Chicago First Responders Series — ‘Med,’ ‘Fire,’ And ‘PD’ — Are Full Of Action, But Really About The Characters’ Journeys

The trio of Midwest First Responders series — Chicago Med, Chicago Fire and Chicago PD — are all currently running at full speed.

Each series has clearly been embraced by viewers, as evidenced by their on-air longevity with Fire having recently celebrated its 200^th episode, while PD has been on for nine years, and Med is now in its 7^th season.

Even though Fire has been airing for a decade now, keeping the action fresh isn’t really a problem, says showrunner Derek Haas, explaining, “If you talk to [our technical advisor, and real-life firefighter] Steve Chikerotis, one week’s worth of their actual calls can actually fill up a season’s worth of events.”

This season on Fire, there have been a lot of storylines that involve suspicious fires prompting in-depth investigation by the members of Firehouse 51.

Haas says this new element is all thanks to co-showrunner Andrea Newman. “She loves fire investigation. She’s obsessed with it. She loves arson stories. She’s constantly reading arson books.”

New on Med this season is a surgical team specializing in organ transplants.

Showrunners Andrew Schneider and Diane Frolov say this addition came about after talking with an actual transplant surgeon. “It was really through that conversation that everything just opened up,” says Frolov. “[Prior to that,] we had no idea what was possible and [doing this] allows us to integrate both the ER and the OR to do both surgery and emergency medicine at the same time.”

Schneider adds that by weaving in the transplant team on Med, the action, “opened up a lot of opportunities for stories.”

In crafting the overall narrative, Schneider explained the process a bit saying that the personal stories about the characters always come first with the medical stories then being constructed in such a way as to dovetail off of the character’s emotional journey. He says that this started with the very first episode and has continued throughout the series.

Oliver Platt who plays psychiatrist Dr. Charles on Med, admits that to prep for his role he did his own ‘fake medical school to learn about what it’s like to for a psychiatrist who works in a hospital.’

He says he found that, “It’s well established thing with every shrink that I talked to that they become an unofficial sounding board for people [in a manner that they call] ‘sidewalk psychiatry.’

This happens, says Platt, when someone sidles up to a psychiatrist in a nonchalant manor and asks for some advice. He says that this has been incorporated on the show and that, “it’s one of the things that makes it a lot of fun to play [my character].”

Platt laughed a little as he added, “For that reason, I can be like a consultant on a medical story or [your] sidewalk psychiatrist.”

On PD, showrunner Gwen Sigan knows that given the current public view of law enforcement, the show has to walk a fine line — showing the police as both people who make mistakes and heroes as well.

She says, “Honestly, it’s a hard balance to find. It’s something we talk about constantly in the writers room. I think there’s a responsibility and you have to own that responsibility. [We] also have to be be emotionally true to [our characters]. So that’s always in the forefront of our mind and we constantly ask ourselves what is real, what is honest, what feels right for these people and what’s responsible?”

Marina Squerciati who plays Detective Kim Burgess on PD, says that she feels a sense of pressure in portraying a female immersed in a predominantly male world. “You know, you work in a sort of vacuum [on TV] unlike in theater where people applaud at the end. It’s not something that you have a barometer on, but our technical adviser [is] really in touch with a huge community of cops and he tells me a lot of young girls look up to my character and that [feels] so egotistical to say, but it’s really just so lovely, because it’s not something I think of when I’m actively working. But to know that that my presence is a hopeful presence to young women is really a gift.”

As for the staying power these three shows have, Schneider says, “any TV show that has longevity, it’s about the characters, it’s not about the plotting, although that’s important, but it’s really the journey of the characters.” Frolov adds that it’s about viewers asking themselves, “do you want these characters in your living room with you? Do you want to visit them every week?”

She adds, “We strive to make the stories emotional and engaging…our actors deliver.”

All of the OneChicago shows air Wednesday nights on NBC with ‘Chicago Med’ at 8/7c, ‘Chicago Fire’ at 9/8c and ‘Chicago PD’ at 10/9c. The shows are also available for streaming on Peacock.