What Made Chicago Med Season 10 The Best Season In Many Years

When a TV show like Chicago Med has been around for a decade, fans tend to have a lot of complaints. In Chicago Med’s case, they haven’t been happy with how Dr. Charles has been treated in the past and viewers thought Dr. Ripley’s storyline was a mistake. Due to those complaints, fans wanted Chicago Med to introduce storylines that would rejuvenate the show.

During Chicago Med’s 10th season, the show underwent a lot of changes that fans may not feel were instantly obvious. Fortunately, many of those changes have wound up improving Chicago Med greatly. With that in mind, it is fascinating to examine what it is about Chicago Med’s 10th season that made it so much better than the show had been before that.

Chicago Med’s 10th Season Handled The Characters Better Than Ever

From the moment that Chicago Med began airing, there has been no doubt that the show’s stellar characters have been one of its greatest strengths. Sadly, however, the truth is that many Chicago Med seasons have handled the show’s characters poorly.

Whether it was things like making characters too whiny or making them rebel for no reason, Chicago Med has been frustrating at times. Worse yet, there have been times when Chicago Med characters behaved in ways that seemed well, out of character.

With all that in mind, it has been amazing to see how Chicago Med’s 10th season has handled the show’s characters. The reason for that is it can easily be argued that Chicago Med’s 10th season treated the show’s characters better than any seasons from the past have.

Since many fans love Dr. Daniel Charles more than any of Chicago Med’s other characters, it makes sense to look at how Season 10 handled that character first. All things considered, it isn’t an overstatement to say that the 10th season portrayal of Dr. Charles was masterful.

Since Dr. Charles has been around since Chicago Med’s first season, it seemed like fans had seen Chicago Med do all it could with Dr. Charles. Then, the show’s 10th season did something totally unexpected, it tore Dr. Charles down to his core, seemingly in an attempt to build him back up in the future.

During the 10th season of Chicago Med, Dr. Charles’ estranged mother passed away almost immediately after he yelled at her. Before that, Dr. Charles had his former protégé question how opinionated he is as a doctor and a potential love interest he rejected, asking him to allow himself to be happy. If that wasn’t enough, both of Dr. Charles’ daughters returned and he learned that they felt like they couldn’t talk to him, which made him question his fathering skills. After all that, fans saw Dr. Charles seemingly come to terms with the truth that he needs to change and take the first steps that must continue during Season 11.

Another one of Chicago Med’s characters who has been around since the first episode, Maggie Lockwood, was given a perfect spotlight. During a perfect episode for the character, fans saw how smart, caring, crafty, steadfast, and resourceful Maggie is.

According to Famous Birthdays, Maggie’s actor, Marlyne Barrett, was born on September 13th, 1978 in Brooklyn, New York. That means that, as of June 2025, Marlyne is 46 years old.

When Maggie began advocating for the nurses’ union in their battle against the board of Gaffney Chicago Medical Center, she seemed a little naive. Maggie was angry when the board made moves to limit the union’s negotiating power. However, during the perfect episode for Maggie, she realized that she needed to be strategic. Ultimately, Maggie used her intelligence and connections to negotiate a deal for the union that gave the nurses more ability to advocate for themselves and their patients. Since those are the things Maggie cares most about, it was the perfect end to the storyline for her character.

After Maggie used all of her skills to make things better in the hospital, the show then highlighted how caring she is. When she could have been celebrating, Maggie took the time to talk to Dr. John Frost about how he was dealing with coming to terms with being the victim of abuse as a teen.

Chicago Med’s third main character who has been there from the start, Sharon Goodwin, was also arguably given a better spotlight than ever before.

According to Famous Birthdays, Sharon’s actor, S. Epatha Merkerson, was born on November 28th, 1952 in Saginaw, Michigan. That means that, as of June 2025, S. Epatha is 72 years old.

Throughout Chicago Med’s first nine seasons, Sharon was shown to be incredibly smart, iron-willed, stoic, and solid. In her role as Gaffney Chicago Medical Center’s Chief of Patient and Medical Services, Sharon was the backbone of the fictional hospital and the show. However, the sad truth is that Sharon was almost always in the background of storylines.

During Chicago Med’s 10th season, however, Sharon arguably went through more growth than she’d experienced in the previous episodes combined. After being held captive and being stabbed, Sharon was obviously traumatized. While Sharon failed to fully cope with the emotional consequences of what she’d gone through, she walked away knowing what she would and wouldn’t put up with in life. After always taking care of others, Sharon fully put her own needs first and broke up with her boyfriend because she wasn’t willing to let him disrespect her.

Another way that Chicago Med’s characters were handled better than they had been in years revolved around Dr. Dean Archer.

Since Steven Weber is such a great actor, the team behind Chicago Med needed to make sure his character, Dr. Archer, was worthy of a performer of that caliber. Thankfully, similar to Dr. Charles, Sharon, and Maggie’s portrayals, Dr. Archer took a step forward during Season 10.

After Dr. Archer had spent years seemingly mostly animated by enjoying the authority he had at the hospital and by his dedication to patient care, he was demoted. After his demotion, Dr. Archer was shown during several episodes being far more invested in his personal connections than he’d ever been before. Dr. Archer also spent the season encouraging his peers to not let the hospital consume them. Given what Dr. Archer put first in the past, it was very refreshing to see.

Similar to Dr. Archer, it was also nice to see Dr. Hannah Asher prioritize her familial relationships. Between admitting out loud that she wants to be a mother someday and reconnecting with her sister, Dr. Asher seemed to be in a truly great place. While Dr. Asher’s relationship with her sister was undermined by the Season 10 cliffhanger, that doesn’t change the fact that her priorities have changed.

Finally, the last thing that needs to be noted about how Chicago Med’s 10th season handled the show’s characters is how new cast members were introduced.

In the past, Chicago Med has had a tendency to have new characters almost instantly bring up their trauma and drama. As a result, viewers were expected to care about drama involving characters they weren’t even invested in yet. During the 10th season, however, Dr. Caitlin Lenox and Dr. John Frost’s trauma was only revealed after the characters had appeared in several episodes. That allowed viewers to begin to care about the characters before being expected to empathize with them.

Chicago Med’s 10th Season Featured Several Great Storylines

Over the last several seasons of Chicago Med, the show has introduced a lot of drama that felt unearned. For example, as was previously mentioned, expecting fans to be invested in drama involving characters they didn’t care about. Furthermore, it was a drag to see beloved characters like Maggie Lockwood and Dr. Daniel Charles steeped in miserable storylines that were a drag for viewers to watch. While Chicago Med’s 10th season was as dramatic as ever, it was so refreshing to see how much better the season’s storylines were.

Most notably, it has to be noted that a storyline involving the premature death of Dr. Archer’s ex-wife arguably led to the best Chicago Med episode ever. While being forced to cope with his grief while worrying about his son, Dr. Archer went on the best written and most emotional one-episode journey in Chicago Med history.

As Dr. Archer was shown keeping his pain secret and coping with it alone, viewers were given a profound insight into why the character acts the way he does. Additionally, Dr. Archer spent the episode trying to help a mother cope with her own grief in a truly organic way. The episode and storyline were beautiful to see.

Another great part of Chicago Med’s 10th season storylines was that elements of humor were injected into the often very serious show. For example, there was when Dr. Archer got dosed by a patient and when the staff were trying to stick a clip on each other’s clothes to decide who had to buy drinks.

Ultimately, Chicago Med’s 10th season featured so many great storylines that they all couldn’t possibly be referenced here.