5 reasons we’re still missing Chicago Justice
By Deb Foster
3. The character development we’ll never get
Chicago Justice was very much an ensemble show, and most of the characters we didn’t get to fully explore. Aside from Antonio Dawson, who was already very familiar to One Chicago fans as a regular on Chicago PD and from his appearances on Chicago Fire, these were still pretty fresh faces.
Mark Jefferies (Carl Weathers) was able to deftly juggle the worlds of law and politics as the public face of the State’s Attorney’s Office. Fans knew if Jefferies chose to involve himself in the details of a case or exert his position, he had a powerful reason why. Anna Valdez (Monica Barbaro) was one of the most refreshingly realistic young professional women portrayed on television. She was confident in her knowledge and skills as a second chair. She did not shy away from challenging her superiors but was always intent on learning as much as possible from them.
Laura Nagel (Joelle Carter) was the character we were just scratching the surface of when the series was cancelled. She was clearly a superior investigator with sharp instincts that often created the break in a case, but had been passed over for the promotion to Lead Investigator in favor of Antonio, because of her troubled personal life including a struggle with addiction that led to a custody battle. And she clearly had a solid friendship with Peter.
Antonio has returned to Chicago PD and Peter is now prosecuting on Law & Order: SVU, so audiences will get to learn more about them on those shows. Anna has turned up on PD as well, but will we ever learn more about her in those brief appearances? It doesn’t seem likely. And we’ll never get to understand Laura’s history, or how these characters could have developed together or with other One Chicago players.