Chicago Code

Last Friday I had the opportunity to talk to Shawn Ryan, creator of The Chicago Code, a very promising new drama that premieres next Monday. Ryan, one of the many impressive TV writer-producers who cut his teeth on Nash Bridges, has become a very impressive and prolific writer-producer, creating The Shield and acting as showrunner on The Unit, Lie To Me, and most recently Terriers. The new show is a sort of epic cop show starring Jason Clarke and (after previously appearing as a recurring character on Lie To Me) Jennifer Beals. It’s one of a number of recent shows, most famously The Good Wife, that tries to infuse the so-called procedural form with a more epic quality by presenting a setup that is much bigger than one case; in this show, the idea is to incorporate crime drama, family drama, and politics. Ryan was nice enough to answer a few questions about the show, plus one about Terriers, and he even patiently answered a question he must be getting a lot lately — about titles.