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‘The Chicago Code’ premieres Monday
“The Chicago Code,” Fox’s mid-season police drama premiering today at 8 p.m., comes with high expectations. These are built in, for better or worse, when your new series’ creator is Shawn Ryan, who brought to television last season’s often lamented “Terriers” and the insert-superlative-here FX cop drama, “The Shield.”
While I’m not sure it’s worthy of its hype as the second coming, “The Chicago Code” looks to meet most of those expectations.
For starters, the show is set in Ryan’s hometown of Chicago, so the settings and plot lines — encompassing routine police fare, deep undercover work and corrupt politics —have an organic, authentic feel. And the series is beautifully shot in a gritty, cinematic style.
The cast does a (no pun intended) uniformly good job with well-drawn characters, especially Jason Clarke as difficult Detective Jarek Wysocki and Jennifer Beals as his ex-partner, Teresa Colvin, who also happens to be the city’s current Superintendent of Police. The pilot uses the fairly conventional and slightly disappointing “dismissing of potential partners” tactic to deliver Wysocki “Friday Night Light’s” Matt Lauria as his new ride-along Caleb Evers, but the dominoes must be set up. Delroy Lindo (late of NBC’s 2006 drama “Kidnapped”) is menacing, yet subtly so, as dirty Alderman Patrick Gibbons.
Chicago and its corrupt politics are hot right now, courtesy of CBS’ hit legal drama “The Good Wife.” While “The Chicago Code” won’t spend as much time in court, it seems to be melding the seamiest political elements of that show (minus the heavy-handed exhibitionism) with authentic police drama.
I’m a little burned out on cop shows, but the complex characters and relationships — as fully defined as I’ve seen in a pilot — its creator’s exceptional pedigree and the fact that it’s not just another procedural mark “The Chicago Code” as a quality effort. If cop shows are your thing, I think you’ll like this one.
“The Chicago Code”
8 p.m. Mondays, Fox
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: Entertainment, Mid-season TV, Random thoughts, Review
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By Paulette Morris
February 9, 2011 1:54 PM | Link to this
Thanks Dale - I'll check it out!