Shield Guns Down The Wire

In crime drama face-off, Mackey has the edge on sheer depravity

By Wesley Oliver, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 27, 2008 2:47 PM CST

(Newser) – When it comes to gritty portrayals of life on the unforgiving streets of an American city, no show is better than The Wire—except The Shield, Chris Petit declares in the Guardian. The crime dramas, with their shaky lens style and foul-mouth approach, shuck romance and expose the oft-forgotten American underclass. The Wire “was Dickens," Petit writes. "It was a Russian novel.”

But The Wire’s heroic treatment of cops undermines its anti-sentimentalist mission, while “The Shield is reprobate, Shakespearean in its epic corruption and Jacobean in plotting and the darkness of its soul." On The Shield, “everyone hates and mistrusts each other, most of them are slime balls, with little bonding beyond sadomasochistic dependency. It goes beyond dysfunction. It throws wild curves.”

[Images (6)]

[Quotes (2)]

In this image released by FX channel, Michael Chiklis stars as Det. Vic Mackey in a scene from, "The Shield," returning for a new season, Tuesday, Sept. 2, at 10:00 p.m. on FX channel. (AP Photo/FX, Prashant Gupta)

In this image released by FX, Michael Chiklis as Det. Vic Mackey, left, is shown in a scene from the series finale of "The Shield." (AP Photo/FX, Prashant Gupta)

Cast member Michael Chiklis arrives at the premiere of "Eagle Eye" in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

In this image released by FX, Michael Chiklis as Det. Vic Mackey, left, and David Rees Snell as Det. Ronnie Gardocki are shown in a scene from the series finale of "The Shield," airing Tuesday Nov. 25,... (AP Photo/FX, Prashant Gupta)

This photo, supplied by HBO, shows Michael K. Williams, who plays Omar Little, Baltimore's most-feared stickup artist, on the HBO cable television series, "The Wire." (AP Photo/HBO, Paul Schiraldi)

David Simon is the creator of "The Wire," an HBO show which endeavored unlike any previous fictional series to depict a city in full. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

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The Wire anticipates Obama in mourning the betrayal of American ideals, but is sentimental in its vision of good men curbed by the reductive nature of city politics and law enforcement. - Chris Petit, the Guardian

The Shield has something very dark to say about personal corruption and does so with unmatched energy. - Chris Petit, the Guardian

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Shield Guns Down The Wire