The Shield
Pilot: orginlly transmitted March 12, 2002
Written By: Shawn Ryan
History
In a crowded market place full of cop shows, FX shouted me too! The Shield was created by Shawn Ryan who previously wrote for Angel. The show was based on Rampart Scandal, where a corrupt anti-gang unit of the LAPD was prosecuted for misconduct. The convicted offences include unprovoked shootings, unprovoked beatings, planting of evidence, framing of suspects, stealing and dealing narcotics, bank robbery, perjury, and covering up evidence of these activities. From the outset it was clear this was going to be a different sort of cop show.
Story
The Shield opens with Captain Aceveda (Benito Martinez) addressing the press, he basically sets up the area in which the show is set, “some reporters have gone as far as to label Farmington a war zone”. This scene of direct exposition in which he tells of his success is intercut with a scene of the police on the streets. Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) is chasing a guy down, after bursting through a shop he finally corners the guy who swallows the last of his drugs thus getting rid of the evidence. This doesn’t stop Vic getting his arrest, after punching the guy in the stomach he pulls down his trousers a rips a bag of drugs off the guy’s nads. Rather handing the drugs over as evidence, Vic pockets them. We cut back to the Aceveda who asks the press (and indirectly us) “any questions?”
*At the two minute mark, the Shield has told us where we are, who are main guy is, who his rival is and why this show is different from every other cop show on TV. We are presented with Vic Mackey, a hard as nails cop who doesn’t mind using excessive force on criminals, we also get the slightest hint that he is a little crooked too.
After the opening titles we meet Detective Dutch Wagenbach (Jay Karnes) and Detective Claudette Wyms (C.C.H. Pounder). They are at the murder scene, Dutch’s first comment is on how great the breasts are on the corpse. He turns to Danny (Catherine Dent), the uniformed officer who discovered the body, Dutch explains his first instincts of the case, setting up the fact that he is very into psychology, but also his lack of tact “he covered the genitals which suggest he was ashamed of what he did”.
Outside a woman is trying to get in, a second uniformed officer holds her back. Dutch breaks the news that the woman’s sister is dead. She falls her knees crying in front of Dutch. Other officers smile since her head is now placed right in front of Dutch’s crutch. The woman then breaks the news that there is a daughter as well. Suddenly the murder becomes a child kidnapping.
*At the four minute mark we are given the driving story for this episode, a missing girl. We are introduced to four new characters and although we really only know the personality of Dutch we are aware of the hierarchy between the characters.
Back at the station Vic has just brought in the man he arrested in the opening scene. A woman running the press conference offers him a chance to speak to the press praising his team for lowering the crime rate. Vic refuses the publicity, before launching into a speech about the broken men’s toilets, “if the city wants to thank us for a job well done, how making it so we don’t all have to cram into one godamn stall!” The speech gets applause from the station solidifying the fact that despite Vic’s dirty ways he is very well respected in the station.
Aceveda call s Vic up into his office to address a complaint about police brutality that has been made about him. Vic denies any excessive force and reminds Aceveda that about the drugs they took during the siege. Vic stands his ground, even going so far as to show contempt for his captain, “see what you can do about getting the jon fixed”
*In the opening scene we saw the police brutality, but at the 6 minute mark it is established as the driving force of the series. Is it ok use excessive force on drug dealers, rapists and gang members? Vic certainly thinks so, but the question of ethics still remain and although Aceveda may want to let Vic slide it could come back and bite him. While not directly stated Vic has placed himself as the police captain on the streets, while Aceveda belongs behind a desk, giving press conferences and getting the toilets fixed. We have no doubt that these two will be major rivals.
Dutch and Claudette arrive at the station where Dutch expresses an interest in Danny “40% of female officers find their spouse in the force.” He says, but Claudette has a different take “If you want to start dating again, fine, but go after a cop in your own station, that’s just lazy.” This doesn’t stop Dutch hitting on Danny in the kitchen, but then Vic and his strike team enter, word has reached them about the grieving woman and they are only to ready to mock him for it. With Dutch out the room Vic hits on Danny, it is clear the two have had an affair, but Danny wants to move on, not least because Vic is married.
Vic’s strike team is made up of four other guys, but one seems slightly apart. Terry watches from the side lines as Vic talks to a drug dealer. In the scene that follows we learn a little more. Terry and Aceveda meet out in a park where he feeds the police captain information about Vic. This confirms Aceveda suspicions that Vic is controlling the drug scene is Farmington. By knocking off rival gangs he creates a monopoly for one deal in particular. With the monopoly in place the streets are safer and Vic is sure to be picking up a cut of the profits. Terry agrees to help bring Vic down, but he knows that Aceveda’s motives are far from pure. “If you want to be major some day you are going to have to lie a lot better than that.”
Back on the street, Claudette and Dutch are trying to chase down the father of the missing child. It turns out he is in a crack den so Claudette asks Vic to go pick him up.
Later that day Claudette and Dutch have the opportunity to interrogate Lonnie, the father of the missing girl. He is still high on drugs and can’t remember killing his ex wife. He remembers that he went to get his daughter and then confesses that he sold her for 200 dollars to guy “who likes girls”.
Dutch and Claudette follow up the tip and bring another guy into the station. His selection of porn confirms that he has paedophilic tendencies. Dutch confronts the him and talks about how homosexuality was once considered an illness, but now scientists believe it is genetic, “so if god made them that way, who are we to say that the things they do is wrong.”, he continues applying the same logic to a possible paedophile gene.
Late at night Vic confronts a hooker, he makes as if he is going to arrest her but she is actually an informant. She gives him the heads up about the location of a drug dealer. Then for the first time he shows a softer side and offers the hooker money to get some food.
Claudette and Aceveda discuss Vic, she know what he does on the street, but also knows that it gets results and gives him protection from higher up the chain. Aceveda points out that Vic is not a cop, “he’s Al Capone with a badge.”, Claudette retaliates with the fact that Capone made money by getting people what they wanted, “these days people want to be safe and if that means roughing someone up in the ghetto then most people say, don’t ask, don’t tell”
After a night of interrogation Dutch finally gets the guy to crack and he confesses that he didn’t really like the girl so he traded her with a guy he met on the internet.
Vic is throwing garden party, we see him as a family man, he also uses the opportunity to invite Terry to join them in the front line when they raid the house of a drug dealer Two Times. As he sits with his team he tells the guys that this is a once in a life time opportunity, it is going to be dangerous and they have to look out for each other.
Back at the station Dutch and Claudette have moved onto their next lead. The Doctor is not as easy to crack as the first two suspects, he doesn’t fall for Dutch’s psychology and utters the words “charge me or release me.” With a girl missing they don’t have time to crack him. Aceveda sees only one solution and turns to Vic for help.
Vic enters the interrogation room, he places a phonebook, a lighter, a box knife and a bottle of whiskey on the table. “These are the things that I am going to use to get you tell me where the girl is.” Dutch, Claudette and Aceveda watch the video feed knowing full well what is going to happen, at least they do until the violence starts and Aceveda switches off the TV.
It is not long before Vic emerges with the location of the missing girl. Aceveda leads Claudette and Dutch to the basement apartment where they find the girl locked in a cupboard.
The show ends with a music montage. The Strike Team head out for their drug bust, while we see the other cops in their home environment. Aceveda as a father, Danny getting ready for a blind date, but taking a gun for protection, Claudette at home alone.
Vic and the strike team storm the house, Vic kills the dealer, picks up his gun, turns and shoots Terry in the face.
Retooling
In the pilot Vic is portrayed as a nasty guy, while popular in the station we never see him do anything other than shout down authority and mock Dutch, he helps drug dealers, cheats on his wife, beats up suspects and shoots a fellow policeman in the face. Having established this character when the series rolled around they had soften him somewhat, we see much more of his home life and especially his relationship with his three children. Vic rises up as the central character rather than ensemble piece set up in the pilot.
The original concept was to have the Strike Team in the background, in the pilot other than Terry, none of the team are referred to by name, two members don’t even speak. When the series rolled out the show focused on these other members.
The set saw some changes as they moved from a location to a purpose build set. The main difference is seen in the look of the interrogation rooms which are much more gritty in the final show.
In a scene edited out of the pilot we learn that Danny’s rookie partner is gay, since his role was so small in the pilot this twist was held back until later in the series.
In the second series they produced an episode called co-pilot, this was set 4 month before the original pilot and just gets everything wrong. It is worth watching for how not to write a pilot.
Conclusion
There is a reason why there are so many cop show on TV, a murder is easy to build a story around and allows anyone to come to the show at any point in series and have a story with a beginning middle and an end. In The Shield pilot the murder is solved quickly but the chain of events leads to something more disturbing. They go dark quickly thus setting up what the viewers can expect.
Again make sure you notice how both the plot of the episode and the theme of the series is in place within the first five minutes of the show.
Now we have talked about how the pilot should be self contained, but obviously the final scene comes totally out of the blue and spins the show off in an unpredictable direction. This event will end up becoming a plot device that continues to resurface in all seven series. So powerful stuff. So while you do want a self contained story, you also want to end with a twist that will make people want to come back and see more. The shooting of a fellow policeman is probably one the best end of pilot twists I have come across so far, it might even be a little too ballsy.
