Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Chicago P.D.’ Season 12, Where The Police Procedural Is Concerned With Death And How To Outrun It 

Chicago PD is back for Season 12 on NBC and Peacock, along with new episodes of Chicago Fire and Chicago Med, its counterparts in the One Chicago procedural universe. And if you figured PD star Jason Beghe couldn’t get any more jaded and grumbly, think again, because Sergeant Henry “Hank” Voight is fixated like never before after almost being murdered at the end of last season. Created by Dick Wolf and Matt Olmstead, Chicago PD returns Beghe alongside Patrick John Flueger, LaRoyce Hawkins, Amy Morton, Marina Squerciati, Dante Torres, and Sara Bues. Additionally, with Tracy Spiradakos departing, Toya Turner and Victoria Cartagena also join the cast.      

CHICAGO PD – SEASON 12: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: A close-up of the duty board at 21st District Headquarters shows that Detective Hailey Upton (Spiridakos) isn’t on it. And Upton’s Season 11 departure has contributed in part to where Hank Voight’s at now. A month out from his abduction by a serial killer, he’s burning the candle at both ends and changing his clothes in his office.  

The Gist: “5021, hold me down responding.” Season 12 of Chicago PD begins with a moody montage full of blue siren light, as Voight either frowns down at a dead body or drops their latest case file on the desks of his team. They’re all running, turning and burning through the latest victims and cases, with Voight constantly monitoring the radio for new calls and often charging into trap houses without backup. Which Assistant State’s Attorney Nina Chapman rightly calls out as not only an unhealthy reaction to his recent ordeal, but an unsustainable professional pace not backed up with evidence. “I’m guessing Upton used to do this,” she tells the sergeant. “Confront you.” 

When a triple murder leads Voight and the Intelligence Unit into a case full of mounting violence and still more moving parts, it’s on top of their already heavy caseload. But Ruzek (Flueger), Atwater (Hawkins), and Aguilar (Torres), as well as Detective Martel (Cartagena), Upton’s replacement, just roll with what their boss wants. It’s the adrenaline, and you gotta seize it. Like when he decides to rush headlong into another dangerous situation. “We don’t have a warrant,” Martel highlights. But Voight is driven and holding his gun one-handed. “We’ll claim exigent.” 

It’s not a pace anyone could keep up, but what Chapman highlighted in Voight’s behavior seems sure to be the driver of Chicago PD in season 12. It’s not so much a death wish as a determination to outrun death. And if that burns him out – or even actually kills him – he’s made his peace with it. But this is also subject to change. For now, PD is keeping the status of absent team member Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati) under wraps. And as for the other moves the series makes out of the gate, there’s sure to shock from old and new viewers alike.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star also returned with new episodes this fall, though the latter’s fifth season will also be its last. And the jones the Chicago One suite of shows has for character crossovers continues, so make sure to keep up with what’s going on over at Chicago Med and Chicago Fire.  

Our Take: Jason Beghe’s Sergeant Henry “Hank” Voight would probably get along with Titus Welliver’s Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch. The main character of Bosch and then Bosch: Legacy is also a door-kicker from way back, a committed workaholic, and a guy who knows he’s got all the answers, legalities and official protocols be damned. But for as much as his hard-charging style is the focal point of Chicago PD as its twelfth season gets underway, the series is also placing Hank’s emotional life under a microscope. In the montage that begins episode one, the lighting gradually shifts around him, so that inside of Hank’s head, there is neither daylight nor darkness – just determination and reflection. 

What is the shape of mortality when an occupation asks everything of you in the moment, on a regular day on the job, even before it demands that you submit to the potential of losing your life in an instant? Such probing questions lend themselves to building another layer, and one that’s full of uncertainty underneath the typically tense door breaches and shouts of “Hey! Chicago PD! Stop!” Chicago PD has been around now for a decade. It’s refreshing to see it consider the endgame in the lives of its characters, some of whom we’ve known for just that long.     

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode, anyway.

Parting Shot: For Ruzek and Martel, partnering up in Intelligence is natural – they were at the academy together. Which is why the cost is personal when an on-the-job situation escalates without any kind of warning.

Sleeper Star: With PD spending so much time inside the mind and memories of Hank Voight, the rest of the team have to pick their spots, and Patrick John Flueger makes the most of Officer Adam Ruzek’s bond with his boss. 

Most Pilot-y Line: “You know what happens when you see death that close up, like we just did? You separate yourself from it. Don’t. Remember what that man looked like. Choking. Scared. Knowing he was dying – remember that.” 

Then, there’s the real kicker from Hank Voight: “And tell me who killed him.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Season 12 of Chicago PD opens in a brooding place, with its dedicated intelligence cops facing new challenges to their unit – oh, and a really big twist.

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.