The way a series starts out is crucial. Pilots are often a little iffy because there are often a lot of problems with them. Everyone tends to be new and the scripts tend to be weak. With The Chicago Code, everything got off to a better than expected start in my view. With the pilot put together as well as it was, I felt I had some idea as to what to expect from the follow-up episode.
“Hog Butcher” saw about the aftermath of Antonio Betz’s (Manny Montana) death. Shock, sadness, and anger were present everywhere. All eyes were on Alderman Gibbons (Delroy Lindo) for the bold attempt on Teresa Colvin’s (Jennifer Beals) life.
To throw everyone for a loop, the writers surprised everyone I think by putting blame elsewhere. This wasn’t the Irish mob’s doing. This wasn’t Gibbons out to get Colvin. It was about her handling of the overweight cop in the pilot.
The decision to not pin the death of Antonio Betz on Alderman Gibbons was brilliant. There is plenty of time to paint him as public enemy number one, but there’s no need to pin everything wrong with Chicago on his vest.
Jason Clarke as Jarek Wysocki and Matt Lauria as Caleb Evers
That being said, the way in which he handled the death benefits situation for Antonio Betz’s family was pretty low. He made Teresa Colvin to beg for help after embarrassing her (indirectly, admittedly).
As much as I like what I am seeing from the corruption story, I am liking the character stories even more. The church scene at the end of the episode was something I’ll remember for some time. Jarek Wysocki (Jason Clarke) laid out a lot of his shortcomings for us and Sister Paul (Betty Buckley). We already knew about his complex relationship with women, but the fact that his brother’s killer is still on the loose was news to me. To top off an already solid episode was Wysocki’s prayer, asking God for help not just to catch his brother’s killer, but to ask for help in killing him. It was honest, but powerful.
With copycat police procedurals and boring reality shows taking up the majority of our TV lineups, it’s nice to see a truly engaging series like The Chicago Code. It’s a tough, honest show. There’s no reason not to watch it.
One of the few faults I have with the show is we don’t know much about Wysocki’s young partner, Caleb Evers (Matt Lauria). I suspect we will will learn more about him as time goes on, but it would be nice to know more about the kid.
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