Chicago Med, Season 1 DVD

Editorial Reviews
From Primetime Emmy Award-winning executive producer Dick Wolf (Law & Order) comes all 18 Season One episodes of Chicago Med, the newest installment of the compelling Chicago franchise. The doctors, nurses and staff of the city’s most cutting-edge trauma center take on critical medical cases and their ethical dilemmas. Woven into this high-intensity environment are engrossing personal dramas where life or death is always on the line. Along with familiar faces from Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D., this powerhouse ensemble cast includes Oliver Platt (The Big C), S. Epatha Merkerson (Law & Order), Nick Gehlfuss (Shameless), Yaya DaCosta (The Kids Are All Right), Colin Donnell (Arrow), Brian Tee (Jurassic World), Torrey DeVitto (The Vampire Diaries) and Rachel DiPillo (Jane the Virgin).

For many people ER and House are the medical dramas against which all other medical dramas are compared, especially for people in their mid to late 30s and older. This one, while not as good as either of those two, is the closest since those have been off the air of capturing the feel, especially of ER that I have seen. It is not a total soap opera, where the relationships of, and between the members of the staff predominate the show. There is a bit of that, but the focus is really on the various medical stories. Like ER, there are usually a lot of different cases going on at one time any given week that the show is jumping back and forth between. So it is not the case of the week that takes up almost the entire hour kind of thing that House was usually dealing with.

The show has an ensemble cast made up of relatively unknown, or little know actors and actresses. Oliver Platt is probably the most well known, who plays Dr. Charles, the head of psychiatry so he ends up involved in a lot of cases. Arrow alum Colin Donnell is as close to a lead actor that the show really gets, but his character does not really dominate the screen time. The cast that has been put together is very good, and the show does a lot to balance the story lines so the various characters all get to do something, and get some depth. As much as is possible in a 16 episode season anyway. The show also ties in a lot to the other Chicago based shows, Chicago Fire and Chicago PD. As well as all out cross over episodes between the three shows, characters from the other shows had cameo appearances many times throughout the season. The writing and acting are both very good, and while the season did not end on any big cliffhanger, they did enough to leave the viewers wanting to see where it would go in the future.

The DVD release is pretty bare bones. No significant extras like commentaries or behind the scenes material. The only extras were the cross over episodes of Chicago Fire and PD that made up a three episode arc between the three shows. So if you only get the physical discs for bonus material then you would probably be fine streaming this. But if you prefer physical DVDs just know you will not get anything in the way of extra features. Overall it is a good, enjoyable show and definitely worth a look.

Product details
Actors: Colin Donnell, Nick Gehlfuss, Oliver Platt, S. Epatha Merkerson, Torrey DeVitto
Format: Color, Dolby, Widescreen, PAL
Language: English
Subtitles: English
Region: Region 4 for Australia
Number of discs: 5
Studio: Universal Pictures
DVD Release in: 2016