Chicago Med season 5 midseason report: Maggie Lockwood

What it means

It’s been wonderful to see Marlyne Barrett get more screen time, and the idea of Chicago Med showing what it’s really like to struggle with cancer—both through Maggie and with Caroline Charles—is admirable. However, there are a lot of problems with the way the writers have taken this storyline.

What was Maggie’s journey felt like it was subjugated by the Ben romance. The show had a fine storyline with Maggie’s fight against cancer; that was compelling enough, and we could have seen more of everyone else at the hospital rallying around her. Or even her bonding with Caroline since Caroline also battled the disease. Instead, the show brought in an outside character, and made her love life the focus.

Did you notice how, once she hooked up with Ben, we didn’t hear much about how Maggie herself was doing with her treatment? It became about worrying over Ben.

In addition to that, the Ben storyline just didn’t feel genuine. She sleeps with the guy on the same day she meets him? And not long after that, she’s so upset over the fate of someone she’s barely been dating that she commits a crime to get him out of the hospital? Then after that, the show doesn’t depict any consequences for her behavior, choosing instead to focus on her boyfriend? It all just seems off.

The producers told us they wanted this to be an emotional storyline and thus didn’t want to focus on the professional issue of Maggie forging paperwork, but if you’re going to do something like that, you should depict all the fallout. And we’re here for Maggie first and foremost; she ought to be front and center, instead of another TV character whose emotional journey revolves around who they’re dating.