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I have to take a moment to post about The Shield. Have you been wondering why a TV series about dirty cops has attracted names like Glenn Close and David Mamet? FX markets the show mostly to adrenaline-deprived white guys, but don’t let that fool you. It is far and away the best show on television, and regularly exhibits some of the best acting to be found on stage or screen. CCH Pounder may be my favorite actor or getting there. After last week’s episode even the halfwits on the Sports Journalist web board are calling for her to get Emmys and such. Her name isn’t known in every home in the country, but that’s a crying shame. Chances are, you’d recognize her if you saw her.

This season, Oscar nominee Forest Whitaker is around, too, playing an Internal Affairs detective who’s after our “hero,” Detective Mackey (Anna's Team reserve Michael Chiklis). I’ll bet anything that when the part of Detective Kavanaugh was being written, it was a variation on the familiar theme of the fox, the slick, seductive bad guy that you love to hate. The only twist on the cliché would be that Kavanaugh is technically the good guy, cause we know that Mackey has gone dirty, killed people etc. Whitaker makes the part so much more interesting, though, mostly by overplaying it. The slick talk is there and he’s ruthless and smart, but he isn’t remotely cool. The physically awkward Kavanaugh has no game and is completely unlikeable; he epitomizes the guy you slip away from at a cocktail party, more like a carnivorous slug than a fox. It’s uncomfortable just to watch him, and that’s why he’s so convincing as the person who is able to pressure other characters into slipping up for the first time in the show’s five years. He oozes into their personal space and leaves slime all over their corrupt lives. Everyone’s afraid of him, but not because he was more popular in high school or might be capable of beating them up; he just has the goods. My favorite scene is the one in which he explains that no one has ever caught Mackey before because they think that dirty cops are dirty 100% of the time, when really it’s more like 2%. That right there is more complexity than you’ll ever see on Law & Order. It’s a great show.