Chicago Heroes: Med, Fire, PD as of the Fall 2018

Hey, I don't usually review NBC's "Chicago Heroes" Wednesday triad - MD, Fire, and PD - because, well, sometimes it's fun to just watch and not review.  And my wife and I watch these three Dick Wolf productions every Wednesday, and think the shows are among the best on any kind of television (network, cable, streaming).  So here's a little review of the Fall finales, just on this evening.

Chicago Med has been the weakest of the three, but it's been getting better and better.  Oliver Platt's Dr. Charles, a psychiatrist, is a complex, fascinating character, played brilliantly by Platt.   The ethical quandaries he faces and more or less solves could make an excellent series in themselves.  And this year, there's been much more integration of Med and PD, as well as Fire, which is always welcome.   The outright cross-over shows in which an episode in Med literally continues in Fire and in turn in PD are always a special pleasure to watch.

Chicago Fire was the first of the Chicago shows to go on the air (Med is the most recent).  For most of the years, it's been easily in first place.  The combination of firefighters always being on the verge of mortal danger, and the well-handled personal lives, made for a unique and winning combination.  It still does.  But this season, PD is giving Fire a run for its money.

PD grew out of Fire, with Casey from Fire getting entangled with a corrupt and violent detective, Hank Voight.  He was (partially) rehabilitated and became head of a rough and tumble unit, and has been given a tour de force performance by Jason Beghe.  Indeed, everyone in PD puts in a powerful, charismatic performance, which I couldn't quite say of Fire and definitely not of Med.  So, with the Fall finales that were broadcast tonight, I'd say PD goes into the New Year in the lead in terms of consistently compelling stories, with a minimum of fluff.

But all three are well worth watching, which I'll definitely be doing in 2019.

 

My List of the Top 10 Television Series of 2016

Continuing the tradition - just started last year - here is my Top 10 list for 2016,  from who knows how many series I've seen this past year on network television, cable, and streaming (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Acorn):

Honorable mention (narrowly not making the list, for a variety of reasons):  On the list last year: Rectify concluded its run this Fall, and although it was still excellent and unique in many ways, some of the episodes lacked the intensity of the earlier seasons.  The Affair has just begun a new season on Showtime, and so far it's too soon to know if this will be another Top 10 season.   Returning in honorable mention: Chicago Fire is still superb, but still suffers from the limitations of network television.  Nordic noir:  Case, The Department Q Trilogy, Dicte - all outstanding, subtitled Scandinavian police drama that almost made the list.  Apples and oranges: Veep is hilarious, but it's impossible to rank a comedy with dramas, so I put it here in honorable mentions. Closest runner-up: The Fall's third season (BBC, streamed on Neflix) was its best yet for this sociopathic crime drama, with an Emmy-worthy performance by Gillian Anderson.

And now the Top 10:

10. Designated Survivor (ABC TV):  The only network series on my Top 10, which says how far cable and streaming have surpassed traditional network TV in the U.S.  But Designated Survivor is a worthy exception, in effect a blend of 24 and House of Cards - or Jack Bauer in the White House. Fast-paced, dangerous, and unafraid to address current controversial political issues.

9. Vikings (History Channel):  Moving up from honorable mention last year to #9 on my list this year, Vikings is superbly rendered historical drama.   What and how the Vikings managed to conquer is fascinating just as straight history, but this series brings these stories alive with unforgettable characters and breathtaking battle scenes.

8. Colony (USA Network):  Near-future Los Angeles under totalitarian alien control - aliens from outer space not other countries - debuted in 2016.  A taut, excellent mix of action and intelligent political philosophy.

7. House of Cards (Season 4) (Netflix): Back on the list, down one notch, but that's because of the tougher competition, not because of any loss of quality.  Frank and Claire Underwood remain brilliant templates of American Presidential politics and governance, becoming less hyperbolic and more in tune with our reality with every passing year, and not because House of Cards is changing.

6. Narcos (Season 2) (Netflix): We streamed seasons 1 (2015) and 2 (2016) in 2016, and loved them both.  Irresistible, brutal (how's that for a combination) docu-drama about Colombian drug-lord Pablo Escobar.

5. 19-2 (Acorn).  This is among the best beat-cop shows ever on television.  All three seasons are streaming on Acorn, with Season 3 first airing in the summer of 2016.  Originally a French-Canadian series, my wife and I enjoyed the English version so much we'll probably see the French sooner or later too. Indelible characters.

4. Travelers (Netflix).  Ok, I love science fiction, but I especially love time travel.  I said in my review of this Canadian series, now streaming on Netflix, that it was in some ways as good as 12 Monkeys.  Now that it's settled in, I think it's even better.  The thing is, Travelers starts out very slowly, so much so that I wouldn't have kept watching if I didn't have an insatiable interest in time travel stories.  But Travelers gets better very quickly, and the last four episodes are pure, incandescent genius.

3. The Girlfriend Experience (Starz): Both a lawyer and a call-girl show, and a gem of a drama.  The "girlfriend experience" gives the customer not just sex but a girlfriend for the rented time, and the situations this engenders make for an outstanding portrayal of life in the fast lane.

2.  Westworld (HBO): There's going to be more science fiction this year than last year.  I am indeed a science fiction fan (as well as author), but these series were extraordinary, and should be very appealing to everyone who doesn't dislike science fiction.  In the case of Westworld, it was a very close second to The Man in the High Castle, offering the best depiction of the profound issues in human-like artificial intelligence I've ever seen on television or in the movies.  (Humans was #9 on my list last year - its new season will be on in 2017.  I found Westworld better than Humans, as good as it was.)

1. The Man in the High Castle (Season 2) (Amazon):  This was #1 on my list last year, and this year's episodes were even better.  Goes well beyond Philip K. Dick's masterful novel in intelligent, relevant, vivid, and riveting ways.   And speaking of relevant, never more so, given the support President-elect Trump received from white supremacists in the recent election.

See also My List of the Top Ten Television Series of 2015

Chicago Fire - Chicago Med - Chicago PD - Triple Crossover

Chicago Fire and Chicago Med began a triple crossover of related stories on NBC last night, which will conclude tonight on Chicago PD.   Crossovers are nothing new on television, especially for Dick Wolf, who has already done crossovers with Chicago PD and his remaining NYC cop show, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.   But Wolf has made a fine art of this, thoroughly integrating the ensemble cast of all three series, making the result more like a three-hour movie than a series of connected episodes.

In contrast, CSI had an excellent triple-crossover some years ago with its Las Vegas, Miami, and New York shows, but the narrative featured the head of the Las Vegas group going to Miami, then New York, then back to Las Vegas on a vexing case.   Last night on NBC we saw major characters from Med and PD on the Fire hour, and then major PD and Fire characters on the Med hour.  The result was seamless and satisfying.

Even when there aren't cross-over events, the three Chicago shows are well blended, with characters from each of the series naturally appearing on the others.  Gabby on Fire has a brother on PD.   She also had a flirtation with a guy who turned out to be PD undercover, who in turn has a brother in Med.  One of the firefighters just became engaged to a sergeant on PD, and another is striking up a relationship with a nurse on Med.   And even when there aren't romantic or familial connections, characters from the other two shows regularly show up on Fire, PD, and Med.  The EMT Unit on Fire brings the injured to Med, and if crime is the cause of the injury, or arson is at work on Fire, that effectively pulls PD into the story.   The result is that the three series are always on the cutting edge of crossover.

Of the three series, I like Fire the best.  Series about firefighters are more rare on television than shows about cops - of which there seem to have been hundreds over the years - or medical shows, which have been on television continuously since the days of Dr. Kildare.   The only fire show I can recall is Rescue Me, which like Chicago Fire, was outstanding (and drop-dead funny, to boot).

In age in which television is rapidly evolving into new kinds of narratives on streaming services like Netflix and Amazon, it's good to see the networks reinventing their storytelling via Dick Wolf's crossovers.