Now that Steve Graham has given me a nice shout-out in mentioning that I've been blogging about The Chicago Code, I feel obligated to say something about last night's episode. Actually, I'll start with my wife's review: "That one didn't suck."

Yeah, this was a pretty good episode. It made better use of the modern television trick of mingling two separate stories. About half of this episode was the mythology, the ongoing story of the cops who are taking on the crooked politicians, and the rest was a separate story about the pursuit of a violent bank robber.

The bank robbery allowed the episode to start with a chase scene which was pretty good. It was great to see cops driving and running around some typical Chicago scenery, including some classic train stations. And unlike the chase that began the pilot, this one seemed more likely to be within the department's chase policy since the offender was armed and dangerous. The bank robbery also involved something resembling policework, or at least the kind of policework I'm used to seeing on television cop shows.

The other half of the story was Delroy Lindo's chance to show off why he was cast as Alderman Ronin Gibbons, and it establishes just how sneaky and ruthless he can be, and why he's going to be hard to catch.

This episode also finally shows us that the Chicago Police Department does not exist above all the corruption. A few people in the department are dirty too. It's good to see that the show's producers aren't going to whitewash over that historic fact just because they have police cooperation in making their show.

Corruption in the department is also necessary to explain--both in the show and in real life--why the police haven't been very effective in fighting corruption in the rest of the city. It's hard to do good police work when not everyone is on the same side. It's not just a matter of a few street cops tipping off the bad guys, either. One well-placed commander with organized crime connections can derail dozens of investigations.

It doesn't even have to be police officers who are compromised. Some years ago, someone in the Chicago Police Department's Human Resources office was found to be feeding officers' home addresses and duty schedules to a gang. The officers would return from work to discover their homes had been broken into and their personal firearms had been stolen.

On a lighter note, it's amusing to hear the street addresses used in the show. Filmmakers and television producers like to avoid using addresses where there might be real people or real businesses. For example, in 1987's The Untouchables, Malone's home is said to be at 1634 Racine, which doesn't exist because that's where Racine crosses the Chicago River.

In this episode of Chicago Code, I heard 1650 West Harlem (the real Harlem Avenue runs north and south) and 1260 East Chestnut, which would be about a mile out into Lake Michigan.

I finally got around to watching the second episode of The Chicago Code last night. The opening titles and music were different, which confirms that the first episode was a true pilot, created long before the next episode. Otherwise, my impression is about the same: It's not great, but I could get used to it, and they do a great job of filming my home town.

The story is still shaping up to be Superintendent Colvin's fight to clean up Chicago and especially to expose Alderman Ronin Gibbons' ties to the largely mythical Chicago Irish mob. They're going to have to introduce us to a lot more of those guys if they want to make it believable, because right now they're making it look like Gibbons is a big shot in the mob, and that's just silly. We've had Alderman connected to the mob, but they're not actually part of it. They just do favors and get favors (and bags full of cash) in return.

Once again, there's some good acting in this episode, but not from Jennifer Beals. I can't quite put my finger on what's wrong, but I have a theory. I think Beals is just the least talented at covering up for the awkward dialog.

That's not the only problem with the writing. Let me give you a few examples (minor spoilers coming):

The cops are trying to catch the cop killer from last week. He shot at Colvin, killing her police bodyguard instead, and then jumped into a waiting getaway car. Colvin shot at the car as it sped away. Thanks to a citizen's tip, they've found the getaway car abandoned in an alley, with blood all over the driver's seat, indicating that Colvin hit him.

Caleb Evers, the less experienced cop, suggests calling out the crime lab to sample the blood and run it for DNA. The show's supercop, Derek Wysocki, has a different plan. He gives a misleading statement to the press in which he gives an incorrect description of the getaway car, which he hopes will make the offenders feel safe enough to come out and move it. Sure enough, a little while later a young woman comes to get the car. It turns out she's the car's owner, and she's come to pick it up after lending it to her boyfriend. In other words, the cops have just used guile and trickery to discover something that they could have gotten hours earlier by running the car's license plate.

Then there's the whole business with the bulletproof vest. You see, Colvin's bodyguard was a young officer who had known her for years. On the night of the shooting, after she received a threat, he insisted that she wear his vest for protection. Then he got shot and died.

I don't pretend to know much about Chicago cops, but I'm pretty sure about this: A lot of street cops do not trust the people in command to do the right thing by them. From their point of view, it would look like the Superintendent took a vest off an officer to protect herself, and it got him killed. End of story. It doesn't matter how close Colvin was to her bodyguard or how strongly he insisted she wear the vest. She was in command. It was her decision that got him killed. Street cops would be grumbling about this incident for the rest of her career.

Finally, there's the scene near the end where the dead officer's mother tells Colvin she's filed a lawsuit. Colvin responds by lecturing her: "I understand that you are upset, but this is not the way to handle this. You understand me? This is not the way to handle this."

That might be correct--involving lawyers tends to gum things up--but that line makes Colvin sound like a self-important tone-deaf bitch, and I don't think that's what the producers have in mind for the character.

Still, I love seeing the city, and there are bits and pieces of the show that work for me. I think they either need to pay a little more attention to the details, write the Colvin character's dialog to better fit Beals's acting style, and move the main plot mythology forward a little more in each episode. It could still be a pretty good show. I'm gonna give it a few more episodes.

I took a look at the pilot episode of The Chicago Code last night and...didn't hate it. It's got some of potential. Minor spoilers follow.

(As I write this, you can watch the pilot episode for free here.)

It's not what I was hoping for. That's because what I was hoping for was The Wire: Chicago, and that was never going to happen. I'm sure other people could make a crime show as good as The Wire, but I don't think anyone will any time soon. The Wire was a special kind of storytelling, and it didn't make a lot of money.

For me, honestly, the best part of The Chicago Code was how well they showed off the City of Chicago. There's the skyline, of course, and Buckingham fountain, and the elevated train tracks. Strangely, they use a shot of LaSalle Street before showing Superintendent Theresa Colvin walking into City Hall, which is nowhere near there. I guess it looks more like Chicago. On the other hand, the hallway shots that follow look like they really were shot in City Hall. [Update: But they weren't. See the first comment below.]

I didn't recognize too many other specific locations, but I recognized the look of Chicago everywhere. The street scenes, and even some of the home interiors, just look like the places I grew up in. Those one-story bungalows are everywhere in this town. And Chicago is a giant railroad hub, so there are train tracks everywhere.

The police chase in the next scene goes through some very familiar looking neighborhoods, but I think some of them are miles apart. The chase itself is a bit over the top--I think they used every Chicago Police car the studio had available--and besides, the Chicago police chase policy is very restrictive. Too many cars full of innocent families could get in the way.

Nevertheless, there were a few realistic touches.The police cars looked right: Traditional Crown Vic's with a few of the new Chevy Tahoe's mixed in. Even more realistic--although perhaps unintentionally--was having guys in the unmarked car drive like assholes. Regular patrol cops complain about them all the time. New cops learn to drive and give chase in marked cars with a ton of lighting on top to warn people they're coming. When they switch to an unmarked car, they forget that they've only got flashing headlamps and maybe a mini lightbar, so people won't get out of the way because they can't see them coming.

(On the other hand, the way the chase was resolved is--avoiding spoilers--completely ridiculous.)

The Sox-fan v.s. Cubs-fan animosity is stupid...but sadly realistic.

It looks like the large-scale source of conflict is going to be between Superintendent Colvin (Jennifer Beals) and crooked Alderman Ronin Gibbons (Delroy Lindo) who's in bed with the Irish mob. We don't really have an Irish mob problem here, but I guess they felt that having him tied to black and hispanic drug gangs would make for some uncomfortable racial issues.

On the other hand, the Chicago Police Department is portrayed as fairly clean and corruption-free, which has not historically been the case. For example, there's a flashback in which Colvin recalls her father having to pay off various people to keep his business open. It shows him paying off a building inspector, a precinct captain, and a couple of thugs. It doesn't show him paying off any cops. Then again, he owns a hardware store. Maybe the old-time department bag men only hit up places like bars, which would sometimes need cops to look the other way.

Then there's the show's use of the Chicago Police Memorial. I can't decide whether the scene itself is honorable or exploitive. However, I hope someone on the show eventually points out that former Police Superintendent Phil Cline spent a lot of time raising money for the memorial, and then got himself a cushy $80,000-a-year job as its Executive Director.

Also, just as we learn a lot of New York cop slang from NYPD Blue, and a lot of Baltimore cop lore from The Wire, we should be seeing a lot more Chicago police-isms. Chicago cops don't wear a shield, they wear a star, and they don't chase perps, they chase offenders. I want to hear cops talking about squadrols and missions and bitching about CR's and 99's. And why aren't the other cops pissed about Wyocki bossing people around just because he's "connected" at headquarters?

(On the other hand, it should be fairly easy to accurately portray Chicago police radio procedures: Chicago cops don't talk in secret codes. If they have to stop to go to the bathroom, they notify the dispatcher that they have to stop to go to the bathroom.)

Jennifer Beals in the Superintendent role did not work for me. She looked uncomfortable in cop gear, and she seemed to smile inappropriately. Maybe she's supposed to look confident, but she just looked goofy. You know how cops have that special way of intimidating the crap out of you without speaking or moving? Those are just beat cops and detectives. Supervisors have to be strong enough to keep those guys in line, and someone who fought her way up through the ranks to become Superintendent should be positively terrifying. Beals just doesn't pull that off.

Almost everyone else in the cast was great, though. Jason Clarke as Detective Wysocki is a potential star-making role.

As a whole, the plot is fragmented, crazy, and unrealistic, and it shows very little that looks like actual policework. It's not very good. But...I have hope. This was the pilot episode, and a lot of character introductions and background information had to be shoveled into this one hour. Many shows improve a lot after the pilot, especially when the writers start seeing how the finished product looks. I'll keep watching for a few more episodes.