Chicago Justice premiered on NBC one year ago today, so in honor of the One Chicago legal drama’s anniversary, here are 5 reasons we still miss Justice.
Happy anniversary, Chicago Justice! It was one year ago today that the fourth One Chicago series premiered, as the third and final part of the three-hour Chicago Crossover. And 365 days later we are still not over it.
Though it only lasted a season before NBC ran out of space on the primetime schedule for it, we still think of Chicago Justice as a show that we enjoyed and an important part of the One Chicago universe.
After all, it introduced us to four new characters, two of which are still part of our fandom. Anna Valdez has made guest appearances on Chicago PD, and Peter Stone moved sideways to become a series regular on Law & Order: SVU. Those characters wouldn’t exist without Justice.
The series also told great stories every week, packed those stories with guest stars like Bradley Whitford, Gary Basaraba, and Richard Schiff, and proved that there’s literally nowhere Jon Seda can’t work. It may not be on NBC anymore, but we’re not going to forget it any time soon.
Click through the following slideshow for the 5 reasons that we still miss Chicago Justice. And if you haven’t seen it yet, here are our reasons you need to give it a watch.
5. Great “ripped from the headlines” stories
Although other shows address relevant social and political issues, Chicago Justice brought that same skill and attention to a wider range of extremely important and timely topics.
In only thirteen episodes Justice utilized its procedural framework to examine critical issues like gun violence and the gun control debate, domestic terrorism, police brutality, gang warfare, social media, domestic violence and federal overreach into the rights of the state to prosecute crimes. And no other show on television addressed the issues of racism and white privilege through its characters in such an unrelenting yet realistic manner.
Chicago Justice had the courage to look at all of these issues from different points of view, and gave us lead characters who did not always take the views expected or that we may have liked, but it always provided a look into the often complex reason behind them.
Assistant State’s Attorney Peter Stone (Philip Winchester) possessed an unyielding respect for the law, dedication to truth and need to achieve justice for victims that did not always fit into the realities of the world.
And each episode was a complex adventure into how to navigate the legal system to achieve the greater good. It is an adventure that’s now sorely lacking on network television.
4. Better ratings than it was given credit for
Chicago Justice faced many challenges when it came to its bottom line. It was marketed as the fourth leg of the Chicago universe – a natural extension of a dramatic world created from law enforcement, fire and medical stories. However, it was structured in a way that was dramatically different from the other three shows. Justice was a pure procedural drama in the manner of Law & Order. The crime and its legal outcome took the focus, whereas the other three series are action and relationship-driven.
It also had to find an audience in the most challenging timeslot on the schedule, 9 p.m. Sundays, where it was up against perennial ratings winner The Walking Dead as well as hit premium cable shows like Homeland. It had an odd midseason start date of March 1, and saw its first few episodes shuffled around on different nights, making it harder for potential viewers to connect.
But even with those three things against it, Chicago Justice held its own with respectable ratings. It drew in a larger, consistent audience than most of NBC’s other shows that were ultimately renewed including Blindspot, Taken, Shades of Blue and Timeless. Both Blindspot and Taken have seen their ratings decline further this season, while Shades of Blue and Timeless are still waiting – the latter taking over Justice’s old time slot on March 11.
With the challenges it overcame, the fact that it still found a decent audience, and the shows that were renewed not only having a smaller audience then but some of them still having less viewers now, it’s difficult not to feel a twinge of bitterness that Chicago Justice was allowed to slip away.
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.
2. Where Peter Stone could’ve gone
While the Peter Stone character will get a considerable amount of screen time as a series regular on Law & Order: SVU, it’s not the same as seeing him on Chicago Justice. On SVU he’s now part of another team’s story; on Chicago Justice, he was the driving force of the story, and deservedly so.
Stone was the kind of character that you could build a series around. He possessed everything that a main character ought to have, from a compelling individual story to characteristics that made the audience want to root for him, and a strong personality to hold the audience’s attention. Philip Winchester was perfectly cast in the role, because he had the charisma to win viewers over but also the backbone to be as tough as Stone needed to be.
That combination of actor and character was so spot on that it’s a bummer that he’s no longer front and center, simply because there was enough to be done with him that could fill a whole show.
The good news is that Stone will be able to develop further now that Winchester has been brought over to SVU, and that his story is poised to go in some very interesting directions on that series. At the same time, we’re going to miss when the stories were about him, and the stories that could have been told with him and his mentorship of Anna Valdez, his friendship with Laura Nagel, and particularly the complicated relationship he had with his boss, Mark Jefferies.
1. All the Stone and Mark Jefferies scenes we’ll miss
The best scenes in Chicago Justice occurred between Mark Jefferies and Peter Stone. The relationship between these two characters was one of the most important on television for many reasons, but it all boiled down to respect.
They came from very different worlds: Jefferies with a military background from a black working class family and Stone a privileged white male with every advantage. But despite their differences (or perhaps because of them), the two men were easily able to discuss issues as controversial and close to home as racism and classism, with Jefferies repeatedly pointing out Stone’s privilege and Stone pointing out how Jefferies’ political angle could blind him to justice. They both learned from each other.
But the Stone-Jefferies dynamic was more than a good character pairing; it was a foundation for the show, because it was their discussions and disagreements that often provided a platform for the discussion of whichever issue was being dissected that week. Those heated disagreements and controversial discussions can’t happen without a deep level of respect and trust between the parties involved, and Stone and Jefferies were strong role models for how to achieve that.
They presented a workshop in problem-solving each week, not to mention a masterclass on great theater from two accomplished actors who clearly shared the same level of respect for each other as their characters. What we’ll miss most is never seeing them together again, although we bet Jefferies has a lot less headaches now.
Next: How did Peter Stone fare in last night's SVU?
Do you still miss Chicago Justice? Tell us what you loved about the series in the comments, and for more on what’s happening with the actors and characters now, see the Chicago Justice category at One Chicago Center.