One Chicago is experiencing growing pains. The franchise has been around since 2012, and like most shows that have crossed the decade mark, it's gone up in cost and cast salary. NBC renewed all three of the franchise's shows, but the network also laid down some ground rules regarding the amount of time actors appear in a given season. These rules were on full display Wednesday, May 7.
Chicago Med, Chicago Fire and Chicago PD aired new episodes, and all three of them were missing crucial cast members. Med was down Dr. Hannah Asher (Jessy Schram) despite the character's brief cameo on Chicago Fire. The firefighting drama had to make due without four of its central characters, including Sam Carver (Jake Lockett), Lizzie Novak (Jocelyn Hudon), Dom Pascal (Dermot Mulroney), and Violet Mikami (Hanako Greensmith).
One Chicago made a tactical decision to bench characters
By the time we got to Chicago PD, we were worried that the entire IU would be missing. Thankfully, we were only missing two officers, Kiana Cook (Toya Turner) and Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins). We've gotten to a point where two MIA characters in a given episode is actually a relief. You might have read the headline for this piece and scratched your head, given the positive spin that we are trying to put on a week that depleted us of some of our favorite characters.
Here's why. One Chicago has been forced to sideline characters in episodes in which they are less important, or blatantly uninvolved with the main plot. The episodes that aired May 7 were character pieces that focused on a handful of people spread throughout the franchise. The episodes that will follow, on May 14 and May 21, bring the curtain down on their respective seasons.
In other words, the franchise made the unfortunate but necessary decision of benching over half a dozen characters so that they could be front-and-center during the final episodes of the season. It would be far more upsetting if, say, Atwater and Cook were absent from the two-parter Chicago PD finale in which the IU plan to take down Deputy Chief Reid (Shawn Hatosy).
We suspect they will return for season finales
Similarly, it would be indescribably frustrating if Carver to miss out on the Chicago Fire finale, given that he literally won't be around for the next season. He only has two episodes left before his arc is over, so if he had to sit out an episode, we'd prefer it be one like "Cut Me Open," where he wouldn't have had much to do beside stand in the background and toss in a few sarcastic remarks.
Obviously, it would be ideal for all the One Chicago stars to appear in all the episodes. It's the way the franchise has operated since day one, but times have changed, and so have the economics of TV. We live in a world where concessions have to be made to keep shows we love alive. Consequently, we are relieved that we've gotten the absence of these characters out of the way before the important stuff comes about in the final episodes.