I thought it was a pretty good opening, and I definitely want to see the next one. I thought this was better than Blue Bloods. And, as much as one can tell from a pilot, it seems like it could (or will) be better than Hawaii Five-0. So, as far as new network shows this tv season, I think it rates pretty high. Have to see how it does in the following episodes.

And, Jennifer Beals still looks really good .... seems like the years have almost passed her by. The scene when she was eating dinner at a restaurant with Wysocki reminded me right away of the sexy scene from Flashdance where she was at dinner with the owner of the construction company while seducing him.

I thought it got off to a wobbly start (that whole chase scene was dumb), but by the end I was hooked. I liked the guy playing the lead, and the corruption angle could be interesting. I don't know if this was shot on location, but it looked great.

(Does the Irish mob still exist?)

Pretty much all shot on location, and I thought the city looked great. Made me wish it was summer here...

Loved this one. I have no complaints and was pretty impressed with the ending that kind of, came out of nowhere.

I am in for the haul, but i give it 10 episodes if the rating sucked last night.

The voice overs really bugged me, until they brilliantly had Antonio's interrupted when he was shot. That made all the others worthwhile. They caught me completely off guard and had quite an impact IMO.

While I would agree for a cable show, on network TV I say they need to push forward as quick as possible in the beginning least it end up canceled in a handful of weeks.

I enjoyed the premiere. They were talking a bit fast, so it was kinda hard to understand in the beginning. But I eventually got the hang of it and thought the characters and story were pretty good.

Can't wait for next week.

According to Shawn Ryan's Twitter feed, Billy Corgin is singing the theme song and that will start on episode 2.

interesting

They weren't great that's for sure.

I liked it quite a bit. Had a lot of the smart writing that The Shield had. I sort of thought Jennifer Beals was a goofy choice for the character, but I started liking her more as the episode went on. That ending really did surprise me, too. And the narration wasn't all that bad, but it was really poignant when the dude got killed.

From Shawn Ryan's Twitter feed regarding the Voice Overs:

Well...at least one person less.

For those who don't know Billy Corgan used to head up the Smashing Pumpkins, and is from Chicago, so that's part of why it's interesting for his music to be involved in the show. They're going for some real Chicago authenticity. As uteotw said, they definitely shot in and around Chicago, as opposed to using a few exterior/locating shots and shooting somewhere else (Hollywood, Ontario, etc.). Also, for those of you wondering about the casting of Jennifer Beals, she's also from Chicago. I don't know if that played into her getting the role, but I'm sure it didn't hurt.

Shawn Ryan, the creator of this show, is also from Chicago. I read that he told FOX he wouldn't do the show unless it was shot entirely on location in Chicago, not LA with sets and archived exterior video.

I believe this is the only 1 hour scripted drama on FOX that is shot in the actual city it takes place in.

House takes place in New Jersey, but is shot in LA
Bones takes place in Washington DC, but is shot in LA
Human Target takes place in San Francisco, but is shot in Vancouver
Fringe takes place in New York, but is shot in Vancouver
Glee takes place in Ohio, but is also shot in LA

I work in the loop and saw them shooting this quite a bit. And by watching the episode last night you could definitely tell the exteriors were definitely shot here.

After watching this first episode i wished it was out already on Blu so that i could watch more episodes. By the time it got to the end I was wanting more. I wonder how this would have done had it been shown after the SB instead of Glee.

Great pilot episode, though I am a huge Brotherhood and Jason Clarke fan. Shawn Ryan being involved just brings it to another level.

I noticed at wikipedia that some scenes were filmed at Northwestern University.

Also, as an FYI, in the footnotes was this article from Chicago Magazine about many of the places used in filming this series:

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Ma...previewmode=on

I thought this was pretty good. It certainly wasn't the best pilot, but it was entertaining and I did want to watch more by the time the ending came around.

I agree that the Super Intendent wasn't as bad as I was hoping. They gave her some depth instead of just having her play a chip on her shoulder the entire time.

I loved the shock of her driver getting offed. Most shows wouldn't go there and instead would have him pull through at the end.

I'd be curious if they end up bringing in a "bigger bad" later on down the road. They said the Alderman is the second most powerful politician next to the Mayor and they think he is the guy to bring down. Well what if the mob is really running things and they have to go full force against them? They may find that the Alderman really isn't that bad in the scheme of things.

I think the two new partners together could end up being a lot of fun. I think the young one will keep him in check and he'll also be tested with "real" situations as well. I too thought the trick to get a Cubs fan out of him was funny as well.

I'd say Wysocki has a twing of Gene Hunt in him which is a nice touch.

I noticed this right away. The Alderman's office was at the law school on the downtown campus. I went to med school literally right next door, so it was cool to see them shooting right out on Chicago Ave. They shot both inside and outside of the school. You can see a purple N in the stained glass as they're going down the stairs in one of the interior shots. Otherwise, they mostly left the background out of focus so that it was difficult to tell that it wasn't a generic government building. It's fun seeing all these recognizable Chicago locations.

I didn't mind the voiceovers. The way they were used to introduce the characters made it ok, but not sure how they continue using it without making me feel stupid or annoyed... unless it's used for more backstory.

Living in Chicago all my life I wanted to see how much they would get the politics of Chicago right.
All of it is true. Although Chicago never has had a black alderman as a top corrupt dog.
Tim Evens was like the Mayor Washington's right hand man, but he was like the late mayor a good man.
So I'm thinking the writer's may have thought of Todd Strogger who was voted out last year for the corrupt character. Strogger was not a alderman but had a strong post. I forgot what the title was but it deals with raising county taxes.

Todd Stroger was Cook County Board President (Chicago is in Cook County), as was his son (recently voted out of office).