History Main / TheShield

** '''Vic:''' [[spoiler:He gets full immunity from his crimes and a cushy new job, but quickly falls into his own personal hell: he's stuck working a desk job for three years with a supervisor who blatantly tells Vic that she'll do everything in her power to bait Vic into violating his immunity deal. Oh, and his ex-wife has fled town with their children, entered Witness Protection, and has an order of protection out against Vic.]]

* PyrrhicVillainy: [[spoiler: Vic's final fate. While he ends up with a better job (working as a federal law enforcement agent, with a cushy desk job) and full immunity for his sins), his victory is hollow. Vic has betrayed all of his friends, who are either dead or now rotting in jail. His ex-wife has taken extreme steps to ensure Vic can never come near her again, or their children and his mistress is moving heaven and earth to ensure Vic can never come near their son, who will inevitably learn all about what a monster his father is. Furthermore, Vic's biggest strength (his charisma and people skills) have been permenantly tarnished, due to the fact that his KarmaHoudini required him to confess to all of his sins and as such, everyone knows now that he murdered a fellow law enforcement officer, let alone betrayed one of his proteges in exchange for said immunity. And while he still has a job in law enforcement, his work contract only lasts three years, for people who can't stand the sight of him and who have made it clear that they intend to make his life such hell that he'll void his immunity deal, which only becomes irrevokable if he manages to complete the three year work contract. ]]

* OnlySaneMan: Lem, and to a lesser extent Ronnie often fills this role within the Strike Team.
** Subverted with Claudette, as her various moments of sanity ultimately are negated by a lot of the questionable decisions she makes (such as firing Kevin Hiatt for actually being a goody-goody and not a faux goody-goody who would get his hands dirty for Claudette so she could look good to her superiors).

* AffablyEvil / EvillyAffable: The Strike Team in general, with Vic and Shane under the EvillyAffable label and Lem and Ronnie under the AffablyEvil label. Subverted with Captain/Councilman Acaveda, whose arc begins with him becoming AffablyEvil, but later turning EvillyAffable by the end of the series. And toss in Antwon Mitchell, who fits the AffablyEvil archetype when he's pretending to be a nice guy.

* [[IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!]]: Off-screen, a Federal undercover agent is given one of these tests. he apparently "passed" because we later see the carved up remains of his victim.
** Subverted with Tina, who constantly gets these offers just about every time she does undercover work: first being asked to let a bunch of sadistic pimps gangbang her and later, when a porn director/drug dealer orders her to perform oral sex on fellow undercover cop Julian. Luckily, she is able to wiggle out of having to do so each time she's been offered the proverbial kitten to eat.

** '''Corrine:''' [[spoiler:Corrine and her kids are forced to go into Witness Protection program, with Corrine living in fear of the day in which Vic might eventually find her and what he will do to her to punish her for betraying him. On top of that, her two kids with autism will be forced into a sub-par school system (the WP officer reluctantly describes the schools in the area as "decent"), essentially ruining any chance the kids had to lead independent lives.]]

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Pretty much the bulk of seasons six and seven are spent with various saving throws being tossed to bring Shane away from the abyss of fan hatred after [[spoiler: he killed Lem]]. Also, when they redubbed dialogue into one episode clarifying that Shane's black mistress was of legal age, after network executives freaked out over the notion of one of the show's main characters having sex with an underaged girl. Also, Dutch's killing a stray cat is semi-balanced out by him adopting a stray kitten, which is never mentioned again. Subverted with the murder of Terry Crowley, as the show was able to resist retroactively making Terry a monster of some kind to make his death at Vic's hands justifiable.

* ChekovsGun: The cell phone pic of Aceveda's rape. Subverted with the MAD Document Shane produced, which Vic lied about using AGAINST Shane in the series finale. And a more literal example, [[spoiler:the stolen grenade used by Shane to kill Lem.]]

** Subverted in season one, where Dutch faces off with a serial killer who psychoanalysis Dutch and his failures as a human being complete with using the interrogation room's white board to map out Dutch's psyche to pinpoint his failures. The subversion comes from the fact that Dutch willfully endures this to buy his partner the time needed to get a search warrant to search the killer's house, to get the evidence proving him to be the murderer. Though this strategy works and causes the rank and file officers (including Vic Mackey) to cheer Dutch for his smarts in catching the killer, viewers watch Dutch break down into tears in private following the conclusion of the interrogation.

For the most part however, Vic's conscience is driven mainly by the influence of Strike Team member Curtis "Lem" Lemansky. Lem serves as the counterpart to Vic's much abused "yes-man" partner, Shane Vendrell. Rounding out the group is the Ronnie Gardocki, a quiet and nerdy police detective whose silent loyalty to Vic counterbalances Lem and Shane's polar opposite personalities.

The hyperactive, yet Shakespearian counterpart to the Dickensian ''TheWire'', ''TheShield'' is a fast-paced, tense cop show about a team of police working at The Barn, an experimental police precinct in Farmington, a fictional area of LA. Although Michael Chiklis is the star of the series, the series itself is mainly an ensemble show as the series explores the goings on within the Farmington Precinct and the various power struggles and drama going on within the precinct, often with Chiklis's character, corrupt police detective Vic Mackey, in the midst of the chaos and intrigue.

-->''"Good cop and bad cop left for the day; I'm a different kind of cop."''\\
~ '''Vic Mackey''', right before one of his {{Establishing Character Moment}}s.

* TheAce: Vic Mackey especially in season 1. He's a big tough guy, makes fun of 'losers' like Dutch, ran circles around Acevada and later Billings, and often gets laid. This changes in later season but it does pop up from time to time.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Ronnie Gardocki, who depending on which side of fandom you ask is either a good guy who fell in with the bad crowd and became the scapegoat for the group's sins as a result or a bad guy who's ultimate fate was the end result of his blind loyalty to Vic Mackey. Also Lem, who is either the conscience of the Strike Team and only 100% good guy there or a weak-willed loser who's "conscience" only springs up when things gets bad. Or Claudette Wyms: she's either the main conscience/voice of morality on the show or a self-righteous bitch who is willing to let Vic run roughshod over everyone, her own partner included, so long as he stays out of her way. The fact that she hired and then promptly FIRED a non-corrupt and totally competent replacement for Vic because his way of doing things (mainly, wanting to shut down violent gang initiations as opposed to following Vic's policy of allowing initiations to go forward in exchange for recruiters working for Vic as unofficial informants) did not bring in the instant results Claudette needed to get her supervisors off her back, sums up the character's schizophrenic, at best, nature. In a real-life version, Walton Goggins was known to do this; during seasons six and seven, most of his interviews promoting the show had Walton arguing the position that Shane was still a good guy and that the murder of Lem and his betrayal of Vic/Ronnie was based upon him wanting to protect his family. Which was valid, at least until the series finale when [[spoiler: Shane kills his family and then himself.]]

* CompleteMonster: Besides Vic Mackey (who was exposed as a full-on monster in the final season of the show), the show has several majorly notable complete monster villains:
** Armadillo Quintero, a Mexican drug kingpin, probably ranks as the most horrific of the show's Big Bads. A 20-something year old Mexican drug lord with a genius IQ, Armadillo started his criminal career raping a teacher when he was '''twelve'''. He's a sadistic murderer who tried to eliminate his competition within Farmington by having his brother secretly sell a major gang tainted drugs (which would kill hundreds of users), then had his brother murdered after his arrest so that his enemies couldn't hurt him in retaliation. He has a tendency to kill his rivals by burning them alive with a tire around their neck for extra suffering. He disfigured Ronnie by burning his face with a stove burner. He's also a rapist who tattoos his victims with a dove on their face as a "reminder"; in one of his worst crimes, he did so to '''a 12-year-old girl''' who sought to testify against him and implicate him in a murder.
** Antwon Mitchell. Like Quintero, he's a huge drug kingpin; unlike Quintero, he's trying to replace crack cocaine with heroin. He murders a teenage girl with two police officers' weapons, implicating them in the killing; he orders his estranged son to murder two police officers, and then manipulates the Strike Team to help his goons break into a police evidence storage building, with his goons killing an innocent guard and one of their own just to drive home the point to Vic that he could fuck Vic's life up and make him culpable for two deaths; he mocked Vic to his face when confronted with the notion that he murdered [[spoiler:Lem]], as far as laughing at Vic for thinking he would do something as predictable like that.

** In what way is Tina a CMHB? She ranges from average to incompetent, without a single CrowningMomentofAwesome worth mentioning.
* [[CrowningMoment/TheShield Crowning Moment of Awesome]]: Click the link to go straight to the page dedicated to ''The Shield''.

* DisContinuity: Dutch did not kill a cat just to see how it felt to kill a living being. Also, "Co-Pilot" never happened (though some fans recognizing at least parts of the episode as canon, as far as pertaining to how Ronnie and Lem joined the Strike Team, how Dutch and Claudette became partners, and Ronnie's explanation for why he has his mustache when a character makes fun of his facial hair).

* DracoInLeatherPants: The Strike Team in general, but most notably Ronnie Gardocki and Curtis "Lem" Lemansky. While there are fans of the show who will agree with you that Vic Mackey is a horrible person, there are fans of "The Shield" who will condemn Vic and Shane while arguing in the defense of Lem and Ronnie being good people and not willing accomplices to Vic's crimes. Ronnie in particular typifies this notion, especially after the finale as far as fans who still think the character got screwed over as opposed to having received his just punishment for his crimes. Lem at least has an ArmedWithCanon PeerPressureMadeMeEvil excuse. Ronnie on the other hand, mainly has the fact that the character was never truly fleshed out and had so many Woobie-related moments, not to to mention being cast opposite Shane in season seven, that it led to fans fanwanking Ronnie as a good guy caught up with bad people.

* EscalatingWar: Season two had this with Vic and Armadillo and later with Vic versus Kavanaugh, which featured the escalating plot point of Vic fucking Kavanaugh's estranged ex-wife and Kavanaugh in turn confronting Corrine (Vic's ex) with a deranged offer for sex to get back at Vic. Not to mention Vic driving Kavanaugh to the breaking point of breaking the law and planting evidence on Vic in a desperately pathetic attempt to bring him to justice. The relationship between the two was once described as "a downward spiral of one-upsmanship."

* {{Fanon}}: Ronnie Gardocki's personality as a nerdy but good-hearted person corrupted by Vic Mackey is the standard fanon backstory for the character. Fanon was made canon with the issue of what nickname the writers used for Curtis Lemansky; season one had characters refer to him as "Lemonhead", which was shortened by fans of the show to just "Lem". By the start of season two, characters started referring to the character exclusively by "Lem".

* GrowingTheBeard: Season 1 was great and all but season 2 became more realistic, took out the humor, not that it was sinking the show, but by focusing more on the drama the show got viewers on the edge of their seats quicker.

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: Ronnie Gardocki's ultimate fate, being arrested and made into the Judas Goat for the crimes of the Strike Team. In a situation where being stabbed to death during your first night in county lock-up awaiting trial is considered the LEAST awful thing that could happen to you, the scenerio is made even more horrifying when you consider that Ronnie was the least evil of all of the Strike Team members, meaning his fate is literally a fate worse than death.
** Vic Mackey's confession also counts. Watching Olivia's reaction to Vic telling her that he murdered Terry Crowley, then move onto confessing to even WORSE sins of abuse of authority and greed, you get the reaction of someone realizing that they've been conned into allowing a monster to forever escape punishment for crimes that are beyond the pale of corruption and evil. Also toss in Claudette's reaction, in which she is so utterly broken by her failures and complicity in allowing Vic to continue to get away with his crimes by turning a blind eye towards them, that she can't even bring herself to try and break his immunity for justice, just shame and humiliate him.
*** Even the other federal agent overseeing Vic Mackey's confession is disgusted.

* McGuffin: The plot of season seven partly revolves around a box filled with blackmail material that Vic and Acaveda steal from a major Mexican drug cartel, a theft Vic blames on the Armenians.
* MisaimedFandom: The number of real-life cops (or those who claimed they were) who supported and/or justified Vic's murder of Terry Crowley.
** Also Ronnie Gardocki; it says something that even though the scene with his arrest spells out why Ronnie pretty much deserves his ultimate fate, the overall reaction towards his fate was fans gasping in horror and an overall feeling of pity and sorrow that he ended up being made Vic Mackey's all-purpose fall-guy.
** Don't forget Lem; fans like to glorify his good qualities and ignore the bad side of the character. In particular, the fact that rather than do the right thing/own up to his sins and work with Kavanaugh to bring the Strike Team down after he was caught red handed, he worked with Vic and company to help him escape his comeuppence to the point of having him flee town after having him agree to a plea bargain, to distract Kavanaugh from the plan to have him flee justice.
* MoralEventHorizon: Where to begin? Where to begin?
** Shane murdering Lem, Vic selling out Ronnie in order to get his immunity deal, Ronnie reacting to the revelation that Vic murdered Terry by way of whining to Vic regarding why he was left out of the murder plot, Gilroy murdering a witness to him committing vehicular manslaughter after Vic successfully convinced the guy to lie about seeing Gilroy. Granted Ronnie, Shane, and Acaveda were given massive PetTheDog moments to backpeddle on these, but still...
** CompleteMonster villain Armadillo Quintero didn't just cross the Moral Event Horizon in his first appearance, he obliterated it: raping a twelve-year old girl who sought to testify against him for causing her brother's death, on top of raping said sibling's girlfriend, and forcibly tattooing a dove onto both girls' faces as a reminder of how they were violated. And this happening AFTER his introduction as a psychopath who BURNED PEOPLE ALIVE and was plotting to put POISON-LACED DRUGS onto the streets of Farmington, to discredit rival gangs and claim the drug market for himself.
** Dutch killing a cat definitely turned fans against the character, to such an extent that the scene essentially became DisContinuity.

* For all His crimes and actions,Vic Mackey will probably always be the cop who shot another cop in the face
* NationalStereotypes: The Team has a high-risk warrant for a Korean perp, so naturally they almost catch him at a LAN Cafe playing ''{{Counterstrike}}''.

* TheScrappy: Mara (especially in Season 3), as well as Cassidy Mackey.

* SeasonalRot: Season three is widely considered by fans to be a trainwreck of epic proportions, due to the show focusing on mainly on the Mara/Vic/Shane triangle while arbitrarily splitting up the other partners on the show (Julian/Danny and Claudette/Dutch) for the bulk of the season. The failures of the season is said to have caused the show to lose it's Golden Boy status within The FX Network, resulting in the show having to resort to stunt casting in seasons four and five to convince network executives to continue believing in the show. Luckily just about all fans agree that it recovered from this immediately in season four, and avoided any more rot right through to the series finale.
** YMMV but some viewers loved the melee a trois going on between Vic, Shane, and Mara and that the show allowed Lem to really start growing as a character. Also Mikas was a nice change of pace from the 'thinker' villains to a more 'unstoppable monster' type.

* TheEveryman: Ronnie Gardocki and Danny Sofer/Tina Hanlon
* TheOddCouple: Vic and Captain/City Councilman Acaveda, once they start teaming up on a regular basis as well as Dutch/Clauette
* TooDumbToLive: Shane
** Subverted with Tina, who's initial incompetence is balanced with an ability to improvise and survive countless close calls when the Strike Team use her as an undercover operative during several operations.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Vic Mackey was originally conceived as a veteren police officer in his late 50s, with Shawn Ryan namechecking the actor Harrison Ford, as far as his original vision of what Vic would be like (IE Harrison Ford playing a villain). Claudette Wyms was originally a male character, who's gender was flipped when they couldn't find a male actor to play the role. Neither Ronnie or Lem existed in the original script with David Rees Snell and Kenny Johnson both initially auditioning for the roles of Shane Vendrell and Terry Crowley respectively, before Ryan created the roles of Ronnie and Lem for the actors. Shane was supposed to have been killed off in season four as well, at Vic's hands during their confrontation midway through the season (after Shane was ordered to kill Vic by Antwon Mitchell). Lem's death in season five wasn't decided until midway through filming of the season; also dropped (but later resurrected as a foiler to keep Lem's death from being leaked out) was the notion of Shane being the one who delivered Danny's baby and that Danny would die due to complications involving the delivery.
** The character of Shane originally may not have survived season one had FX had their way. The network didn't care for Walt Goggins and made it clear to Shawn Ryan, after their picked up the seris, that they may order Goggins fired at the end of the season. As such, Ryan and the rest of the writers ended up crafting several episodes to convince the suits to keep Goggins around and successfully saved the actor's jobs AND convinced the network suits that they were wrong to casually dismiss the actor's talents.
*** Season seven also could have been quite different in not for some behind the scenes events: the season was originally conceived around having Franka Potente around to reprise her role as Armenian crime boss. When she decided to do the film "Che" instead, forcing them to rewrite the plotlines involving the Armenian crime syndicate. Similarly, the second half of the season was impacted due to Walt Goggins appearing in the film "Miracle At St Anna", resulting in the character of Shane becoming a wanted fugitive (which meant that they could film his scenes within a relative short time), so as to allow Goggins to do both projects.

* XanatosRoulette: Several of Vic's schemes basically amount to this, as far as Vic being able to manipulate events around him to such an extent that it seems like he's truly all-knowing, all-seeing.
* XanatosSpeedChess: Arguably Vic Mackey's biggest survival skill, as Vic is able to survive for seven seasons by large due to the fact that he is able to think on his feet and talk his enemies into fighting against each other rather than killing him.

* DirtyCop

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The finale left many unresolved questions.
** Ronnie's ultimate fate as far as which of his many sins he'll ultimately be charged with in court.
** The shitstorm that Vic's confession/immunity deal and Ronnie's arrest will have upon not only the LAPD as far as overturned convictions, but also Acaveda's political ambitions, given that the finale ends with Acaveda on cloud nine as far as the predicted favorite to win the mayoral election, with Ronnie's arrest, Shane's murder-murder-suicide, and the subsequent shitstorm with Vic's scamming ICE for immunity for murdering a cop having yet to make the evening paper/news.
** Danny's attempt to keep Vic out of her and her son's life.
** Dutch's relationship with both Danny and Tina
*** Lem's relationship with a woman named Tigra, who's brother Lem shot after mistaking him for another gang member in season one is another dropped plotline.

** '''Corrine:''' [[spoiler:Corrine and her kids are forced to go into Witness Protection program, with Corrine living in fear of the day in which Vic might eventually find her and what he will do to her to punish her for betraying him.]]

* DarkerAndEdgier: Subjective; season two featured darker villains (the evil arm-chopping off and murdering husband and wife pair, Armadillo Quintero) but kept the aura of hope for the main cast as far as overcoming these CompleteMonsters. Season three on the other hand, featured several characters being driven to the brink of the MoralEventHorizon and barely escaping it intact, while one of the central aspects of seasons one and two (the bond of friendship between the Strike Team members) began coming apart, as far as the Strike Team collapsing into infighting and Shane Vendrell going from harmless syncophant to ticking time bomb waiting to go off and take the entire team down with him.

** Also fandom being split between Ronnie and Lem versus Shane and Vic as far as which members of the Strike Team were worthy of redemption/deserving to survive the series with their badges and lives intact and which ones were CompleteMonsters who should fry in the electric chair for their crimes.

** The show's ending also falls into this trope: some fans take the idealism approach that Vic's beaten and will spend the next three years in pure hell and ultimately end up with no job, no prospects, and pretty much forever rejected by family and friends. Others however take the cynical approach to the ending: Vic will somehow, by force of will and charisma, rise from his ashes and not only neutralize those inside ICE that will make his life hell, but make new allies who will ensure he not only returns to working in the field, but also gets to stay a Federal Agent once his three years are up.
** Isn't the reverse? Cynism as in "realism/consequences-limit" not “Darker and edgier” would point that Vick had closed all his contact (he literally sacrificed his protégée to his worst nightmare in front of his superiors), his horrible acts are widespread and had become the embodiment of political wasteland, so for all his force of Will and Charisma to succeed would need to be the level of [[DeathNote Death Note]] caliber to even had a ounce of opportunity and, regardless of Fanon [[MagnificentBastard Magnificent Bastardy]] belief, Vic had never shown even close to that level of intelligence in the entire series. Cunning? Yes. But to succeed it would need to go to the silly end of the [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism Idealist side]] .

*** Once again, How is that cynical? Cynic, as in reality (Not GrimDark) demand reason and limit. Vick is a public political wasteland, had no friends, family, burned all his bridges, had barely capital and literally made nemesis with all his superiors who would obsessively watch him and will constatly sabotage him with all their might. Yes, he is smart and cunning but the Luck was with and incredible loyal efficient team, resources, pass blanque from his superiors and where balanced fights. Saying SOME leverage or ankle in the pit he is would need super genius level intellect, and act of God or that all his opponents drop dead simultaneously, karma o no Karma. That seems far, far in the side of Idealistic (If DiabolusExMachina kind) side of the spectrum.
**** In season five, in the above mentioned scene involving Acaveda discussing Vic's luck, he mentions that Vic's luck borders on super-power level, as far as him being able to pull out luck from out of no-where when things are at the wall. In this case (if you take the cynical side), you could assume that Olivia and her fellow supervisors are hit with a gag order keeping them from mentioning Vic's sins to their fellow co-workers and Vic's record is classified, because TPTB don't want Beltran's lawyers to have access to all of Vic's sins so as to completely invalidate Vic's credibility on the stand. Similarly, Ronnie is killed on his first night in prison/opts to take his own life, meaning Vic doesn't have to worry about being made to testify in court at Ronnie's trial and the LAPD can pretty much bury the truth about the crimes of the Strike Team under a rock. Especially since Claudette seems resigned to the fact that Vic got away with EVERYTHING, meaning that she has no real motive to spill the beans after the fact. Which means that Vic could resume weaseling his way back into a position of authority within a couple of weeks, especially if he can come up with a way to negate Olivia's vengefullness as petty jealousy of having to honor her deal with Vic to make him an ICE agent after he single handedly nailed Beltran after Olivia was ready to throw in the towel after the initial bust in the finale didn't net anything substantial.

The second half of the season focuses on the growing tension between Claudette and Vic, as the Strike Team begin to covertly take down a money-laundering exchange (aka "money train") being run by the Armenian mob and keep its contents for themselves. Elsewhere, Dutch and Patrol Officer Sofer deal with professional problems due to a series of screw-ups both individually suffer during the first half of the series and Julian (having "cured" himself of his homosexuality, marries a single mother he meets only to be outed by an ex-lover. Also, the Strike Team take on a new fifth member, a black detective named Tavon who is oblivious to the Strike Team's corrupt nature. In the end, Vic is able to get a cease-fire from Claudette after Vic and Tavon help catch the man who murdered Claudette's estranged ex-husband. But the cease fire maybe just be temporary when Claudette reveals that she's been selected to replace Acaveda as Captain as their superior prepares to leave office in the event of his election to the Los Angeles city council. The group carry out the Money Train heist, though their moment of triumph is quickly replaced by growing dread and fear. Stealing the money was the easy part, keeping their possesion of the money a secret, let alone surviving the coming shitstorm of the Armeniens looking for those who stole it, is the hard part.

** '''Ronnie:''' [[spoiler:He's arrested as the scapegoat for all of the crimes of the Strike Team and is sent to prison (a fate that Ronnie, earlier in the season, claimed was the far worse fate than being killed), where - assuming he doesn't get killed in jail awaiting trial - he's looking at going to prison for aiding and abedding a fugitve at best and being executed for the murder of Terry Crowley (even though he was utterly oblivious to the plot to kill Terry) at worst.]]

** Isn't the reverse? Cynism as in "realism/consequences-limit" not “Darker and edgier” would point that Vick had closed all his contact (he literally sacrificed his protégée to his worst nightmare in front of his superiors), his horrible acts are widespread and had become the embodiment of political wasteland, so for all his force of Will and Charisma to succeed would need to be the level of [[DeathNote Death Note]] caliber to even had a ounce of opportunity and, regardless of Fanon [[MagnificentBastard Magnificent Bastardy]] belief, Vick had never shown even close to that level of intelligence in the entire series. Cunning? Yes. But to succeed it would need to go to the silly end of the [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism Idealist side]] .
*** Depends on whether or not you see Vic as a CompleteMonster who's final fate was karma catching up with him. If you do, then the cynical side of the scale would be that Vic (who's luck, as noted by Acaveda, always seemed to manifest itself in his darkest hour) would somehow find SOME angle or piece of leverage that would allow him to destroy Olivia and gain Alpha-Male status within ICE, crimes be damned.

* TypeCasting: Subverted; the series helped destroy the public image of Michael Chiklis as the stern but lovable father figure that had been hung arond his neck since his early 90s series "The Commish" ended.
** It also helped give Anthony Anderson's career new life by showing him being capable of playing dramatic roles. In particular, Anderson personally credits "The Shield" for landing his current job on "Law and Order".

* XanatosSucker: Ronnie, is made to be the fall guy for Vic's crimes due to the immunity deal Vic struck behind his back. Had he not fled or been the least bit suspicious of Vic, he might have been able to escape his fate or at the very least found a way to drag Vic down into hell with him via exploiting the massive hole in Vic's confession that was Vic omitting pretty much everything that happened in seasons four and five.
** ICE Agent Olivia Murray is a big time example too. Vic cons her into giving him full immunity from all of his crimes and a job as a federal agent.
** A random parolee, who the Strike Team frames with some of the Money Train cash because he happens to have family in Indio, where Mara had sent some of the marked bills. He is ultimately tortured to death by the Armenian Mob for a crime he never even knew about.

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* RealityEnsues: Subverted; the series finale avoids all mention of the nightmare that Vic's immunity deal/confession and Ronnie being arrested will unleash upon the criminal justice system as far as all of the convictions that will be overturned due to the Strike Team's corruption being exposed.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Season 2, full stop. Season 1 had more humor, and even a few gimmicky story ideas (Vic and Claudette are forced to switch partners and HilarityEnsures) but season 2 introduced people like Armadillo, more gangs, more violence, and the humor was gone. Yeah it's possible in a show like The Shield. Could also be where the show went from a manly stubble, or Ronnie's mustache, to GrowingTheBeard.

*AllOfTheOtherReindeer- Dutch is largely treated as an outcast by the other cops at the precinct, with even his partner/best friend keeping him at arms' length most of the time. Strike Team member Ronnie Gardocki is also treated badly by his teammates: from making fun of his facial hair to his non-existent sex life, to being left out of the loop of many important decisions made by the Strike Team and largely treated as a gopher for Vic.
*AnyoneCanDie -- Starting with Terry in S1, Connie the hooker/informant in S2, Tommy in S3,[[spoiler: Lem in S5]], and finally ending with [[spoiler:Shane, Mara, and Jackson in the series finale.]]

*AntiVillain -- Lt. Jon Kavanaugh (Michael Chiklis even outright uses the term to describe him in interviews). The Strike Team qualify as well, if you take the stance that Claudette and Dutch are the true good guys in the story.

*AutoErotica- Danny and Vic in season four, which worked out as a perfect coincidence for the writers, as it let them use the scene to make Vic the father of Danny's baby, when the writers were forced to work Catherine Dent's pregnancy into the series.

*DiscOneFinalBoss- Armadillo from season two, who gets killed off midway through the season.

*DracoInLeatherPants- The Strike Team in general, but most notably Ronnie Gardocki and Curtis "Lem" Lemansky. While there are fans of the show who will agree with you that Vic Mackey is a horrible person, there are fans of "The Shield" who will condemn Vic and Shane while arguing in the defense of Lem and Ronnie being good people and not willing accomplices to Vic's crimes. Ronnie in particular typifies this notion, especially after the finale as far as fans who still think the character got screwed over as opposed to having received his just punishment for his crimes. Lem at least has an ArmedWithCanon PeerPressureMadeMeEvil excuse. Ronnie on the other hand, mainly has the fact that the character was never truly fleshed out and had so many Woobie-related moments, not to to mention being cast opposite Shane in season seven, that it led to fans fanwanking Ronnie as a good guy caught up with bad people.

*EscalatingWar -- Season two had this with Vic and Armadillo and later with Vic versus Kavanaugh, which featured the escalating plot point of Vic fucking Kavanaugh's estranged ex-wife and Kavanaugh in turn confronting Corrine (Vic's ex) with a deranged offer for sex to get back at Vic. Not to mention Vic driving Kavanaugh to the breaking point of breaking the law and planting evidence on Vic in a desperately pathetic attempt to bring him to justice. The relationship between the two was once described as "a downward spiral of one-upsmanship."

*FalseRoulette -- Tavon in season two.
*FailureIsTheOnlyOption- Everyone's attempts to bring Vic Mackey to justice fail miserably.

*Fanon- Ronnie Gardocki's personality as a nerdy but good-hearted person corrupted by Vic Mackey is the standard fanon backstory for the character. Fanon was made canon with the issue of what nickname the writers used for Curtis Lemansky; season one had characters refer to him as "Lemonhead", which was shortened by fans of the show to just "Lem". By the start of season two, characters started referring to the character exclusively by "Lem".
*FauxActionGirl -- Tina (Though she actually learns from her mistakes)
*FirstEpisodeSpoiler -- Vic murders Terry Crowley.
*FiveManBand -- Subversion: attempts to add a fifth member to the crew never go well.

**TheBigGuy/TheHeart: Lem is the largest on the team and always wields a shotgun, yet is the conscious and liked helping teens with their problems.

*GroinAttack -- The rat trap/glory hole plot is a ''very'' painful case of it.

*HeroicSociopath -- All four members of the Strike Team are arguably these, to varying degrees (Shane and Vic are on the extreme end of the spectrum, while Ronnie and Lem are on the more tame end of the spectrum)
*HeterosexualLifePartners- Vic and Shane (which at times is portrayed as an abusive marriage with Shane as the battered spouse) and Ronnie and Vic (at least in Ronnie's mind).

*HollywoodSex -- Subverted: Sex is usually portrayed as unglamorously as possible.
*HoYay- Where to begin? Vic/Shane, Lem/Shane, Vic/Ronnie (which comes out most notably when Ronnie's diatribe towards Vic betraying him all but confirms that Ronnie was in love with Vic, as far as his vision for his final fate involving him by Vic's side, either in prison or as wanted fugitives).
*HumiliationConga -- The series finale: What should've been Vic's CrowningMomentOfAwesome quickly downward spirals into a half-hour Karmic smackdown.
*[[IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!]] -- Off-screen, a Federal undercover agent is given one of these tests. he apparently "passed" because we later see the carved up remains of his victim.

*InspectorJavert -- Jon Kavanaugh (though Vic is ''much'' more dirty than The Javert's usual quarry).
*InternalAffairs -- Jon Kavanaugh in Season Five.
*IronicHell -- [[spoiler:Vic Mackey's]] final fate.
*ItGotWorse- The Money Train Heist in the season two finale: what should have been the Strike Team's crowning moment of awesomeness turning into the moment when things went off the rails and led to the destruction of the team and their friendships.
*ItWasHisSled- Vic shooting Terry Crowley, while a shocking twist when the pilot episode of "The Shield" first aired, has since become one of the most notable aspects of the show when fans talk about the series.
*JackBauerInterrogationTechnique -- In the first episode, Vic beats up a paedophile who won't say where he's keeping a kidnapped little girl.

*JerkAss- Shane, so very much. Also Vic, when it comes to Dutch. Aceveda becomes one in the later seasons.

*KickTheDog- In the finale; Vic's betrayal of Ronnie certainly qualifies as a moment designed to remind people what a monster Vic has become.

* LaserGuidedAmnesia- Subverted: Tavon and Shane did not get off on the right foot, largely because of Shane's racism and the fact that Vic was taking a liking to Tavon, even though he was also keeping the Strike Team's criminal activities a secret from him. Needless to say, Tavon and Shane ultimately came to blows and an iron to the head thanks to Mara (Shane's girlfriend) and conclussion caused car crash later, put Tavon in the hospital with short term amnesia. Shane then begs Vic and Lem (who also became close to Tavon) to lie their asses off to Tavon, telling him that he initiated the fight and accidentally "hit" Mara, which made Tavon agree to not tell anyone about the "fight" and let everyone think that the car crash caused his injuries. Cue season seven, when Tavon shows back up and request that Shane work with him on capturing a bad guy Shane had arrested early in his career. After catching the criminal and the two men getting along well, Tavon drops the bomb on Shane, revealing that his amnesia had been faked and that he simply played along with Vic and Lem's lies about the fight, after quickly putting two and two together that they were covering Shane's ass.
*MagnificentBastard -- Antwon Mitchell. Some believe that Vic is, though YourMileageMayVary.

*McGuffin- The plot of season seven partly revolves around a box filled with blackmail material that Vic and Acaveda steal from a major Mexican drug cartel, a theft Vic blames on the Armenians.
*MisaimedFandom -- The number of real-life cops (or those who claimed they were) who supported and/or justified Vic's murder of Terry Crowley.

* MoralEventHorizon- Where to begin? Where to begin?

*MurderTheHypotenuse- If you come between Vic and Shane, Shane WILL try to kill you.

* NationalStereotypes - The Team has a high-risk warrant for a Korean perp, so naturally they almost catch him at a LAN Cafe playing ''{{Counterstrike}}''.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero - In season 3, when the Cuddle-Rapist first appears, Dutch's top suspect is a rapist with a history but was good for 7 years. Dutch tells him that his morality compass was broken and the guy breaks down crying and asking if he can fix it, Dutch tells him it can't be fixed and eventually he admits he did it. Turns out he was lying, Dutch figures that out, and gets a call where he tells Dutch he shouldn't deny what he is. Cue Julien breaking into the apartment and finding the guy raping his neighbor. At least Dutch didn't have a break-down like the Marcy one.
* NobleBigotWithABadge -- Shane, who evolved into this trope after actor Walt Goggins voiced his discomfort to the writers about playing an unashamedly racist and homophobic asshole.
* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed - Farmington is not a real LA neighborhood. It's a pastiche of Downtown, [[strike: South Central]] South Los Angeles, Koreatown, and Compton.
*NotSoAboveItAll- Despite being shown to be one of the few honest and moral people on the show, Danny is seen (along with Tina and Corrine Mackey) making a special trip to an illegal store selling knock-off designer bags the day before the shop is to be raided and shut down by the police.

*PeerPressureMakesYouEvil- The root cause for why Lem is a corrupt cop. Not to mention the catch-all excuse for DracoInLeatherPants Ronnie, as far as fans projecting motive for why Ronnie did evil.
*PerpAndWeapon -- In season three.
*PlayingAgainstType -- Michael Chiklis when he was first cast as Vic Mackey, and later on Anthony Anderson as Antwon Mitchell.
*PornStache- Ronnie in the first two seasons.
*PyrrhicVillainy - [[spoiler: Vic's final fate. While he ends up with a better job (working as a federal law enforcement agent, with a cushy desk job) and full immunity for his sins), his victory is hollow. Vic has betrayed all of his friends, who are either dead or now rotting in jail. His ex-wife has taken extreme steps to ensure Vic can never come near her again, or their children and his mistress is moving heaven and earth to ensure Vic can never come near their son, who will inevitably learn all about what a monster his father is. Furthermore, Vic's biggest strength (his charisma and people skills) have been permenantly tarnished, due to the fact that his KarmaHoudini required him to confess to all of his sins and as such, everyone knows now that he murdered a fellow law enforcement officer, let alone betrayed one of his proteges in exchange for said immunity. And while he still has a job in law enforcement, his work contract only lasts three years, for people who can't stand the sight of him and who have made it clear that they intend to make his life such hell that he'll void his immunity deal, which only becomes irrevokable if he manages to complete the three year work contract. ]]
*TheProfiler -- Dutch, on occasion.
*ThePunishment- Vic, for all of his sins and magnificent bastardom and success at manipulating everyone around him, is rewarded by [[spoiler: being given a job as a Federal Law Enforcement Agent, with his supervisor (the one who was bamboozled into giving Vic immunity for his laundry list of sins and said job as an Agent of the US Government) having to neutralize the monster she empowered by giving him a cushy, if not unimportant, desk job for at least three years to keep him off the streets. It's also stated that on top of her own duties, said supervisor will have to devote the next three years of her life, micromanaging Vic in order to make sure he stays neutered as well as bait him into quitting/committing an offense that would void his job contract/immunity deal, since if Vic manages to somehow somehow last in his job for the agreed upon three years, his immunity becomes irrevocable and he can NEVER EVER be held accountable for his crimes.]]
* RapeAsDrama- Aceveda's rape is played deadly serious with all the emotional trauma it would produce. Aceveda starts beating a prostitute in an attempt to reclaim his masculinity, and then makes a deal with Antwon Mitchell to have the rapist murdered in prison.

* RealitySubtext- On numerous DVD commentaries, Shawn Ryan has stated that the character of Detective Dutch Wagenbach is largely based off of the real life/personality of Jay Karnes, the actor who plays the character. This has led to much teasing between Ryan and Karnes (who are long-time friends) on the DVD commentaries, whenever Ryan points out that just about every failed relationship the character Dutch has over the run the series is based (loosely) off of a real life failed relationship Karnes had.

*RedShirt- Subverted with Ronnie, who kept surviving near-fatal incidents that would have killed most background characters over the course of the series.
* RetiredBadAss- Subverted with Vic's old mentor, played by [[{{Predator}} Carl Weathers]]. Vic is initially eager to ride with him again, but it later turns out that he's using Vic because he was forced out of the LAPD years ago without a pension, and has become a down-on-his-luck loser.
*RippedFromTheHeadlines- The ultimate fate of the Vendrell family was inspired by the real life murder-murder-suicide of Chris Benoit to his own family.

* SacrificialLamb -- Both Ronnie and Lem (a fact that is lampshaded in the "end of series" montage during the final credits)

*ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections- During season one, Vic Mackey used his close relationship with Assistant Chief Gilroy to do whatever he wanted, including defy the authority of Captain Acaveda, who was Vic's superior officer. This was displayed most notably in the pilot: Vic engages in outright insubordination, in front of his fellow officers, towards Captain Acaveda when Acaveda attempts to give Vic an order. Furthermore, the pilot (and later episodes in season one) established that Vic's relationship with Gilroy made it impossible for Acaveda to fire Vic, let alone get Internal Affairs to investigate the Strike Team since Gilroy would squash any attempts to investigate Vic.

*SeasonalRot- Season three is widely considered by fans to be a trainwreck of epic proportions, due to the show focusing on mainly on the Mara/Vic/Shane triangle while arbitrarily splitting up the other partners on the show (Julian/Danny and Claudette/Dutch) for the bulk of the season. The failures of the season is said to have caused the show to lose it's Golden Boy status within The FX Network, resulting in the show having to resort to stunt casting in seasons four and five to convince network executives to continue believing in the show. Luckily just about all fans agree that it recovered from this immediately in season four, and avoided any more rot right through to the series finale.

*ShutUpHannibal- Usually Ronnie's response to Shane in the later seasons, when Shane tries to convince Ronnie to betray Vic and join forces with him.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism- The rest of the cast compared to The Strike Team

* SmugSnake -- Shane, Claudette, and Billings qualify as the biggest examples. Subverted with Acaveda and Vic, as both men generally have better track records than the other three.
* StepfordSmiler- Claudette (tries her best to keep Dutch from finding out about her failed career as a professional dancer, the fact that her daughter abandoned her husband to run off with another man, and her lupus) and Corrine (who spends the series desperately trying to cling to the illusion of a normal, if not divorced family for her children, until her husband's crimes are exposed to her by Mara is graphic detail and she is forced, against her will, by Shane and Mara, to aide their escape from the police).

* StraightGay -- Julian.
* StuntCasting- Glenn Close and Anthony Anderson in season four, Forrest Whitaker in season five, and Franka Potente in season six.
* TheEveryman- Ronnie Gardocki and Danny Sofer/Tina Hanlon
* TheOddCouple- Vic and Captain/City Councilman Acaveda, once they start teaming up on a regular basis as well as Dutch/Clauette
* TooDumbToLive -- Shane

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill - The El Salvadorian gang's usage of ''hand grenades''
* ThrowTheBookAtThem - Vic has occasionally beaten up people using a DoorStopper.
*TruffautWasRight- Subverted somewhat. While glamorizing the CowboyCop antics of the Strike Team, the show goes about showing their criminal deeds as being utterly unglamorous as far as showing the dark, unattractive side to police corruption with the overall downward spiral of the group. Also, outright subverts the notion of the Strike Team living large on their ill-gotten loot. Outside of Shane purchasing a home for his family, the Strike Team is largely shown having to hide their ill-gotten money or at best, using it to pay for medical bills/specialized therapy for their autistic kids.
* TypeCasting- Subverted; the series helped destroy the public image of Michael Chiklis as the stern but lovable father figure that had been hung arond his neck since his early 90s series "The Commish" ended.

* TurnInYourBadge -- Vic literally does this towards the end of season seven
* TwoferTokenMinority -- Julian (gay, black, practicing Christian), Tina (female, Hispanic), Claudette (female, black).

* TheWoobie -- Lem and Ronnie. Dutch too, though later episodes subvert this by playing up the notion that most of the officers (including his best friend) treat him like crap because they believe that without constant emotional abuse, Dutch would be an insufferable egomaniac incapable of self-doubt and unwilling to entertain the notion that he might be wrong.

* YouHave48Hours -- Nearly all of Season 7 is Vic either giving or receiving these ultimatums.
*YouHaveOutLivedYourUsefulness- Vic's betrayal of Ronnie, though in this case Ronnie is given a fate worse than death of being sent to prison as opposed to simply being killed off by Vic.

* YokoOhNo -- The character of Mara played this role over the course of the last five seasons of the series.
* XanatosRoulette- Several of Vic's schemes basically amount to this, as far as Vic being able to manipulate events around him to such an extent that it seems like he's truly all-knowing, all-seeing.
* XanatosSpeedChess- Arguably Vic Mackey's biggest survival skill, as Vic is able to survive for seven seasons by large due to the fact that he is able to think on his feet and talk his enemies into fighting against each other rather than killing him.
*XanatosSucker- Ronnie, is made to be the fall guy for Vic's crimes due to the immunity deal Vic struck behind his back. Had he not fled or been the least bit suspicious of Vic, he might have been able to escape his fate or at the very least found a way to drag Vic down into hell with him via exploiting the massive hole in Vic's confession that was Vic omitting pretty much everything that happened in seasons four and five.

* YouAreTooLate - After seven seasons of turning a blind eye to Vic Mackey's corruption, Claudette Wyms finally goes after Vic after his ex-wife turns to Claudette with airtight evidence of his illegal activities as well as catching Ronnie Gardocki, Vic's partner on tape for aiding and abedding. Sadly, in typical Claudette fashion, she [[spoiler: doesn't seize the timing as far as flipping Ronnie for his testimony against Vic or arresting Vic on the spot. By the time she finally gives the order to arrest Vic, it's too late: Vic has used the delays to secure a Federal immunity deal, resulting in Claudette arriving mid-confession as Vic has already signed the paperwork.]] [[HumiliationConga She gets one hell of a consolation prize, though]]