DVD Review: Chicago PD Season 7

 

The seventh season of Chicago PD sees more upheaval for the show, both in terms of cast turnover and from a storyline standpoint for the characters. As most are aware, Jon Seda was not brought back for season seven, and the show basically uses the season six storyline as a way to write him out. We also find out whether or not Voight killed Kelton (you can probably guess, but I will not spoil it for those who don't know how it turned out). The show does wrap up the season six dangling storylines pretty early on in the season, then the show gets into the arcs for the new season. The show gains a new cast member to essentially replace Jon Seda. Lisseth Chavez joins the team as Vanessa Rojas who was pulled out of the academy for an undercover assignment, then ended up with Intelligence, much like Ruzek joined the team. Hailey ends up taking her under her wing while butting heads with Voight along the way. Jay ends up with a story arc that plays out over the course of a few episodes, as does Kim and Ruzek. The season ends with a major storyline involving Kevin. Because the season ended early due to the covid lockdown, the show does not really end on a cliffhanger this season, just sets up a larger story arc. There are two crossovers this season. The first was the large "One Chicago" crossover with Med and Fire. That one ended up being a bit prophetic given the Covid outbreak that would hit a few months later. The second was a smaller crossover with Chicago Fire about 2/3 of the way into the season.

For those who get the DVD, there are no bonus features other than the episodes from the other shows that were a part of the crossovers. So, you can watch all the crossover episodes without switching discs (assuming you have the other shows on DVD too). So, if you are one who only gets the DVDs when there are a lot of behind-the-scenes or commentary tracks, the only reason to get this is if you have the prior season sets and want to complete your collection.

Overall, the season was very good. The writing and acting are still very strong, and pretty much every one of the main characters got some good material to work with this season. If you have been a fan of the prior seasons this one is definitely worth checking out. You definitely do not want to jump into this season without seeing the prior seasons because you will be missing some important character development and there are definitely some things that occurred in the prior seasons that impact this season.