The Chicago Code | C+

With massive hits like Glee and American Idol, it's easy to forget that Fox occasionally tries its hand at drama. The Chicago Code is a new crime drama about a handful of good cops trying to stop corruption in — you guessed it — Chicago. The series follows law enforcement on every rung of the ladder, from the rookie cop and young detective, to the veteran detective and new superintendent.

Jennifer Beals (Flashdance) stars as Teresa Colvin, the city's first female superintendent. She is apparently the only one willing to take on the city's corruption and has to form an unofficial taskforce to do so. Colvin selects her former partner Jarek Wysocki (Jason Clarke, Brotherhood), a typical disagreeable-but-secretly-a-good-guy cop with a fuzzy moral code in his social life but a very strict one for justice.

The show makes good use of Chicago almost as a character itself, really allowing the viewer to get a feel for the city. Each main character has a unique story to tell in a Goodfellas-style voiceover. However, the tone of the pilot was a little hard to grasp — the show constantly moved back and forth between light and heavy material. It was hard to tell the difference between which plot points to take seriously and which were there for fun.

For this reason, the plot lines are unremarkable. There is a very clear setup for a multi-episode, if not season-long, arc about the corrupt politician who has an in with the mob. But, like the dirty alderman, many characters suffer from the clichés thrust upon them. Perhaps once all of the clichés are out of the way, The Chicago Code will be able to show us something real. Until then, it remains as another cop show with a predictable storyline.