Excellent acting highlights well written stories from Chicago
1 March 2019 - 1 out of 1 users found this review helpful.
The acting is excellent and each character on the show has a very well defined personality there are several twists and turns. It is sort of like a "Dallas" or "Dynasty" night-time drama set in Chicago.

These are great stories. How would your family function (or disfunction) if your roots were in urban-Chicago?

The lives of two families come together in the pilot of this new independent series. We follow an 18 year old returning to his childhood home in Chicago to finish his senior year in high school. Living with his grandfather, a Pastor, we meet his two uncles. One is a gang-leader who has just got out of prison and his brother, the boys other uncle, is a dedicated Chicago police officer. The boy's mother who walked out on him and his father when he was about 10 years old, is back in the picture seeking a place in his life and some sort of forgiveness.

The other family we meet at a birthday party for their son who is turning 18. He has a 4.1 GPA in high school and his mother wants him to go to college. He is leaning towards the gang life.

What we see are families, just like any of ours, with issues between siblings and pressures from all around on everyone, but at the end of the day, it's not money, crime, hate or the gangs that bind the characters together; it is that they are family.

You need to remember that this is an independently produced series without a huge budget. Some of the sound quality, especially in the beginning of the pilot is distracting from what is going on. Suspend your expectations of seeing a slick Hollywood-type series. You are here for the story.

Hang in there a few episodes and I think you will be glad you did. IMDB lists the title as Chi-Raq the Series but I have heard people call the show "No Chi-Raq".