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The Shield
FX, March
Remember the time when Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) pressed that baddie's face right into a scorching hot grill? That was nothing compared with what's about to go down this year. Enraged over the surprise murder of fellow detective Curtis ''Lemonhead'' Lemansky in season 5, the über-brute takes a break from playing corrupt cop to hunt down Farmington's biggest threat yet. Little does he know that he's after his own buddy, Shane (Walton Goggins), who thought Lem was about to lay bare the Strike Team's crooked ways. ''This season boils down to Vic looking for the monster who killed Lem,'' says creator/ executive producer Shawn Ryan. ''It's a hunt.''
In the season opener, Shane learns Lem never intended to betray his friends after his arrest by Lieut. Jon Kavanaugh (Forest Whitaker, back for two episodes), which means he didn't deserve to die. (By grenade, no less!) ''All the grief comes crashing down,'' says Goggins. ''You're going to see the aftermath of a train wreck.'' Lem's death ''sucked so much oxygen out of these 10 episodes,'' says Ryan, that he persuaded FX to give him a seventh and final season — likely airing in 2008 — to extinguish additional fires. Those include Claudette's (CCH Pounder) power struggles as captain and former captain David Aceveda's (Benito Martinez) near-maniacal quest to bury Mackey for good. ''The core characters take a backseat this season, which isn't an appropriate way to end the series,'' says Ryan. ''We'll address where [they've] all gone in those last 13 episodes.'' Killer idea. —Lynette Rice
