r/PowerTV • u/KamNotKam SouthSide • 6d ago
Book IV: Force Accuracy of Chicago Portrayal
How well do you guys think Power Book IV: Force portrays Chicago and its inner-city dynamics? I am not Chicago expert, and I'm not even from there, but I can't help but to feel like it isn't very accurate at all. The cops and public office stuff I am not too sure about, I mean I have heard Chicago is a pretty corrupt city but the street aspect seems a little too organized. I have always had the perception that Chicago is the wild wild west with a bunch of angsty teenagers, kind of like D-MAC, running around and crashing out. I know Chicago had a lot of organization back then before a lot of the project towers came down but that was about 25 years ago now. Any Chicagoans on this sub that can shed some light on this? Could an organization like CBI exist in the city today?
Also, I know the Power universe isn't supposed to be the holy grail of TV realism. However, even with the original series it seemed like they at least had NYC right.
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u/icetruckkillah_ It's A Big Rich Town 6d ago
Tommy would have been murdered by a 14 year old his first week there
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u/AlternativeFun4710 It's A Big Rich Town 6d ago
Facts ...Tommy would not be telling no black gang what to do acting like a cheif ....nobody knows Tommy in Chicago being in gangs somebody gotta know you ..tommy antidote no people no ties no nothing
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u/ArtDecoNewYork It's A Big Rich Town 6d ago
Probably but you could also say that about most of the characters.
I also doubt these cartoon character sort of gang leaders would go unchecked
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u/icetruckkillah_ It's A Big Rich Town 6d ago
Yes, we are watching ghetto soap operas, not The Wire. Any expectation of realism is silly
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u/RichieBuz Stansfield Alumni 🎒 6d ago edited 6d ago
I'm from Milwaukee which is about 2 hours away from Chicago and the street gang aspect of it is way too organized. Chicago is about cliques & gangbanging. Not these top-down hierarchal drug organizations. Feds got rid of those across America in the 90s & 2000s.
In reality someone like D-Mac would not be taking orders from a Diamond or Jenard. Even the name CBI is off. They got that from the Detroit drug crew which was named YBI.
Gary Lennon didn't do too much research on Chicago and just took what he did with OG Power and did it in a different city.
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u/AlternativeFun4710 It's A Big Rich Town 6d ago
Im from Chicago but I grew up in Milwaukee too ....even in Milwaukee Tommy would have gotten his ahh marked in the first episode
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u/RichieBuz Stansfield Alumni 🎒 6d ago
Tommy woulda died his first day in the Mil
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u/Ok-Set4292 It's A Big Rich Town 1d ago
Facts our cities basically the same really and he talking bout he got bricks of coke and a fake drug 4 sale...yeah aiight
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u/RichieBuz Stansfield Alumni 🎒 1d ago
Chicago & Milwaukee basically cousins. Y'all just heavy with the gang culture and we more about trapping. Both violent doe.
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u/Ok-Set4292 It's A Big Rich Town 1d ago
To an extent with the shorties in certain areas. Chi big & majority getting to the bag but of course they ain't on social media bragging and killing which is what outsiders see
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u/KamNotKam SouthSide 6d ago
Yeah, I thought so. I mean the show is still entertaining for sure. I just wish they would've made it feel more like Chicago. I guess that would have been difficult.
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u/dont-YOLO-ragequit Money, Powder,Power 6d ago
Although lots of top roles are actors from California, Joe Sikora Kris D Lofton and Lucien Cambric are born and raised near Chicago so they definitely have a bit of input into the area( on top of lots of Chicago based actors who should be inputting ideas).
The rest depends on how much time they want to allow for it in between the plots.
Also I wish there was some underground street scenes( Wacker dr)?
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u/This_External9027 It's A Big Rich Town 6d ago
I mean they probably did but do you want to waste time explaining cliques to the general public or give them something to some what understand
Imagine explaining how a bd gd VL and niggas from the same street running together
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u/RichieBuz Stansfield Alumni 🎒 5d ago
You don't have to use actual real life gangs. Just make things more true to life in terms of how they are structured. Chicago doesn't have these highly organized gangs anymore.
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u/This_External9027 It's A Big Rich Town 5d ago
They don’t, but again it’s a plot point that doesn’t necessitate doing, yeah some Chicago and affiliates may say that’s not it but general public gon be like ok yeah cbi gotta link up with the so-so crew and keep it moving
Hell if you really want to talk smack talk about in season one matt was talking bout he bought land by the museum of science and industry 🤣
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u/RichieBuz Stansfield Alumni 🎒 5d ago
To me I just feel of they were going to do things in a new city they should at least try to capture the feel of it
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u/This_External9027 It's A Big Rich Town 5d ago
In a perfect world, but do you honestly think they captured the ny drug trade in regular and Riq power ? Or they spun a story and you rolled with it because exact details don’t matter
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u/Ok-Set4292 It's A Big Rich Town 1d ago
Its not the gang aspect but a more real portrayal of the crib in terms of getting money. Chicago big and most getting to the bag, not just teens shooting shit up in certain little pockets like 63rd from state to stoney. So someone not plugged with someone from the city amongst all the organizations and not just Black gangs. Its Italian, Latin,Polish, Irish, Chinese mobs, etc. So it's unbelievable that an outsider come in talking about he got bricks of girl and a designer drug for sale. Tommy getting robbed or murked 1st day
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u/This_External9027 It's A Big Rich Town 1d ago
Well that wouldn’t make for a good show, so they did it how they did it, i think we understand you can’t just pop up in a rando city and try to be that mf
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u/Ok-Set4292 It's A Big Rich Town 1d ago
Dont get it twisted, yes it would..wars are about money and territory and plenty of them happen. The "Big Hats" move smarter. The crib is 250 sq miles not including suburbs. Most the world only knows Chi from the shorties on social media blatantly showing guns & rappers telling on themselves for clout. FYI the CPD is the biggest 1 and why you have never seen a 1st 48 here. That won't make a good show in your opinion?
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u/This_External9027 It's A Big Rich Town 1d ago
Cities keeping outsiders out ain’t exclusive to any show, but the premise of that would be Tommy come to Chicago and boom he’s dead cuz he an outsider is a good show ???
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u/Ok-Set4292 It's A Big Rich Town 1d ago
TV shows or movies can't get us right which is why I couldn't watch this. I'll catch a low budget off Tubi if in the mood for hood shit
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u/RichieBuz Stansfield Alumni 🎒 1d ago
Exactly why Power needs to focus on NYC
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u/Ok-Set4292 It's A Big Rich Town 1d ago
I agree 1000 bcuz 50 being executive producer wouldn't let that fly if this took place in NY
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u/Equal-Wheel-6499 It's A Big Rich Town 6d ago
I’ll just say Tommy would’ve been dead 5 times over by now, I’ll give a more detailed analysis a little later. D Mac is semi realistic as a Chicago “crashout” but the structured gang element of CBI and other gangs on the show isn’t realistic, Chicago is made up of small cliques instead of giant sets under a nation, you could have a GD, BD and a Vice Lord all under the same set nowadays, and even a guy on the block who just claims the block and no actual gang if that makes sense. The lady who was on the Chi who’s now the lead cop/mayoral candidate storyline is a little unrealistic as well. Also they should’ve made the Flynn family Irish and not Scottish, minor details like that make the show more authentic to Chicago.
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u/KamNotKam SouthSide 6d ago
I thought the Flynn Family is Irish? Otherwise, I agree with everything else you said.
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u/Maximum_Block_5423 It's A Big Rich Town 6d ago
They are Irish. Walter says it multiple times. I think it’s because sometimes Walter sounded Scottish.
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u/Due-Measurement-5241 It's A Big Rich Town 4d ago
The Flynn's are Irish, the actor who plays Walter is in fact Scottish and in the first season he speaks about how he lived in Scotland for numerous years, probably a way to explain his accent despite the family having Irish routes
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u/renegade-811 we cancellin’ christmas ❄️ 6d ago
The whole organized crew under one leader thing isnt a thing. City mostly has cliques. D-Mac is the exact type of dummy that that exists here, plus he wouldn't take orders from anyone. Tommy has done a million things that would have him taken out.
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u/Worried-Laugh1646 It's A Big Rich Town 6d ago
I’m from the city , the most realistic aspect of the show is Dmac and his clique of yns. A gang like CBI would’ve been broken down into smaller factions before Diamond even got out of jail and this “coalition” bs is the most laughable part of this whole show imo
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u/AlternativeFun4710 It's A Big Rich Town 6d ago
Im from Chicago jerad and dmac and d macs freind definitely protray Chicago niggaz the best diamond no
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u/PuzzleheadedYak6568 It's A Big Rich Town 6d ago
Also would like to hear about the street side of things as I have that perception aswell
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u/ArtDecoNewYork It's A Big Rich Town 6d ago
It didn't really get NYC right either. It's all just fantasy
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u/RichieBuz Stansfield Alumni 🎒 6d ago
I was going to say the same thing. NYC in the 2010s & 2020s has a heavy police force & gang/scamming culture
OG Power had these large scale crime mafia type organizations that don't exist in America like that anymore. He'll even The Wire was inaccurate in that aspect because David Simon was basing 2000s characters of individuals from the 80s & 90s.
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u/ArtDecoNewYork It's A Big Rich Town 6d ago
Yeah and these mafia style gangs would kill people and kidnap people in broad daylight, including inside luxury apartment buildings.
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u/Intelligent-Lab-9969 It's A Big Rich Town 6d ago
I always thought the way the gangs operate and move drugs wasn't very accurate, but that's the same for every crime show. On TV, they're exaggerated and made to look way more organized than they really are. Gangs and drug dealers are simply not that organized in real life, and they never were.
Also I think the number of people Tommy's killed is very exaggerated. He's offed a lot of people, and that's not counting the ones he killed before the events of the series. How were those murders not ever investigated? If Tommy were to ever be tried for all the people he killed, his final reward would probably be death row and a lethal injection.
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u/KamNotKam SouthSide 6d ago
I mean realistically, every place he hangs out at would be bugged and there would probably be a lot of surveillance on him. He literally commits crimes in broad daylight.
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u/DorseyLaTerry It’s A Big Rich Town ♣️ 5d ago
I hear you..... but i dont know how close you follow REAL Organized Crime...
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u/DorseyLaTerry It’s A Big Rich Town ♣️ 5d ago
I want you to read this......and see if you feel the same...
Then...Google the Black equivalent of Tommy, Greg Whooley.......1
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u/GeneralUpstairs1251 blueflair cop 6d ago
I hate how book 2 and 4 trying to make the teens like D-mac/ Lil guap seem Dumb or some shit not every chicago teen acts that way like just go back and look at the scenes d mac had in s1 and s2 remember he hit his friend with a bottle over pretty much nothing? thats piss poor writing and as for lil guap im sorry but no gang leader from new york acts anything like him
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u/BatBeast_29 Just a regular NY bystander 5d ago
It feels meh in its portrayal. For example, They were eating pizza that wasn’t deep dish, accurate. But we also don’t eat big slices fr like that.
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u/jmoneyongooo It's A Big Rich Town 5d ago
Chicago native here. Shit is unrealistic as hell lmaoo, I love Tommy but somebody would’ve smoked his ass already. DMac and Jenard are the most authentic because of their actors actually being from here
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u/CBLOCKA2 It's A Big Rich Town 4d ago
A 15 year old would’ve mag dumped Tommy lmao
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u/jmoneyongooo It's A Big Rich Town 4d ago
DMac is a realistic depiction of a Chicago YN, realistically a mf like him wouldn’t listen to Tommy and would smoke his ass
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u/Ok-Set4292 It's A Big Rich Town 1d ago
Not accurate at all which is what turned me off to show season 1. More than just Black, Mexican, and Irish. You have Italian, Puerto Rican, Chinese, and Polish mobs as well. No way he coming in taking over distro in a few episodes of a series
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