Review: 'Chicagoland'

If you watch any amount of reality TV, you're familiar with the idea of an unscripted series being guided and edited in a way that creates story arcs that play well on television. Yes, it's not scripted television in the strictest sense of the word, but shows like "Gold Rush" and "Duck Dynasty" aren't exactly shot and produced in a vacuum.

But there is a more traditional form of documentary television that has fallen out of favor with networks and producers looking to spend as little as possible to create those episodes of television. That classic documentary style sends camera crews out to shoot as much as possible and that glut of video provides ample opportunities for the stories to emerge organically out of real life.

The latter approach was the one taken by independent filmmakers Marc Levin and Mark Benjamin with "Chicagoland," a new series that premieres this week on CNN. The duo are best known for the extraordinary documentary series "Brick City," which took a hard look at the struggles of Newark, N.J. and is charismatic mayor Cory Booker. They take a similar approach to film-making with this eight-episode series, which provides a jarring and often heartbreaking look at a great town in transition.

The series is drawn from more than 1,000 hours of footage shot by three camera crews sent to document a year in the life of Chicago. That time-frame coincided with some tumultuous time for the city. Mayor Rahm Emanuel is at the midpoint of his first term in office and he is in the midst of a bruising battle with the teacher's union and parents over his plan to close 54 schools in order to help close a massive budget deficit. It's also a time period in which the city is undergoing an explosion of gang violence, thanks to a city gang population that is estimated to be around 70,000.

The series is filled with violence and often helplessness, as families struggle to stay safe in the middle of an outbreak of gang activity. Emanuel's plan to close the school's might save money, but the closings also impact the safety of many of the 30,000 students who will now have to travel into neighborhood's controlled by rival gangs.

But even in the middle of so much despair, heroes begin to make themselves heard in the show. Elizabeth Dozier is a dynamic young principal who has transformed her South Side high school into a safe haven even though it's located in a neighborhood still riddled by gang violence. Chicago Police Department head Garry McCarthy is also a prominent figure, as he wrestles with a department faced with smaller budgets and a near-battlefield environment in some parts of the city.

"Chicagoland" is also a tale of two cities, and it reflects the disparate nature of a city that includes neighborhoods wracked in nearly hourly violence as well as sections that are prosperous and safe and as beautiful as any neighborhood in any city in the world. In the end, it's that tug between hope and fear that makes "Chicagoland" such a compelling series.

"Chicagoland" - like the city it chronicles - is much more than it appears to be at first glance. This is as good of a series as you will find on television and if this is what we have to look forward to from CNN's new primetime schedule, then we are going to be some very lucky viewers.