Which One Chicago series will have the wildest season?

One week remains until One Chicago returns. Chicago Med, Chicago Fire and Chicago PD are all promising plenty of drama for NBC viewers—but which show is going to be the most dramatic?

The One Chicago franchise is the most action-packed, high stakes television. The three series keep viewers on the edge of their seats consistently and 2021 should be no different. Once again, each of the shows is returning with a cliffhanger that needs to be resolved. On top of that, there are new storylines and in some cases even new characters!

So which one will bring the most drama to the table? I’ve compared all three with the information fans have as it relates to both on-screen and off-screen developments, and given each of them a rating based on how crazy their respective seasons should be.

Chicago Fire season 10

Chicago Fire returns with the immediate aftermath of a cliffhanger that left multiple characters trapped underwater. The law of large numbers would suggest that someone is going to die; however, this is the same series that once left four characters in a burning building and everybody survived, so One Chicago fans don’t know for sure that there’s going to be a casualty.

Putting the cliffhanger aside, Chicago Fire season 10 finds Firehouse 51 looking pretty stable compared to past seasons. The biggest dilemma was Stella Kidd potentially having to transfer elsewhere after being promoted to Lieutenant, but logically her leaving doesn’t make much sense, because it’d be hard to keep Miranda Rae Mayo on the show if her character was working at a different firehouse.

No one finished season 9 with any massive personal issues either—Stella and Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) got engaged, while Matthew Casey and Sylvie Brett (Jesse Spencer and Kara Killmer) finally became a couple. And at least for now, nobody’s trying to shut down the firehouse.

If someone is killed off, obviously that ratchets the drama up to maximum levels, because fans will be mourning the loss of yet another character. (Some of us still aren’t over the death of Otis in season 8.) Firehouse 51 would have to take at least an episode to deal with the death and then there’d be a big hole to fill. But overall 51 has a bit more stability than its sister squads.

Drama Level: Low, but High if someone dies.