'Shield' to end in all its gritty glory

In ''The Shield'' finale, viewers will learn what happens to the unorthodox Detective Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis, left). (PRASHANT GUPTA/fx via ASSOCIATED PRESS)

HOLLYWOOD - Viewers tuning in to tonight's finale of FX's groundbreaking cop drama "The Shield" can count on a few things: There will be no parking difficulties, no plate of onion rings, no Journey song, and no sudden cut to black.

Shawn Ryan, creator of "The Shield," said the end of the drama, which premiered in 2002, will unfold without an ambiguous or mysterious meaning - the kind that distinguished the series finale of "The Sopranos." The two popular series have often been compared because of their revolutionary approaches to traditional genres.

"The Shield," which follows a beleaguered LA police station and its renegade strike team, established FX as a top cable network.

Though Michael Chiklis, whose portrayal of Vic Mackey scored a first-season Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a drama series, has received the lion's share of attention, he has been surrounded by seasoned character actors who have all made their mark on the show's gritty realism.

Some core cast members - CCH Pounder (Captain Claudette Wyms), Benito Martinez (Councilman David Aceveda) and Jay Karnes (Detective Holland "Dutch" Wagenbach) - gathered recently at FX to discuss the series and its legacy.

Q. "The Shield" and "The Sopranos" have both been cited as examples of drama series that took established genres and turned them on their heads. What is the place of "The Shield" in the spectrum of television?

Karnes. For me, the way 'The Shield' ends is like a long play. Although I love 'The Sopranos,' I feel like that story is not finished, in a sense. We don't know what happens to Tony Soprano. But Vic Mackey's story, in a way, is completed.

Q. What bonded you all together? You all seem to genuinely like each other.

Karnes. This was a tenuous project to begin with - a basic-cable cop show for a network that no one had heard of. We all came in with a sense of privilege and entitlement. It was a bunch of scrappy actors putting on a show. We all needed to get along to make this work.

Pounder. We were a league of excellent actors, period. You knew you were parrying and fencing with someone equal or better, which made you better every week.

Q. During two of your seasons, you had high-profile stars step into the ensemble. How did the presence of Forest Whitaker and Glenn Close alter the dynamic of your established group?

Martinez. Glenn was brought into our world to play on our court, and she had to come up to our game.

Pounder. Forest has dabbled in film and television, while Glenn had done films for some time. To come up to the speed of working in TV is very intimidating to film people, and then here was Glenn with all this publicity. I really watched a veteran actor say, 'OK, this is a lot faster than a moving escalator, and off I go.' To watch her throw caution to the wind and get into the spirit of the show, then get into backgammon games with Jay and beat him. . .

Karnes. Um, she left here owing me $25.