Over the past few years, we have seen several television shows that used Chicago as a setting. With our city depicted more often now, this raises a question do those shows accurately represent Chicago? Or do they merely name check the city, without giving any thought to the qualities that make it unique? 

   Chicago Code was a crime/drama that aired between Feb-May 2011 and followed Chicago police detectives Jarek Wysocki and Caleb Evers as they worked to stop crime and investigate political corruption, most of which led to the powerful Alderman Gibbons. Unlike many other Chicago-set shows, Chicago Code was filmed on location; the street names were occasionally changed, but everything from corner stores to office buildings looked and felt authentically Chicago.

   The show made frequent references to the city's long history of political scandals, and many of the events made thinly veiled references to the more cotemporary scandals. While the show didn't get everything right (the notorious Chicago Outfit was, for example, inexplicably replaced by the "Irish Mob"), it was on target often enough to make it easy to suspend disbelief.

   Lifetime channel's Against the Wall, which debuted in July and is still in its first season, followed a similar ground. The show features Detective Abby Kowalski, a recently promoted detective who joined CPD's Internal Affairs division. Unlike Chicago Code, the show was filmed in Toronto, save for some stock footage.

   Some of show's obvious Chicago references are the mentions of the ‘L' trains, Wrigley Field, etc; Chicago Tribune and RedEye newspaper boxes can be seen on street corners. Characters eat pizza and hotdogs at thinly disguised Giordano's and Jim's Original hot dog stand. While the city depicted in the show doesn't look like Chicago—sometimes glaringly so—it can't be said that the creators didn't try.

   The Good Wife has been airing on CBS since Sept. 2009; this legal drama follows Alicia Florrick, the estranged wife of a disgraced States Attorney Peter Florrick, as she returns to practicing law in order to provide for her family and tries to move on with her life. The show gets many things right—clever plots, strong acting, and decent character interactions.

   However, its depiction of Chicago leaves much to be desired.

  The show is shot in and around New York, and unlike Against The Wall, it barely uses any stock footage to establish Chicago locations. The writers of Good Wife seemed to do the barest of research about the city: in one episode, an Orthodox Jewish community is inexplicably placed in the middle of Hyde Park; in another, Garfield Park, one of West Side's most economically depressed neighborhoods, is depicted as a middle class community.

   In other shows, Chicago references help to build authenticity. In the Good Wife, most references break the suspicion of disbelief, something that its writers appear to be aware of. The new season opener shocked many Chicago fans by including a reference Sidetrack, the iconic Boystown gay bar. But whether or not that is a sign of things to come remains to be seen.

   Every time a show has a specific, real-world location, details matter. This is especially true for a city as large and as prominent as Chicago. No TV show can get every single detail right every time; indeed, sometimes getting things wrong are necessary for the sake of the plot.

   But, for better or for worse, these shows help shape the audience's perception of Chicago. And, if the depiction of our city isn't true to life, one can't help but wonder if there was any good reason for setting it in Chicago in the first place.