--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: The Shield image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltedefcb87b780b6a8/69869f2ef983e7d6d704f31d/t100_tv_shield1.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Aug 12, 2014 # _The Shield_ by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Everett Although this police drama was inspired by a cop-corruption scandal of the 1990s, when it debuted in 2002 it had a distinctly post-9/11 theme: what moral compromises are we willing to accept in the name of safety? It centers on Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis), an extremely effective, extremely shady cop heading an LAPD unit that takes down murderers and pushers, usually trampling the Bill of Rights and pocketing dirty money for themselves in the process. _The Shield_ depicts a dirty, red-in-tooth-and-claw L.A. where no one, from cop to politician, white, black or brown, is entirely selfless. No show does a better job of making you feel your TV screen needs a good Windexing when an episode is over. [Get This TV Series](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012CJQY6/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103784/the-shield/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103784/the-shield/"},"headline":"The Shield","datePublished":"2014-08-12T15:22:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:01:46.725Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103784/the-shield/","keywords":["drama"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltedefcb87b780b6a8/69869f2ef983e7d6d704f31d/t100_tv_shield1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltedefcb87b780b6a8/69869f2ef983e7d6d704f31d/t100_tv_shield1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103784/the-shield/","name":"The Shield"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Shield","description":"No show does a better job of making you feel your TV screen needs a good Windexing when an episode is over.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/OqOZz3HE/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2007-09-04T21:24:52.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/OqOZz3HE.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103784/the-shield/","duration":"PT30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103784/the-shield/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```