DVD Review: Chicago Justice Season One

 

Chicago Justice is the answer to how many Chicago-based dramas were too many before fans lost interest? The answer being four. It was, back in 2017, a part of the massive Dick Wolff (of Law and Order, and Chicago Fire, PD, and Med fame) productions. It basically was set in court (most of the time) and tackled a lot of heavy issues during its run (such as gun control, racism, gang violence, etc.). Of course, this could really be titled Chicago Justice The Complete Series because it only lasted one partial season, never making it past the initial run of thirteen episodes (13.5 if you count the backdoor pilot that it got in the third season of Chicago PD).

The series starred Phillip Winchester as Illinois assistant State's Attorney Phillip Stone, Carl Weathers as his boss, Monaca Barbaro as the junior assistant State's Attorney Anna Valdez, Joelle Carter (best known for her role in the series Justified) as Laura Nagel, who, along with Jon Seda's character Antonio Dawson who came over from Chicago PD, were investigators for the State's Attorney's office.

As I said, the show dealt with a lot of heavy topics, and actually got a lot of the law and some of the courtroom stuff right. Of course, legal dramas have to take a lot of liberty with courtroom scenes because the way things play out (for the most part) in real-life courtrooms are pretty boring and would not make for good television. I think what hurt the series was twofold. First, there was never anything more than superficial glimpses into the characters' lives outside of work. The audience never really got to know what the characters did in their "regular" lives, so it was hard to care about them. And, the show did not lean enough on the other Chicago-based series. The series premiere started out as the third part of a crossover with Fire and PD, but really after that, characters from the other shows just made cameo appearances. I think the show would have benefitted from having more of the PD storylines bleed into Justice, kind of as a setup to the courtroom dramas. Instead, you had everything wrapped up in a bow by the end of the episode from the initial investigation to the jury verdict. Certainly, that did not have to be the case with every show, but I think using the more established Chicago PD to help this one get its footing until it could stand completely on its own would have been a good idea. And, since it had already ended its season before the next season pickups were announced, it was never given a proper series finale. 

Overall, the series was good and should have had more rope than it was given. The acting was very good, and the writing, while it was not as good as it could have been, was better than it got credit for. There are no DVD extras beyond the Fire and PD episodes that make up the "One Chicago" crossover event to start the series off. So, really the only reason to get the DVD over streaming is if you have the sets for the other shows and want this one to make a complete collection.