''Chicago Justice'' is an American

legal drama A legal drama is a genre of film and television that generally focuses on narratives regarding legal practice and the justice system. The American Film Institute (AFI) defines "courtroom drama" as a genre of film in which a system of justice play ...

television series that aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...

from March 1 to May 14, 2017. The series was created by

Dick Wolf Richard Anthony Wolf (born December 20, 1946) is an American film and television producer, best known for his ''Law & Order'' franchise. Since 1990, the franchise has included six police/courtroom dramas and four international spinoffs. He is al ...

and is the fourth installment of Wolf's ''Chicago'' franchise. A backdoor pilot aired on May 11, 2016, as part of the third season of '' Chicago P.D.'' before being ordered to series. The show follows the prosecutors and investigators at the Cook County State's Attorney's Office as they navigate their way through

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

area politics, the legal arena, and media coverage while pursuing justice. On May 22, 2017, NBC canceled the series after one season, making it the first series in the ''Chicago'' franchise to end. After the show ended,

Philip Winchester Philip Charles Winchester (born March 24, 1981) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in '' The Patriot'', ''The Hi-Line'', ''LD 50 Lethal Dose'', '' Thunderbirds'', ''CSI: Miami'', ''King Lear'', '' Strike Back'', '' Flyboys'', '' In M ...

's character Peter Stone became a regular on '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' where Chernuchin became showrunner, while

Jon Seda Jonathan Seda (born October 14, 1970) is a Puerto Rican actor. Seda was an amateur boxer who auditioned for and was given a role in the 1992 boxing film ''Gladiator''. He played the role of Chris Pérez alongside Jennifer Lopez in the movie ''S ...

's character Antonio Dawson returned to ''Chicago P.D.'' The show averaged a 1.5 rating (adults 18-49, Live+7) in comparison to 1.9 for '' Chicago P.D.'' and ''

Chicago Med ''Chicago Med'' is an American medical drama television series created by Dick Wolf and Matt Olmstead, and is the third installment of Wolf Entertainment's ''Chicago'' franchise. The series premiered on NBC on November 17, 2015. ''Chicago Me ...

'', with '' Chicago Fire'' receiving a 2.3 rating that season. Despite the show performing marginally better than ''

Shades of Blue Varieties of the color blue may differ in hue, chroma (also called saturation, intensity, or colorfulness), or lightness (or value, tone, or brightness), or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shad ...

'' and '' Taken'', NBC executives stated it was canceled due to sustainability and real estate for other programs.

Premise

Set in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, ''Chicago Justice'' follows the State's Attorney team of prosecutors and investigators who work to bring justice to victims.

Cast and characters

Main

as Assistant State's Attorney Peter Stone, the Deputy Bureau Chief of the State's Attorney's Office Special Prosecutions Bureau. His father is Benjamin Stone, an assistant district attorney in New York City. Stone would later become the ADA of the sex crimes bureau in New York. He previously played professional baseball in the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is locate ...

organization but his career ended when he tore his UCL. *

as Chief Investigator Antonio Dawson. Before joining the State's Attorney's office, he worked as a detective in the 21st District with the Chicago P.D. *

Joelle Carter Joelle Marie Carter (born October 10, 1972) is an American actress. She is known for playing Ava Crowder in the FX series '' Justified''. Early life Carter was born in Thomasville, Georgia. Her father, Jimmy,Chicago police officer like Dawson, Nagel left the force and developed an addiction to painkillers after a line-of-duty injury. She has been clean for months and is now struggling to regain custody of her daughter. *

Monica Barbaro Monica Barbaro (born June 18, 1990) is an American actress. She is known for her film roles in '' The Cathedral'' (2021), '' Top Gun: Maverick'' (2022), and ''At Midnight'' (2023). She has also appeared in leading roles in the television series ' ...

as Assistant State's Attorney Anna Valdez, Stone's second chair. *

Carl Weathers Carl Weathers (born January 14, 1948) is an American actor and former professional football player. He is known for his roles as boxer Apollo Creed in the first four '' Rocky'' films (1976–85), George Dillon in '' Predator'' (1987), Action J ...

as Cook County State's Attorney Mark Jefferies. He served as a Marine during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

Recurring

Lindsey Pearlman Lindsey Erin Pearlman (October 5, 1978 – February 18, 2022) was an American actress and voice actress known for her roles on ''General Hospital'' and '' Chicago Justice''. She was also active in radio commercials. Personal life Pearlman was bo ...

as Joy Fletcher * Matthew C. Yee as Ronnie Chen * Tyrone Phillips as Tyrone Jones *

Tim Kazurinsky Timothy James Kazurinsky (born March 3, 1950) is an American actor and screenwriter best known as a cast member and writer on ''Saturday Night Live'' and for his role as Carl Sweetchuck in the '' Police Academy'' films. Early life Kazurinsky wa ...

as Judge Emerson * Gary Basaraba as William O'Boyle * James Vincent Meredith as Judge * Rammel Chan as Virgil Li * John Lu as Clerk

Episodes

Backdoor pilot (2016)

Season 1 (2017)

Production

Development

The show was confirmed on January 21 during the 2016

Television Critics Association The Television Critics Association (TCA) is a group of approximately 200 United States and Canadian television critics, journalists and columnists who cover television programming for newspapers, magazines and web publications. The TCA accepts a ...

winter press tour, with the working title ''Chicago Law''. By March 11, the title was changed to ''Chicago Justice''. Filming began on March 28 for the

backdoor pilot A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in television in the United States, United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a te ...

that aired on May 11 as the 21st episode of the

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hi ...

season of ''Chicago P.D.'' The pilot is partially based on historical events and is based on a true story. On May 12, 2016, a day after the backdoor pilot aired on ''Chicago P.D.'', NBC gave the show a series order. The series premiered on March 1, 2017, concluding a crossover with '' Chicago Fire'' and ''Chicago P.D.'' It then ran in its scheduled time slot beginning March 5, 2017.

Casting

was the first to be cast on February 19, 2016, as Peter Stone, the prosecutor who put Voight in prison years ago. His father is Benjamin Stone, an assistant district attorney on the first four seasons of ''Law & Order''. Nazneen Contractor joined the series on March 11, 2016, and

Joelle Carter Joelle Marie Carter (born October 10, 1972) is an American actress. She is known for playing Ava Crowder in the FX series '' Justified''. Early life Carter was born in Thomasville, Georgia. Her father, Jimmy,Rocky ''Rocky'' is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise and stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burge ...

'' alum

joined the cast on March 19 as Cook County State's Attorney Mark Jefferies, while Ryan-James Hatanaka was added to the cast on March 24.

Lorraine Toussaint Lorraine Toussaint () is a Trinidadian-American actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including a Black Reel Award, a Critics' Choice Television Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Toussaint began her career in theatre before ...

reprised her role in the pilot as defense attorney Shambala Green, who appeared in seven episodes of ''

Law & Order ''Law & Order'' is an American police procedural and legal drama television series created by Dick Wolf and produced by Wolf Entertainment, launching the '' Law & Order'' franchise. ''Law & Order'' aired its entire run on NBC, premiering o ...

''. Contractor exited the show on July 7, 2016, to join the cast of the CBS police procedural drama ''

Ransom Ransom is the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release, or the sum of money involved in such a practice. When ransom means "payment", the word comes via Old French ''rançon'' from Latin ''re ...

''. On August 25, 2016,

was added to the cast. On September 28, it was reported that

's character Antonio Dawson would move from ''P.D.'' to ''Justice'', where Antonio would become an investigator for the State's Attorney's office. With this move, Hatanaka departed the series.

Richard Brooks Richard Brooks (May 18, 1912 – March 11, 1992) was an American screenwriter, film director, novelist and film producer. Nominated for eight Oscars in his career, he was best known for '' Blackboard Jungle'' (1955), '' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' ...

reprised his ''Law & Order'' role of Paul Robinette in the episode "Uncertainty Principle".

Tovah Feldshuh Terri Sue "Tovah" Feldshuh (born December 27, 1948) is an American actress, singer, and playwright. She has been a Broadway star for more than four decades, earning four Tony Award nominations. She has also received two Emmy Award nominations f ...

appeared on the premiere episode as her ''Law & Order'' character Danielle Melnick who has become a judge.

Reception

Critical response

The review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

reported a 70% approval rating, with an average rating of 5.21 out of 10 based on 10 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads: "''Chicago Justices first season won't sway procedural nonbelievers, but for fans of the franchise, it marks another solid entry that should satisfy faithful viewers and newcomers alike." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses a weighted average, the show scored 57 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating generally "mixed or average reviews".

Ratings

Home media

References

External links

* * on

Wolf Entertainment Wolf Entertainment is an American television production company founded in 1988 by producer Dick Wolf, known for its television franchises ''Law & Order'', '' Chicago'', and '' FBI''. In February 2020, Wolf Entertainment signed one of the la ...

* {{Dick Wolf 2010s American drama television series 2010s American legal television series 2017 American television series debuts 2017 American television series endings American legal drama television series American television spin-offs Television shows set in Chicago Chicago (franchise) English-language television shows NBC original programming Television series by Universal Television Television series by Wolf Films Television series about prosecutors