Review: 'The Chicago Code' - 'Greylord & Gambat': The cop who came in from the cold
Unfortunately too late to matter, the show delivers a terrific episode
Jason Clarke and Delroy Lindo in "The Chicago Code."
Credit: FOX
I wish I had more time to write about last night's "The Chicago Code," which was the strongest episode the show has done in quite some time, and possibly the strongest of the season. This is the sort of thing Shawn Ryan shows do so well: have all the various balls that are being juggled come crashing down right on top of each other, as our heroes race to catch what they can and clean up what they can't.
I'll have a longer write-up of next week's finale, but I need to get back to upfront-related madness. What did everybody else think?
Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
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May 17, 2011 at 12:31PM EST Reply to Commentit's too bad really...more eps like this and ryan & minnear might not be saying goodbye to 2 [TWO!!] one-and-done series for the year.
i'll miss chicago code. but i'll miss terriers more.
webdiva I'll miss Chicago Code and seeing my beautiful, damaged, intricate city on the screen every week. But I won't miss Terriers. And I *never* liked The Shield. I don't need my protagonists to be perfect -- far from it -- but I have absolutely NO time for anti-heroes. to a certain degree, and anti-hero is a cop-out on the part of the writer(s). So no thanks on that. But this episode was good enough to make me think that if Chicago Code had been given a 22-week first season (as NYPD Blue and Third Watch and Law & Order's various incarnations all received), the show might have worked out its kinks and gone on to be different and remarkable. this episode had all the signs of that. Then again, Detroit 1-8-7 showed me that stuff a lot sooner and lost anyway. That's the show I'll miss most of all.
May 18, 2011 at 3:47AM ESTI'll just have to console myself with the next season of Justified and the return of Goren and Eames.
May 18, 2011 at 2:26PM ESTI agree I think this show could've found itself over a 22 episode run. Fox shuffling the order of the episodes and putting so many standalone bits wouldn't have been so disruptive. Plus we could've gotten more backstory for our main characters and more info on Liam would've made his arc more meaningful.
I do agree with you that Detroit 1-8-7 found itself pretty much out of the gate. Although it was really more of procedural with a looming "big bad." I'll really miss those characters.
May 19, 2011 at 4:09PM ESTNext time Shawn ryan does a show he need to not hold back to much. I know the Tv audience is not filled with intellectuals. Terriers problem that it was horribly promoted by Fx and too subtle for the edgy noisy fx audience. As for Chicago Code i will alway wonder why Shawn Ryan held back so much. If it was CBS i could understand but its on fox(fringe).
DonBoy
May 17, 2011 at 12:34PM EST Reply to CommentI thought it was an interesting place to put the episode break, because usually you'd have it be "imminent disaster on all fronts", but it wasn't. The key investigation looks like it's actually going fine, except insofar as Liam dying would be bad (for him and for the case). But it's not like the cliffhanger is (Elizabeth?) Killian pointing her gun at Liam, or the bad guys just finding out he's a cop. And that last scene obviously has Gibbons down, not up.
Ed
May 17, 2011 at 1:13PM EST Reply to Commentwhy can't Fx take over this show?
sepinwall The business doesn't work that way, usually. "The Chicago Code," as is, costs far more than FX can afford.
May 17, 2011 at 1:26PM ESTrageon I guess I'm not surprised by this, although I'm a little curious as to why it would be so expensive (given I too would love to see this show picked up by a cable network). The cast is relatively unknown (it's not like Lindo and Beals are Tom Cruise) -- certainly less know than the actors on many cable shows. They don't do a lot of special effects, and what they have done in the past could certainly have been written out. Essentially it's occassional car chases, guys talking in bars, and guys talking in police stations. What about the show is more expensive than could be accomplished on cable?
May 18, 2011 at 10:49AM ESTRyan
May 17, 2011 at 1:23PM EST Reply to CommentAbsolutely loved this episode, and after a strong episode last week, it is a real shame Fox bailed on this show. The ending sequence with Wysocki and Gibbons was the kind of thing I'd been waiting to see from Wysocki all season, where he gets to stare down the manipulative bad guy and not blink. I really think that this show would have come back even stronger next season after taking a break to analyze what their struggles were early. Here's hoping the canceling of Terriers and Chicago Code does not steer Shawn Ryan away from the detective/ police genre because the guy can do that genre as well as anyone out there right now.
ColumbusRazor
May 17, 2011 at 1:33PM EST Reply to CommentI thought it was a terrific episode. Certainly the strongest of the season. My stomach was so jumbled up during, and I was so excited at the end of the episode, it felt like watching a new episode of The Shield. \
I like how Gibbons takes the investigation & Grand Jury as a preemptive strike against his Mayoral run instead of cops going after criminals. He's been doing this so long, he's forgotten where the boundaries are, and he's so powerful that everything is about him. Lindo's terrific as he's becoming unhinged and desperate.
Wonderful episode.
Dan3320
May 17, 2011 at 1:36PM EST Reply to CommentWhat a fantastic episode. Almost disappointing in a way. Now that the show has been canceled, I almost wish it would have went off with a whimper.
Kinda interesting parallel though: the show is in the spotlight for the first 5-6 weeks after heavy, heavy promotion and really doesn't excel enough to be picked up or have strong ratings. Then, during upfront week and after it has already been canceled, the show puts out it's strongest episode yet and one that possibly could have saved it had it come in the middle of the season rather than at the end.
Ah, such is life.
May 17, 2011 at 2:13PM EST Reply to CommentI'm really surprised that everyone loved this episode this much. I agree that the pacing was excited and a lot of things happened. But to me this exemplified what I don't like about The Chicago Code: Amateur Hour. If you shined a light on any aspect of the plot this week, common sense would scurry away like roaches with the lights on.
Exactly how was this garbage truck driver going to implicate Gibbons? Are we to believe that Gibbons gives orders directly to city workers about meth pickups? The driver actually shouldn't be able to implicate Killian or even the corrupt city sanitation manager from a week ago. It would be like Stringer dealing directly with the little hoppers.
So the key to their case is the driver and he's sitting home alone waiting for his trial date. Ooookay. I'll buy that. But the second he disappears, Colvin is ready to give up her undercover. Just like that? Maybe want to think on it a little? No? Okay.
I did enjoy when the undercover easily talked Killian's daughter into taking him to where the ledgers were hidden, and then she generously let him know which book was the real one (the bright RED one, of course) and it even had real names written in it (there's Gibbons name right there!) and his brilliant plan was to stuff the 13 inch book down the front of his shirt. BRILLIANT!!! Red Bull gives you wings!
And Gibbons has come all this way and just hearing about a grand jury has him putting people on planes and asking for deals. Seems a bit soft for a man that is at the top of corrupt city politics.
This show had real potential. And I'll miss my Chicago Skyline Porn. I tried HARD to like it. But it's just not good.
May 17, 2011 at 6:03PM EST
May 17, 2011 at 9:52PM ESTjmr1948 David, you took the words right out of my mouth. At one point, when Gibbons has Liam running around helping old folks during the heat wave, he does say something like, "You know, Gibbon really does care about his constituents, and he does do some real good." But, of course, nothing came of that. There's just the good guys and bad guys in this show, none of the deeply morally ambiguous yummy goodness of the Shield, or Justified, or the Wire, or .....
May 18, 2011 at 2:11AM ESTwebdiva Uh, I doubt we need that show with Delroy Lindo up front. We have the real thing now: we have Rahm Emanuel for mayor, sworn in on Monday. Politics as a spectator sport in Chicago has just been kicked up a notch. I don't think anyone's actually going to *like* the Rahmster, but he ain't gonna let anyone push him around. And he does have a temper and an ego as well as brains. Should be interesting!
May 18, 2011 at 3:38AM EST
May 18, 2011 at 2:14PM EST"The Wire," is never going to replicated again, especially by a network show. Chicago Code had it's moments and I thought it was lofty idea to try and bring this kind of story to a mass audience. Hopefully Ryan or someone else will try it again in another form.
And while the "Gibbons anti-hero" show sounds great in theory, that's another show with a cable audience. That show on FX would be awesome though.
Paul
May 17, 2011 at 2:18PM EST Reply to CommentGreat episode... Front to back, the strongest of the season in my opinion. It hurts (relatively speaking) to see the previews for the Finale and know it's the end. You start toying w/ different scenarios for down the road, etc. Oh well, looking forward to next week's goodbye.
Joseph
May 17, 2011 at 2:30PM EST Reply to CommentSigh. Since Ryan and Minear are involved I knew this was coming eventually, but the early episodes (outside of Lindo)just couldn't hold my interest enough and I dropped the show after 5 episodes. Oh well, looking forward to whatever they do next.
Lbsammills51
May 17, 2011 at 3:09PM EST Reply to CommentAll it did was make me sadder that this show isn't coming back next year.
thebgt
May 17, 2011 at 4:55PM EST Reply to Commentyeah.. cancelling series without giving them a chance to improve is great..
Maybe we need more posts on how logical networks' axing is, and we might get convinces not to feel sorry about the loss of series like this one.
But what do we know? Fox knows better.
webdiva Not!
May 18, 2011 at 3:49AM ESTV
May 18, 2011 at 6:08PM EST Reply to CommentWhat are the odds that this will be released on DVD??
scb
May 18, 2011 at 7:59PM EST Reply to Commentanother underappreciated Shawn Ryan show: The Unit
Miles Ellison
May 18, 2011 at 8:18PM EST Reply to CommentThis episode is an example of what this show SHOULD have been.
Blake
May 22, 2011 at 9:28AM EST Reply to CommentSorry, but it was weak, like the show has been all season. Liam doesn't just turn off his phone, but breaks it? Gibbons sends his secretary/lover to Belize ... with just $10,000? What is this, 1947?
But those are just minor plot holes compared to this: Liam's presence is revealed to a grand jury ... BEFORE they tell him he's going to be outed?
In addition to having an unlikable lead character, the show was sloppily written. Shawn Ryan needs to take more care of his next project.
May 22, 2011 at 8:54PM EST Reply to CommentIm sad to see this show go. :(