"The Chicago Code" has nothing to do with deep-dish pizzas or the cruelly cursed Cubbies. "The Chicago Code" openly, unabashedly, plain and simple, is all about good versus evil. The good guys following "The Chicago Code" are very very good, and the bad guys breaking the code are very very bad. The windy city itself, definitely a critical element in the drama's development, lives somewhere in-between. Chicago may be "the second city," but it stands out as America's number one oxymoron. "Hog-butcher to the world," Chicago also brought us Hemingway and Frank Lloyd Wright. Home to Picasso's breathtaking artistic monument, Chicago also has been home to some monumental con artists: Rod Blagojevich comes immediately to mind. "Blaggo" is to Chicago scams as the Picasso is to the city's art and architecture. More to the point of "The Chicago Code," in just over thirty years, thirty-one second city aldermen have been convicted of violent crimes or corruption. In Chicago, graft greases the wheels and gets your streets ploughed. Although corruption may be common as camel-hair coats on the Magnificent Mile, Chicago cops still want to collar the bad guys. "The Chicago Code" attempts to dramatize how and why they do it, and it packs a pretty good punch for a network production. Critics and home-grown Chicago viewers strongly suspect "The Chicago Code" would achieve its completely gritty potential on cable, but it's hard to complain about Jennifer Beals, still fit and fabulous all these years after Flashdance, going balls-to-the-wall against the bad guys in Monday night primetime.

"The Americans" is a television drama series that aired from 2013 to 2018. The show is set in the 1980s during the Cold War and follows two KGB officers posing as a married couple living in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. The series explores their personal and professional lives as they carry out espionage activities for the Soviet Union while also trying to maintain a normal family life.

Like fine red wines, pate de foie gras, and escargot, Criminal Minds probably is an acquired taste: The crime drama psychoanalyzes the psychoanalysts, definitely building tense drama, but ironically downplaying the crimes. The New York Times has described Criminal Minds as "cerebral," a euphemism for "nerds with guns." Brilliant writing and compelling characters, however, make it work. The stories represent an elite team of specialists"”the FBI's "Behavioral Analysis Unit" "” who, in just forty-four minutes, can deconstruct a crime, profile a criminal, and bring everything to a profound resolution complete with quotation from literature. Naturally, the feds encounter resistance from local enforcers eager to protect their turf. Just as naturally, many of the stories spark viewers' recognition, because they are "ripped from the headlines." Two features sustain viewers' interest in this sometimes too-heady-for-primetime series: First, every audience loves a good hunt for a psychotic serial killer; and, second, in Criminal Minds, many of the good guys are almost as twisted as the bad guys.

Blindspot is a TV show that premiered in 2015 and ended in 2020. The series follows a woman, Jane Doe, who is found in Times Square with no memory of her past and her body covered in tattoos. The FBI discovers that each tattoo contains a clue to a crime they must solve, leading them on a dangerous and thrilling adventure.

"Prodigal Son" is a television series that premiered in 2019 and ran for two seasons. The series follows Malcolm Bright, a criminal profiler who also happens to be the son of a notorious serial killer. Malcolm must use his unique insight to help the NYPD solve crimes while also dealing with the trauma of his past and his complicated family relationships.

"Fargo" is a television series created by Noah Hawley that premiered in 2014 on the FX network. The show is loosely based on the Coen Brothers' 1996 film of the same name, but instead of directly adapting the story, it presents a new tale set in the same universe. Each season tells a different story with different characters, but all take place in and around the titular city of Fargo, North Dakota.