On Call’s Place in the One Chicago Universe — Or Why It Could Be the Perfect Spinoff

On Call is the latest police drama from Dick Wolf, debuting on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming platform early this January. The show is the first that the producer has worked on with his son, Elliott, but follows a long line of procedural dramas with the involvement of the producer behind the One Chicago and Law & Order franchises. It shares similarities with Chicago P.D. in particular since it centers on a fictional police department where protagonists Traci Harmon and Alex Diaz work as patrol officers.

Unlike Chicago P.D. and the rest of the One Chicago franchise, however, On Call isn’t set in the Windy City but in Long Beach, California. Officers Harmon and Diaz work at the Long Beach Police Department, and all the action in the series (so far) takes place in the city just south of Los Angeles. Yet the show’s location doesn’t automatically exclude it from being part of the same universe as One Chicago. The original series of Law & Order was based in New York, but that didn’t stop it from having an entire One Chicago crossover episode with Chicago P.D. in the sixteenth season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

On Call Isn’t Part Of The One Chicago Universe (At Least Not Yet)

Season 1 Keeps The Worlds Separate For Now

Nevertheless, Elliott Wolf, who co-created On Call with Tim Walsh, has suggested that the show’s story isn’t related to One Chicago. At least, it’s not at this stage, following On Call’s debut, five-episode season set entirely in Long Beach. In response to a question about whether One Chicago and On Call are in the same universe, Wolf told Variety, “They never are until they are.”

It remains to be seen whether potential future seasons of On Call venture into the world of his father’s franchises. One possible barrier to a crossover taking place, though, is the appearance of actor Monica Raymund in One Call’s first episode. Raymund is known for playing paramedic Gabby Dawson in Chicago Fire, and appeared as the same character in Chicago P.D. and Chicago Med. But in One Call she plays police officer Maria Delgado instead.

On Call’s Monica Raymund Doesn’t Ruin The Shared Universe Chances With One Chicago

She’s Far From The First One Chicago Actor To Play More Than One Character

It might seem like Raymund’s appearance as a completely separate character from her major role in the One Chicago shows ruins the chances of On Call sharing the same universe as the franchise. Given Dick Wolf’s history of both mixing and matching different characters and actors in his franchises, however, this assumption is slightly reductive. There are even four actors who play multiple characters within the One Chicago shows themselves. So Raymund could easily become the fifth multi-character actor in the franchise’s universe.

What’s more, Raymund essentially plays a minor, single-episode role as Officer Delgado in One Call. While Delgado is a key part of the story in the show’s first season, she’s killed off in the first episode, after which the investigation into her murder takes place without Raymund having to appear. In terms of character development, One Call season 1 focuses on the relationship between Officers Harmon and Diaz.

A Crossover With On Call & One Chicago Would Only Fully Work On Streaming

On Call On Network Television Doesn’t Make Sense

Unlike the One Chicago and Law & Order series, On Call has the advantage of being made for streaming, which has afforded it certain structural and stylistic freedoms shows made for network television don’t have. Wolf and Walsh have adapted a classic 30-minute police drama format to a continuous narrative across five concise episodes, in which most of the action is shot in a handheld style resembling police body-cam footage. It would be difficult to transfer the gritty realism of its depictions into the format of network TV, which provides One Chicago with most of its viewership.

On the other hand, it’d be intriguing to watch Hank Voight and Kim Burgess from Chicago P.D. portrayed in the innovative format and style On Call uses. A new generation of police drama fans could also be introduced to these legendary characters from one of Dick Wolf’s most enduring onscreen creations. With season 1 currently riding high in the streaming charts, there’s every chance future episodes will open up the possibility of Long Beach’s own “Chicago Crossover.”