Chicago PD season 6 character review: Antonio Dawson

What it means

Chicago PD producers’ choice to let go of Antonio Dawson is going to go down as one of the most controversial decisions in One Chicago history. Not only is he possibly the most popular character in the entire fandom, but Jon Seda has been with this franchise since nearly the beginning. And it all went away in kind of a strange fashion.

The idea of having Antonio as a unit leader and his leadership not working was really interesting, but the show axed that before the end of the season premiere (in fairness, it couldn’t have done a lot of episodes without Jason Beghe). But that’s where things got weird.

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The drug addiction storyline didn’t really develop; it was just thrown for a scene or two as the show was focused on the relationship between Ruzek and Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos). Then once it happened, the writers didn’t explore it thoroughly; Antonio was sent off to rehab, but we never saw his recovery. He was just back in the office and pretty much fine not too long after.

According to Chicago PD showrunner Rick Eid, the story was meant to show another side of the character. It never came across that way to fans, though; it just looked like Antonio was crashing, burning, and becoming a bit of an afterthought on the show he helped to make great. Then to let go of him entirely, with a final scene that not only didn’t resolve anything but implied he was just going to have the same problem over again? It was a rough season in every sense.