MovieChat Forums > The Chicago Code (2011) Discussion > This Show Is Excellent

This Show Is Excellent

posted 13 years ago by mail-2775
3 replies | jump to latest

The Chicago Code takes cop shows into a whole other dimension. I think it's the best cop show to come along in at least ten years (since Da Vinci's Inquest, which was meant to be a copy of NYPD but was actually twice as good).

The first episode kind of threw me. Having the boss of all the cops in Chicago be a young sexy chick who is known for only one thing (starring in the cheesiest of all 80s movies) is simply laughable, but she plays it really well and I let it slide.

It only took about 3 episodes to get into the incredible negativity and power of The Shield. Although it doesn't quite have the intimate POV of The Shield, it does have 10x the production values (this is because network shows exist on a far higher plane than cable shows, please know that...), and Vic was just a little larger than life. Jerek is totally believable.

The way this show uses music is very interesting and unusual. It seems to use big music to come in and go out, with little score in between. This show photographs the Chicago architecture beautifully, and that recurring 3/4 rear view of the unmarked police car is awesome!

It is beautiful to see a show that is NOT filmed in L.A.. I live in metro L.A. and love it, but I grew up watching Emergency, SWAT, Adam 12, and I was well over seeing L.A. on film by 1977...

I highly recommend this show and I hope it lasts a long time.

[–] Mykalrodriguez 13 years ago

can i applaud you for an emmy review, that is a very brilliant descriptional review of anything i heard.

[–] JasonDaPsycho 13 years ago

I won't go as far as to say this is the best police procedural on TV right now. Southland is still hands down the most mind-blowing, awesome, authentic TV series. Chicago Code is still very good though.

[–] mail-2775 13 years ago

Maybe it is!

I watched it and liked it a lot on NBC. At that point, I thought it compared favorably to everything else on for cop shows, but I didn't think it held up to Da Vinci's Inquest and NYPD Blue (and history will back me up on that), then they canceled it. It was gone a long time before it came back to life on cable TV, but it took me a while to catch on because I don't want cable, and I tend to catch up on those shows through torrents 2-3 years later.

On that topic, is Southland considered a "police procedural"? I'd have thought that Southland and The Chicago Code were more dramas, and the police procedurals were the CSIs and Laws and Orders and the Cold Cases that just grind you down with a new same case every week.