Performer of the Month – May 2023

STAFF RESULTS 

Once again staff side voting saw two performers from the same show go back and forth between two performers, with Patrick John Flueger (Adam Ruzek) from Chicago, PD taking the win followed closely by his castmate Tracy Spiridakos (Hailey Upton) with Yellowjacket star Christina Ricci (Misty) taking third. After several months of making the Top 3 in POTM, Flueger breaks through with a staff choice win for his work in the gripping season 10 finale of Chicago, PD. His breakthrough performance sees his dangerous undercover mission with white supremacists come to a dramatic end and leaves his very life hanging in the balance. Early in the episode, he shows signs of a man near the end of his rope. As he listens to and transcribes his tapes, his physical reaction is slumped, weary, and dejected. Then he reaches the end of that rope when he gets a panicked call from his target’s daughter, Samantha (Caitlin Mehner) who decides to flee with her son after her father pushes up the date of his supposed “final event.” You see him struggle with trying to do what’s right by remaining undercover and blowing his cover to get her to stay. Finally, you see on his face and in his eyes when he decides saving Samantha and her son were more important than his cover and arrests her. The biggest mistake he makes the entire episode is trying to reason with her son as he prepares them for a safe house after she makes a deal, thinking the child who has been toxically indoctrinated by his grandfather can be reasoned with. He lets down his guard and ultimately the child shoots him. Flueger offers some great physical acting as the possibly mortally wounded Ruzek crawls across the attic floor and down a short flight of stairs to get to his phone to call for help. Even in the ambulance as he is near death, he begs Burgess (Marina Squerciati) to help protect Samantha and her son from his grandfather. All-around great work from Flueger who has given strong performances all season with this storyline. Patrick John Flueger is SpoilerTV’s May Staff Choice Performer of the Month.

READER RESULTS 

On the Reader’s Side, Chicago, PD stars continue to show strength in our POTM polls. This month Tracy Spiridakos (Hailey Upton) easily took first place with popular NCIS: Hawaii star Yasmine Al-Bustami (Lucy Tara) made a strong showing for second, while Spiridakos’s Chicago, PD co-star Patrick John Flueger (Adam Ruzek) took third. In an hour of terror and survival, Spiridakos’ character in essence finds herself in not one but two fights for her life. The first life she fights for is that of her marriage as she opens the episode worn and weary and trying again to reach her husband to discuss the toll his work is taking on their marriage. Later, when answering a call from one of his informants, she finds herself in a physical fight for her life when she gets caught up in his drama of betraying his drug dealer and they are both taken. She does great work in the scenes with the informant Lee (Jack DiFalco) during their captivity. She’s confident and commanding, being all cop, in trying to find a way out of this situation for them without revealing her true identity to their captors. She is masterful in never letting them see the fear in her eyes. As strong as her emotional work is in those scenes, Spiridakos’ physical work in this episode is exceptional. Whether she’s trying to free herself from her bonds or fighting with the captors she gives everything to the scene. She again shows her character’s resourcefulness when saving herself by using the drawstring from her pants to strangle one of them as he drives them away from the carnage. Her will to survive is strong. Despite the horrific situation she has just been through, she sheds not one tear until she gets home and finds herself surrounded by the essence of her absent husband. The only time she cries is when she realizes that while she may have saved her physical life, her married life may not be savable as she tearfully and wearily removes her wedding ring. Tracy Spiridakos is SpoilerTV’s May Reader’s Choice Performer of the Month.

Please join us in the comments and on social media in celebrating winners Patrick John Flueger and Tracy Spiridakos as well as the incredible runner-ups. Both winners have secured a place in the 2023 Performer of the Year competition that will take place in January 2024. With this double win for performers from Chicago, PD, the show and any of its performers are ineligible for any of the remaining POTM competitions this year. 

Come back to Spoiler TV on Saturday, July 1 at 12 pm ET for the start of the June round.