 |
|
|
 |
||
|
|
|
|||
Posted on 04/04/2002 4:19:23 AM PST by AppyPappy
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|||
I can't find a reference on the dad's site, the mom's site the afa site or through a Google search.
Must've been a pretty effective e-mail campaign...
I would say that it is the new good cop/bad cop show being shown on Cable.
Mike Chickles (sp?) (he used to star in the TV show "The Commish") stars as the "bad cop".
I have watched this show and in my humble opinion, it is a very good show.
'Al Capone with a badge'
Michael Chiklis is arresting as sinister cop in 'The Shield'
Tuesday, March 12, 2002
By Frazier Moore
The Associated Press
On the premiere of "The Shield," LAPD Detective Vic Mackey commits a truly evil deed. As played by Michael Chiklis, Mackey looks upon his handiwork with fierce satisfaction. Nothing less than the devil is in his eyes.
TV series don't usually opt for a sinister champion — not even "The Sopranos," whose antihero is brutish yet adorable. A blackheart is too hard for the audience to live with week after week. Or so says conventional TV wisdom.
Now comes Mackey. He's the leader of an elite strike team, and he's mighty good at it. But he's corrupt, ruthless and a shrewd manipulator. In the war against crime, Mackey may be a necessary evil. But this bullet-headed lawman is a misguided missile, potentially a threat to everyone in his path.
"He's Al Capone with a badge," declares his captain, who is hellbent on nailing him.
And he's fascinating to watch. All by himself, Mackey renews the cop-show genre. The first original drama series on cable's FX network, "The Shield" is flat-out the best new series this season. Premiering tonight at 9, it makes "NYPD Blue" look like "Barney Miller."
But there are more reasons why you can't take your eyes off "The Shield." Its writing. Its gritty, L.A-underbelly atmosphere and murky moral climate. Its all-too-appropriate rough language and action. Its squad of actors, including CCH Pounder, Catherine Dent, Walton Goggins, Michael Jace, Kenneth Johnson, Jay Karnes and Benito Martinez.
And don't overlook the guy who stars as Vic Mackey. As if you could.
In homes across America, jaws will be dropping at Chiklis' breakthrough performance. He is chilling. Scheming. And, most immediately obvious, strapping.
That's right! Here is spare-tire Chikkie, who played fat comedian John Belushi in the 1988 film "Wired," and, at 27, starred as portly Tony Scali on ABC's "The Commish" — now a hardbody!
As recently as two years ago, Chiklis played Curly in a Three Stooges biopic and bowed as a chubby single father on the NBC sitcom "Daddio." But in fall 2000, "Daddio" was scrapped.
"I had come to a crossroads in my career," Chiklis says. "Do I gain 20 more pounds and just go the character(-role) route? Or do I really put my nose down, LOSE 20 pounds, and go for the roles the (show-biz) community doesn't think of me for?"
He chose the latter course, but he knew from past experience it wouldn't be a cakewalk.
"I did 'The Commish' largely to show the community how far I could stretch. But you can do too good a job. I did five years of that show, and everybody thought that was who I was: a fat, 55-year-old schlemiel from Brooklyn."
So a year ago, Chiklis — even then just 37 and from Lowell, Mass. — shaved what was left of his hair, then shaved off the pounds. He hired not one, but two trainers. Got himself down to a ferociously fit 185 (60 fewer than during his "Commish" days).
Then, after 15 years in the business, the new, supercharged Chiklis set out on the task of relaunching himself.
"I already knew from the last five years: I would try to get into rooms for a particular role," he says, "and they'd flatly say no."
"Hey, that was ME!" says Kevin Reilly, FX Entertainment president, acknowledging that he flatly said no when Chiklis was pitched to play Mackey. "Look, I think the guy is great," Reilly replied. "I just don't see him for this role."
But Chiklis wouldn't be stopped. For one thing, he had already been developing his own project where he would star as — getouttahere! — a rogue cop in Miami. ("My hand to God," Chiklis says.)
Then he heard about a script by Shawn Ryan, who was cooking up a series loosely based on real-life anti-gang LAPD officers who, in the 1990s, allegedly robbed, beat, framed and shot suspects. Chiklis found Ryan's script was eerily like his own — "only a hundred times better."
But what about the bad words and the violence?
"Listen, I wouldn't have taken this role if we just wanted to shock people into watching," Chiklis says. "I loved the moral ambiguity, where you're delving into complex issues, instead of glossing them over."
So he decided, "I have to get this," then wangled a chance to read for the part. "Go win this!" he told himself when crunch time arrived.
"He blows into the office, chewing Nicorette," Reilly says. "Gives the reading. Blows out the door. And it was like the room had been vacuum-sealed. Everyone just sat there kind of dazed, saying, 'OK, that worked .... THAT worked.' "
"We were afraid to NOT give him the role," FX Networks President Peter Liguori says with a laugh.
Nothing to laugh about, "The Shield" is riveting and irresistible.
These "organizations" have WAY TOO MUCH time to complain about a TV program that they don't have too watch, and if they object the sponsors, hey, don't eat at BK or buy a VW. Spend the time raising your families and turn off the TV.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
