Review Copy of the "CHICAGO P.D."
- Chema García
- 31 mar
- 7 Min. de lectura
SPOILER ALERT!!
I've been waiting a long time for the opportunity to publish this review of the TV series "CHICAGO PD," since, as many of you know, it's my favorite crime series.
For those unfamiliar, Chicago PD is a series that's part of the Chicago universe created by Dick Wolf. This time, it also features Matt Olmstead as its producer. The series focuses on the Chicago Police Department's Intelligence Unit and is imbued with a dramatic style, focused on action and the moral dilemmas of police officers. The series combines procedural narrative with a focus on portraying exciting stories that address themes such as corruption, abuse of power, and ethics, giving it a deeper dimension than other productions in this genre, appealing to those seeking a more emotional and intense series.
An excellent combination of the officers' personal drama, case plots, and tactical police work (camera-oriented techniques).
Let's get to know its essence because it's not to be missed:
The series, which currently runs for 12 seasons, began in 2014. Its bold and free-form themes (allowing viewers to draw their own moral conclusions) made it a hit. It features a well-chosen and diverse cast (ethnicities, ages, physiognomies, and personalities), offering plenty of scope for dramatic storylines. In it, we meet police officers from the intelligence unit and patrol officers. We can see their differences and how, at the end of the day, they're all police officers. It conveys a sense of true camaraderie.
The cast of actors prepared for their portrayals of police officers with basic knowledge, advanced firearms handling, and evasive driving skills. Their costumes always reflect the winter season, which is when filming takes place, giving them an original touch in snowy settings.
This police unit is led by the most important character, Sergeant Hank Voight (Jason Beghe), as he is the unit's commander. A character with unpredictable behavior and a murky past.
The script, approach, and characters were guaranteed to be a long-standing success, but the first stumbles soon began… Among them was the departure of one of the most powerful characters, Erin Lindsay (Sophia Bush). Erin was one of the characters that shaped the series; she fit the bill, had the ability to engage viewers, and had a well-crafted story. She left the series due to "a conflictive work environment." It's a shame, because she brought depth and was a loss that marked the series' history.
The first seasons told beautifully crafted human stories and brought to life other extraordinary characters like Nadia (Stella Maeve), Erin's confidante, and later, Anna (Carmela Zumbado), Hank's confidante. These characters are magnificently portrayed, essential to the story's driving force.
In Season 4, we get a surprise addition to Detective Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos), a highly acclaimed "profile" by fans, proving that her character fits perfectly into the series. A great actress who's on par with Sophia Bush.
In the following seasons, the small details were carefully maintained and based on interesting cases, but in the characters' relationships, the decision was made to play with too many romantic connections between them, overloading and dirtying the sentimental focus.
In seasons 5 and 6 we encountered the following setbacks:
The loss of Albin Olinsky (Elías Koteas), another pillar of the cast, was a more veteran character, his existence covered a vital field of viewers who identified with his seniority and his way of life, and much could have been made of him.
Antonio Dawson's (Jon Seda) departure from the series. Jon Seda, an amateur boxer with 21 wins and 1 loss, decided to change direction and head into the world of acting, proving he's not bad at it. In the series, he brought to life a character with character and a well-established story that offered many possibilities. The reason for his departure from the series is unclear. His finale was not well handled, giving an undignified goodbye to his character, who, incidentally, was my favorite.
Unfortunate decisions by the creative team in ending these characters would cost them ratings.
We've reached Season 7, where the character of Vanessa Rojas (Lisseth Chávez) is added. The actress arrived energetic and eager, but her story was extremely forced and uncreative, and that sank her character until they removed her late, listening to the fans of the series. The character could have worked if they'd put more effort into creating a good story for her.
Another failure of the creative team, and it won't be the last...
Controversy in Season 8… In 2020, the George Floyd case arrives. (Context: a police officer arrests an African-American citizen, incorrectly applies a restraint technique, and the detainee dies.) This death was the golden goose for a certain political ideology that managed to make its leaders millionaires. They conclude that the cause of death was due to police racism, and several associations join forces and decide to declare the police institution an enemy. Riots, protests, and hate speech spread internationally. As a result, several police officers kneel and apologize for being white, some toy brands refuse to make sets featuring police officers, and logically, fiction does not escape that political grip that puts the spotlight on crime fiction, claiming that its content may be offensive to certain groups. From that moment on, they must incorporate a related ideological discourse if they do not want to be canceled. For this reason, both NBC and Dick Wolf embraced this theme, and the eighth season served as a Black Lives Matter announcement, tainting the series and changing its direction to the present day. Opposition to this new approach forced Matt Olmstead to abandon the series he had produced, in addition to the dismissal of one of the writers.
We move on to the sad tenth season... Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer), a character much loved by the audience, leaves us. It's clear that Jesse was made for his role, and the two flowed as one. His character was powerful and well-defined, embodying a moral figure approach that clashed with other characters. Jesse supposedly left the series to explore other roles, but, honestly, taking the liberty of speculating about it, I doubt that was the real reason.
This same season sees the addition of the character Dante Torres (Benjamín Aguilar), a peculiar character who, like Rojas, shares the same "profile," but this time, the creative team learned from their previous mistake and quickly showed his dramatic past so that the viewer would begin to sympathize with the character. Dante has a unique style; always wearing a white T-shirt or sweater is peculiar... because this tells us that this character could have strong personal symbolism or suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which is also determined by his character's need for perfection, his rigidity in demonstrating his worth, and his control over his surroundings.
Season 11 saw another misstep by letting Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) go, and this looks like it could be the final straw, as she's another character that most viewers identified with, and it affects the cast's dynamic, which has stopped interesting these viewers. The writers allowed Hailey to become too dependent on Jay, and with him gone, her character was left lame in her key arc, as her bond with Jay's character was her counterpart.
Several key departures have impacted the series and maintained such a close relationship that it also personally affected the team.
Kiana Cook (Taya Turner) joins the cast in Season 12. She clearly doesn't fill Hailey's shoes. While her story is pretty good, Taya has no idea how to handle weapons, which makes her look out of place among her teammates in tactical scenes. Her "profile" isn't what you'd expect, but it's not bad.
So, we have an incredible series, but one that has diminished in quality over time due to creative decisions that didn't take fan feedback into account.
It's a production that balances spectacle with realism, but the spectacle always wins (it's the right thing to do). A good depiction of police science and its details.
We miss more involvement in the risky interventions that the characters have to carry out.
The shots and pace of the action are perfect.
The departures of key characters that have altered the dynamics of the series and influenced viewer perception, which, along with Dick Wolf's political correctness, has changed the course of the series, is like watching another series that isn't really Chicago PD.
Narrative changes: the series is predictable, it has lost part of its identity.
The tactical advice is impeccable, thanks to Brian Luce, who is the tactical advisor and associate producer of the series. He not only provides excellent, appropriate advice, but also contributes to the team's positive atmosphere, warmth, and unity.
In recent seasons, the lack of diversity in the portrayal of villains on Chicago PD is clearly discriminatory. In previous seasons, there were antagonists of different ethnicities, and now there's a predominance of certain groups over others, with all the villains being white or Latino. It's so predictable that when, in one of the final episodes, the Intelligence Unit arrests a murder suspect, but the character is Black, as a viewer, we already anticipate that he won't be the final criminal, or that he'll have a moral justification. It's gone from being a series that lets viewers think and draw their own conclusions to not letting them think at all.
There is a racial bias, and this results in a lack of realism. If we compare Chicago's actual crime rate with the data available before these reports began to be hidden in 2011, 70.5% of homicides were committed by African Americans, 20.3% by Hispanics, and 3.5% by whites. Accepting reality is not racism.
Although, if this representation is considered sensitive, they could represent their villains in equal proportion by ethnicity: one third Black, another third Hispanic, and another third white, balancing that profile.
The audience has spoken out, with a 12% drop in the last season, and says they want the original Chicago PD, if they are ignored, the series is doomed.
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