Justice for all
The streets of Chicago are being cleaned up, one criminal at a time in Chicago Fire spin-off series Chicago Justice.
Chicago Justice Season 1 Tuesdays (from 22 August) M-Net (*101) 20:30
The Chicago franchise of shows (Chicago Fire 2012- current; Chicago PD 2014- current and Chicago Med, 2015- current) are finishing off their quartet with the addition of singleseason legal action series Chicago Justice (2017). Franchise followers will recognise Chief Investigator Antonio Dawson, who is played by Jon Seda and has featured in Chicago PD (see more on p65). “Going from an established fourth-year show [PD] to a first-year entry [Justice] was uncharted waters. It had never been done before.” Something else not done before, at least not in the Chicago shows, is choosing a smaller lead cast. While shows like Fire and PD have a regular cast of 15+, Chicago Justice has only five heading up their State’s Attorney office in the 13-episode season…
THE JUSTICE LEAGUE
1 Chief Investigator Antonio Dawson
(Jon Seda) adds streetsmarts to the State’s Attorney team. He’s an ex-detective and knows how criminals think. After all, it was his day job to be smarter than them.
Did you know? Jon has played over 14 law enforcement characters in his career, starting with Sal Molina in a 1994 episode of NYPD Blue (1993-2005).
2 Mark Jefferies (Carl Weathers, best known as Apollo Creed in 1976 boxing movie Rocky) is the Chicago State’s Attorney. He’s the main man in the office, leads by example and doesn’t take nonsense – Mark is a former Marine and Vietnam War vet.
Did you know? Before getting into acting, Carl was a pro NFL football star. 3 Assistant State’s Attorney Peter Stone
(Philip Winchester, Michael Stonebridge in action show Strikeback, 20102015) heads the Special Prosecutions Bureau within the State’s Attorney office and it’s his job to make sure that the team get their job despite interferance from the outside world.
Did you know? Fictional character Peter’s dad is another famous TV lawman – Executive Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty) in seasons 1- 4 of Law & Order (1990-2010).
4 Anna Valdez (Monica Barbaro, Yael in drama UnReal, 2016- current) is an Assistant State Attorney like Peter but doesn’t have his experience. She sits as his second chair in meetings and has a whip-smart, quick tongue.
Did you know? Monica gave up ballet as a teen after a knee injury. She doesn’t do any of her Chicago Justice stunts.
5 Investigator Laura Nagel (Joelle Carter, Ava Crowder in action show Justified, 2010-2015) is a former street detective. She was addicted to painkillers after being injured on duty and her young daughter was taken away as a consequence.
Did you know? Military brat Joelle studied at Augusta State University on a full sport scholarship for swimming.
LAST IN, FIRST OUT
Chicago Justice was cancelled by network NBC after just one season. According to sources, executive producer and show boss Dick Wolf wasn’t happy with the below-average première figures of 8.7 million viewers in March 2017. “This is a rare miss for Dick Wolf,” explains an inside source. While his other shows are still doing well – Law & Order SVU (1999- current) is in its 19th season and original series Law & Order had 20 – “this was a blip on his radar”.