The Chicago Code - "Hog Butcher" Review

“There is corruption and then there is just the way things get done and you need to know the difference.” -Jarek

Teresa Colvin is six months into her new job as Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department and she’s getting a crash course in politics. In the first episode she embarrasses a veteran cop taking him off the streets but “promoting” him to Commander of Mops and Buckets. This act of shame ultimately lead to the police officer bad mouthing Colvin to a few close friends who attempted to end her life, but shot her driver and close friend Antonio Bets instead. Bets died because he gave the superintendent his bullet proof vest, but in doing so he was in violation of police policy and now his family is entitled to zero death benefits UNLESS you get special clearance from a committee headed by the crooked politician Colvin is trying to take down, Alderman Gibbons. This is all going on while her former partner, Jarek Wysocki is leading an unofficial task force trying to link Gibbons to political corruption through the use of an undercover agent in the Irish mob.

It’s clear that balance of power is going to be a big issue inside of the show. Inside of every relationship there exists a scale on which power is weighed. Colvin while wanting to take down Gibbons now has to go hat in hand to him and ask for a favor. This won’t be easy for her to do as she knows it will create a potential road block in their investigation. Colvin will also have to deal with keeping Jarek from abusing his power. Colvin has given Detective Wysocki a lot of extra power in the department and he used his freedom to disobey a direct order by talking to the media after she issued a media blackout. Jarek is doing his best to good police work and Colvin wants him to, but she sees the danger in allowing a cop to directly undermine her. Another power struggle is between Jarek and his niece, Vonda. She is partners with Isaac Joiner, who Jarek tells not to pursue an Irish mob member, but he does so and makes a 300,000 dollar drug bust and puts a felon away. Jarek tries to tell her that there’s stuff she doesn’t know and she needs to listen to him. And Vonda quips back that Jarek taught her that the most important thing is to trust your partner. Lots of different characters are stuck in lots of different power struggles and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

As far as the structure of the show, Shawn Ryan is great at creating episodic story lines that service the main arc of the show. In this particular episode we saw Jarek and Evers work on finding the shooter of Antonio Bets. We were lead to believe that it was going to link the murder back to Gibbons, but ultimately it was a separate issue. It keeps the viewers entertained episode to episode, but still wants them to watch again to see how the rest of the story unfolds.

I think one of the more interesting points of the show is going to be Vonda and Isaac’s promotion into the Organized Crime Unit. Joiner doesn’t have an explicit vendetta against Jarek, but it’s clear he does not hold him on a pedestal. Jarek is using the undercover agent in the Irish mob to help link them to Gibbons. Joiner and Vonda will surely start uncovering information in the mob that could lead to either the cop being exposed or getting to the head of the mob. Jarek will always think his case is more important, so I think we’ll see a clash between the Organized Crime Unit and Jarek.

The character of Jarek gets explained to us a little further this episode. We are starting to understand more the type of cop and person her is. He’s taken a liking to Caleb Evers and starts to teach him how to think outside the box. This, of course, leads to him bending the rules and contradicting the Superintendent. I’m curious to see if this type of behavior will go deeper. In a conversation he has with Colvin he tells her that she won’t want to know everything that “deniability” will be necessary. Colvin insists that she needs “accountability.” To what lengths will Jarek go to get what he wants?

But what does Jarek want? In a very nice scene between he and Sister Paul, played by Betty Buckley, we learn more about him as a person. We get an introspective look at him by ways of his own words. We learn he has a strong sense of moral rigidity. He knows his flaws and wishes not to be a hypocrite. He tells Sister Paul of his affair and his drinking problems. But probably most importantly, we learn that he is nowhere near being over the death of his brother and that he’s still looking for his killer. How important will this fact be going forward? Will he have to sacrifice anything to find out what happened to his brother? Could the killer of his brother be someone he knows? Is it linked back to Gibbons giving him more fire? The Chicago Code is shaping up to be a good one.

Other thoughts:

- I don’t know how I feel about the story line where Antonio’s mom is suing Superintendent Colvin. I know it’s Gibbons putting a birdie in her ear and trying to keep Colvin coming to him for favors, but I hope the litigation involved isn’t a drawn out process.

- It was nice to see Gibbons ingratiate himself with the public. Makes him more despicable. I like it when I can’t stand the villains. I think I’ll learn to hate him.
- I don’t like it when Twitter is referenced in a show. It never seems genuine. I do like that it was used correctly in this show. And it was funny to hear Jarek say, “I’ll keep it under 140 characters, ‘Let it go!’” I know Shawn Ryan uses twitter a lot, you can and should follow him @ShawnRyanTV, to interact with fans and promote his show, so it’s no surprise he used it in his show.

- We still don’t know a lot about Detective Caleb Evers except that he’s a smart Cubs fan. I’m anxious to see the development of his character.

- Yes, that was Chicago native Billy Corgan singing the theme song.

The Chicago Code - "Pilot" Review

“If there’s one thing Chicago knows, it’s how to punch back!” -Jarek

Shawn Ryan has done it again! Fox’s premiere of The Chicago Code couldn’t have pleased me more. Teresa Colvin, played so slickly by Jennifer Beals, is Chicago’s first female Superintendent and she’s looking to take down city corruption because she believes there’s a direct correlation with street crime. This is a tried and true method for a police drama. The Wire was extremely successful using this formula. So what’s different about this show? In this show, the cops are good people. When the show first started, I started wondering which cop was going to be the shady crooked one. Instead, I found out that all are working hard to clean up the streets. I think this will make the quest to take down the kingpin more exciting. With no cops on the take, no cops pushing their own agenda, the line to success is straight and thus to keep the show interesting the villain will have to be that much more cunning. With good cops, I assume at some point someone will have to sacrifice a core belief in order to gain position on the case and it will make that decision more poignant for the viewer.

Jarek Wysocki, played brilliantly by Bortherhood’s Jason Clarke, has a dynamic screen presence. Teresa Colvin was his partner before she started moving up the ladder, and it’s clear that he is having a hard time replacing her, and rightfully so. Jarek is an impassioned cop fueled by his brother’s death on the force. His niece is a cop as well and he swore to his brother that he would look after. So when she decided to be a cop, he took her under his wing. He has a soft spot and a short fuse when dealing with her. I’m curious how this will get in the way, because I’m sure it will. Colvin asks her best cop, Jarek, to take down city corruption, and at first he refuses, but after an assassination attempt on her, he quickly changes his tune. And with that he also found a new partner, Caleb Evers, played by Matt Lauria of Friday Night Lights fame. Jarek is a strong cop and it doesn’t look like he’s to failure in the field. He confesses to Colvin that his father failed to catch the corrupt city kingpin, Alderman Ronin Gibbons, so he thinks no one can. We did catch a glimpse that Jarek is not a saint. He tells Caleb he has a 27 year old fiancé and yet we catch him sleeping with his ex wife. There’s a dark side to Jarek so I’m interested in when it comes out at work.

I really like the way Shawn Ryan is handling the attitude on the show toward a female being in charge of the city’s cops. It would seem trite if it became about all the men clamoring that a woman shouldn’t be in charge. Rather, she is well respected and great at her job. The only person who doesn’t respect her is political kingpin and crime lord, Alderman Gibbons. He used his pull to get her in position because he thought he could push his agenda on her. Oh how he has underestimated her.

The show itself is wonderfully acted and the pacing is brilliant. We got to know the characters, the back story, the city, and yet we were never bored. Shawn Ryan has said that it will be episodic with a serial arc as well, similar to his smash hit, The Shield. Most of the cops used in the show are real Chicago PD so it will have a genuine feel. The action will pick up and the drama will become thick. I wonder if Teresa Colvin will have to make conflicted decisions regarding Jarek and the tactics he uses to carry out her orders on her under the table task force.

Shawn Ryan ended The Shield pilot with an unforgettable shot, and while this doesn’t have the same wow factor, it’s interesting to see him using a gun shot and the killing of a good young man to jump start the action again. Let’s hope it has the same effect as The Shield. There’s a lot of potential in the show for good real crime drama. And that’s something I think TV has been missing for a while. Shawn Ryan deserves this show, especially after the untimely death of Terriers. Watch this show and enjoy. I think we have a new hit.