Chicago Fire / Chicago P.D. Crossover Review: “What I Saw” and “Good Men”

I always love a good #OneChicago crossover, and the one we get with Chicago Fire Season 7 Episode 15, “What I Saw,” and Chicago P.D. Season 6 Episode 15, “Good Men,” mostly lives up to my expectations in terms of quality.

Both episodes work together with a story that’s engaging and suspenseful.

A lot of the past comes back in some useful ways. Leon returns briefly for a conversation with Joe about whether or not he should work with the P.D. in the first place.

Grissom is back and is showing himself as a little less of a villain, especially when talking to Severide about his father. All of those make for nice moments and important character work.

Joe Minoso is really the one who gets to shine on the Chicago Fire portion of the crossover as Joe Cruz. Cruz is Hank’s pic for the firefighter who should go undercover, and that challenges Cruz in some new ways.

He sees the best in people as it is, so it’s hard for him to look at a group of firefighters and consider any of them to be involved in criminal activity. Still, he’s savvy and smart about how he watches these people. He asks good questions and he has a good eye. He’s not as careful as he should be, though, with a few too many close calls and one dangerously close one.

It’s a pretty shocking turn when the firefighter he catches, Suggs, winds up dead. That’s also the catalyst that leads us into the Chicago P.D. portion, which turns out to be a pretty great episode for Jay. 

In general, the case is a good one — it’s a suspenseful hour and not a moment is wasted. What makes it especially strong is the focus on who the robbers turn out to be.

They’re just kids, and they’re not the kind of people who want to kill. Jay catches this quickly, recognizing that any burglar who sticks around to do chest compressions isn’t really a murderer.

Jay’s compassion for both kids and his willingness to give them the benefit of the doubt, along with his gut instincts, is what eventually leads them in the right direction. 

Suggs is a good guy after all, and even though there’s a lot of heartbreak, that’s a positive note to end on.

Now, I said at the beginning that this crossover mostly lives up to my expectations. Where it falters, oddly enough, is in the crossover element. And it falters because there simply isn’t enough of it.

I will say this: the way this crossover works is similar to how a *lot* of shows that do crossovers handle them. It’s having one or two characters visit the other show as they keep the story moving from one show to the next. Fine. Great. That’s usually pretty fun to watch.

But I have higher expectations for shows in the Chicago universe. These shows are all woven together so well that when they go for a crossover, I assume I’m going to see significant overlap. We’ve gotten that in the past.

Here, though, there’s just not much crossing over. Yes, characters appear on both shows to a degree, but on the Chicago P.D., portion especially, it’s not much. In the very least, you expect to see more of Cruz on the episode than we do.

In particular, because the plot of the crossover involves the fire department and police department working together so closely, it feels like a missed opportunity to not have more overlap between the shows. 

All of that said, the episodes do still work together to tell a good story, and they both work well individually. For Chicago Fire, it’s probably one of the strongest episodes we’ve seen in a while.

For Chicago P.D. — a show I don’t review weekly, but that I do watch weekly — it’s up there among some great episodes from the season. Neither are disappointing in their own right, but I’m still left wanting more from the crossover as a whole.

What did you think of these episodes of Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D.? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Reviewer Rating:

User Rating:

 

Chicago Fire airs Wednesdays at 9/8c and Chicago P.D. airs Wednesdays at 10/9c, both on NBC.

 Follow us on Twitter! 

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!

Joe Minoso on the Emotional ‘Chicago Fire’ Fall Finale and What’s Next for Cruz [Exclusive Interview]