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'Lie to Me' gets a 'Shield' makeover

August 16, 2010 |  7:24 am

Martinez_Dent  On Monday night’s episode of Fox’s “Lie to Me,” which sees a barrage of “The Shield” alums guest star, the unthinkable has happened: Capt. David Aceveda and Officer Danny Sofer are … gulp … married. Oh, and Det. Curtis Lemansky? He's a ... photographer.

“Hopefully, ‘Shield’ fans will enjoy this wacky universe we cooked up for them,” said “Shield” creator” and “Lie to Me” executive producer Shawn Ryan. “Because we had fun creating it.”

The idea to reunite the cast was not a fluke. Ryan began looking for ways to bring "Shield" actors to the Fox show when the season began. But it started simply. 

“It’s always fun thinking of what guest stars to bring in," Ryan said. “And I thought, gee, wouldn’t it be great to get David Snell here, David Marciano there. But I wanted more of them all at once! I waited for the right episode to come along where it wouldn’t be gimmicky.”

So having “The Shield” alums reprise their roles was not an option.

“It would have been a little weird and creepy if they were playing the same character,” he said. 

In Monday’s episode of “Lie to Me,” Benito Martinez and Catherine Dent play Charlie and Faye Sheridan, a couple whose child was murdered 17 years earlier.  The episode, titled “Pied Piper,” sees Lightman (Tim Roth) question whether he sent the wrong man (Marciano) to be executed for the murder; it's not long before he grows suspicious of the Sheridans.

But in Lightman’s attempt to correct a wrong, he turns to the executed man's younger brother (Snell) and ex-girlfriend (Cathy Cahlin Ryan) for clues, which leads them to an unsuspecting photographer (Kenny Johnson). 

“I think fans will be giggling to themselves,” said Martinez, who played Capt. Aceveda on “The Shield.” “They’ll be like ‘Nooooo! How are they a couple? Or, dude, that guy can’t be a murderer.’ They’re going to see us in completely different ways. It’s like he mixed us up in a crayon box and threw us back out there in a different shade.”

Working for his old boss again is nothing new for Martinez. He also guest-starred on Ryan’s CBS drama “The Unit.” And he would like to continue the tradition. Ryan, who relinquished his duties as showrunner for “Lie to Me's” third season to focus on new projects, promised that the episode wouldn't be a "Shield"- members-only type of deal. And if it works,  more reunion attempts could be in the future on his newest TV ventures, Fox's "Ride Along" and FX's "Terriers."

“I think that crazy nutcase has to do [a ‘Shield’ reunion’] over and over,” Martinez said.  “Let’s make this an annual thing.”

Eh, not so fast.

“We’ll see how successful Monday’s episode is,” Ryan said. “If enough people tune in, it will be tempting to try it again on a different show.”

The episode of “Lie to Me” airs Monday at 9 p.m. Pacific on Fox.

-- Yvonne Villarreal

twitter.com/villarrealy

Photo: Jennifer Beals, left, Benito Martinez and Catherine Dent. Credit: Fox


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'The Shield': Final season begins in September, but it's curtains for 'Dirt'

June 9, 2008 |  3:51 pm

Det. Vic Mackey is back in action.

According to the FX website, the seventh and final season of the show will premiere at 10 p.m. Sept. 2. When we last left Vic -- the sixth season finale aired a full year ago! -- his world had turned upside down. Mackey had just formed an alliance with former rival Aceveda, while his former partner Shane turned into a man on the run.

Log on to the show's official website to watch videos of the cast as they reflect on the first six seasons.

In other FX news, the network has canceled Courteney Cox's tabloid drama, "Dirt." And after two ratings-challenged and critically panned seasons, there's not much left to say about that.

-- Denise Martin


'The Shield': In the end, a new beginning

June 5, 2007 | 11:03 pm

Shield200 The season finale of powerhouse police drama “The Shield,” which premiered Tuesday night on FX and repeats Friday and Sunday, felt awfully like a new beginning.

It had been under consideration for the series to end permanently with this recent batch of episodes, which were filmed as the second half of Season 5, but ultimately aired as their own separate season. But with the events set in motion during the last 10 weeks, and the twists that came into play last night (a Dutch and Danny love match? Perfect!), that idea seems inconceivable.

Most important, antihero L.A. cop Vic Mackey’s (Michael Chiklis) season-long showdown with former partner Shane Vendrell (Walton Goggins, this year’s supporting cast M.V.P.) isn’t over, and Mackey faced down the possibility of forced retirement not with pleas for sympathy, as he had been advised, but with down and dirty detective work.

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'The Shield': Puppet masters

May 30, 2007 | 12:23 pm

Shieldtp One thing is clear as “The Shield” nears the end of its sixth season: this show is for dedicated viewers only. And rightly so.

That’s always been the case, but with this week’s episode dropping casual insider references to Terry Crowley, the Armenian money train and Antwon Mitchell, anyone who wasn’t already well-versed in the show’s elaborate narrative must have been completely lost. Their loss.

“Shield” devotees were rewarded with another densely packed hour that turned the delicate art of manipulation into a bloodsport. There were so many glorious power plays and acts of one-upsmanship you’d need a scorecard to sort it all out.

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'The Shield': No time for filler

May 9, 2007 |  9:57 am

Shield Things move quickly on “The Shield.” With only ten episodes in their sixth season, the writers simply can’t afford the frequently ponderous pacing of network serial dramas. Stories need to unfold, characters must be utilized shrewdly, there needs to be a game plan. It just won’t cut it to vamp your way to a season finale where “everything…will…change!”

What a concept.

This week Shane confessed to Vic, at the end of a pretty bad day. Not only did Shane come clean about murdering one of their strike team brothers, but he thinks it was the right thing to do and believes Vic would have done the same thing. That betrayal followed Vic’s daughter’s refusal to stay with him after her discovery of the dirty deeds he’s been accused of, and also the baby half-brother he never told her about.

The show's stubborn insistence on genuinely advancing its story in each episode continues to make it stand out from the quality drama pack. Every week counts here, and now there’s only four left.

(Photo courtesy FX)


'The Shield': Character comes first

May 2, 2007 | 11:17 am

Shane Shane's secret is no longer his burden to carry alone.

For the second week "The Shield" delivered a gut-wrenching closing sequence, this time as Shane (Walton Goggins) tearfully came clean to his wife Mara (recurring guest star Michele Hicks) about killing his partner in last season's finale. He confessed, in part, to save his marriage (Mara had discovered Shane's infidelity) and it seems to have worked. That's "The Shield."

But as the series continues its six season long progression into a deeper and ever more satisfying character drama, and Goggins continues to contribute standout work, this week also featured one of those classic skin-crawling "Shield" cases. Only this time it felt like unnecessary filler.

Dutch (Jay Karnes) and Billings (David Marciano) pinned down a serial rapist (guest star Brian Howe) whose crimes stemmed from his daughter's disappearance years earlier. As the case's sordid details were revealed, it all played a little too predictably. From the perp's first appearance he seemed like the guilty party and the investigation failed to take enough interesting turns, or have an impact on any of full time cast members, to carry its weight on a show overflowing with compelling storylines.

"The Shield" made its name in part by featuring criminal cases too raw, and often too monstrous, for other cop shows to even think of tackling. But it's sign of how much the show has grown that those sorts of crimes have become its least interesting element. Now more than ever, even the most shocking crimes can't match the dramatic pull of the characters investigating them.

(Photo courtesy FX)


'The Shield': Mackey unleashed

April 25, 2007 | 12:49 pm

Mackey1 That was quite an ending.

"The Shield" delivered another solid hour this week but it was the last two minutes, in which Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) let loose with a raw, animalistic fury in a hospital waiting room, that really stood out.

Still distraught over the death of former partner Curtis Lemansky (Kenneth Johnson), Vic's pain colored one of the show's more intriguing street stories: a deadly gangland power struggle set off when several gang members try to leave the life and go straight. In the episode's final moments Vic rushed the critically wounded "revolution" ringleader to the hospital, but it was too late.

Chiklis (who won an Emmy in the show's first season, and deserves consideration again) played the resulting meltdown for all it was worth. The sequence was a classic example of what makes Mackey such a riveting character: seeing his closely guarded internal pain manifest itself in frighteningly intense external rage. And the public setting allowed several other characters to witness the event, including Captain Wyms (C.C.H. Pounder) and Vic's ex, Corinne (Cathy Cahlin Ryan).

Earlier in the hour Wyms revealed a savvy plan to push Vic out, forcing him into retirement while making him believe he still has a shot at staying at work. Will what she saw deter her from rattling the monster's cage? Or make her even more determined to rid her squad of Mackey for good?

(Photo courtesy FX)


'The Shield': Crisis of conscience

April 18, 2007 |  9:01 am

Shieldtp

"24" has taken plenty of hits for an abundance of torture scenes this season but "The Shield" may be courting controversy of its own with this week’s episode. Of course, on "The Shield," even torture is complicated.

Walton Goggins deserves the week’s top acting honors as slowly imploding Strike Team member Shane Vendrell. His friend and mentor Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) still doesn’t know that Shane is the one responsible for last season’s murder of fellow Strike Team member Curtis Lemansky (Kenneth Johnson). Operating under the belief that gangbanger Guardo Lima is the guilty party, Vic lured Guardo out of hiding in Mexico and strung him up to torture a confession out of him.

Shane had no choice but to go along with it.

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'The Shield': Nothing broken here

April 11, 2007 |  8:48 am

Shield300 Vic Mackey, the morally dubious cop at the center of FX’s acclaimed drama, “The Shield,” has outfoxed his fair share of adversaries. But none proved more formidable than Lt. Jon Kavanaugh.

Sadly, all great things must come to an end, especially when they involve Oscar winning actors on series television, and this week Kavanaugh said goodbye to “The Shield” from the very place he hoped to put Mackey: a prison cell.

The exemplary hour highlighted the show’s intricate narrative web and sterling ensemble cast, elements that not only set it apart from every other cop drama currently on television but also beg favorable comparisons to TV’s current gold standard, “The Sopranos.”

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