I Like to Watch

April 1, 2007 | I've always had a soft spot for the Misguided Idealist. In a world filled with Lukewarm Layabouts, Pessimistic Hem 'n' Hawers, Wishy-Washy Whatever-heads, Equivocating Eye-Rollers and "I Told You" So-and-So's, the Misguided Idealist leaps without looking, then chases his big dreams up the wrong tree. While the rest of us dilly-dally and second-guess, the Misguided Idealist throws himself behind his cause, proselytizing shamelessly and endorsing a utopian vision that's impossible, costs too much, lacks common sense and won't work on any level.

But for all of his countless flaws and terrible ideas, the Misguided Idealist has more passion in his little finger than a roomful of Passive-Aggressive Worrywarts, Self-Conscious Ironists, Bloviating Blowhards and Naysaying Neurotics combined. While the rest of us can list a million reasons to do nothing and keep quiet, to sit on the sidelines and whine softly until it's all over and there's nothing left to hope for anyway, the Misguided Idealist sticks his neck out, and this hard, cold world does the chopping. But even as the realities and facts come crumbling down around him, even as his big head rolls across the chopping block, he offers us a brief reprieve from our stagnant lives, where we toe the line and act appropriately and do what's done, all without an original thought in our big, empty heads.

Speak for yourself, right? Well, that's what the Misguided Idealist does every day of his cursed, uncomfortable life. And when they bury him, and the eulogists sum up all of his creative intelligence and his passionate beliefs and his imaginative alternatives with limp, inadequate words, calling him "opinionated" and "outspoken," when they admit that he sometimes got on their nerves but gosh, was he tenacious -- in a tone implying that his tenacity was sort of cute but mostly lamentable and awkward to behold -- even then, the Misguided Idealist remains just as underappreciated and misunderstood as he ever was.

Shane on you
Vic Mackey of FX's "The Shield" (sixth season premieres at 10 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, April 3) is just the sort of Misguided Idealist who's charismatic enough to lead most of us over the nearest cliff. Unlike most Misguided Idealists, Mackey (Michael Chiklis) is pragmatic, to a point: A law enforcer who has no faith in the law, he's willing to busts heads and take bribes and play dirty to serve what he sees as the greater good. Of course, Mackey's greater good always includes a very necessary murder or two, plus enough cash to keep his autistic son in a special school. Even so, he's a fiercely protective father figure who, sadly, often chooses the wrong children to embrace, and wanders down insupportable, perilous paths.

When Mackey did find himself a loyal foot soldier in Curtis Lemansky (Kenny Johnson), the man ended up dead, by the hand of none other than Mackey's self-serving prodigal son, Shane (Walton Goggins). In last year's disturbing season finale, Shane used a grenade pilfered from a Salvadoran gang to blow poor Lem to smithereens in his own car, making it look like an act of vengeance. Beady-eyed Shane is exactly the sort of Foolhardy Follower -- selfish, flinchy, shortsighted -- who's attracted by Mackey's corrupt-Daddy appeal, but even Daddy Mack couldn't soothe Shane's fears that Lem, who was facing jail time, might rat on the strike team and land everyone in jail for their various illegal activities.

Of course, we at home knew that Lem wasn't about to rat, and that Shane, in turn, would rat in two seconds if it saved him from the big house. These are the tragic ironies we encounter so often on "The Shield," merciless twists that are part of the show's dark appeal. Instead of being dragged down or exhausted by this deeply unfair universe, though, the whole sick boat stays afloat, thanks in part to the brisk pace, the immediacy of each scene and the strength of Mackey's personality.

Emboldened by years of dodging prosecution, Mackey felt he could devise a way to wriggle out of any bind. Last season, he assumed that, if he tried hard enough, he could thwart Lt. Jon Kavanaugh (Forest Whitaker) and dig Lem and the rest of the strike team out of the mess they were in. In this sixth season, we find Mackey faced with failure: Even if he finds Lem's killer (or believes that he's found his killer) and avenges Lem's death, he still must face the fact that he failed to protect a member of his team.

It should be satisfying to see Mackey suffer, after years of enduring his arrogance and his sadism and his manipulations. And maybe it's not so bad to see him squirm. But ultimately, we want him to devise a way out of this and every other bind. We may identify with the more ethical forces in the Farmington police department, like Detective Claudette Wyms (CCH Pounder), but we still want Mackey to outsmart her. We want this guy to get away with murder.

Shane is another matter. Will he get away with killing his friend? Will Kavanaugh succeed in taking Mackey down? Unlike so many other shows that drop a huge bomb on the audience in the season finale, and then do a sloppy job of cleaning up the mess at the start of the next season, "The Shield" doesn't disappoint. The chaos in the wake of Lem's death is just as strange and smart and complicated as it should be, with twists and turns and resolutions that feel organic but also unexpected. I don't generally love cop shows, but each episode (FX sent the first six) was so fast-paced and suspenseful and gripping, I just couldn't stop myself from watching the next one. It's pretty amazing that, after five seasons, a cop show like "The Shield" could still be this addictive.

If you haven't watched this show, the Misguided Idealist in me wants to urge you to rent all five seasons in rapid succession. Vic Mackey is the kind of bad cop that Shakespeare would dream up, if he were in the business of penning procedural dramas.

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