Detective Vic Mackey

Vic Mackey runs the Strike Team, an elite anti-gang unit inside the LAPD's Farmington district, and he runs it his own way—shaking down dealers, planting evidence, beating confessions out of suspects when it gets results. He's a devoted father, a loyal friend to his crew, and utterly convinced that the ends justify whatever he does to get them.

The show hands you a dirty cop and dares you to root for him anyway, and Chiklis makes that dare irresistible—that shaved head and bulldog stance radiating a physical menace that never quite hides the charm underneath. He's terrifying and likable in the same breath, which is the whole unsettling trick of the character.