniformed officers Sgt.

The series has a variety of subplots, notably Aceveda's political aspirations and his suffering a sexual assault; Mackey's struggle to cope with a failing marriage, two autistic children, and rebellious eldest daughter; Danny becoming a mother; Vendrell's rocky, new marriage; Lemansky's growing fear for the safety of the Strike Team; Claudette's battle with illness and Lowe's internal conflicts between his Christian beliefs and his homosexuality.

The Shield and the Strike Team were inspired by the Rampart Division Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) unit within the Los Angeles Police Department.

[4][5] Characters are portrayed with vices and virtues; Vic's loving relationship with his children contrasts with his thuggish approach to police work.

The first half of the season deals with a new drug threat from Armadillo, a highly intelligent immigrant who has coerced the black and Hispanic gangs to work together, making it difficult for the Strike Team to charge him.

Mackey learns that a portion of the money was marked by the Treasury Department, and the Strike Team figures out ways of diverting any federal attention to their activities.

Claudette begins administrative duties in preparation to take over as Captain but her qualms over a potentially incompetent defense attorney put her career in jeopardy.

After the fallout of nearly being outed in the previous season, Lowe starts taking on a tougher demeanor making Claudette question his future.

During this season, the members of the Strike Team become involved with the affairs of Antwon Mitchell, a highly respected drug lord who ends up blackmailing Vendrell to coerce his help.

Mackey, with the help of the new Barn Captain, Monica Rawling, manages to help Vendrell out of his situation, reunites the Strike Team, and eventually ends up with sufficient evidence to send Mitchell to jail.

The LAPD's Internal Affairs Division opens an investigation led by Lt. Jon Kavanaugh against Lemansky, purportedly for not reporting a stash of drugs he had taken, but in actuality to find evidence of the Strike Team's misdeeds.

Billings' weak management coupled with Kavanaugh's strong-arm tactics force the LAPD chief to name a stronger and more independent Captain to the Barn, Claudette.

The Strike Team struggles with Lemansky's death, and suspect one of the gangs committed it, while Vendrell remains quiet regarding his role.

The series ends as Mackey, hearing sirens in the distance, holsters his gun (which he was supposed to surrender as a condition of his deal) and walks out, his destination unknown.

[15] He had considered what a cop drama would be like on a premium cable network like HBO and Showtime, taking into account the edge that shows like Homicide: Life on the Street and NYPD Blue had brought to the genre.

While trying to decide a direction, the Rampart scandal within the LAPD was exposed, and Ryan took inspiration from those events to craft out a pilot script.

[5] Reilly worked with Ryan to help determine how much violence and nudity could be used within the show, as unlike HBO, FX was an ad-sponsored cable channel and beholden to certain content considerations.

[5] As they were working towards this, the September 11 attacks occurred, and in their aftermath, Fox was concerned if the show would be appropriate at this time, believing that audiences would not be receptive to seeing police officers portrayed in a negative light.

[5] The situation changed following the theatrical release of Training Day in October 2001, a film centered around corrupt cops that was a financial success.

Fox was assured by Training Day's reception from audiences that The Shield was allowed to continue, with the pilot first broadcast in March 2002.

[5] Chiklis spent six months away from acting and losing a significant amount of weight, and for his audition on The Shield, had shaved his head.

Kevin G. Cremin was the series unit production manager throughout its run and became a co-executive producer from the sixth season onwards.

Darabont later reunited with several writers from The Shield for his television adaptation of The Walking Dead comics, including Charles H. Eglee, Glen Mazzara and Adam Fierro.

However, The Shield lost advertising from Burger King, New Balance, Office Depot, and Tricon Global Restaurants, in part due to complaints from the Parents Television Council.

[33] In 2004, IDW Publishing released a five-issue comic book limited series written by Jeff Mariotte and illustrated by Jean Diaz titled The Shield: Spotlight.

All the while, Shane is trying to keep his face out of the media when he accidentally sets up a chance to earn the team much money recovering stolen art, and Julien and Danny struggle to realize when is the right time to go "by the book" and when is not.