3 major questions created by the One Chicago renewals

3. Are there enough stories?

The best part of getting One Chicago renewed is that the writers can now plan stories out for the next three seasons and come up with long-term ideas instead of needing immediate payoffs and trying to come up with big hooks to bring people (and the network) back.

The bad news is they have to have enough material to go three more seasons. And that’s not easy in general, but particularly with where the three shows are creatively right now, there are quite a few question marks.

This has been Chicago Med‘s most uneven season, with an increased emphasis on the romantic relationships inside and outside the hospital. Plot twists such as having Dr. Will Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss) sleep with a drug-addicted colleague and turning Dr. Natalie Manning’s (Torrey DeVitto) boyfriend into a manipulative sociopath have been frustrating. The show’s going to have to figure itself out, to get to season 8.

Chicago PD will want to evaluate the direction it wants to go in the future, because there are only so many “bust the bad guys in any way possible” stories that it can tell. Viewers have been talking about the validity of Voight’s methods for seasons now. And how many more seasons can half the team go still being officers? That’s a series that could benefit greatly from a long-term plan and tighten itself up a bit.

Of the three, Chicago Fire is the strongest creatively, but it has some stuff to ponder as well. By season 11, Firehouse 51 shouldn’t be the same, but as Derek Haas has pointed out before, there’s only so much the writers can do given the constraints of a TV show. Will people’s careers be able to advance any further in the next three seasons? Or will the series be unintentionally stuck in a holding pattern?

For the latest Chicago Fire season 8 spoilers and news, plus more on the entire series, follow the Chicago Fire category at One Chicago Center.