Chicago P.D. 11×03 “Safe Harbor” is proof that a show like this one can never truly hit rock bottom until it recognizes that it has not only hit rock bottom but that at this point it’s scrapping against the rocks trying to dig deeper. Good intentions, if the show can even be said to have that at this point, cannot really be used as an excuse when the episodes being presented forward are as deeply problematic as this hour.
Because Chicago P.D. 11×03 “Safe Harbor” is a deeply misguided attempt at tackling a crisis this show doesn’t understand and presenting a perspective the show isn’t qualified to tackle. That the show does so while making the predictable guy (the one-off character not from Intelligence) the bad guy of the week is as unsurprising as it is insulting considering this means the show ends up making the Latino cop the “bad guy” when the case involves Latino migrants from Venezuela.
Not to worry, Intelligence is here to white savior the whole thing and get the guy! We can handwave the racist implications away because hey, Burzek got engaged at the end and their domesticity is kinda perfect. That’s Chicago P.D. for you. You take the really, really, really bad if you want the little bit of good.
THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM
And Adam and Kim are good. I have no problems with the timeline, and I have no issues with the way it happened because it feels very much them. Perhaps I am biased. I had a very low-key proposal, and a very low-key wedding and I tend to prefer both in fiction. But I fully believe that for Adam and Kim this is just …where it was always going. They’ve already put in the hard work of rebuilding.
It’s been day in and day out. In therapy. With Makayla. Becoming a family. But also, in private, rebuilding their relationship. But pay attention to the word I use, rebuilding. Because the foundation was there. Has been there for so long. They have so much history between the two of them. And some of it is bad, but they have chosen not to focus on that, but to focus on the good. To use to bad to learn, and to focus on the good.
That’s how you become stronger as a couple. How you get to this point where you can say, you know what, “for the rest of my life” isn’t even a scary thing. It’s just an inevitability. It’s something I can ask as casually as I ask you to pick up milk in the morning, because I know the answer. Doesn’t mean I’m not going to ask; it still needs to be said. But I know what the answer will be.
Yes. Always.
WHITE SAVIOR
I don’t have enough words to explain the issues with the writing in this episode, with centering the lens of morality through Kim’s character — the white character, while making the brown character the “evil” one. Google white savior narrative, a lot of people have gone into this subject better than I could right now. The point I want to make right now that’s specific to Chicago P.D. is that the show should absolutely know better at this point.
Hell, I’d argue just about everyone should, it is 2024, but that’s another issue altogether.
There are choices being made here. That is the continued problem with Chicago P.D. They chose to make the Latino character a rapist and a murderer — and the victims people of his own community. Not content to do that, they chose to offhandedly try to frame the narrative as a “good Latino/bad Latino” kinda thing, without any kind of understanding of how those dynamics play out in real life. Then they chose to make Intelligence the “good cops.” And they did all of this without enough nuance for it to mean anything. Not to mention, they did so without their only Latino series regular present!
It’s not that I expected better from this show in particular, it’s that I expected better from stuff that makes it into TV in the year of our Lord 2024.
Things I think I think:
- THE FIST BUMP.
- THE DOMESTICITY.
- Good Spanish from everyone around here. Obviously, the people who should speak good Spanish, but Marina too. I’ve remarked on this before, but as someone whose first language is Spanish, I feel like I can point it out every time Spanish is spoken.
- RAQUEL BOLIVAR? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Might as well have named her Raquel Venezuela.
- The Venezuela of it all is also super frustrating. For all the differentiation they did, they could have just thrown any country name in there. Why pick Venezuela if they’re not going to make this something about what makes the crisis in Venezuela unique?
- They need a replacement Latino because the team’s Latino is MIA. Not that the team can have two Latinos at the same time, that would be too many Latinos. God forbid.
- White saviors be white savioring hard this episode.
- IS KIM REALLY LECTURING THIS DUDE ABOUT DYNAMICS SHE DOESN’T UNDERSTAND? What is the writing on this show?
- Like, the acting is superb. Marina Squerciti is a star. But the writing? Just because they throw the words white savior in there doesn’t mean this is good writing.
- “Promise me we’ll keep fighting for this.”
- I’M ALMOST MAD THIS IS HOW THEY GET THE PROPOSAL, BUT ALSO I’M GLAD THEY GOT THE PROPOSAL.
- That the same ring, right? Right?? I think it is. Adam, you big softie.
- I actually absolutely LOVE that. Turns out I am also a softie.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of Chicago P.D. 11×03 “Safe Harbor”? Share with us in the comments below!
Chicago P.D. airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on NBC.
people hurt people that are the same race, ethnicity as them all the time. on screen and off. last year a black cop participated in beating of black man in real life. chicago pd had black chadacter hurt other black characters. didnthose bother you too or does it only bother you when it is latinos because you are latina?
This is a disingenous comment that ignores the root of my issues with the episode — this is a recurring issue with the show, and this is a white writer and a white cast doing superficial commentary on race issues they do not understand and don’t seem at all inclined to inform themselves about. Yes, I have a deeper understanding of Latine issues because I am Latina so it is possible it makes me more upset when they are mishandled. Am I to understand you’re here to mock me because I was upset that a story about my community was presented in a way I felt was disrespectful?