Season 1, Episode1 "Pilot"
Written by Shawn Ryan
Directed by Clark Johnson
Air date: 3-12-02
Chiklis' best acting comes as he interrogates the child molester in the first episode of the series, trying to get him to tell where he has the little girl stashed. He's eventually going to get violent, but watch the build-up. See how he talks himself into being mad and crazy enough to do damage to the guy- and makes a point of showing him just how he's doing it.
Vic starts riffing about how he has an eight year old daughter, just like the missing girl. Since the doctor likes eight year old girls, maybe he should bring his Cassidy down here for him to screw. Watch Vic imagining this guy with HIS little girl, purposely working up his bloodlust for this perp. If this doctor were as smart as he seemed to think he was, he'd have been talking about this time.
When the doctor expresses a lack of interest in Vic's girl, Vic is highly insulted. "So you want to have some other guy's little girl, but not my Cassidy?" Oh, so Vic's girl isn't good enough. He becomes right anxious for the doctor to arrange for him to meet this other girl, so he can "see what she's got that my Cassidy doesn't."
Take it as a note of commitment or sickness, but Vic does in fact have an eight year old daughter named Cassidy. Moreover, the actress playing Cassidy is in fact Michael Chiklis' own daughter, Autumn Chiklis.
------------------------------
The beginning of this interrogation scene with the child molester daughter also provided the best main soundbite that they used in the promos for months before the series debut.
PERP: Your turn to play bad cop?
VIC: Naw. Good cop and bad cop left for the day. I'm a different kind of cop.
That is SO incredibly Nietzchean. I've never seen any direct invocation of the man, but he's presenting himself as beyond good and evil (neither good cop nor bad cop).
That's not just talk, either. Vic runs a whole different kind of game. He's not an "evil" guy, some mere gangster running over people. But he SURE ain't anyone's idea of a "good cop" either, considering that he climaxes this series pilot by absolutely assassinating a brother officer. He has his own rules and criteria for judging what he considers to be right and wrong behavior- still developing as he goes even a couple of seasons on.
Article comments
1 - Duncan
Does anyone know what happened to The Sheild's time slot on Sunday nights at 10??? Where did it go?
2 - Al Barger
Tuesday at 10pm is the main FX network time slot for the show. During the season, they will typically replay the show during the Sunday 10pm time slot.
The Shield has previously had 13 episode seasons, so they've had two whole successful seasons of other shows in the same Tuesday timeslot, Lucky and Nip/Tuck.
The Shield is the big dog of this network, so it gets dibs. The third seasons just started March 9, so Sunday nights will be a likely time to see The Shield as well for the next 15 episodes.
3 - C. Morow
I have always loved the show "The Shield" since day one. However, last night's episode which showed the strangling of a stray cat - well...you have crossed the line. I will no longer watch. I was sickened by that scene. Sorry, this is just not for me.
4 - Aaman
I'm watching the first season of the Shield right now, was inspired to pick it up by these posts - I think Al did one of the entire first season on DVD.
The social insights are stunning, and sad
5 - Al Barger
Aaman, this is a kind of comment that really does my heart good. It's one of my top rewards to know that I've turned someone on to something really cool, and The Shield is as cool as video gets. That pilot episode in particular is one of the best hours ever put on a television.
And I have a LOT of writing about the series, though I note now that manage not to have a specific link to it in the post- though there is one on my main MoreThings homepage.
Anyway RIGHT HERE I have hundreds of pictures from The Shield, and something like 100,000 words trying to unravel it. It's that good.
6 - todd Yarling
I love this show! It's kinda like the Bible in a way, showing people at their worst, and at their best, all at once.
That good cop bad cop line was the main blurb in the ads at the time iirc, and probably responsible for most of its early viewers. It's what made me wanna watch it.
I didn't like the whole Glenn Close arc tho, I thot it was a wimpy attempt at making the Shield more palatable to the mainstream.
Forrest Whittaker on the other hand, in the one recent ep I have seen, was veritably awesome to watch. Seems they are back on point.
7 - Al Barger
The other big promo line from the premiere of the show was Aceveda's assertion that Vic is not a cop, but "Al Capone with a badge."
Season 4 with Ms Close was kick ass. Antwon Mitchell was a finely creative study in evil. Ms Close herself was a good character, but more a representative of a policy point that they wanted to play out in practice, the whole asset forfeiture thing.
8 - ddog30
Please Ten BRING BACK THE SHIELD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!