New Showtime series shows textured South Side

To TV watchers in Chicago, the frustration with most dramas that take place here is how poorly they represent the city. We refer both to the preoccupation with violence, which crowds out other storytelling, and the geographical sloppiness, which drives us nuts. Police headquarters isn’t in Uptown!

There appear to be no such false notes in Showtime’s riveting new series, “The Chi,” created by 33-year-old Lena Waithe, an emerging Hollywood talent by way of the South Side and Evanston. Judged by its premiere and the buzz surrounding both the show and Waithe, “The Chi” is a compelling series set in African-American neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago. Most important, “The Chi” inhabits that world, all of it, including family life, school, careers and, yes, the streets and guns. The series encompasses the joys, sorrows and struggles of everyday lives in a unique place most Americans otherwise would never visit or understand.

There are two powerful stories here. The first is the one Waithe tells in “The Chi” about the South Side. The second is about Waithe, who grew up interested in television writing and graduated from Columbia College Chicago before heading to Hollywood. To be a young, black writer, who also happens to be gay, and to create a major TV project about black Chicago that strives for drama and honesty, is to take on all kinds of responsibilities. That includes becoming a role model to other Chicagoans with creative aspirations.

Both of Waithe’s stories are worth celebrating.

The series premieres at 9 p.m. Sunday on Showtime.