Line #88 YMMV/TheShield


1	[[foldercontrol]]
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3	[[folder:The TV series]]
4	* AlasPoorScrappy: [[spoiler:Mara didn't have many fans, but even those who hated her guts were deeply saddened when Shane poisoned her (and her son, and her ''unborn child'') in the series finale]].
5	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
6	** 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.
7	** 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.
8	** Claudette Wyms: she's either the main voice of morality on the show or a hypocrite who is willing to let Vic run roughshod over everyone, her own partner included, so long as he stays out of her way.
9	** 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. Though, under this theory, by the time [[spoiler: Shane kills his family and then himself]] in the series finale, he's gotten so desperate that his views on how to do it have skewed enough to lead straight to the Tearjerker.
10	** Was Shane telling the truth when he [[spoiler: claimed, in his suicide note, that Mara had no idea that he poisoned her and Jackson, or was he merely lying in order to exempt his wife from his actions? Walton Goggins opined that Mara knew what Shane had planned and agreed to go along with it, but WordOfGod has never conclusively confirmed or denied this interpretation.]]
11	** [[spoiler: Vic's ultimate fate. Fan's either think he'll claw his way up into a good position with ICE, snap and go full vigilante, or end up broke and pathetic like Joe Clark.]]
12	* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: Initial predictions for the show were not good. Catherine Dent's agent begged her not to join the show because of the low pay and FX's reputation, and Creator/MichaelChiklis' agent was not convinced that the show would be successful. People were skeptical of FX, since at the time they had done only reruns of movies, and they were skeptical that the show would be high quality. Even the pilot episode was thrown together by Shawn Ryan just to get it out of his system after being tasked to write a comedy show pilot. Not only would the show become one of the most influential and quintessential TV drama series ever made, but it would also establish FX as a major creator for dark AntiHero focused shows.
13	* AntiClimaxBoss: [[spoiler:Margos Dezerian]]. His true strength turns out to be his elusiveness. Once he and Vic are actually in the same room together, it's over in about 15 seconds.
14	* AudienceAlienatingPremise: The focus on cops who are ''extremely'' morally grey at best, and most of the show expecting us to root for them on some level, has become a much harder sell with the increased attention to police corruption in the years since the show was made. The fact that one of the main cast members is now a real life murderer makes it even harder to watch. However, see FairForItsDay below.
15	* AwardSnub: {{Averted}} early on, with Creator/MichaelChiklis winning an UsefulNotes/EmmyAward for Lead Actor in a Drama Series for the show's first season (a HUGE achievement given his competition and the fact that Creator/{{FX}} was a relatively small network at the time). That said, the show never managed to gain a Drama Series nomination (despite winning the prize at the UsefulNotes/{{Golden Globe}}s) and Creator/WaltonGoggins was egregiously overlooked for his work as Shane in the final season.
16	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Corine's dream after [[spoiler:Lem's death]].
17	* BrokenAesop: The criticism of police brutality and abuse of power is diminished when on several times other police officers ask the Strike Team to help with particularly brutal criminals with the implicit understanding they may need to bend the rules to do that. Time after time, the criminals are shown to be indeed as bad as they are drummed up to be and the Strike Team do succeed in taking them down. This leaves room for the argument that despite everything else they do, the Strike Team ''is'' a necessary evil.
18	* BrokenBase: Ronnie's facial hair, as far as fans divided between the beard and the mustache.
19	* CompleteMonster: ''Series/TheShield'' takes place in a CrapsackWorld of [[DirtyCop corrupt cops]] and horrible criminals, but the following take it even further:
20	** [[TheDreaded Margos Dezerian]] is a [[PsychoForHire hitman]] working for the [[RuthlessForeignGangsters Armenian Mafia]]. Overseeing the organization's heroin shipments, Margos keeps the syndicate in line by threatening and/or murdering anyone who proves to be a liability for even the slightest of reasons. In his debut episode "Blowback", he murders a young man for consuming his sample of heroin and later [[NeckSnap snaps an inmate's neck]] after said inmate insulted him. After escaping police custody, Margos returns in Season 3 to track down and kill everyone who stole from the syndicate's money train operation. Margos ends up slaughtering nearly a dozen people during his quest, torturing them and chopping off their feet after killing them. When the Strike Team tries to rescue a teenage girl whom Margos has been holding hostage to [[IHaveYourWife force her older sister to work for the Armenians]], Margos stabs the girl in the back of the neck, leaving her to die as punishment for the Strike Team's interference.
21	** Season 2: [[RuthlessForeignGangsters Armando "Armadillo" Quintero]] is a vicious Mexican drug lord who compensates for his youth with his cruelty. Armadillo is introduced by uniting several gangs under his control by having their leaders "[[ManOnFire necklaced]]"--imprisoned in tires and burned alive. A SerialRapist, Armadillo [[CallingCard tattooed the symbol of a dove onto the faces of each victim]], and even did this to the [[WouldHurtAChild 12-year-old]] sister of one victim. When he returns later, Armadillo uses children as drug mules for his tainted heroin, leading to the death of a toddler who consumes the drug under the belief it is candy. When he discovers his brother Navaro may be "greenlit" in prison to testify against him, Armadillo has Navaro murdered with no remorse before "greenlighting" Vic Mackey, his team, and their entire families for death.
22	** "Cherrypoppers": [[WouldHurtAChild Kurt Schmidt]] is a film editor responsible for the "Cherry Popper" films where young teen girls, mostly poor and immigrant, are raped on camera. When one such girl is found murdered, Vic Mackey tracks the filming to find a great deal of tapes circulating, with one being made via a girl raped on stage for the approving lust of the pedophile audience.
23	** "Dragonchasers": [[FauxAffablyEvil Sean Taylor]] is possibly the worst villain faced by Detective Holland "Dutch" Wagenbach. A monstrous SerialKiller obsessed with being "special", Sean started his murderous career by killing a friend of his while they were on a hunting trip as teenagers, and framed it as an "[[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident accident]]". Continuing to kill over the years in various ways to avoid capture and claiming 23 lives--including that of a [[WouldHurtAChild 12-year-old prostitute]]--Sean is eventually singled out as a suspect, and uses his time in interrogation with Dutch to [[HannibalLecture psychologically tear him down]] before cheerfully admitting to his murders with smug satisfaction.
24	* DesignatedHero: Most of the Barn can count as this occasionally, outside of [[VillainProtagonist The Strike Team]]. While many of them are portrayed as more heroic and righteous compared to Vic and his lackeys, and they generally are much more sympathetic in comparison to the Strike Team and most of the criminals they fight against, some of their actions still look pretty unethical, especially when regarding how vocal criticism of the police system as a whole has become recently. For example…
25	** Dutch Wagenbach is portrayed as one of the most moral officers in the Barn, never breaking the law or crossing many ethical boundaries. However, his ManipulativeBastard tendencies when interrogating suspects comes across as much more dangerous when taking in consideration the amount of false confessions that have happened in real life as a result of said tactics among detectives. While in fact encouraged by the police force, it still doesn’t look good on his end, even if he clearly had moral intentions.
26	** Danny Solfer is another example. Her defense of Vic early on is quite questionable, and she only turns against him because of something that arguably wasn’t even his fault. Not to mention, she has sex with him knowing he has a wife. However, the most uncomfortable aspect regarding Danny is her killing of Zayed Al-Thani. While her murder is portrayed as necessary self-defense and she’s meant to be seen as sympathetic when his wife starts harassing her afterwards, recent news regarding police brutality and unnecessary murders by police officers as a response to danger puts Danny in a much different light. While her actions were technically legal and she likely wouldn’t face any serious trouble even in the least corrupt police district, the fact that she immediately resorted to killing Zayed when he was obviously mentally distressed and was unlikely to actually harm anyone with his gun instead of resorting to other methods such as calming him down or restraining the guy is pretty inexcusable. It doesn’t help that she made Islamophobic remarks towards him, which she was never called out for in any way.
27	* DiagnosedByTheAudience: Dutch displays multiple signs of being on the autism spectrum. He displays multiple symptoms of the condition; he's socially awkward, he becomes upset whenever his routine is disrupted (i.e., whenever his workspace is disrupted), he's intensely obsessed with a certain subject (profiling), he's clumsy and uncoordinated, has trouble reading social cues, and he often unintentionally comes across as insensitive and self-absorbed to others.
28	* DracoInLeatherPants: The Strike Team in general, but most notably Ronnie Gardocki and Curtis "Lem" Lemansky. While many fans of the show will agree with you that Vic and Shane are horrible people, a lot of the same fans will then turn around and argue 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 canon PeerPressureMakesYouEvil excuse. Ronnie, on the other hand, mainly has the fact that the character was never truly fleshed out, left out of some of the team's worst deeds (though not as many as Lem), 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 despite important facts such as, say, his reaction to finding out about the team's "original sin", Vic and Shane killing Terry Crowley, being to whine to Vic that he should've been in Shane's spot that day.
29	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
30	** Ronnie and Lem; both were not part of the show's original pitch, but quickly became two of the more popular characters on the show.
31	** Ronnie's popularity early on even earned him his own variant cover (complete with pic of him circa season two, with his trademark mustache) in the "Shield Spotlight mini-series, something even Lem never received.
32	* EpilepticTrees: As ''The Shield'' appears to take place in the same universe as ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy'', due to both series featuring the One-Niners, some fans have speculated [[spoiler:that a friendly truck driver played by Chiklis who gives Gemma a ride and serves as the instrument of Jax’s suicide in the finale is Vic.]]
33	* FairForItsDay: While some elements of the show's portrayal of the police have not aged well in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and increased scrutiny of the police and their portrayal in popular media (in particular an all-white special task force engaging in brutality against primarily minority neighborhoods), the series' frank portrayal of police corruption, brutality, and lack of accountability was rare in mainstream television in the early to mid-2000s, and still uncommon even today. Vic Mackey being depicted as a cop protagonist who commits unambiguously heinous acts was ''very'' atypical compared to [[Franchise/LawAndOrder other, more popular police procedurals]] at the time, and [[Series/BlueBloods even today]], that portrays its police characters in a more heroic and uncritical light. One could argue that the series' accurate portrayal of certain issues, like the complete ineffectiveness of specialized police units like the Strike Team (itself based upon the LAPD's real-life and infamously corrupt Rampart Division's CRASH unit), and season four's addressing of civil forfeiture in ''2006'', have only [[ValuesResonance aged better]] when these issues started drawing public attention in the decades after the show's airing.
34	** Julien Lowe to modern viewers, especially those that identify as LGBT, can come across as a cliche and uninteresting character whose arc is filled with Gayngst and has little personality outside of struggling with his own homosexuality as a devout Christian man, making for poor representation. It also doesn’t help that his arc feels very separate from the series as a whole, having little plot relevance outside of giving Vic blackmail material to prevent Julien from ratting on him, which becomes even blatant after Season 3, where [[AbortedArc his storyline regarding his homosexuality is inexplicably dropped]], and as a result is given very little focus because it’s obvious that the writers didn’t know what to do with the character outside of said arc. However, at the time period the series came out, it was very uncommon for a tv show to have any LGBT representation that wasn’t either portrayed negatively or as a joke. Julien being a gay black man specifically was even more atypical. While nowadays gay viewers might have a hard time relating to Julien to his extreme self-hatred and obsession with being an ideal Christian man, it was much more realistic at the time where homophobic attitudes was basically the norm and thus internalized homophobia was very high. It also helps that outside of the two homophobic cops, most characters support his homosexuality and don’t judge him for it, so his Gayngst wasn’t nearly as notable at the time.
35	* FandomRivalry: Has one with ''Series/AgentsOfShield'' for having a similar name that causes significant confusion when recommending this show.
36	* {{Fanon}}:
37	** Ronnie Gardocki's personality as a nerdy but good-hearted person corrupted by Vic Mackey is the standard fanon backstory for the character.
38	** [[spoiler: Fans assume that Ronnie won't be facing major prison terms, if he even goes to prison at all, mostly because his crimes rely on using Vic Mackey, who scammed the feds to get immunity for his crimes, as a witness.]]
39	* FanonDiscontinuity: 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).
40	* GrowingTheBeard: Season 1 was great and all but season 2 became more realistic and downplayed the humor in favor of increasing the drama and overarching plot of the story, [[spoiler: including the Armenian Money Train heist that would drive the plots for the remaining 5 seasons.]]
41	* HarsherInHindsight:
42	** Julian's stepson calling the police because of a heated argument between the officer and his wife scared the child is much, MUCH harder to watch now, given that Creator/MichaelJace, who played Julian, fatally shot his wife during an argument in 2014 and was sentenced to forty years to life in prison for second-degree murder.
43	** The show had an arc in season four about a lawyer getting together a class-action lawsuit for mercury poisoning originating from vaccines. The Mackeys were involved, as it could explain Matthew and Megan's autism. Vic snaps back against a doctor advising them to get out of the suit and save their money by saying they're covering for each other like cops cover cops. With today's climate of Anti-Vaxxers and the evidence showing vaccines don't cause autism, watching this arc unfold can be a little grating. Thankfully, they [[AbortedArc don't really go anywhere with it]], and it's made clear that the lawsuit is a money-grab scam (i.e. the show is not against vaccines).
44	** Shane joking that "Eatin' ain't cheatin'" back in Season 4 is no longer funny considering that he ''does'' cheat on his wife in the Season 6 premiere.
45	** In general, the brutality the Strike Team regularly inflicts on suspects can be more sour in light of tragedies caused by police brutality (e.g George Floyd) and the resulting protests over the years since the show ended in 2008.
46	* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: The show helped give Creator/AnthonyAnderson's career new life by showing him being capable of playing dramatic roles. In particular, Anderson personally credits ''The Shield'' for landing his later job on ''Law and Order''.
47	* HilariousInHindsight: Creator/MichaelChiklis plays a completely straight-laced, by the book police chief in ''Series/{{Gotham}}''. In fact most of his characters are easily more honorable than Vic Mackey; it's just that since the series' run most people are gonna see Michael Chiklis and think Vic Mackey.
48	* 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).
49	* ItWasHisSled: Vic shooting Terry Crowley was a shocking twist when the pilot first aired, but has since become one of the most famous parts of the show. Indeed, Fans often use it as a selling point to illustrate how different the series is from a typical cop show.
50	* JerkassWoobie: Numerous characters throughout the series qualify, whether it be Mara, Aceveda [[spoiler: following his rape]], Julian, Dutch at his worst moments, or even Vic at certain points. However no two examples stand out more than Strike Team Members Shane Vendrell and Ronnie Gardocki.
51	** ''Shane'': While he may be a violent asshole with some deep seated racial prejudices that manifest more than once within the series in ugly ways, the sheer level of emotional abuse he suffers at the hands of Vic, the extreme guilt he feels over having been an accessory to Terry Crowler's murder as well as [[spoiler: his, ultimately unnecessary, decision to kill Lem]], and [[spoiler: his incredibly tragic suicide]] all make him a character that audiences find themselves sympathizing with in spite of his various negative traits.
52	** ''Ronnie'': Although he's most certainly the most ruthless and remorseless member of the Strike Team and [[spoiler: goes even further than Vic does in desiring to see Shane killed]], he suffers several [[ButtMonkey bad physical injuries]] throughout the show's run and [[spoiler: his reaction to learning about how Vic effectively condemned him to life imprisonment by selling him out for immunity is one of the saddest moments in the entire show.]]. Furthermore, his affable and nerdy demeanor, his tendency to be the [[OnlySaneMan one guy in the room who advocates for the sensible solution]], and the fact that he lacks Vic's [[ControlFreak need to dominate others]] or Shane's [[HairTriggerTemper impulsiveness]] make him really easy to root for.
53	* MemeticMutation:
54	** Jokes about people confusing this show with ''Series/AgentsOfShield'' tend to be very common among the fandom.
55	** Just attack it like you're hungry. Like the wolf.[[labelnote:Explanation]]Said by Vic to Dutch after his disastrous blind date, which ended with Dutch singing "[[Music/DuranDuran Hungry Like The Wolf]]" in his car alone, all while the Strike Team watched with a hidden camera.[[/labelnote]]
56	** SWEET BUTTER. [[labelnote:Explanation]]In the episode "Of Mice and Lem" when Vic is confronted about his collusion with Antwon Mitchell by Kavanaugh, he responds by telling Kavanaugh that he didn't kill Terry, Kavanaugh's leverage over Lem is gone, and that "[[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking his ex-wife's pussy tastes like sweet butter.]]" The sheer audacity of that last part, especially since Vic did screw his ex-wife, stuck with fans, to the point where Creator/MichaelChiklis would encounter people that would scream "sweet butter" at him.[[/labelnote]]
57	** WHAT OTHER ERRANDS DO YOU HAVE US ''RUNNING'' FOR THE DA?! [[labelnote:Explanation]]Claudette says this to Dutch after discovering that he was covering up cases for the DA, as retribution for getting a bunch of cases overturned. Thanks to Dennis from ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' delivering a practically perfect impersonation of the line in one episode, it immediately propelled itself into memedom with Shield and IASIP fans.[[/labelnote]]
58	* MisaimedFandom:
59	** Vic Mackey; let's just hope, for the sake of the integrity of the badge, that most of the self-proclaimed real-life cops who, for example, supported and/or justified Vic's murder of Terry Crowley, or sided with Vic against Jon Kavanaugh's attempt to bring him and the Strike Team to justice even before Kavanaugh's descent to Mackey's level, were trolling about being real-life cops.
60	** 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.
61	** 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.
62	* MoralEventHorizon: Where to begin? Where to begin?
63	** [[spoiler: 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, Aceveda involving himself with Antwon during the 4th season, and Antwon murdering Angie. Granted Ronnie, Shane, and Acaveda were given massive PetTheDog moments to backpeddle on these, but still...
64	** 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.
65	** In a more lighthearted example, Dutch killing a cat definitely turned fans against the character, to such an extent that the scene essentially became FanonDiscontinuity.
66	* NeverLiveItDown:
67	** Though David Rees Snell had a manly beard for the bulk of the series, the actor's season one and two moustache is the facial hair that the character of Ronnie Gardocki is mostly remembered having.
68	** Same with Dutch murdering a cat towards the end of the third season.
69	** Walt Goggins has joked about how his character's casual racism and general psychotic jack-ass nature led many people to ask him if he was really like the jerk he played on TV.
70	** For all his crimes and actions, Vic Mackey will probably always be the cop who shot another cop in the face.
71	* RetroactiveRecognition:
72	** ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy'' fans (another show that Kurt Sutter has a creative hand in) might recognize some familiar faces here:
73	*** Creator/MichaelChiklis (Vic) is Milo, the truck driver.
74	*** Creator/WaltonGoggins (Shane) is Venus Van Damme.
75	*** Creator/KennyJohnson (Lem) is Herman Kozik.
76	*** David Rees Snell (Ronnie) is FBI Agent Grad Nicholas.
77	*** Creator/JayKarnes (Dutch) is ATF Agent Josh Kohn.
78	*** Creator/CCHPounder (Claudette) is DA Tyne Patterson.
79	*** Benito Martinez (Aceveda) is Luis Torres.
80	*** Creator/KurtSutter (Margos) is Otto Delaney.
81	*** David Maricano (Billings) has a 30-second cameo as the Chicken Man.
82	*** Emilio Rivera (Navaro) is Marcus Alvarez.
83	*** Creator/KateySagal (Nancy Gilroy) is Gemma Teller Morrow.
84	*** Ally Walker (Tori) is ATF Agent June Stahl.
85	** Fans of Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse might recognize a few faces too;
86	*** Creator/ClarkGregg (Phil Coulson) plays a serial killer in season 3.
87	*** Creator/MichaelPena (Luis) plays Shane's new partner Army in Season 4.
88	*** Creator/WaltonGoggins (Sonny Burch) is, well, Shane Vendrell.
89	*** Creator/ReedDiamond (Daniel Whitehall) is the unfortunate newcomer Terry Crowley.
90	** Creator/KristenBell plays one of Armadillo's victims with a dove tattoo in "The Quick Fix."
91	** Creator/SungKang plays a suspect of the week in "Scar Tissue."
92	** Creator/JasonEarles plays a teenage Neo-Nazi in "Breakpoint."
93	** Creator/KenJeong plays a photographer for police promotional images in "Back to One."
94	** Fans of ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' might recognize Creator/DannyPino as Detective Nick Amaro.
95	** Creator/RayCampbell, better known for his roles in ''Series/BreakingBad'' and ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' makes his appearance as Kleavon Gardener.
96	* RootingForTheEmpire: The Strike Team themselves gets this treatment from the fans, due to DracoInLeatherPants and MisaimedFandom.
97	* TheScrappy:
98	** Mara (especially in Season 3), as well as Cassidy Mackey.
99	** Tomas Motyashik, Julien's boyfriend, isn't well-liked by fans for constantly pressuring Julien to come out against his will, his lack of chemistry with Julien, and generally being a {{Jerkass}}.
100	** Emolia gets a lot of shit from fans, mostly because she's seen as a ManipulativeBitch trying to squeeze money out of the Strike Team, as well as being indirectly responsible for [[spoiler: Lem's death.]]
101	** Don't expect any fanfare for Lanie Kellis either, because she constantly interferes with the Barn's efforts to stop crime, publishes a damning report that screws over the Farmington Police Department, and doesn't get punished for it.
102	* SeasonalRot: Though it has its share of fans, the third season is generally seen as markedly weaker than the first two due to the series focusing heavily 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 season's struggles are said to have caused the show to lose its Golden Boy status within The FX Network, resulting in stunt casting for seasons four and five to save 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.
103	** Whereas some fans do praise the third season on the basis of how many diverse subplots it deals with, Season 6 is generally seen to be the weakest one of the series with several fans citing its slower pace and the fact that Shane's decision to [[spoiler: involve himself with another gang]] feels like a retread of Season 4's storyline.
104	* SignatureScene: Vic's EstablishingCharacterMoment when he interrogates a pedophile in the pilot.
105	-->'''Vic''': "Good cop and bad cop left for the day. I'm a different kind a cop."
106	** Vic's murder of Terry Crowley at the end of the same episode.
107	* SpecialEffectsFailure: In the first season's Episode 3, Vic has to pull a baby out of a swimming pool. What he comes up with is ''obviously'' a plastic doll, before a cutaway angle lets them switch to a real child.
108	* TheWoobie: Lem, Danny, Corrine and Claudette at times. 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.
109	** Connie Riesler. She starts the series as a drug addicted prostitute with a premature born child with addiction problems, and it only gets worse from there. In order, she gets nearly raped and slashed by a client, ends up shooting another client in a PTSD induced panic, loses her mother to a stroke and is forced to give up her son Brian for adoption to stay clean. [[HopeSpot And although she gets clean by Season 2 and works as an informant under Vic,]] she gets roped into a hostage situation where she's shot to death.
110	[[/folder]]
111
112	[[folder:The Wrestling Stable]]
113	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Post-FaceHeelTurn, this applies to Seth Rollins' RageQuit that led to the Shield getting back on the same page. Did he actually pull a BatmanGambit to get Reigns & Ambrose to put their egos aside, or did he simply claim that was the plan in an attempt to save face after seeing them do exactly that after he walked out on the team?
114	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er0HJRF6flM And awesome intro.]] If that opening isn't enough, the badass guitar riff is an added harbinger of the destruction that The Shield is sure to cause.
115	* BadassDecay: MASSIVELY averted. Unlike other popular heels who ended up losing their teeth once they turned face, the Shield have, if anything, become even more dangerous and vicious than before, to the point that the Authority have twice tried to pit them against ''eleven'' other superstars at once, with the second attempt being a complete failure as the Shield made a point to isolate and take out over half of their opponents before the match even began. Triple H finally resorted to ''[[PuttingTheBandBackTogether reforming]] Wrestling/{{Evolution}}'' to stop them, and even that's been a complete failure. To put things into perspective: Daniel Bryan, the Authority's other arch-nemesis, is a threat because his insane popularity and dogged persistence undermines their vision and causes him to keep rising above the odds. The Shield are a threat because they just keep gleefully tearing apart ''everything'' that's thrown their way with a smile on their faces and a song in their hearts, and are ''not'' shy about taking the initiative.
116	* BrokenBase:
117	** Rollins turning heel & betraying his partners has elicited this reaction from the IWC. Some believe this is a logical booking decision that keeps the Evolution/Shield angle fresh, given that the Shield has already prevailed over the rivals twice and have no other stable to match them, as well as an opportunity for Rollins to go over as a singles star. Others consider it an illogical twist right out of Vince Russo's playbook that broke up one of the most popular stables in WWE way too soon. Others believe that the angle was done right, but that Ambrose should've been the one to turn on the group and not Rollins.
118	** The Shield themselves — Rollins and Reigns, at least — fall into this argument as well. Rollins obviously was happy for a singles heel push and relished working with Triple H, but Reigns has criticized the timing of the breakup angle, saying he would have preferred a longer Shield babyface run. He seems to have gotten his wish in late 2017.
119	** Speaking of which, the Shield reunions has started gained this reaction ever since it became more obvious that WWE uses them as a tactic to protect Roman Reigns from the hostility of crowds. Is it still awesome to see because of how great the stable's original run was, or does it carry a taint that wasn't present during said run? Or could it still have been awesome to see but is instead garnering diminishing returns because of how much the well's been milked over the years, with the members always being seen in the same places together whether teaming up or opposing each other in between official runs?
120	** For that matter, has the Shield gimmick lost its teeth, namely its "justice" identity, despite still being called the Hounds of Justice and now being a face group? The latest reunion in 2018 is one example that bears that question. The Shield foiling Wrestling/BraunStrowman's attempted ''Money in the Bank'' cash-in for Reigns' Universal Championship the night after ''Wrestling/SummerSlam'' with the usual triple assault, followed by Strowman joining forces with Wrestling/DolphZiggler and Wrestling/DrewMcIntyre the following week, is usually the established pattern for a heel faction harassing a babyface who then gets help to take them on, yet in this case the initial harassing faction are the faces while their target is portrayed as the underhanded heel. Some argue that this, combined with the "protecting Reigns" factor, reverses the overall dynamic which made The Shield popular in the first place (see RootingForTheEmpire below).
121	* EstrogenBrigade: While never intentionally presented as [[MrFanservice eye candies]], they still caught plenty of female fans.
122	* EvilIsCool: They were originally a heel stable clad in black military outfits with protective vests who happen to have excellent chemistry in the ring and out. What's not to like?
123	* FanNickname: [[Wrestling/BigBossman The Big Boss Men]] (due to their similar appearance to the Wrestling/AttitudeEra Boss Man) and [[Wrestling/TheNexus Nexus 2]] (due to being former NXT wrestlers interfering with matches and causing mass beat downs.)
124	* FandomRivalry: Had this with [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]]'s Wrestling/{{Aces And Eights\|Wrestlers}} stable, due to the two groups being perfectly constructed as {{foil}}s to each other as well as both of their runs coinciding for about a year. Then it switched to the [[Wrestling/{{NewJapanProWrestling NJPW]]-originated Wrestling/BulletClub, yet another foil that is also considered the other contender for most influential pro wrestling stable forged in TheNewTens.
125	* HilariousInHindsight:
126	** When the group first debuted, frequent jokes were made about them being members of the Creator/MarvelComics military organization, ComicBook/{{SHIELD}}. Fast forward to 2014, and the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse's S.H.I.E.L.D. were revealed to have been infiltrated by HYDRA in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' and ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', with one of the titular Agents in ''[=AoS=]'' being revealed to be a HYDRA defector several months before Seth Rollins did the same thing, and one of the HYDRA defectors in ''The Winter Soldier'' being named ''Jack'' Rollins. [[http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Jack_Rollins Seriously.]]
127	*** WWE is fully aware of this. WWE Network subscribers are able to see the heretofore unrevealed titles for each individual episode of Raw and Smackdown, once they are available for streaming 30 days after airing. Going through the listing reveals that the July 25, 2014, episode of Smackdown, which heavily featured Rollins, Ambrose, and Reigns, was titled "Former Agents of Shield." Even better when Rollins is cast in ''Captain America: Brave New World'' in 2023.
128	** The storyline during the group's first few months surrounding the question of whether or not they were working for Wrestling/CMPunk was concluded with TheReveal being that Wrestling/PaulHeyman, unbeknownst to Punk, had been paying them to defend him. If Punk was telling the truth on Wrestling/ColtCabana's ''Art of Wrestling'' podcast, the original plan for the Shield stable did in fact have them working for Punk, and the use of three developmental stars for the stable (as well as the inclusion of [[Wrestling/JonMoxley Dean Ambrose]]) was in fact Punk's idea. To add to this, [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]], one of the three men the Shield beat in their first match on PPV, and Wrestling/BigShow, one of the three men the Shield beat in their first ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'' match, were the two main roster guys creative initially had in mind for the stable. The one developmental call-up? Wrestling/SethRollins. Yes, the Architect and Traitorface himself was the only person tapped for the stable the entire time from the moment of its conception.
129	** Back during the Shield's run, here's how everyone pegged their futures: Dean Ambrose as career brutal psychotic somehow-charismatic heel, Seth Rollins as career honorable dynamic sometimes-rebel babyface, Roman Reigns as career silent explosive badass beloved-alternative-to-John-Cena ChosenOne. Fast forward to 2016, here's how their futures are panning out: Dean Ambrose as eccentric working-class fighting top face, Seth Rollins as super-talented yet arrogant slimy top heel, Roman Reigns as hokey smug inconsistently-badass rejected-Bizarro-clone-of-John-Cena ChosenOne…[[NeverLiveItDown who can't even honestly say don't do drugs anymore because of an Adderall suspension to his name]].
130	*** This even extends to the Shield's breakup: many during the group's run thought Ambrose would be the one to betray the Shield with his insanity taking hold, and WWE even teased going in that direction prior to their HeelFaceTurn in 2014 by having him slowly lose control of his mannerisms and butt heads with Reigns a lot out of ego. A few even believed that Reigns would be the traitor in a "Corporate Champion" role similar to [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]]'s push as a main eventer. After a change in course, however, it would be Seth Rollins chosen to become the Traitorface, selling out to the Authority in a twist that ultimately panned out as part of a master plan to become the top guy in WWE.
131	** Anytime during the first run of the SHIELD where the guys flirted with Renee Young. Fast-forward to 2017, and she's HappilyMarried to [[Wrestling/JonMoxley Dean Ambrose]].
132	* HoYay: The group's overall devotion to one another did not escape the fans' attention.
133	** Fans have picked up on some between Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose, dating back to their FCW feud. While Roman Reigns does his fair share of saving and protecting his teammates (rest assured Roman ''will'' spear an opponent to save Dean, Seth, or both at some point during a match), Seth is usually the first to leap in and defend Dean during matches. Dean and Seth also walk together to ringside during their entrances, pull the other to safety after a match, and generally hang all over one another. During Dean Ambrose's match with Daniel Bryan, during which Bryan busted Ambrose's face open right under his eye, Seth Rollins acted like a concerned boyfriend, even trying to come to Ambrose's defense, risking both a DQ and a beatdown from Bryan's tag-team partner Kane. That the borderline-psychotic Dean Ambrose seems genuinely fond and protective of Rollins is surely significant, as well. Hell, during the Shield's match with Evolution at Extreme Rules, Rollins ''jumped off a balcony'' onto Triple H and Randy Orton to save Ambrose. It was only highlighted more after the breakup during their subsequent blood feud, which included a near obsessive hatred of one another and even an AnguishedDeclarationOfLove from Ambrose.
134	** Their reunion storyline during 2017 was even ''worse''. After circumstances forced them into an EnemyMine situation, Rollins decided it was finally time to bury the hatchet -- except Ambrose kept resisting him at every turn. What exacerbated the situation was the fact that more than once, Ambrose was implied to actually want to forgive Rollins, but his severe trust issues prevented it from happening. This {{tsundere}} behavior frustrated Rollins, to the point that when Ambrose finally became receptive to the idea, Rollins rejected him, pissing Ambrose off again. The WillTheyOrWontThey reached nuclear levels during the segment where they ''finally'' reconciled, in which the two started bickering and flip-flopping and whether or not they wanted to get back together (as a team...probably), and eventually started brawling over it. By that point, the {{Belligerent\|Sexual Tension}} {{Homoerotic\|Subtext}} FoeRomanceSubtext had gotten so bad that many of the wrestling fans who usually ignore the homoerotic aspect of wrestling were telling them to screw already.
135	** Regarding the Ambrose/Reigns relationship, Dean put it best himself when describing Roman. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3-LxGDePN8 "He's not all power. He's not all beauty and hair. He's not just a thoroughbred."]] The HoYay only became stronger after Rollins betrayed them; Dean and Roman tagged together often and generally just acted like the Shield hadn't really broken up for them, even if they had chosen to focus on their singles careers. Dean being the sole non-[[WrestlingFamily Anoa'i]] guy in the ring when Roman won his first world heavyweight championship solidified the acknowledgement of their real-life close bond.
136	** Shield shipping in general tends to have three possible outcomes: OneTrueThreesome (self-explanatory), RonTheDeathEater (ship two of them, demonize the third), or CleaningUpRomanticLooseEnds (third guy gets paired with either their real-life wife/girlfriend or another wrestler of the shipper's choice. Seth/[[Wrestling/FinnBalor Finn]] for example is a popular [[ShipMates sister ship]] for Dean/Roman.)
137	** On Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn, combinations of The Shield are ''the'' OneTruePairing[=/=]OneTrueThreesome for both WWE and professional wrestling in general.
138	* HypeBacklash: Since it's become more obvious in the booking that WWE looks at Reigns as a potential successor to the top face throne, there's been a bit of this towards him from fans that are afraid of what this could mean for Rollins and Ambrose's post-Shield futures—namely a [[DemotedToExtra lack thereof]]. This is understandable, as WWE has been detrimentally addicted to the idea of manufacturing {{breakup breakout}}s ever since Wrestling/ShawnMichaels unintentionally left his Rockers tag team partner Wrestling/MartyJannetty in the dust. The problem is, even if their futures do turn out dim it won't be because Roman did anything to get them held down. All three members of the Shield, Reigns included, are each other's biggest fans in the business and have routinely praised each other (and been praised by commentators) as future top stars. Furthermore, everything suggests that Dean and Seth have as good a chance as any in recent memory of averting the pattern, having been given enough character depth from their time in developmental all the way into the stretch of their run with the Shield that no one can objectively deny their importance. With the utter shock coming from Seth Rollins' betrayal of the team the very night after their biggest win to date, WWE's faith in all three men has become so blindingly apparent as to actually quell some of this backlash.
139	* MemeticMutation:
140	** "Nope." [[labelnote:explanation]]The Shield's first promo on the 11/26/12 RAW, with Dean Ambrose's face right after he gave this one-word answer to a question Wrestling/MichaelCole asked them in the interview.[[/labelnote]]
141	** Dean Ambrose's vest. [[http://deansvest.tumblr.com/ It even has a Tumblr blog dedicated to it]].
142	** Roman Reigns's hair gets this too, since the man is pretty much a perpetual shampoo commercial.
143	* NeverLiveItDown: A ''slight'' example. Reigns has a small reputation among Website/YouTube viewers for being occasionally absent from Shield media interviews, with Ambrose explaining that he "had a rough night". The set of interviews on which this actually happened all feature Rollins decked out in an all-black suit while Ambrose rocks a leather jacket and blue jeans, all take place in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, and all include promotional hype for an episode of ''Raw'' being hosted there that evening. Meaning, they all took place ''the day after Reigns set the record for most eliminations in a single Royal Rumble''. Rough night indeed.
144	* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: While not outright hated, Roman Reigns was initially dismissed by the IWC, since they only cared about former indy stars Rollins and Ambrose debuting, and many suggested that he didn't deserve to be in the Shield and believed Kassius Ohno should have been in his spot instead. However, he's become quite the IWC favorite during his Shield tenure after getting some much needed experience in the ring. Unfortunately, it quickly evaporated after the group's breakup, when Reigns moved into a heavily pushed singles run and his many flaws became exposed without Ambrose and Rollins to cover for them.
145	* RootingForTheEmpire: Two of the group have a fandom from their pre-WWE days; and upon their debut, they immediately started going after superstars the IWC doesn't care for such as Wrestling/JohnCena, Wrestling/{{Ryback}}, and Wrestling/TheMiz, in favor of the ultra-popular DesignatedVillain / DracoInLeatherPants that was WWE Champion Wrestling/CMPunk. It would be amazing if this wasn't the case. [[note]]This was yet another attempt on WWE's part to get heat for Punk as a DirtyCoward bad guy in order to make Cena and Ryback look good. WWE had tried everything, from getting Punk to denigrate the Attitude Era to bringing in Wrestling/PaulHeyman to be his heel advocate in a case of RealitySubtext, yet it was backfiring due to Cena's own SmugSuper behavior and the perception of clear protectionism in the booking both in and out of kayfabe. Creating the Shield to defend Punk was arguably the worst of these attempts if the intent was to get them all hated, especially when their blatant denial that they were employed by Punk consisted of rationalizations based around a concept of [[JusticeWillPrevail justice]]. Even the reveal that Heyman had been their benefactor and ''paid them to defend Punk'' failed to quash this.[[/note]] Ultimately, said rooting would be justified, both in kayfabe as they inevitably turned face over a year later, and out of it due to the general quality of Shield performances being one of the company's clear bright spots.
146	* SacredCow: While the three members can get criticism individually when they're on their own, the Shield as a stable is one of the most beloved in Wrestling/{{WWE}} history; they carried the company on their backs both as a group and as individual performers for ''years''. As far as the modern era goes, the only other stable even remotely comparable to their popularity is Wrestling/TheNewDay. Hell, even when Wrestling/RomanReigns was at his most hated, all the company had to do was just hint at a possible Shield reunion for him to shake off most of the vitriol. When Wrestling/MichaelCole said that [[Wrestling/JonMoxley Dean Ambrose]]'s departure from the company (thus preventing any Shield reunions on WWE TV for the foreseeable future) was the EndOfAnAge, he wasn't lying.
147	* SignatureScene: There are three particular moments that have defined the Shield as a stable, both during and after their first run.
148	** Their debut at ''Wrestling/SurvivorSeries 2012'', during the WWE Title match between then-champion Wrestling/CMPunk, Wrestling/JohnCena, and Wrestling/{{Ryback}}.
149	** Their break up on the June 2, 2014 episode of ''RAW'', when Rollins betrayed Ambrose and Reigns to join Wrestling/TheAuthority.
150	** ''Wrestling/MoneyInTheBank 2016'': On this night, Rollins defeated Reigns semi-clean to win back the title he had to vacate in November of the previous year -- only for Ambrose, fresh off winning the titular match, to blindside him and cash in, pinning Rollins to win the title. Within ''three minutes'', all three members of the Shield were WWE World Heavyweight Champion. This single moment cemented them as both one of the greatest stables of all time, and the most successful stable of the modern era.
151	** Topping all of these however, was the night of of October 22, 2018: [[spoiler:Dean turning on Seth the same night as Roman's leukemia announcement]].
152	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
153	** During the buildup to their showdown against Wrestling/TheNewDay on ''Wrestling/SurvivorSeries 2017'', the history of some of their members (e.g. [[Wrestling/JonMoxley Dean]] beating Wrestling/KofiKingston to win his first ever singles title and Wrestling/{{Big E\|Langston}} being the one to end Wrestling/{{Seth\|Rollins}}'s inaugural NXT championship reign) were never brought up.
154	** As of April 11, 2016, [[Wrestling/JonMoxley the]] [[Wrestling/SethRollins three]] [[Wrestling/RomanReigns men]] who comprised The Shield would be employed by WWE at the same time as the [[Wrestling/FergalDevitt first]] [[Wrestling/AJStyles three]] [[Wrestling/KarlAnderson leaders]] and main tag team [[Wrestling/DrewHankinson enforcer]] of the notorious Wrestling/BulletClub, very frequently sharing the ring with them on an individual basis. Moreover, The Shield breakup feud would soon hit a conclusion very early into The Club's run and leave the door open for the three to inevitably reunite, especially when Roman Reigns needed a boost in fan reaction, and Vince could've laid claim to be the first to align The Club's two main singles stars together, as AJ Styles had officially entered BC on the same night Prince Devitt/Finn Bálor was forced to leave Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling. Yet WWE never pulled a trigger on having the four Bullet Club members all work together in one sitting, let alone use them as a proper antagonist for The Shield's reunions to play out naturally according to the stable's original motif and purpose. Instead they had The Hounds of Justice reconvene in response to haphazard makeshift alliances when they and their heel rivals all happened to intersect in the summer of 2017 and 2018, just so Ambrose could betray Rollins and restart their feud with switched roles after they were done getting Reigns over. Worse yet, the absolute mangling of that Ambrose and Rollins feud turned out to be the reason that Ambrose, one of The Shield members, would be the one to leave WWE. The door was closed when Ambrose's contract expired on April 30, 2019 -- over three years following Anderson and Gallows' WWE debut.
155	** As of April 11, 2016, [[Wrestling/JonMoxley the]] [[Wrestling/SethRollins three]] [[Wrestling/RomanReigns men]] who comprised The Shield would be employed by WWE at the same time as the [[Wrestling/FergalDevitt first]] [[Wrestling/AJStyles three]] [[Wrestling/KarlAnderson leaders]] and main tag team [[Wrestling/DrewHankinson enforcer]] of the notorious Wrestling/BulletClub, very frequently sharing the ring with them on an individual basis. Moreover, The Shield breakup feud would soon hit a conclusion very early into The Club's run and leave the door open for the three to inevitably reunite, especially when Roman Reigns needed a boost in fan reaction, and Vince could've laid claim to be the first to align The Club's two main singles stars together, as AJ Styles had officially entered BC on the same night Prince Devitt/Finn Bálor was forced to leave Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling. Yet WWE never pulled a trigger on having the four Bullet Club members all work together in one sitting, let alone use them as a proper antagonist for The Shield's reunions to play out naturally according to the stable's original motif and purpose. Instead they had The Hounds of Justice reconvene in response to haphazard makeshift alliances when they and their heel rivals all happened to intersect in the summer of 2017 and 2018, just so Ambrose could betray Rollins and restart their feud with switched roles after they were done getting Reigns over. Worse yet, the absolute mangling of that Ambrose and Rollins feud turned out to be the reason that Ambrose, one of The Shield members, would be the one to leave WWE. The door was closed when Ambrose's contract expired on April 30, 2019 -- over three years following Anderson and Gallows' WWE debut.
156	* ToughActToFollow:
157	** The second (and third?) runs of The Shield as a faction were blatant nostalgia runs and everyone (even the crowd who popped for them to some degree nonetheless) knew it. They were never going to recapture the magic of the original run, particularly the original run for the trio post- their first HeelFaceTurn. Wrestling/SethRollins even admitted as much in an interview years later, pointing out that by the time both runs happened, all three members had become bigger than the Shield itself, meaning that none of them could benefit from a reunion anymore. Since that statement, all three have only become even ''bigger'' stars, and that, along with Ambrose leaving the company and burning the bridge on the way out, means that any attempt at a reunion before their inevitable induction into the Hall of Fame is effectively pointless.
158	** Wrestling/TheShield itself is this for the Wrestling/{{WWENXT}} developmental system. They were the first stars produced by the system, and to this day no other star has come anywhere close to their success. The lone exception is (rather ironically), Rollins' eventual wife Wrestling/BeckyLynch, and she's in an entirely different division altogether.
159
160	[[/folder]]

Context YMMV / TheShield