Victor Samuel Mackey, played by Michael Chiklis, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the FX crime drama series The Shield, which ran for seven seasons.

[2] He leads a small anti-gang unit primarily tasked with curbing the rampant drug trade in the fictional Farmington district of Los Angeles.

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.

Crowley had been sent by Captain David Aceveda and the Justice Department to build a Federal case against the Strike Team for colluding with drug lord Rondell Robinson.

Vic and Shane then rig the crime scene evidence, claiming that Two Time stepped out of the bathroom, shot Terry, and was slain by their return fire.

Mackey admits to all the crimes he has committed including the slayings of Terry Crowley, Margos Dezerian, Guardo Lima, and many others, and receives full immunity from prosecution for all of them.

After he details all of his crimes, a horrified ICE Agent Olivia Murray tells Vic that he has "implicated Detective Gardocki in enough shit to send him to prison for the rest of his life."

Realizing that the deal includes no stipulations about the capacity in which ICE must employ Vic, Murray vows to make his three years at the agency as unpleasant as possible by severely curtailing his duties.

Gardocki's loyalty is exhibited best when Shane reveals his and Vic's murder of Terry Crowley years earlier, in order to drive a wedge between the remaining two members of the Strike Team.

Ronnie panics at the thought of Shane, now a fugitive, being arrested and confessing to the many crimes committed by the Strike Team and even considers running to Mexico.

"[19] Lem was reluctant to participate in the robbing of the Armenian mob, and his subsequent burning of the money train cash to elude capture ignites antagonism between him and Shane Vendrell, which ultimately brings the entire team's existence to an end.

When the Strike Team eventually returns, Vic had Lem get collateral from a drug dealer to ensure a tip regarding the whereabouts of a body that could implicate Shane.

At the start of the second season, Aceveda, not wanting a scandal in the midst of his political career, agrees to watch Mackey's back if he could make the Strike Team appear to clean up their act and exhibit professionalism at all times.

This friendship, however, ends when Aceveda left for his City Council position, but not before writing a scathing letter that makes Mackey out to be an ineffective detective and accusing him of Terry Crowley's murder, irreparably damaging his career.

Mackey also has a close friendship with a prostitute, Connie Reisler, whom in an unseen story he found "lying in a bathroom in a pool of bloody crystals", trying to end her pregnancy with drain cleaner and a plunger.

[23][24][25][26][27] On Bravo TV's countdown of the 100 Greatest Television Characters, Michael Chiklis described Mackey as "a cross between Hannibal Lecter and Dirty Harry.

For all his flaws, Mackey sincerely loves his wife and autistic son and has a vulnerability and wit that makes it hard to hate him even when you know he's indefensible.

"[25] Maria Elena Fernandez for the Los Angeles Times shares similar sentiments, stating the distinction between right or wrong is "to put it mildly, blurry for Mackey, who manages to be a hero and an antihero simultaneously, committing the most heinous acts imaginable while eliciting compassion from viewers.

Rather than seeming like the logical climax to a harrowing manhunt, the scene comes off as an abrupt but contrived display of shock tactics – a way to maintain media-buzz momentum."

He adds "The Shield seems to think that its core premise (Mackey: a hero who does brutal, illegal things) is so intrinsically engrossing, we're not going to notice how recklessly dumb his actions are.

"[32] Daniel Feinberg and Inkoo Kang of The Hollywood Reporter highlight that police brutality in the United States is an issue seldom touched upon on television.

Kang states that The Shield "sensationalized Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) and his crew's aggression while frequently contextualizing their violence as part of some larger effort — and therefore of strategic necessity (even if there was never any doubt that their schemes were to enrich themselves and continue terrorizing L.A.'s criminals with impunity)."

Even if the end of The Shield leaves absolutely no ambiguity at all that Vic is a character doomed to, at the very least, a metaphorical hell for his actions, you can't stop viewers from having their own interpretations.

"[33] In an article on "why he likes nightmarish policemen despite misgivings", Andrew Billen of the New Statesman writes, "Mackey is a thug on the take, not Dixon of Dock Green meets The Enforcer.

At a time when forensic procedure has come to dominate the most successful American crime shows, spawning in the US multiple spin-offs from Law and Order and CSI, The Shield, despite its sensationalist, over-schematic premise, pushes character back into the limelight.

"[35] Ginia Bellafante of The New York Times writes that Mackey "jury-rigged the rules so aggressively, and so often based on nothing more than his own self-interest, that he left the Jack Bauers and Dirty Harrys to seem like hospital gift shop volunteers.

"[36] Ben Sherlock of Screen Rant adds, "Arriving between the trendsetting reign of Tony Soprano and the game-changing transformation of Walter White, Vic Mackey enjoyed a fascinating arc on The Shield.

[...] It's not easy to make a crooked cop work as the protagonist of a police procedural, but Michael Chiklis made for a riveting lead and series creator Shawn Ryan used this atypical hero to put a fun twist on a well-worn genre.

"[39] On the other hand, Allan Johnson writing for the Chicago Tribune describes Mackey as "a pugnacious brute who wants to keep the peace and protect the innocent – he just seems to relish being loutish about it."

[...] It is the line that Mackey crosses in the name of justice that gives The Shield its fire, a world that will test viewers who may like their heroes with fewer shades of gray.