The Munsons are thrilled to welcome back guest Munson Matti Groll to explore one of the stranger career paths we’ve covered: Michael Chiklis. A fellow Boston University Terrier, Matti joins us as we trace Chiklis from a disastrous first movie that nearly ended his career before it began to becoming one of the actors who helped redefine what television could look like in the early 2000s. Along the way, we unpack the incredible story behind Wired, the infamous John Belushi biopic that earned the wrath of Belushi’s friends, a literal curse from Dan Aykroyd, and years of career fallout for a young actor who was mostly just happy to no longer be waiting tables.
From there, we dive into the television work that ultimately made Chiklis a star, including The Commish and his groundbreaking Emmy-winning performance as Vic Mackey on The Shield. We debate just how important The Shield was in opening the door for prestige dramas on basic cable, discover that Stan Lee considered Chiklis’s portrayal of The Thing his favorite live-action Marvel performance, and somehow find ourselves defending—or absolutely refusing to defend—the 2005 Fantastic Four. Matti also gets the considerably better assignment of revisiting Spirited Away, whose addition to Chiklis’s filmography unexpectedly rescues him from dead last in Case’s box-office rankings.
The back half brings everything from Eagle Eye, Parker, and the wildly divisive When the Game Stands Tall to the MoviePass-produced crime thriller 10 Minutes Gone, complete with a fascinating behind-the-scenes Bruce Willis story. But the real late-career revelation may be Chiklis as Red Auerbach in Winning Time, a performance strong enough to have us wondering whether a full-blown “Chiklissance” could still be ahead. Is Michael Chiklis an underrated television powerhouse trapped inside an underwhelming movie résumé, or does the uneven filmography tell us something bigger about his limitations as a performer?
How does he rank on the Munson Meter? Listen to find out.
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