Returning for its seventh and thankfully final season of blisteringly corrupt – or, sorry, “ethically complex”  -- cops,  the September 2^nd episode of The Shield on FX (10:00 p.m. ET), has earned Worst Cable TV Show of The Week.

For seven seasons, Detective Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) has patrolled the gang-ridden streets in the fictional “Farmington” district of Los Angeles. Following the FX network style of glorifying sociopathic anti-heroes, Vic Mackey does things “his way” -- and if that means breaking a few bones, ripping off some Armenian drug money or murdering criminals in cold blood, then so be it.

In the season opener “Coefficient of Drag,” Vic brutalizes his fellow Strike Team member Shane, whom he suspects of trying to murder his family. Vic also investigates the brutal slaying of two Salvadoran gang members by the Mexican Death Mob, who dragged the corpses down the length of the entire street, leaving hacked-off body parts along the way.

In the course of his problem-solving, Shane finds a Filipina prostitute/informant straddling an elderly naked man. As Shane mimes oral sex, he tells the john, “Don't worry, Pops. I'll get her back before the little blue pill wears off.”

Another Strike Team member, Ronnie Gardocki, murders a prostrate Armenian hitman who was hired to kill Vic’s family. Shane arrives moments later to hack off the dead man’s feet with an axe in order to make the murder look more like a gang execution.

With innumerable mind-numbing uses of “hell,” “ass****” and “s***” bandied about the squad room, it takes a phrase like “I'm sure those fat white guards in double-D block already have a c**-stained towel with your name on it,” to really grab viewers’ attention. That was said by Detective Billings to a large-breasted female suspect in the interrogation room.

The FX’s network’s new advertising slogan “There Is No Box” might make sense if every one of the network’s programs were not centered around violent but charming sociopaths whose ability to “break the rules” is supposed to make them admirable.

FX certainly has a box, and everything inside appears increasingly similar.

For graphic violence, sex and language The Shield deserves Worst Cable TV Show of The Week.