The Chicago Code

It's extremely well cast, uses its Windy City locations beautifully and has an energy that grabs you pretty much from the first scene. Monday nights are really, really crowded, but you need to make room for this show.

The action is fast, and I was pleased to find that scenes play out unpredictably. I do look forward to less explaining, though, and more insights.

The show is point-blank, but somewhat brilliantly so.

The show is an intelligent addition to the Fox lineup, with both the broad canvas of "The Wire" and the street procedural of "NYPD Blue" in its DNA.

This is a very smart, well-produced, great-looking cop show, one that does familiar things but does them in interesting ways.

Throw in Wysocki's rookie niece, some intra-force rivalry, those great Chicago locations and a Polish sausage or two, and you have a show that breaks the network code, and that alone is worth watching.

What Code is is a show that's not afraid to be just a little bigger than life, if only to guarantee that after a long day in the real world, those of us who like our TV cops at least as interesting as our TV criminals will want to come along for the ride.

Smart and well-acted with clearly defined heroes and villains--all painted in varying shades of gray--this Chicago-set show feels familiar and new at the same time.

Tension runs high throughout this densely layered story, which is well worth your time. Hope all the Super Bowl exposure pays off for this one.

This cop series immediately delivers intense, richly interwoven drama that sets it apart both from other recent new shows and from well-established standard police "procedurals."

Code is not a game-changer in a genre that likely won't be changed again for some time, but judging by the first three episodes it's already gripping television and Fox has found a competitive new drama.

It's a complex story, which may be why Ryan relies in part on an intrusive monologue-narration device to guide us. Still, the intrusions only momentarily interrupt the fast-moving plot, which twists agreeably without losing sight of its moral ambiguities.

The locales are great, the plots are interesting and the acting for the most part is good--although they should have cast actors who don't look like lingerie models.

What we have so far is a sturdy cops/crooks/corruption series that falls short of The Shield but is certainly capable of someday earning its own stripes.

Monday's pilot can't quite close the sale, but there's promise here. The Chicago Code deserves another look.

The Chicago Code provides superior cop drama thanks to its cast--starting with Brotherhood's Jason Clarke and Friday Night Lights' Matt Lauria as tough street police--and its creator (Shawn Ryan, who gave us The Shield).

It may not be The Shield (what is?), and it isn't up to the standard of TV's other corruption-in-Chicago show, The Good Wife, currently the best drama on network TV. But after you get by the initial S.O.S. of the first episode, The Chicago Code may be better than the other police commissioner show, and at least as worthy to add to your weekly TV appointment lineup.

Bribes, kickbacks, suspiciously well-compensated construction companies, organized-crime alliances--this is the stockpot in which the series stirs its wooden spoon. For the most part the flavors blend well.

It has some voice and verve, but it's definitely no Shield yet--either in content or innovation--and like a new rookie on patrol, I'm putting it on probationary status for now.

[Jason Clarke's Jarek Wysocki's] a rich, unpredictable character, and easily the best thing Code has going for it--like the show, just messy enough to be interesting.

The new cop drama The Chicago Code resembles its lead characters: It's focused, determined and ambitious--and sometimes it tries to do too much. Still, the handsome Code succeeds far more often than it strikes out.

The Chicago Code appears to be aiming for a heady mix of action and political drama, and it mostly works. But it also takes itself very seriously, offering precious little levity to ease tensions.

Every character has a voice-over, info dumps for back story that are either irksome or unnecessary.