There are several harsh truths about best shows in the One Chicago universe, although there have been many changes in the cast and the direction of storylines. This includes the elimination of patrol officers from the Chicago PD cast and the development of several romantic couples.
These changes demonstrate that, like many shows that have been on for a long time, Chicago PD has evolved over the years. As many of Chicago PD's best episodes were in the first several seasons as in later seasons; however, when rewatching season 1 it's clear that some things don't hold up as well on rewatch. Many of these aspects of the series weren't noticeable at the time and almost all of them have been improved over the past decade.
10 Voight Used To Go So Far Over The Line It Wasn’t Believable
Although His Breaking Of The Rules Made Him Compelling, It's Shocking He Still Had A Job
One of the central premises of Chicago PD has always been that Hank Voight is a maverick who has little regard for the rules and policies set by the Chicago PD. Although he has mellowed somewhat today, he continues to violate suspects' rights as he sees fit. During the first season, this tendency was so pronounced that it's unbelievable he remained employed for any length of time, yet he continued to lead the Intelligence Unit regardless of how violent he became with suspects or how much he harmed the Chicago PD's reputation.
This unrealistic idea was baked into the plot of the pilot episode, in which Voight has newly been released from jail and is warned by a supervisor that if he breaks protocol he will no longer have a job. In retrospect, this aspect of Chigafo PD was always silly, as it's unlikely that a police department would hire someone who had done jail time and who they did not trust to follow protocol, never mind putting that person in a position of power.
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Furthermore, Voight retained his job throughout the first season despite attempting to beat up a cop in the pilot episode whose failure to share information led to the death of one of Voight's officers. This is doubly hard to believe considering this happened after the warning. However, the fact that Voight is able to stay employed despite his misbehavior adds to the mythos of him as an untouchable cop who can do whatever he wants.
9 Chicago PD Felt A Lot More Like A Western Than A Cop Show
Voight And Others In His Department Lived By Their Own Moral Code
The Intelligence Unit was run as a unit that fought against the protocols of the Chicago Police Department as much as it did against crime. Voight not only broke rules and laws with impunity but encouraged his team to do so as well, telling them to "be honest with me... say nothing to anyone else." He also chose team who would go along with his constant rule-breaking without too much trouble; for example, he hired Ruzek because Ruzek used excessive force during a training exercise.
Voight and his team lived by their own moral code, often breaking the law in the name of justice, and acted more like a vigilante squad than a branch of the Chicago Police Department.
As a result, Voight's unit felt far more like a modern Western than a police unit. Voight and his team lived by their own moral code, often breaking the law in the name of justice, and acted more like a vigilante squad than a branch of the Chicago Police Department. Much of what the department did is less comfortable to watch today because of increased awareness of police brutality, though at the time, it seemed justified.
8 Platt Was Far Colder Than She Is Now
She Had An Adversarial And Unpleasant Relationship With Burgess
Today, Trudy Platt (Amy Morton) is a fan favorite, but she wasn't nearly as likable during Chicago PD season 1. As a desk sergeant, her favorite thing to do was to bust Burgess' chops. She actively disliked her for reasons that weren't entirely clear at the series' start and expressed it by sending her on wild goose chases, accusing her of laziness, or being rude. It wasn't until Burgess became a member of the Intelligence Unit that Platt treated her all well, and many of their interactions in the early episodes came close to bullying.
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While Platt is ed fondly for her mentoring of patrol officers, during season 1 it seemed as if she were resentful or jealous, as she never missed a chance to come down hard on them, especially Burgess. Her attitude did not soften for several years but was especially pronounced during the first season, making her scenes harder to enjoy upon rewatch.
7 There Were A Lot More Characters To Keep Track Of
The Cast List During The First Season Was Overwhelming
Chicago PD has always been an ensemble show, but when it first premiered, it had a much bigger cast. Nowadays, most episodes focus on a core group of police officers plus one or two incidental characters. However, during the first season, Chicago PD had eight detectives as well as recurring characters such as Platt, Commander Perry, and the families of some detectives, most notably Antonio Dawson's (Jon Seda) wife and kids, for a total of 17 characters to keep track of.
Important Characters In Chicago Pd Season 1 |
|
|---|---|
Actor |
Character |
Jason Beghe |
Hank Voight |
Jon Seda |
Antonio Dawson |
Sophia Bush |
Erin Lindsey |
Jesse Lee Soffer |
Jay Halstead |
Patrick John Flueger |
Adam Ruzek |
Marina Squerciati |
Kim Burgess |
LaRoyce Hawkins |
Kevin Atwater |
Archie Kao |
Sheldon Jin |
Elias Koteas |
Alvin Olinsky |
Amy Morton |
Trudy Platt |
Robert Wisdom |
Commander Perry |
Kurt Naebig |
Lieutenant Belden |
America Olivo |
Laura Dawson |
Josh Segarra |
Justin Voight |
Robin Weigert |
Erica Gradishar |
Stella Maeve |
Nadia DeCotis |
Alinia Jenine Taber |
Lexi Olinsky |
While this large cast gave the series an even stronger ensemble feel, it is overwhelming in retrospect. This is especially true considering that now the series focuses only on Voight and five detectives, many of whom don't appear in each episode. It's harder to keep track of who is in each episode and what they are doing with a large cast, which is distracting from the stellar writing in Chicago PD season 1.
6 Patrol Officers Were Unofficial Parts of Intelligence
Although This Aspect Is Missed, It Seems Silly In Retrospect
Patrol officers were phased out of Chicago PD in season 4, making the audience nostalgic for them. This is why there was so much excitement over Kiana Cook being added to the season 12 cast, and why Cook's quick promotion to Intelligence in Chicago PD felt disappointing. However, the truth is that patrol officers weren't completely separate from the Intelligence Unit. During the first season, Burgess and Atwater were unofficial of the unit who worked Patrol but who were often called upon to help with big cases.
This is how Cook was used before she was promoted to Intelligence. However, Cook's involvement with the unit was more organic. She met Ruzek after responding to a call of shots being fired and worked with him on Martel's death before asking Torres for help with a different case. Conversely, Atwater and Burgess were patrol officers who had worked with the Intelligence Unit for a long time. It's unsurprising that they both eventually ended up in Intelligence, as they were being treated as if they were of the team while getting the lower pay associated with Patrol.
5 Voight Had Less Freedom To Run His Department As He Saw Fit
There Was Far More Oversight For Him To Evade
Part of the mythos built up around Voight is his invincibility. His ability to flout the law and do whatever he wanted in the name of justice is a big part of his character, and there is widespread consensus that he mellowed considerably after season 5 or so. However, there was a tradeoff: in the early years, Voight was more of a vigilante and rebel, but he also had to put up with a lot more oversight of his activities.
Although these conflicts made Voight a rootable character, they got repetitive, which reinforced the point that Voight's lack of consequences for his behavior was unbelievable.
The tension in season 1 came from his constant thumbing his nose in the face of Commander Perry and other superiors who sought to bring his actions in line with the police department's protocols. Although these conflicts made Voight a rootable character, they got repetitive, which reinforced the point that Voight's lack of consequences for his behavior was unbelievable. Voight was likely softened in later seasons both because it stretched credibility to have him get away with half of the stuff he did and because of greater awareness of police brutality in society, which made his vigilantism less palatable.
4 Male Cops Flirted With Female Coworkers All The Time
The Chicago Police Department Was A Bit Of A Boys' Club
Modern episodes of Chicago PD have focused on several couples. Halstead and Upton were a significant couple who took up a lot of airtime before Halstead left at the end of season 10, and Ruzek and Burgess have been together for years and are raising their adopted daughter while planning a wedding. Thus, the lack of real relationships and the "boys club" atmosphere during Chicago PD season 1 is shocking when rewatching a decade later.
Ruzek's indecision about his fiancee set him up to be someone afraid of commitment and not a worthwhile partner rather than being the steady family man he has proven himself to be in later seasons.
During season 1, Halstead could have had his pick of girlfriends, as he gave off flirtatious vibes with Burgess and Lindsey. He also tended to be overprotective, such as threatening men who catcalled female cops on the street. Both of these habits helped illustrate the type of treatment female cops often got on the job during the first season. Elsewhere, Ruzek's indecision about his fiancee set him up to be someone afraid of commitment and not a worthwhile partner, rather than being the steady family man he has proven himself to be in later seasons.
3 The “Father-Daughter” Relationship Between Lindsey And Voight Bordered On Inappropriate
It Seems Strange In Retrospect, Especially Given Lindsey's Initial Secrecy About It
Long before Haliey Upton was his right-hand person, Voight relied on Erin Lindsey (Sophia Bush), a young cop who considered herself his daughter. Voight had taken her in when she was a troubled teenager and raised her alongside his son, Justin; however, it seemed like a conflict of interest that Voight first used her as a CI and later hired her to work under him, considering their relationship.
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This conflict was part of what prompted Lindsey to keep the nature of their relationship secret, which added to the sense that it was inappropriate. It was a strange approach to their characters and did not add much to the show. The rest of the crew would eventually learn more about Lindsey and Veight's connection. Bush left the show at the end of season 4, bringing Erin's story to an end as a result.
2 The Team Wasn’t As Diverse
Chicago PD Has Improved In That Aspect
Chicago PD season 12's cast is diverse, with officers of several different races and ethnicities. Unfortunately, that was not the case in 2014 when the series began. Atwater was Black, but the character was a patrol officer with less screen time rather than a member of the Intelligence Unit, and while Dawson was Latino, the rest of the cast was white.
Dawson's inclusion, and to a lesser extent Atwater's, helped combat stereotypes during season 1, though the show's attempts to cast diverse characters have improved greatly in more modern episodes.
On-screen diversity was sadly something that was not thought about as much a decade ago, still, Chicago PD had a lot to improve on that regard. Fortunately, it did. Dawson's inclusion, and to a lesser extent Atwater's, helped combat stereotypes during season 1. The show's attempts to cast diverse characters have improved greatly in more modern episodes.
1 The Cops Playing Dirty Was Standard Practice
Both Voight And His Enemies Ignored The Rules When It Suited Them
Voight was far from the only one who played by his own set of rules during Chicago PD season 1. In many aspects, the series was a war between protagonists who bent the rules for good reasons and antagonists who did it for selfish ones. There were power dynamics at play in which high-ranking cops who resented Voight would fail to share critical information or otherwise break the rules to make it harder for him to do his job. Voight, however, encouraged his team to do what they wanted in the name of justice.
Chicago PD season 1 shed light on police corruption but often seemed to glamorize or encourage vigilantism, including on the part of officers.
Chicago PD season 1 shed light on police corruption but often seemed to glamorize or encourage vigilantism, including on the part of officers. Although Voight has mellowed in recent seasons, the focus is still on officers who will do whatever it takes to clean up the streets; however, this is done less disturbingly in the newer seasons of the series.
Chicago P.D.
- Release Date
- January 8, 2014
- Network
- NBC
- Showrunner
- Derek Haas
Cast
Jason BegheHank Voight
Marina SquerciatiKim Burgess
WHERE TO WATCH
Chicago P.D.: This police drama, set in Chicago's District 21, follows the distinct units within the Chicago Police Department—uniformed officers addressing street crimes and an Intelligence Unit tackling major offenses such as organized crime and drug trafficking, capturing the dedication of those who serve and protect their community.
- Seasons
- 12
- Streaming Service(s)
- Peacock
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