I have ranked the top 68 television shows of the '00s, and will be presenting them, one-by-one, starting with 68 and working down. The rankings are more or less based on the show's popularity, it's cult status, it's critical acclaim, and my personal liking of it, with a heavy dose of arbitrariness added in. If a show was a big enough phenomena, I'll keep it on the list - but if I don't like it, I may drop it some spots. One other caveat - these are primetime shows (I apologize if I put a cable show that wasn't, I thought they were all primetime shows - the main point of this is just that no talk shows, no Colbert and Daily show that would be on otherwise).

39: The Shield

I honestly know very little about The Shield as well, though a fairly different show from Will and Grace. It always seemed like it had some things common with 24 - not so much that the shows were similar but that as there are certain things that give 24 its essential, uh, 24ness - things that you can count on watching any given episode or any given season, I felt like, based solely on commercials and what I read, there was a certain Shieldness, a style and specific things I could count on in any given episode of the Shield. That starts and ends with Michael Chiklis and Vic Mackey. From my made up assumptions about the show, though I think this one is true - he is the show - of course there are other characters, but like Jack Bauer, it's really about him, more than it is a true ensemble - he is the one character, without which it wouldn't be the same show.

Before The Shield, all I knew about Michael Chiklis was that he had starred as The Commish, though I had absolutely no clue what the hell The Commish was (and when I found out it was totally nothing like what I imagined it to be (which was kind of a Shield Jr.) - a comedy-drama about a small town police chief in upstate New York which lasted an amazing five seasons) (this is not to mention his work on the thankfully brief sitcom Daddio where he played a stay-at-home Dad.) The one thing about the Shield - it all seems so hard boiled - I don't think I ever saw Chikless speaking in any other tone between different grades of yelling. I've thought about watching it, the reviews I've seen have been mostly favorable. I don't want to read too specific into the plot details because I might potentially watch it, but basically it seems like it's pretty much about cops who do whatever it takes to put criminals away - even if that means resorting to illegal methods (you don't say!) and in turn conduction other illegal activities such as selling drugs or operating with organized crime.

The Shield more or less put FX on the map in terms of original shows. FX is up there with the USAs and the TNTs in terms of quantity and success of original series but it all started with The Shield. I'm honestly hesitant to read too much because I might want to watch it one day, but we'll just assume that Vic Mackey does a lot of bad things, some of which are in the ultimate goal of good things, and that a whole bunch of criminals and other cops try to take him down and possibly succeed by the end of the series.

It was definitely kind of a big deal though - it wasn't necessarily ground-breaking in its idea, but it was consisted lauded for its real-life portrayal of LA street gangs. Seems like good enough to make the list.