Chicago PD’s new character is both an answer and a question

Chicago PD added a new regular, but what does that actually mean?

Last week Chicago PD producers finally answered one of their biggest questions by revealing who would replace Lisseth Chavez on the show, and the character that they’re going to play. The choice was surprising for a few reasons.

Cleveland Berto will join the regular cast this season as Officer Jalen Walker, who chose policing over working as a Wall Street stockbroker and is described as a “golden boy” in the Chicago Police Department.

In some ways, the casting and the character description are very interesting. In other ways, though, they don’t feel like the perfect fit. So what will Cleveland Berto as Jalen Walker bring to Chicago PD? Here are the things to look forward to with his arrival—and the things to potentially watch out for.

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The positives

The biggest plus with Cleveland Berto’s casting is that Chicago PD is bringing in a second African-American series regular. LaRoyce Hawkins has been the only Black cast member for seven seasons, and that has been reflected in how his character Kevin Atwater has been written.

Whenever there’s a racism or racially-driven story, it’s always ended up as an Atwater episode. In fact, it seems like the writers have struggled to write for Atwater otherwise, because all of his starring episodes have involved race in some way. Outside of that topic, he’s still one of One Chicago’s most underrated characters.

Having another Black character should hopefully mean that those storylines can be split between the two, and Atwater can get some main plots that have to do with other aspects of his character. There’s so much more to explore with him but he’s been stuck since the show’s never had another African-American lead.

It should also diversify what Chicago PD can discuss as it continues to tackle race-related topics, because there will be a second African-American character’s perspective. Walker sounds like he’s coming from a different background than Atwater, so he could have a different point of view on these important subjects, and thus the writers can explore more than one opinion.

Also, the description of Walker as a “golden boy” implies that he could be the dissenting voice that Chicago PD as a whole desperately needs. It’s clear that the producers have been searching for something with how they’ve changed up their cast so frequently in the last few years—letting go of Elias Koteas, Seda and Chavez in three consecutive seasons.

There’s no character currently on the show that’d be described as golden. All of them are rough around the edges and Intelligence as a whole has an infamous reputation. Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) came in highly touted but is now a junior version of Hank Voight (Jason Beghe). Walker could be what Upton used to be: a well-regarded cop who questions what’s going on and doesn’t follow the modus operandi.

Having that character would make the show so much better. Some of the best episodes and scenes have been when someone pushed back against Voight and/or his “this is my unit” way of thinking. Walker is in a great position as an outsider coming in to add that second layer into the storytelling, which is even more important to have now as Chicago PD season 8 is trying to speak to some timely and very complicated topics.

The question marks

While Chicago PD is upping its Black representation, it’s done so by losing its Latin-American representation. By letting go of Chavez and Jon Seda before her, the show no longer has a Latino/Latina lead. That feels awkward if the show having more diversity in one ethnicity comes at the expense of another one.

It also reduces the number of female leads on the show. There’s still Spiridakos, Marina Squerciati and Amy Morton, but when you consider that Morton only appears in maybe a scene or two every week, that works out to having two female Intelligence members to four men. That may not be a huge deal to some viewers, but it’s worth noting.

The much bigger issue, though, is in what we know about the Jalen Walker character. The report also describes him as an “athlete,” “scholar” and “family man.” He seems perfect, and perfect isn’t interesting, especially on Chicago PD which is all about flaws and grit.

Give the writers credit for coming up with a character who’s very different from Rojas and her tragic history; they’re going in the opposite direction of the idea that didn’t work. But there’s no immediate hook that makes the audience want to watch Walker. He sounds more like a list of cool adjectives than a fully-developed person, at least right now.

Lastly, Cleveland Berto doesn’t have a lot of TV lead experience or crime drama experience. Most of his roles have been one-offs on various shows; it’s been five years since he appeared in more than one episode of a show.

That’s not necessarily terrible; everybody has to get that experience somewhere, and remember that Annie Ilonzeh hadn’t starred in a procedural either before she was cast on Chicago Fire. He could wind up being fantastic.

But he’s going to have to show fairly quickly that he can hold his own with more experienced co-stars and fit in the way that Lisseth Chavez didn’t. With how much cast turnover there’s been on Chicago PD, he won’t have a lot of time to win both the writers and the audience over, and what the show doesn’t need now is another cast departure.

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