Drama
House of Guinness
Lawlessness brews in House of Guinness as the children of the late Sir Benjamin Guinness vie for political power and personal pleasure.
Jarek Wysocki is a hard-bitten Chicago police detective trying to dole out justice to the city’s thugs—including one who killed his brother. His former partner, Teresa Colvin, has become the city’s first female police superintendent. Together they’re going up against some powerful enemies as they try to brush the dandruff off their city’s big shoulders.
Colvin has been on the job for just a few months, and she’s single-minded in her quest to clean up both her department and city government itself. Not exactly Mr. Congeniality, Wysocki is something of a legend for his detective work—and he doesn’t hesitate to use his connection with Colvin to shut out other officers and even take over their investigations. Like Sinatra, he does things his way, and choosing his own cases is a given. Choosing his partner, too. And the not-so-lucky guy this time around is the bright-eyed Caleb Evers.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle to cleaning up the Windy City is Alderman Ronin Gibbons, who’s in cahoots with the Irish mob and runs corrupt construction sites with an iron fist sheathed in a velvet glove. With so many people logged on to the sites’ payrolls, it’s easy to shuffle in a few paid “no-shows,”—folks who might never have lifted a hammer in their lives but who do other, shadier work for the good alderman. Gibbons is dangerous, but he’s slick, too. So it’s hard to pin anything on him. Colvin and Wysocki are determined to find a way.
Creator Shawn Ryan, who also penned the FX series The Shield, blends plotlines well in this gritty, fast-paced, intelligent drama. James Queally of New Jersey’s Star-Ledger writes, “The Chicago Code isn’t a story about cops and robbers locked in eternal combat. It’s a story about who pulls their strings and why. And Ryan lets us see the top and bottom of both ladders: superintendents, beat cops, political bosses and low-level mob muscle all receive a healthy amount of screen time in the show’s well-executed pilot.”
Cop shows are notorious for harboring lots of dangerous content, namely language and violence. The Chicago Code is no exception, though so far it’s a far cry from The Shield. And Wysocki is said to hate profanity. So that’s a good thing, right? Still, we’ve already heard racial putdowns, seen snippets of sex and lived through some murderous rampages.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Wysocki and Evers respond to an armed bank robbery. Pursuing the suspects, they discover that one has been shot in the face by the other. Left without backup during a chase (Wysocki’s difficult reputation plays a role), the duo faces gunfire. So does a little girl who passes by. Later, Officer Moosekian, who is responsible for the cold-shouldering, apologizes. Wysocki punches him in the face.
Liam, meanwhile, works undercover to ferret out who in City Hall is allowing corrupt construction contracts.
Profanity includes “b‑‑ch,” “a‑‑,” “h‑‑‑” and God’s name. Men gather at a bar, drinking. In addition to a couple of shootouts, at least two fistfights occur and a bottle is broken over someone’s head. Wysocki shoots and kills a suspect.
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