American audiences have long been gravitating to television detectives. From Sergeant Joe Friday to Lieutenant Columbo to Dora the Explorer, there’s an appeal in solving mysteries and catching criminals that has kept networks of all kinds generating programs that let the viewers ride along with the brainiacs and the muscle.
Every year, around this time, television decision-makers choose whether or not they have reached a saturation point with the dramatic versions of these shows. Network bosses rubber-stamp the proven ones, but they sometimes take a flier on a fresh upstart.
One of this year’s freshman contenders is Fox’s “The Chicago Code,” a show about a special task force dedicated to uncovering corruption in the ward of one of the city council members. Chicago Police Department’s first female superintendent Teresa Colvin enlists the help of her former field partner, Officer Jarek Wysocki, to head up the team, giving him carte blanche to pick any juicy detective case he wants in exchange for digging up dirt on Alderman Ronin Gibbons.
Fox already has a dependable model for the detective show in “Bones,” a drama that exploits the underlying romantic and professional tension between its stars while modeling a team of helpful, specialized scientists to round out the familiar cast of characters.
It’s a formula that took many of its cues from the hit show “House,” which has been able to apply the recognizable archetypes to a hospital room, making the patients the individual crime scenes.
Rather than explicitly use the same show format, only in different, recognizable locales (see: “CSI,” “Law and Order”), Fox has opted to air detective shows that tap into different professional realms. (You could even argue that Gordon Ramsay’s “Kitchen Nightmares” is an extreme, surreal version that caters to foodies and fans of people screaming in British accents.)
“The Chicago Code” bucks the trend in a few notable places. Wysocki and Colvin have kept their relationship a purely investigative partnership. The supporting cast is finding its footing, but because of story restrictions with the overarching government corruption plot, it sometimes feels forced to have secondary characters (like Liam, the undercover cop, or Vonda, Wysocki’s niece who is herself a newbie field officer) sandwiched into every episode.
As its title would indicate, one of the added bonuses of “The Chicago Code” is that the show has begun to embrace the city in which it takes place. Chicago is becoming a more intricate and integral part of the show.
Voice-overs from individual characters, usually toward the opening of an episode, play over documentary montages (picture a Ken Burns documentary played at twice the speed and with more electronic instruments) that illuminate Chicago’s historical relationship to topics like the World’s Fair or its housing projects. They’re never tremendously long, but they’re linked to the work being done by the characters in the episode.
The scandals and intrigue carry on from week to week, and there’s material that gets lost if a viewer has to jump in at episode 3 or 4. But, at its core, it’s a procedural that plunges into the action with some impressive car chase and police raid sequences, tightly resolving new conflicts within the hour. Some episode plots are more contrived than others, but the show is best when it’s at its grittiest and most realistic.
The show’s ratings have declined steadily since its debut, falling nearly 35 percent in total viewership from the pilot to its most recent episode.
Perhaps detective fatigue has affected viewers on Monday night, too tired after the “House” lead-in to keep the TV on. In a wink to the show’s teetering, executive producer and showrunner Shawn Ryan (known primarily for creating the FX critical darling “The Shield”) recently responded to a tweet from a follower asking which area of Ryan’s work they should catch up on next.
“”˜Chicago Code’ w/Nielsen box,” Ryan replied, referring to the device used by the Nielsen Media Research system to tabulate its all-important ratings.
Going forward, it seems as if the political aspect of the show will be woven into each impending episode, as will the historical overview of the city. If this seems enticing, it might be worth checking out when it returns from its three-week hiatus on April 11.
If not enough people are willing to take that chance, after next month’s network programming decisions, “The Chicago Code” might take its place alongside “The Good Guys” and the Ryan-created “Terriers” as detective shows that couldn’t garner enough viewers to rise above the fray.
If you agree that Gordon Ramsay is most entertaining on “The F Word,” email Greene at sgreene2@media.ucla.edu.