Chicago Fire

Chicago Fire - Season One Episode Twelve - Under the Knife

Dawson wakes up feeling a little awkward after her night with Mills but he is very sweet and says he is cool keeping professional and personal private.  Casey then complicates this further by telling her about him having a lot going on at the moment.  Elsewhere, Severide finally tells Boden about his shoulder but although Shay is trying to be there for him he turns to his new girlfriend for support instead.  After the doctor tells him that she has never seen a person return to duty with an injury like this he makes a surprising decision with his future.  Not sure he will actually go through with it but it left the episode on a 'OH MY' moment.  A pretty average episode overall but that is to be expected as the past two episodes had a bit more drama with the accident.

Chicago Fire - Season One Episode Eleven - God Has Spoken

The aftermath of the ambulance crash gets revealed.  Dawson has a few cuts and scrapes but is otherwise OK but Shay has a pretty serious brain injury.  Severide is devastated about how things have been between him and Shay and when she regains consciousness he wants to take care of her.  However, Shay feels it is better for her to stay with Dawson but she changes her mind when Severide confesses to Dawson and they work out a plan to take care of his shoulder.  Cruz is feeling guilty over his part in Flaco's death and comes close to telling Casey everything.  Casey's mother is up for parole so he asks his sister to talk kindly at her parole hearing but she refuses as she cannot forgive her for killing their father.  Dawson invites Mills over as she had cooked Shay a welcome home dinner but since she decided to go home with Severide she felt Mills would be one of the few people to appreciate good cooking.  However, a friendly dinner turns intimate and they are soon making out on the floor.

Chicago Fire - Season One Episode Ten - Merry Christmas Etc...

After fighting a fire at a an upscale home the firefighters get accused of stealing a diamond necklace which leads to IA coming into investigate the house.  The IA officer has a history with Casey as the officer talked trash about Casey's mother while they were in the academy so he punched him out.  Casey dupes the complainant though as he assure her they will find out what happened as they have it all on tape and suddenly IA receive a call saying the lady has found it.  Dawson invites Casey to her families Christmas party and gets blown off when she tries to kiss him as he says it is not the right time and it is worth doing right.  Shay has had enough of Severide's drug use and moves out.  Cruz is still trying to save his brother from gang life and worries his brother Leon is inside when a fire breaks out but he actually finds the gang leader Flaco hurt but alive.  In a moment of internal debate Cruz finally calls the room all clear and closes the door on Flaco and lets the fire take him in order to save his brother.  Casey goes to see his mother who it turns out is in prison for killing his father.  The episode ends in dramatic fashion with Dawson and Shay tidying up the ambulance after a call and a truck crashing into the ambulance.  The ambulance tumbles a few times until finally coming to a stop but we are left not knowing if they are OK or not.  

Chicago Fire - Season One Episode Nine - It Ain't Easy

The kid that has been hanging around the fires is back and is seen at a garbage can fire that gets out of hand spreading to the building next door which is full of oxygen tanks.  This leads to one of the firefighters, Vargas, getting hurt and leading to his career being over.  The Chief takes it upon himself to track down the boy leading to his uncle who is a serial arsonist.  Severide saves a woman from a car accident which leads to a date but he brings Vargas along as he seems lost.  Casey helps Dawson with a bit of DIY and they have an almost moment which gets interrupted by a phone call as Vargas is contemplating jumping off the firehouse roof as he feels his life is over without being a fireman.  Severide and Casey talk him down though.

Chicago Fire - Season One Episode Eight - Leaving the Station

This week was a tough week for the Chicago Fire crew with them having to deal with seeing a terrible train accident that takes the life of a young girl.  Mills in particular is affected and his mother tries to convince Chief Bodin that her son's time is done at the fire house.  Severide's injury gets worse with the Chief starting to ask questions but Severide does his best to blow him off.  Meanwhile Dawson and Shay try to deal with a mother who they suspect is poisoning her daughter for attention.  They get her reported to DFS but after they refuse to pursue they take it upon themselves to deal with it leading to further reprimand.  Elsewhere Shay has to deal with her ex and her husband whose drama she has been pulled into.  It was a good episode that opened some questions that may be answered next week.  Severide gets a new supply from his ex but after taking two tablets and hooking up with Shay's conquest from episode two he has a few moments where he appears to be suffering from dizzy spells but I'm not sure if that was to set up a reaction he has or a random accident on the actors part.  There was a lot going on in this episode and there was a good balance between personal and professional which I think is what will make the show more successful.  Too much personal and it runs the risk of becoming slightly soap opera like and too much professional it may not hold audience's attentions.  For me though the show is finally finding its footing and becoming a weekly watch.   

Chicago Fire - Season One Episode Seven - Two Families

It is Thanksgiving and a busy day for the crew as they deal with a meth lab, a 10-car pileup and a gang shooting.  After they get exposed to chemicals at the meth lab they all have to take a drug test which gets Severide worried as he doesn't know what to do what with all the painkillers he has been taking.  Shay helps him out even though she is not happy about it but also has her own drama to deal with when her ex Clarice shows up just to say thanks.  Dawson sees through her though and even though she basically tells her to leave Shay alone she shows up later again.  I am sure it will be explored in the next episode and so we will found out what her plan is.  Elsewhere, Otis starts a podcast, Mills does his best to make a tasty Thanksgiving dinner with the help of his sister and Severide is clearly smitten with her.  Casey again tries to convince his fiance to have a child with him and Chief Boden tries to work out if a young boy is a firebug.  It was a good episode with lots going on. There were several character developments and I look forward to seeing where they take them. 

Chicago Fire - Season One Episode Six - Rear View Mirror

Dawson gets help at her suspension hearing from the young girl she saved.  Elsewhere, when Casey saves a woman and her son from a fire risking his own life he finally catches a break with his troubles with Voight.  As it turns out the young man knows about it all and offers to help get Voight on tape to solve Casey's problem.  It was a good episode and the show is finally starting to find its own rhythm.  I am glad the Voight story line is finished as it was getting a little repetitive.  That said I would not be surprised if it came back if Voight gets off or something else.  For now though the narrative is over and we can move on to more story lines.

Chicago Fire - Season One Episode Five - Hanging On

Casey finally fights back against Detective Voight and has to deal with the consequences but the narrative is no where near concluded.  Dawson too has to deal with the consequences of her actions with saving the girls life in the pilot episode and dealing with a difficult guy during a call.  Elsewhere, Severide's arm fails him during a rescue attempt and when Shay refuses to give him painkillers he turns to an ex girlfriend who just happens to be a pharmaceutical representative.  There was a lot more action in this episode as there were a number of calls out which meant there was a good balance of personal and professional.  A pretty decent episode overall and I think the show is finally finding its feet and will hopefully continue to progress.

Chicago Fire - Season One Episode Four - One Minute

This episode continued the narrative between Detective Voight wanting Casey to change his report.  Mills swears he has time to save a homeless man as he only needs one minute but Chief Boden refuses to let him just as the building blows.  Boden then gets put through the ringer with the powers that be and the press accusing him of letting the homeless man die.  Shay runs into her ex girlfriend who is now married to a man and pregnant.  The best narrative for me involved Serveride and his desire to help an elderly lady who is being hassled by some local thugs.  Overall the episode was pretty good but it does feel like the show hasn't totally found its footing yet as to what it wants to be.  That said there were two stand out moments for me when Hermann defended Boden and firefighters as a whole and Boden's speech to Mills explaining what one minute really means.  

Chicago Fire - Season One Episode Three - Professional Courtesy

The team gets called to a traffic accident where a drunk driver has hit a father and son but it gets more complicated when it turns out the drunk driver is the son of a corrupt police detective who wants Casey to lie and say he did not see the open containers or see his drunk son.  Elsewhere, Shay calls out Severide about his shoulder and convinces him to see a Doctor friend of hers off the record.  In typical Severide fashion though he ignores the Doctors advice and acts like it'll be fine.  The episode was pretty good and Chicago Fire is fast becoming my guilty pleasure.

Chicago Fire - Season One Episode Two - Mon Amour

This weeks episode continued the narratives introduced in the season premiere last week; Severide's guilt over the death of his friend Darden, Casey's relationship problems and more teasing of the new candidate.  Severide discovers Darden's wife blames him for her husbands death and connects with an accident victim which shows his softer side when he later delivers a message to the victims wife.  A new character gets introduced, a lady to help with payroll who has a major crush on Severide and although he blows her off you know they will get together eventually as she is the daughter of the chief's best friend and will inevitably cause more drama.  The main event for the episode was a community barbecue which involved more amusing ribbing of the new candidate.  Overall it was a pretty good episode but it still feels like the show has yet to find it's rhythm and that there is something missing.  It better find it quick though as NBC are quite a cut throat network when it comes to cancelling shows.

Chicago Fire - Season One Episode One - Pilot

Chicago Fire follows the lives of firefighters and paramedics in a Chicago firehouse. The trailer highlights the fact that the firefighters and paramedics in question are extremely attractive and it would be easy to write it off as a superficial exploration into the lives of the characters. This however does not appear to be the case as the cast is made up of some talented actors that I have seen in previous roles. Jesse Spencer plays Lieutenant Matthew Casey who heads up Truck 81 and is best known for his role as Dr Chase on House and who I fondly remember as Billy Kennedy years ago in Neighbours. The second male lead I am less familiar with is Taylor Kinney who I have only seen in the cancelled series Trauma. Here Kinney plays Lieutenant Kelly Severide who is in charge of Squad 3, a special rescue squad. There is tension between the two as at the beginning of the episode the team loses a firefighter that they have both been friends with since childhood. They seem to both blame each other and likely themselves for his death. The rest of the cast is made up of Monica Raymund from Lie to Me, Lauren German from the 2012 film The Divide, David Eigenberg who played Steve in Sex and the City and the brilliant Eamonn Walker from OZ. The narrative has more depth than first expected too as each character has their own issues to sort out whether it's financial troubles or physical pain. The pilot sets up these personal issues for each of the characters and I expect they will be explored in greater depth as the series progresses. One thing that did surprise me was the outing of one of the characters as gay within the first episode and the way it was done was very matter of fact which in this day and age is the way it should be. This is only surprising as NBC have not exactly been a network that has had shows with many homosexual characters and when they have it has either been incredibly subtly suggested or they have been written out of the show as with Serena Southerlyn in Law and Order. Interestingly Dick Wolf, the Executive Producer of the Law and Order franchise is one of the Executive Producers on this show too and this adds to my interest in the show as I have consistently enjoyed Dick Wolf produced shows such as Law and Order SVU, Criminal Intent and Deadline. Hopefully the show will get given a chance and not be cancelled after a few episodes which NBC is known to do as the network can be quite cut throat with new shows.