Interrogating The Shield PDF
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The Shield Interrogating Television and Popular Culture Robert J. Thompson, Series Editor Other titles from Television and Popular Culture Athena’s Daughters: Television’s New Women Warriors Frances Early and Kathleen Kennedy, eds. Critiquing the Sitcom: A Reader Joanne Morreale, ed. Inside the TV Writer’s Room: Practical Advice for Succeeding in Television Lawrence Meyers, ed. Screwball Television: Critical Perspectives on “Gilmore Girls” David Scott Diffrient, ed., with David Lavery “Something on My Own”: Gertrude Berg and American Broadcasting, 1929–1956 Glenn D. Smith Jr. Starting Your Television Writing Career: The Warner Bros. Television Writers Workshop Guide Abby Finer and Deborah Pearlman TV Creators: Conversations with America’s Top Producers of Television Drama, vol. 1 James L. Longworth Jr. TV Creators: Conversations with America’s Top Producers of Television Drama, vol. 2 James L. Longworth Jr. Watching TV: Six Decades of American Television, expanded second edition Harry Castleman and Walter J. Podrazik “The West Wing”: The American Presidency as Television Drama Peter C. Rollins and John E. O’Connor, eds. Interrogating The Shield Nicholas Ray Edited by Syracuse University Press Copyright © 2012 by Syracuse University Press Syracuse, New York 13244-5290 All Rights Reserved First Edition 2012 12 13 14 15 16 17 6 5 4 3 2 1 ∞The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. For a listing of books published and distributed by Syracuse University Press, visit our website at SyracuseUniversityPress.syr.edu. ISBN: 978-0-8156-3308-2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Interrogating The shield / edited by Nicholas Ray. — 1st ed. p. cm. — (Television and popular culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8156-3308-2 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Shield (Television program) I. Ray, Nicholas, 1975– PN1992.77.S476I58 2012 791.45'72—dc23 2012028689 Manufactured in the United States of America Contents Acknowledgments vii Contributors ix Introduction: Trees Falling 1 1. The Derivation of a Television Crime Drama, Concepción Cascajosa Virino 11 2. The Meaning of Messiness:The Shield and the Production of Television Style, Gary Needham 30 3. Sound Policing: Attending to Acoustic Matters in The Shield, Nicholas Chare 43 4. Fitting the Profi le: Dutch Wagenbach, Realism, and the Ensemble, Lorna Jowett 65 5. Quality, Controversy, and Criminality:The Shield as Post-Sopranos Cop Show, Glyn White 87 6. Scenes from the Interrogation Room: Power, Character, Truth, and Justice in The Shield, Douglas L. Howard 105 7. “You Want Me to Lick Your Balls, Daddy?”:Masculinity, Race, and Power in The Shield, Mike Chopra-Gant 124 8. Glass Ceilings: Gender, Sexism, and The Shield, Jason P. Vest 145 9. “A Different Kind of Cop”: Exception and Complicity in The Shield, Nicholas Ray 166 10. Cracking Ice:The Shield and the Middle-Class Crisis of Social Reproduction, Stephen Shapiro 186 References 209 Index 219 Acknowledgments Thanks are owed fi rst and foremost to Jennika Baines at Syracuse Uni- versity Press for the effi ciency and support with which she oversaw the volume’s completion. I am also greatly indebted to Annie Barva for her painstaking reading of the manuscript. Kim Akass and Janet McCabe dis- pensed sound advice and welcome encouragement at the inception of the project. For inspiring discussions on television studies in general and on The Shield in particular, I am deeply grateful to Herbert Garvie, Paul Tay- lor, Toby Scammell, and—most of all—Lucy Frank. An earlier version of Mike Chopra-Gant’s chapter was published as “The Law of the Father, the Law of the Land: Power, Gender, and Race in The Shield,” Journal of American Studies 41, no. 3 (Oct. 2007): 659–73. vii
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