'Chicago PD' Season 7 Episode 19: Did this week's case misrepresent LGBTQ+ community yet again?
Spoilers for 'Chicago PD' Season 7 Episode 19 'Buried Secrets'
Shows of the 'Chicago' franchise on NBC have faced criticism for the lack of representation in their stories — be it for people of color or the LGBTQ+ community. This week's episode of 'Chicago PD' might have tried to tell a good story, but the attempt feels misguided for many reasons.
We had earlier written about LGBTQ+ representation on 'Chicago Fire', 'Chicago Med' and 'Chicago PD' and how the Dick Wolf-produced shows need to do much better, and 'Chicago PD' is the worst of the lot. There has never been one main or recurring character who is a member of the LGBTQ+ community on the show. For three shows set in a city that has a Wikipedia page on the LGBTQ+ culture, the 'Chicago' franchise has a woeful depiction of this community.
In this week's episode, Adam Ruzek witnesses a girl getting kidnapped. We learn that she is the daughter of one of the richest men in Chicago. On further investigation, it is revealed that the man who kidnapped the girl was only doing so to find out what happened to his son — who was in an illicit relationship with the girl's father. The father had the boy killed because the latter wanted to come clean about their relationship.
LGBTQ+ relationships are already stigmatized without fiction adding more to it. Some of the reactions to this week's episode may even explain why the show's attempt at telling such a story failed miserably.
One viewer tweeted, "I guess him being gay was just as much of a life sentence to him as being a murderer was. Sad that he could live with himself as a killer more than he could live with himself as someone who loved another person who just happened to be a man." Another wrote, "Yo... @NBCChicagoPD is ALWAYS ridiculously good... but I need to know how the hell they found all the LEFTYs for this show." A user tweeted, "#ChicagoPD Always pushing the agenda with this subliminal shit on TV shows like this."
For a show that has zero LGBTQ characters who are either regular or recurring, 'Chicago PD' needs to do much better with telling stories about the community. But it's not just the LGBTQ community that is misrepresented.
In an earlier episode this season, the Intelligence Squad used a facial recognition software that led to the wrong African-American man arrested for the murder of two children. That man was beaten up in county jail — where he was placed to force a confession out of him — and later succumbed to his wounds. The cops and the department got off scot-free while they hid the details of the real killer from the public to save face.
Moreover, the Intelligence Unit's tendency of aggressive behavior towards suspects, whether they are proven guilty or not, also leaves a sour taste.
Rashad Robinson, president of racial justice organization Color of Change, spoke to Chicago Tribune about the show's lack of representation of people of color. His report estimates last season’s writers' room for 'Chicago PD' — which is based in Los Angeles — was at least 90% white and majority male.
"Police on these shows are overly humanized at the expense of everyone else," said Robinson. "It’s a system where the good guy does bad things and gets away with it, and the ends justify the means."
Robinson also noted that while cop shows have a police consultant on the staff, typically there is no equivalent position held by a police reform advocate or someone who has been the victim of police violence. "When you haven’t been on the receiving end of police harassment or violence, then you shouldn’t be writing about this, because you’re never going to be able to capture the emotion of people experiencing it every day," Robinson said.
When Wolf told critics that the shows were not trying to make political statements, Robinson said, “You’d have to be living behind a gate with your head in the sand to believe that you could write a show about police officers in 2020, especially in a city like Chicago, and say it’s not political."
Robinson also emphasized that the storytelling on 'Chicago PD' is harmful. He said, "But the effect of how these shows are written and designed — they’re making a political statement based on who they prioritize as heroes and whose unethical or illegal behavior is made to seem legitimate."
This stands true for LGBTQ representation as well and this is exactly why this week's episode was harmful. By framing the suspect's story as such — when the show does not, in fact, tell LGBTQ stories otherwise — 'Chicago PD' is putting out a dangerous narrative that is detrimental to the LGBTQ community.
As we stressed before, Wolf, the producers and writers of the 'Chicago' franchise, especially 'Chicago PD', need to do better when portraying people of color or those of the LGBTQ community.
'Chicago PD' airs on Wednesday nights at 10/9c on NBC. The final episode of the current shortened season will air next week on April 15.