Chicago PD: Where Is The Growth Of Kevin Atwater?
It’s safe to say that NBC has done a wonderful job with their One Chicago Series that includes Chicago PD, Chicago Med, and Chicago Fire. One of their best traits series-wise has been the ability, no matter the size of the cast, to focus on individual characters. We’ve seen the growth of Hank Voight and others but whatever happened to Kevin Atwater?
Voight, Antonio Dawson, and even Kim Burgess have gone through spurts of growth, back-peddling, and more but Atwater, he’s been treading water for seven seasons now. He’s a great cop and a good friend but we know very little about him outside of work.
Hell, even Hailey Upton was given a backstory and we’ve seen her go from a by-the-book cop to one willing to risk it all. Kevin’s story began as a cop who wanted badly to make it upstairs as a member of the Intelligence Unit. As the only African-American member, he was given the title of the hip-talking, take no prisoners, muscle having black man but not much else.
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One of the biggest knocks regarding Atwater’s character has been his personal life or lack of one. In the beginning, Atwater had a brother/sister relationship between him and Burgess. While great friends at first, even that has taken a bit of a backseat. The other factor he had going for him was what was brewing between him and his siblings. Then just as quick, Chicago PD took that away from him.
He’s cool with Adam Ruzek but Ruzek has done some questionable things that even put their relationship in jeopardy. But the main drawback for Kevin has been the love life. Where is the woman or women in his life?
Every major character in Chicago PD has either kids or a significant other they have dealt with. Look at the Intelligence Unit alone. Jay Halsted and Erin Lindsay. Burgess and Ruzek. Alvin Olinsky was married but still lived at home. Voight had a kid and he still had Lindsay. Heck, Ruzek has been with two different women inside the Unit alone. The same with Halstead as the writers are preparing us for a Halstead and Upton union. But what about Atwater?
Instead of finding love, he keeps finding trouble. There was a chance that he and the new member of the team Vanessa Rojas would get something going but she’s now off the show and Atwater is now in a war with other cops. Like how does this continue to happen for a character that is considered one of the best on the show?
Character growth is what keeps shows going. But for Atwater, he was never given that chance.
Mark has been covering Sports and Entertainment for the past six years. His work has been featured on Bleacher Report, ESPN, Fox Sports, Teen Vogue, and many other websites.
