I’m actually impressed with how this series is shaping up.
Welcome to what I am lovingly calling my wonderful nightmare. Once Chicago P.D. debuted midseason, I flipped back and forth between the two shows in the order they aired. Thankfully I have the entire series typed out in episode order, mostly to save me from completely losing my mind. Once I got used to bouncing between both shows, everything came together pretty well.
As a reminder, spoilers abound.
Chicago Fire Season Two
This season was a bit of a rollercoaster. Some of the storylines were amazing, while others… didn’t land all that well.
Severide has probably some of the craziest storylines. The season opens with him seemingly targeted by an arsonist, which would have been an amazing storyline, if not for the fact that it was over in four episodes. At least the arsonist’s had a compelling reason to want to get revenge on Severide. From there, Severide discovers that he has a half sister, who ends up having a not-so-wonderful time once she ends up getting caught up in a revenge scheme targeted at Severide (seriously, is there a target on his back?). He also helped out a former firefighter that has the same issues that he himself dealt with the previous season, which was a storyline that mostly worked, though the other firefighter just didn’t do it for me. Finally, starts was is probably his most stable romance yet, with Detective Lindsay from Intelligence. All in all, while he has some major storylines, he sometimes seem to fade in the background.
Casey has three major storylines this season. First, he ends up taking care of the children of a friend, Heather Darden, who was the wife of the firefighter who died in Season One. Unfortunately, the writing for most of these scenes is pretty lacking, and it just doesn’t work well. It does set up a season spanning storyline featuring Casey and Dawson, with romance blooming, especially since Shay and Dawson has a midseason falling out (though they get over it). Finally, Casey suffers a major head injury that could have ended his career, though through the power of television, he is mostly recovered. Also, he pulls a Season 1 Severide and hides the severity of his injury. Because of course he does.
Other storylines include Shay’s choices becoming more and more questionable throughout the season, the firehouse almost being shut down because of budget cuts, and Dawson training to become a firefighter, which she passes on her second attempt. Oh, and a female firefighter joins 51 as a candidate, but after finding out that her father is trying to sideline her (in an attempt to protect her mother’s memory), she commits suicide off screen. Oh, and Mills moves to Squad, and I still have issues with his character.
I’d once again give this season a 8/10. (I’ll address the crossover and other character appearance at the bottom.)
Chicago P.D. Season One
It’s a police procedural drama. Seriously. That’s the quickest summary I can give.
Sergeant Voight runs the Intelligence Unit with a team of police that are willing to go beyond the law if needed. They’re all above board, kinda. They deal with the worst of the worst, organized crime and gangs and major murders. And he’s still kinda dirty, but not? He’s the reason I’m so hot and cold on this show.
Antonio Dawson, Paramedic Dawson’s brother, makes the jump from occasional appearance on Fire to full time here. He plays a major role in the show, basically as the second in command of Intelligence, as well as an amazing foil to Voight. He’s prone to loosing his temper a bit, but he also has reason too. He’s very passionate about his job and keeping his team safe. There are also Detectives Jay Halstead and Erin Lindsay, who help round out a lot of the cast with compelling storylines and amazing performances. Both have darkness in their pasts that play out on screen. Rounding out Intelligence is Detective Alvin Olinsky, a major partner to Voight and the other voice of reason, and Officer Adam Ruzek, a rookie cop with something to prove. Both provide undercover work, and are a great pair. Finally, we have Officers Kim Burgess and Kevin Atwater, who are both beat cops that often work with Intelligence. While their storylines are somewhat less compelling, they really help round out the cast.
My biggest issue with this series is the structure. Most cases they deal with are handled in just an episode, with their personal storylines taking up the bulk of the time. Which I’d be fine with… if the cases were worth it. Often I would get bored with them and just start skipping ahead, which is kind of a problem.
The other issue I have is this season spanning storyline of Voight verses Internal Affairs. It got old real fast. He’s able to get rid of his first handler by proving she’s dirty, but it just took way too long. Then, we get this other guy (played by the amazing Ian Bohen who is criminally wasted), and he’s just as dumb. It’s kind of a problem.
The show seemed to find its legs towards the end of the season, which only ran for fifteen episodes due to being a midseason replacement to great affect. It managed to keep a good footing in the world that Chicago Fire created, while also making something strong enough to stand on its own.
Simply because of Voight, I’m giving this season a 7/10. I’m hoping that my dislike of him will wear down in the next… seven seasons? And we still haven’t gotten to Chicago Med. There’s one more season to get to before we get that.
Crossovers and Character Appearances
Something that I actually really enjoyed was that the various characters would appear in the other shows. Detective Lindsay had more appearances then anyone, as she helped spearhead the efforts to save Severide’s sister Katie. They also start a cross-show romance, or at least a friends with benefits thing. It’s not exactly defined. Antonio appears a few times, supporting Gabby. On the flip side, Firefighter Christopher Herrmann makes quite a few appearances on P.D. at Molly’s Bar. He usually only had a few lines, but it really tied the shows together.
The major crossover event for this season came towards the end of both seasons. “A Dark Day”/”8:30 PM” dealt with the aftermath of a deadly bombing outside a hospital that was setting up for a charity run. Fire dealt with saving the lives of everyone in the hospital, including Dawson (who had just entered the hospital to sign up for the run). P.D. handled finding and stopping the bomber. Characters from both shows made cross appearances, with Burgess making the biggest, as her niece was also injured in the blast. It’s a pretty strong showing of the crossover capacities, as most of the major characters get time to shine in some way.
P.D. also crossed over with Law & Order: SVU at about the middle of the season. Unfortunately, this didn’t hit me as well as it could, as I had no connection to the SVU characters, who just appeared to be wasted. I also couldn’t watch the first part of the two-parter, as it was blocked by Peacock Premium, and I was not about to shell out money for a few episodes spread across like eight seasons. I cannot give a complete review because of that.
So. That’s year 2, as I’m calling it in my head. 61 episodes. I have 430 episodes remaining. Oh wait, I take that back. It’s 417, as I’m not about to pay for Chicago Justice, and that’s 13 episodes. Seriously, it’s not streaming free anywhere (legally that is). If I really want to watch it, I may just wait until I finish this binge-fest, and watch it later.
Well, onwards to Year 3 of One Chicago. May I still love it in 46 episodes when I finish this season.
Until next time!
(Quick aside, the reason for the delay in posting this week is because I’ve been doing interviews for a couple of jobs. It’s kept me from sitting down and actually finishing a post, or honestly watching anything. Hopefully once I can nail something down and get a working schedule again, I’ll be back posting consistently. And now I’m off to an in-person interview. I’ll explain more later. <3)
