10 TV Shows To Watch If You Like The Chi

Ever since 2018, audiences have gotten to know and follow the everyday lives of people living in the South Side of Chicago in the drama series "The Chi." Running for eight seasons on Showtime, the series provided viewers with a community perspective on families and individuals brought together through tragedy and triumph. While not downplaying the dangerous elements of the neighborhood, the show focuses on the slice-of-life joys and humanist victories of its residents. Simply put, "The Chi" is one of the best Showtime shows of all time and its continued presence will be missed.

Fortunately, there are plenty of other series that offer a community-wide scope to their respective storytelling and ensemble casts. Whether it's comedies that get their gags from the nuances of their neighborhoods, or crime dramas using their urban settings, there are a lot of similarly scaled shows. With that in mind, we're highlighting our favorites — each of these shows really imbuing their respective stories with a sense of community that only grows as they progress. Here are the 10 best TV shows like "The Chi" that fans should add to their watchlists next.

Let's get the most obviously similar show out of the way first with the 2002 HBO series "The Wire." Set in and around Baltimore, the series revolves around the city's police department and its effort to stymie major crime, especially drug trafficking. What makes the show's connections to "The Chi" so evident is how much "The Wire" expands its scope with each season. Every season adds a new focus to its depiction of Baltimore, from the blue-collar dock workers in Season 2, to its public schools in Season 4 — each affected by the rampant crime and urban decay.

Just as "The Chi" is a standout on Showtime, "The Wire" is one of the best HBO original series of all time. This isn't a crime show with clearly defined moral lines, but one where everyone is just trying to get by in a hardscrabble environment. In that sense, the HBO series is a tragedy, especially given the uncompromising frankness in how it illustrates that harsh reality. A meditation on a city dealing with systemic neglect amid a never-ending feud between cops and crooks, "The Wire" is as prestigious as its subject matter gets.

A considerably less bleak citywide crime series than "The Wire," though not without its own grit, is 2009's "Southland." The show follows the Los Angeles Police Department through both the perspectives of its uniformed beat cops and plainclothes detectives. Compared to other modern police procedurals, the series has a stronger emphasis on its characters' personal lives and how their work affects them. "Southland" came to a slightly aggravating end after five seasons, one that wraps on an unresolved cliffhanger involving protagonist John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz).

While maintaining a much more pronounced focus on crime over overt community-building, "Southland" makes this list thanks to its multifaceted look at law enforcement in Los Angeles. This is elevated by the more personal touch to the series' handling of its main characters, underscoring that they're residents of Los Angeles, too — not just people maintaining the law. It's in those narrative beats that the show's sense of community can be found, shining an interesting light on the City of Angels. A police procedural that wears its rugged heart on its sleeve, "Southland" offers a well-rounded approach to a familiar genre.

After creating "The Wire," David Simon returned to HBO to focus on a different beleaguered American city with "Treme." Co-created by Eric Overmyer, the 2010 show explores New Orleans as it recovers from the extensive flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Revolving around an ensemble cast, the series celebrates New Orleans' unique culture as the community regroups in the hurricane's immediate aftermath. "Treme" ran on HBO for four seasons, allowing the creative team to finish their envisioned story on their own terms.

Exploring the fallout of a tragedy, "Treme" is a story about resilience and renewal on a communal level. The show features a cast at the top of their game, with Khandi Alexander, Wendell Pierce, and Clarke Peters each rarely better than their performances here. The series also takes full advantage of its setting, with everything from New Orleans' jazzy music scene to its local cuisine underscoring the community. Another masterful exploration of an American city and the people who make it what it is, "Treme" stands among Simon's most underrated work.

The most lighthearted entry on this list, but no less salient in illustrating a citywide sense of community, is "Portlandia." Providing a look at the many nuances of Portland, Oregon for hilarious effect, the show is a sketch comedy with recurring figures through the Pacific Northwest city. Led by Carrie Brownstein and "Saturday Night Live" veteran Fred Armisen, the show covers everything from the city's goth subculture to boutique bookstores. Brownstein and Armisen regularly appear as fictionalized versions of themselves, joined by Kyle MacLachlan as the city's hapless mayor.

"Portlandia" has an off-kilter sense of humor, befitting the quirky community that it lovingly pokes fun at. The recurring characters and Portland filming locations highlight the series' lived-in qualities, seeing how established characters react to changes around town. At the same time, the show doesn't revolve around different variations of "Portland is weird" for its source of gags, using its environment more as a tonal backdrop. While its brand of comedy might not be everybody's cup of tea, "Portlandia" definitely provides a deep dive into its setting.

Starting years before "The Chi," Chicago has been the setting for an expansive television empire headed by "Law & Order" creator Dick Wolf. Launching this interconnected universe is "Chicago Fire," following firefighters working alongside other emergency services personnel in the Windy City. In between responding to fires and other emergencies throughout the city, the show examines the personal lives of those operating out of Firehouse 51. Further demonstrating the wider depiction of Chicago first responders, the series regularly features crossovers with its shared universe counterparts.

"Chicago Fire" makes this list over "Chicago P.D." and "Chicago Med" because it emphasizes the community better than the rest of its franchise. So much of "Chicago Med" is understandably relegated to its hospital setting, whereas "Chicago P.D." is heavily focused on its procedural premise. While a lot of "Chicago Fire" is set in the thick of emergency response, it takes more advantage of its titular setting, both on the job and in between crises. And with "Chicago Fire" recently renewed alongside its other Windy City counterparts, this television exploration of Chicago isn't slowing down anytime soon.

Coming off of working on "30 Rock" and "Community," Donald Glover went considerably more surreal with his 2016 series "Atlanta." A true labor of love, in addition to writing, directing, and executive producing the show, Glover also stars as its protagonist Earn Marks. Largely presented as episodic vignettes, the show chronicles Earn's relationship with his cousin, Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry), and his on-again/off-again girlfriend, Van Kiefer (Zazie Beetz). Topics covered throughout the series include police brutality, the complexities of modern family dynamics, and the stereotype-reinforcing nature of fame and public image.

"Atlanta" is powered by a smooth, engaging cadence, offering slice-of-life stories set in and around its titular Georgia city. The humor is admittedly eccentric, and the tone can shift widely episode-to-episode, but Earn's perspective on everyday life in the South remains the solid constant. This authentic perspective is undercut by randomly bizarre elements, including temporal loops and haunted houses, as a counterpoint to the grounded commentary and comedy. Running for four seasons, there was nothing quite like "Atlanta" on television, providing audiences with an unfiltered exploration of Glover's observations about the world.

Another series that has since blossomed into its own television empire is the crime drama "Power," with the original series debuting in 2014. The story initially follows powerful drug lord James "Ghost" St. Patrick (Omari Hardwick) as he tries to go legitimate with his business interests. Ghost's efforts to run a popular nightclub and avoid being dragged back into a life of crime are juxtaposed with the dissolution of his marriage. This look at New York City and the figures in Ghost's life have been expanding into a growing number of spin-offs on Starz.

"Power" brings glitz and glamor to the world of urban crime dramas, certainly in comparison to other shows on this list. This heightens the allure but, as the show progresses, it expands into a wider look at Ghost's legacy and impact on New York. The lived-in feeling that elevates the series is deepened by flashbacks revealing how these characters and their complex dynamics came to be, adding emotional heft to the conflicts. A crime epic that fully utilizes its New York City setting, "Power" stands as an unmissable show for fans of the genre.

The period piece crime drama "Snowfall" provides audiences with an intense portrait of Los Angeles during the '80s. With crack cocaine sweeping the city, the story focuses on a young drug dealer, Franklin Saint (Damson Idris), and his rise to power. This is complicated by the presence of the Mexican drug cartels and the CIA during their own expansive war on drugs. As the show progresses, these disparate character arcs speed towards a brutal collision course with each other as the City of Angels descends into dangerous times.

While Franklin is the story's protagonist, it's important to note that so much of "Snowfall" prominently involves its wider ensemble cast. This is a show that provides a multifaceted look at the crack epidemic and war on drugs in the greater Los Angeles area. The various figures surfacing throughout the narrative help capture that scope, especially the human cost involved during such a violently contentious time for the city. With a "Snowfall" spin-off coming to FX and Hulu, now's the perfect time to binge the original hard-hitting series.

Another show delving into the nuances and inequities of Los Angeles, albeit primarily focused on sports rather than crime, is "All American." Premiering in 2018, the show opens with football prodigy Spencer James (Daniel Ezra), an inner-city teenager, getting recruited to play at a prestigious high school in Beverly Hills. While trying to help his home community, Spencer has to contend with the culture shock of attending such a pampered school. Spencer continues to stay in the Los Angeles area for college as his athletic career and personal life take off.

At least in its early seasons, "All American" offers audiences a dual-perspective look at Los Angeles, and the disparity between its haves-and-have-nots. Even in relocating to Beverly Hills for school, Spencer's roots in the Crenshaw neighborhood run deep throughout the series. It's that constant urban dichotomy that earns the sports drama a place on this list over other community-based sports series like "Friday Night Lights." Centered on a protagonist caught between two very different sides of the same city, "All American" mixes coming-of-age drama with athletic action.

One last Chicago-based show like "The Chi" to close things out, the 2019 limited series "The Red Line" is a much more intensely somber story. "The Red Line" series premiere opens with an innocent Black doctor, Harrison Brennan (Corey Reynolds), shot and killed by a white police officer, Paul Evans (Noel Fisher). This tragedy expands to chronicle how three families tied to the shooting are affected by it, particularly Harrison's husband, Daniel Calder (Noah Wyle). This offers a wider look at how the greater Chicago area reacts to such a grave and public incident.

Years before Noah Wyle was wowing audiences in "The Pitt," he led a similarly humanist tale with "The Red Line." This is a story of how a shocking act uncovers the source of tension festering within the heart of a community. At the same time, the show sidesteps its preachier inclinations to explore the nature of loss and consequence across multiple character arcs. Weaving a modern American tragedy, "The Red Line" doesn't necessarily surprise its audience so much as call them to bear witness to systemic flaws in our fragile society.