Ed. Note: A reader emailed about this specific episode and I asked him if hr would be kind  enough to write something up we could use. Many thanks! – J.N.

The Chicago Code (Monday nights on FOX) is the latest creation of Shawn Ryan, who also gave us The Shield. Set in the early stomping ground of one Barack Obama, I was slightly enthused that the title would remind people of corrupt Chicago politics throughout the 2012 campaign season, but expected a few sucker punches along the way. The lead character is police Superintendent Colvin, portrayed by Jennifer Beals, and her nemesis is city Alderman Gibbons portrayed by Delroy Lindo. Beal’s Colvin is a Chicago native who watched her small businessman father destroyed by the pervading corruption of Chicago. Everyone from the local beat cop to minor city officials demanded their cut from the struggling businessman. Colvin is determined to uproot some of that corruption and her target is Alderman Gibbons, the man who recommended her for her position.

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A frontal assault is out of the question so Colvin recruits her former partner, a legendary Chicago cop named Wysocki, who is portrayed by Jason Clarke. Together they launch an unofficial investigation against Gibbons…

The episode that prompted this review was called Cabrini Green, after the notorious public housing project that became synonymous with hopelessness and crime. One plot line took the cast back to the crimes of the sixties. Someone was planting crude bombs that were similar to the kind of bombs planted by a radical groups protesting the Vietnam War.

Stop me if you’ve heard this…

A person of interest ran with this radical group that was responsible for the deaths of three people. This man was on the run for many years before surrendering himself and being acquitted at trial. Today this man is a respected, tenured college professor who, as an author, has written about education in the United States. It is implied that this former radical is friends with high-powered politicians.

Not to give it away, but the ending was more satisfying than reality.

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Jeffrey Katzenberg and Dreamworks Animation have definitively proven that Digital 3-D is a blockbuster format. Not only has Monsters vs. Aliens seized a monstrous $58.2M in opening weekend ticket sales, Real-D (the technology provider) and Dreamworks have revealed that $25M or so of that gross was generated specifically from 3-D and IMAX 3-D. Fox is reporting that fully 43% of the total take was from the estimated 2,218 Digital 3-D screens.

MONSTERS VS. ALIENS tore up the box office this weekend - especially in 3-D

That means that the Per Screen Average for the movie in 3-D was about $11,700, while the 4,800 or so traditional 35MM 2-D engagements had a Per Theatre of just an estimated $4,780. Exhibitors who figured out a way to overcome the credit crunch and pay the estimated $100,000 to convert a traditional theatre into one that can show Digital 3-D made a killing this weekend.

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