Chicago P.D. 10×21 “New Life” is a circular episode that takes a very long time to end up exactly where we started, with Dante Torres the same person we always thought he was. In a way, it’s a good episode to provide depth to a character that has been given precious little screen time to develop since he joined the unit, but it’s one that, once again, relies on stereotypes to tell a story and that leans into things the show hasn’t really established to try to create feelings.
Intelligence isn’t a family, not in the way Chicago Fire’s Firehouse 51 is, and though it isn’t impossible to believe this unit would have each other’s backs, it’s also kinda manipulative of the show to lean on feelings they haven’t really explored only when it’s convenient. Yes, they are not indifferent to each other, it’s impossible to be when you spend so long with people — but they aren’t family either, not in any tangible way. Outside of Adam and Kim, and perhaps Kevin when it comes to the two of them, Hailey and Torres are very much on the outside and Voight is just …well, the Sergeant, not the father figure Boden has always been.
Truly for the best, if last week’s conversation with Hailey and this week’s conversation with Dante are proof of what Voight’s skills as a mentor are.
For a moment there, it felt like perhaps, Hailey, Jay and Torres could have been a little unit of their own. But that was in the before times, when this show made sense. Now, we have Voight giving life advice and everyone in this “family” pretending they don’t notice Dante very obviously losing it, because no one feels like they can say anything.
Chicago P.D. 10×21 “New Life” is also a reminder that, though Torres is, in many ways, presented as a different kind of man — and cop — than Voight is, the show always borders on questionable when it comes to even what the “good cops” do, without any attempt to even explore what that means in the world we live in. It’s just the way it is, and Chicago P.D. will use that to dramatic effect without any attempt to conceptualize it for viewers — even when the storyline involves a latine man like Dante Torres in a very stereotypical situation.
Kudos to Benjamin Levy Aguilar, who does the utmost with a script that requires him to hit so many of the same beats our actors are always required to hit, and somehow do it in a way that gives something new. Torres has been a welcome addition to a season that has seen very few bright spots, and that looks to leave us with a cliffhanger that threatens to go longer than usual while writers fight for the pay they deserve. I might be disappointed in what we’ve gotten this season so far, but I fully support these writers — and all writers, as they fight to get a fair deal. We can discuss the minutiae of what we like and what we dislike later. There’s no discussion that writers deserve better.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of Chicago P.D. 10×21 “New Life”? Share with us in the comments below!
Chicago P.D. airs Wednesdays at 9/8 on NBC.
