Season 1 of ‘The Chi’ is compelling— But it’s missing something
After an explosive season finale, it’s no secret that Lena Waithe did her damn thing with hit Showtime series The Chi. It’s captivating, humorous, and you watch each episode on the edge of your seat waiting for the next installment.
Although it premiered January 7th, I didn’t start watching the show until late February and binged watched the first half of the season. In doing so, I learned two things: Black Chicago isn’t monolithic and well, it’s still some key things that you have to include when telling the story about the Southside of Chicago.
The show chronicles six different characters who are connected by a series of traumatic events. Each episode provides another piece to the puzzle of who killed a local basketball star and the domino effect of everything that took place in between. I thoroughly enjoyed every episode but the lack of certain cultural markers made me feel like the authenticity of our beautifully complex city wasn’t told right.
My biggest issue was WHERE the show was shot. I’m not sure if this is an industry thing, but why on earth would a show that’s supposed to be set on 79th street be actually shot on the West Side? True Chicagoans know our neighborhoods and North Lawndale is not East or West Chatham. The green or pink line doesn’t run on 79th street and furthermore, the homes out south and on the west look different depending on which neighborhood you’re in. To the non-Chicagoan watching this show, the location may have been convincing, but to my eye it was not. 79th street can’t be that violent where a film crew couldn’t set up and film there, but who am I?
The musical selection for this show was pretty well crafted. There was your singles from Kanye, Chance, No Name Gypsy, Cool Kids, G Herbo and more. However, I’m hoping to hear some Keef, Tink, Dreezy, Twista, even some R.Kelly in the next season. Chicago is a cultural hub for music, we set the standard for the rest of the country with our influence, especially in the last six years. I’m not sure how connected Waithe or any of the show execs are to Chicago’s current music scene but I won’t completely write them off as disconnected and outdated.
Something that was outdated, however was the lingo. I’ll be honest, the characters on the show don’t sound like ANY of the kids I work with or talk how my friends and I spoke growing up. Some of the lingo was remnant of white suburban kids rather than south side kids from Chicago…especially from 79th. Chicago kids are cool, we talk colorful as hell and although I heard the occasional “G” in one of the scenes, that was about it. It’s hard to explain, maybe this old video from Korporate can better explain it:
I would have LOVED to see language like that used in this show, but I do know that Waithe wanted to stay away from “stereotypes” and even Common, who plays Rafiq on the show said The Chi makes other nationalities see Chicago in a different light.
But why does it matter how other nationalities see us? Why isn’t enough for us to watch something, and see ourselves? Who are we looking to impress?
Speaking of the kids, the most unconvincing thing about this show was the kid culture. Where was the juking? The footworking? If this show was supposed to be set on 79th street, I was surprised to see no mention of the dance teams, no bucket boys, nothing. What Chicago kids dance like this at a party?
Albeit humorous, it just didn’t seem convincing enough to me.
But this was just Season 1. I’m sure that in Season 2, many critiques like this and others will (hopefully) be taken in consideration and tweaked. Maybe not necessarily to perfection, but more so toward authenticity.
Black Chicago isn’t a uniform experience. When it’s one of our own telling the story, there are certain things you just have to get right.
