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I was lucky enough to live in Australia for several years and while I was there, a television drama about rescue personnel was on. In one of the commercials for the series, a fireman looks at his colleagues and enthusiastically yells: “Let’s fight a fire!” It quickly became a catchphrase joke around our house because it was such an off-beat display of enthusiasm for a life and death profession.
I never thought I’d miss the quirkiness of a show that has a character scream: “Let’s fight a fire!” until I watched a few episodes of NBC’s new drama “Chicago Fire.” The characters on this series would never say such a bad line of dialogue but maybe they should. “Chicago Fire” is about a serious occupation but it needs a lighter touch.
The show follows the firefighters, rescue squad and paramedics of Chicago Firehouse 51. In the first episode a tragedy among the firefighters threatens the friendship between Lieutenants Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) and Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer) who blame themselves and each other as they struggle to cope with what happened.
There is also a rookie character named Peter Mills (Charlie Barnett) who is following generations of his family into firefighting and a chief who holds the squad together. Played by Eamonn Walker, best known for his great work on the critically acclaimed series “Oz,” Walker does his best to give Chief Wallace Boden layers but the character doesn’t stray too far from the “wise leader who teaches meaningful lessons through thoughtful stories” type.
The testosterone of the firehouse is balanced by three women characters. Gabriela Dawson (Monica Raymund) and Leslie Shay (Lauren German) form the paramedic squad while hospital resident Hallie Thomas (Teri Reeves) is the on again, off again love interest for Lieutenant Casey. The women are tough, street smart and cool under pressure which makes them watchable but unsurprising. Rounding out the cast is veteran firefighter Christopher Herrmann, played by David Eigenberg, who you may recognize from his work on “Sex and the City.”
The main tension of “Chicago Fire” is how work pressures impact the characters’ personal lives. Matthew wants to start a family but Hallie doesn’t. Gabriela puts her job at risk when she performs emergency surgery in the field on a young girl. Kelly is keeping a destructive secret and Christopher faces economic hardships. The problem is that all of these set-ups happen in the pilot. This works to create dramatic open-ended stories but it leaves little time for the audience to get to know the characters, let alone care about their problems. When yet another workplace tragedy occurs at the end of the first episode, it’s difficult to feel anything much about it.
The executive producer of “Chicago Fire” is Dick Wolf, who is the man behind “Law & Order.” What he did brilliantly with that series was to let the story take center stage rather than the characters. It’s one of the reasons why the original franchise continued to be successful even when the actors playing the main characters were replaced. It was an imbalance that worked. The set-up of “Chicago Fire” strives for a more traditional balance between story and character but so far, the action is more high-octane than the emotion and neither are very memorable.
“Chicago Fire” is on Wednesday at 10pm/9pm central on NBC.
Melissa Crawley credits her love of all things small screen to her parents, who never used the line, "Or no TV!" as a punishment. Her book, "Mr. Sorkin Goes to Washington: Shaping the President on Television's 'The West Wing,'" was published in 2006. She has a PhD in media studies. To comment on Stay Tuned, email her at staytuned@outlook.com or follow her on Twitter: @MelissaCrawley.
