People say (you know people), the episode following the pilot of any given show can often tell you more about its direction than the first one did. I think we definitely saw some of that in “Hog Butcher.” We were reminded that Chicago’s corruption does not start and stop with Ronin Gibbons. We saw more of Jarek Wysocki’s niece and her partner (probably more than I’m interested in), and less of his family life. And we saw that Jarek and rookie detective Caleb Evers have their work cut out for them … in more ways than one.
I liked the twist of having Teresa’s would-be assassin not have anything to do with Gibbons. The corrupt Alderman is far from the only villain this show needs to have if it is going to be successful. If the goal is to take all corruption across town, then Gibbons can’t be the only source. Otherwise the show would become too serialized; something that Shawn Ryan would be very wise to stay away from.
That didn’t stop Gibbons from weaseling his way into the story. By creating a situation where Colvin had to go to him for help, he’s trying to bring her into his web of influence. I’m curious if Gibbons has any idea exactly how evolved Colvin and Wysocki’s efforts are into bringing him down. Surely he’s smart enough to have his suspicions, but he shut down the “official” task force. Do you think he’s caught wind of the “unofficial” one yet?
So how much of Vonda Wysocki and her ambitious partner are we going to be following each week? I like her character, specifically as a walking reminder to Jarek of the loss of his brother, but I’m less excited about Officer Isaac Joiner. Partly because, yes, he is hot-headed and cocky, and has and will continue to put the younger Wysocki at risk. But, mostly because he seems tertiary to the story at this point. Let him be the next young cop brought into Gibbons web, and then I might change my tune. Otherwise he’s just extraneous.
But tonight, there was the moment that I knew this show was going to be something I looked forward to each week: Jarek’s running into Sister Paul in church. Their conversation was loaded with a great amount of who Jarek Wysocki is inside, but especially the prayer he gave when the Sister pushed him to:
“My Holy Father, please bless and protect the soul of my brother Vincent Wysocki, and continue to comfort and bless his family. Protect his daughter, my niece Officer Vonda Wysocki … And grant me the wisdom and the perseverance and the ability to find my brother’s killer, and Lord, when I find him make my aim true that I may take his life.”
No, boys and girls, not your regular cop show. It isn’t the Shield either, but, from this humble blogger’s perspective, I think that is a good thing.
Notes & Quotes
Clacked by Ivey West 
on Feb 14, 2011 @ 22:07 EST5EDT
*grinds teeth*
What kind of a statement is “comes close to blowing the hatch”?
So it’s ALMOST as if Vic Mackey shoots an IA cop? It’s CLOSE to a pile of money? It’s CLOSE to killing your partner? Close to sitting in an office with a 357 Magnum and then pissing on the set rules you were given and leaving?
So you THINK the show is close to (obscure reference) because of (three line quote), intruduced by this “but especially the prayer he gave with the Sister pushed him to:” (there’s an error in that sentence) all the while you think “This isn’t ‘The Shield'”
Gaaaah…
Can you BE more obscure?
This whole post doesn’t make ANY sense. Is it THAT hard to make the reader understand what you think, MAYBE using references he can understand by MAYBE using another show the creator of THIS show has done in the past and then maybe not just throw in a quote there and saying “This is different”.
HOW is it different. Compared to WHAT? WHY?
More to the point: considering what Shawn Ryan has done in the past how is this NOT _exactly_ what you expect of a new show from him? Why on earth WOULD you expect a run-of-the-mill cop-show? Even more so, how is it like what he did before and how maybe not?
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet would’ve been more informative than this… you basically cram a short recap of the episode between an obscure headline and a non-informative quote. WHY? Why do you make me click your damn RSS-Feed to read a post that is NOTHING like what you promised by the title? There is so much potential here to critique the show based on the creator’s previous work. There’s material in the show that you could’ve taken to underline it in a specific way and all you do is recap the show and throw in the quote.
Gaaaah
Being a bit harsh on Dorv, I think.
HULK SMASH! ^^;
There was a series of articles about “Blowing the hatch” moments. Opinion pieces. When I came here and found a recappy post with a couple of quotes at the end, you could say I was “a tad” miffed. Because the Feed made me expect something and I didn’t get that. It demanded me to do something and it didn’t deliver what I expected.
Again: very recappy. And a couple of quotes. Pretending to be something else.
Boo!
Is there something else going on that we need to devote some time to? Your response just seems to be disporportionate to the actual event.
. . . . .
Cripes and cripes!
Reading that review, I’m champing at the bit to get to it! I wasn’t able to due to family obligations and now, Mr. West, you have me champing at the bit to plant myself in front of the tube for an hour!
Excelsior!