So, I’m spending the next two months watching all the shows in the One Chicago series from NBC. I took the afternoon the other day to make a Google Sheets spreadsheet of all 491 current episodes in the series, in episodic order. Yes, that means that once I get into Season Two of Chicago Fire, I’m going to have to jump back and forth to Chicago P.D. The reason I did this is because there are a lot of crossovers in the series, and this way I’m not watching a bunch of one series, then jumping back for another block. It just works for me, even if doing the episode juggling on the Peacock app on my PS4 is going to be an absolute nightmare.
Anyway, let’s get to the review. Because of how I’m watching the series, I’m going to review all the seasons that aired together. For example, in the 2016-2017 season, all four Chicago shows had seasons air (Fire‘s 5th season, P.D.‘s 4th season, Med‘s 2nd season, and Justice‘s lone season). When I finish those seasons, I will review them all at once. But that’s at least six weeks away, depending on how fast I continue watching this series.
There will be spoilers below! You have been warned.
Chicago Fire Season One
For a first season, this was a pretty powerful beginning. The show opens with a pretty shock opener, which set the stage for the entirety of the season. We’re also introduced to all the main characters, who all are quickly set up with storylines of varying degrees of success.
Opening a show with the death of a character that has ties to every major character in a show is risky. There has to be drama in the first episode to hook viewers, especially when you are setting up a new show. But something like this can make or break a show. And in this case? It made it.
For one, it effects Lieutenant Kelly Severide, having a friend die at a scene was just the beginning of his struggles in this season. In the same fire that killed Firefighter Andy Darden, Severide was injured, though he chose to hide it. Over the first half of the season, he struggles to deal with the pain of a spinal fracture and turns to pain medication of increasing strength… and legality. His roommate and best friend, Paramedic Leslie Shay, finally convinces him to do something about it through tough love. The back half of the season has him dealing with the return of his father to Chicago, which doesn’t exactly go over well due to his father’s actions. The end of the season deals with him being accused of sexual assault by a former temp paramedic, though he is able to get her to drop the bogus charges once he confronts her.
Taylor Kinney is able to hold his own with both of these heavy storylines, especially since they feel like they are all five episodes too long. But that’s not his fault, that’s on the writers. They were dealing with a large cast, and the need to give all of them various amounts screen time.
While Severide is dealing with his issues, his counterpart on Truck, Lieutenant Matt Casey has issues both in his professional life, as well as personal. During the month after Darden’s death, Casey breaks up with his fiancée Hallie due to wanting different things with family (he wants kids, she doesn’t). Though he does reunite with Hallie, she is unfortunately killed at the end of the season in a blitz attack at the clinic she works at. He also has to deal with his mother, who he has an unstable relationship with, owing to the fact that she spent fifteen years in prison for killing his father. During the middle of the season, he is caught in in a dispute with Detective Voight which almost ends up with him getting killed. He ends the season neutral ground with the detective. Jesse Spencer is able to show so much emotion, especially with storylines that demand such power. It’s great to watch.
There’s also Paramedics Gabriela Dawson and Leslie Shay… who have some of the worst storylines in the season. Dawson can be reckless and she has gone over the professional line, leaving her to have to be written up several times. It got old at the second one. She also spends much of the season pining over Casey, while also getting into a relationship with Peter Mills (more on that later). On the other hand, Shay is basically there to have a crisis and be a lesbian. Oh, and want to have a baby, because her ex-girlfriend had one and now she wants. Half the time I think she hold’s Severide’s lone braincell, especially when he’s being stubborn.
The last character I want to bring to the table is Firefighter Candidate Peter Mills. Welcome to the most unstable writing in the damn show. (Or it could be Charlie Barnett’s acting, but that might just be personal preference). He spends half the time being a firefighter, the other half cooking. His relationship with Dawson was ill-advised and yet he continues, putting both their careers in danger. On top of that, part of the reason for becoming a firefighter is to follow in his father’s footsteps, but that doesn’t exactly work well considering the Battalion Chief Wallace Boden was there when his father died, and is hiding things from Mills. He also has a major temper problem that is rarely addressed. Oh, and he runs off at the end of the season because he doesn’t get named for Squad, something that is implied that is very difficult to get into. He’s still under one year. Cue my eyeroll.
There are other characters, obviously. I’m just hitting on the ones that are immediately standing out. Firehouse 51 is full of many firefighters that we see and follow their storylines. Most of which are actually pretty good, and I hope we revisit them in coming seasons.
Now, I’m ragging on the writing, and what I really mean to rag on is pacing. There are several storylines that I feel as though they could have been shorter (much shorter in some cases), but there are others that I think could have been extended. The actors work well with what they get, and the show comes out in a very cohesive way. I just think there are things being left behind so that there’s more for later seasons. Ten bucks says I’m right.
I’m happy to say that I’m pleasantly surprised that I’m enjoying this show. I know the back half of the second season is split with Chicago P.D., so I’m curious to see if pacing is an issue. I know there are character crossovers.
All in all, I’d give season one of Chicago Fire an 8/10.
(I probably won’t go into this much detail in subsequence posts, mostly because I’ll be talking about two or more seasons at once. Also, I’m now under the gun to get through 400+ episodes in like ten weeks. Which is a scary thought.)
Until next time!
