Season one of the popular series “Chicago Fire” set the season for all the rest that would follow. The show is a drama that follows the lives of the rescue squad, paramedics and firefighters of Chicago Firehouse 51. Season one kicked off with a cast of attractive actors and actresses. The first episode hits the ground running and establishes an important series of events that lay the groundwork for many of the episodes to come.
A team member is killed in the line of duty by a fire. What happens in the aftermath is that Lt. Matthew Casey, played by Jesse Spencer and Lt. Kelly Severide, portrayed by Taylor Kinney take their share of the shifting blame for the innocent. This sets the tone for the reality based series that deals with real life and death matters, and how the characters deal with the outcomes. The two are in a finger pointing competition as they attempt to work through the tragedy. It doesn’t help that Casey is on edge already because of a breakup with Hallie, his wife. There is plenty of drama in this story line as personal and work dramas intermingle, setting the overall tone for the rest of the series to follow.
Blame and shame
The second episode features yet more of the blame game being played as the widow of Darden makes a public statement blaming Kelly Severide for the death of her husband. The story being told in the second episode is the ongoing trouble with Casey and his wife Hallie. He must decide about any future he will have with her. In case you didn’t see the emerging pattern by now, the drama explores all the possible issues that can happen in the professional and personal lives of the firehouse staff, both on and off the job. We see screw-ups, attacks on moral character and a perpetual need to make hard life decisions. The series becomes intense from episode one and the drama just continues to build throughout the entire first season.
Who’s going to get the blame next?
As early as the fourth episode, when Chief Boden gets bad press for the department’s low morale, we start to wonder who is going to be on the other end of the finger pointing this episode. He was accused of forsaking a homeless man in a warehouse that was ablaze, ending in the man’s death.
Moral dilemmas
In the third episode we see Casey in a moral dilemma. The Lt. is pressured to cover for the son of a police officer who was driving drunk and caused a crash that led to the paralysis of a teenager. Severide encounters some medical issues himself. A neck injury poses a serious threat as his doctor tells him to seek treatment or it may never heal. Of course he ignores the warnings. Mills is faced with the dilemma of helping his mother run her restaurant or going full time with the fire department. So many decisions to be made!
Raw emotions
From Casey’s relationship problems to Shay running into her ex-girlfriend on a call, we see a range of intense emotions flaring in the main characters. Hermann has a meltdown during a rescue on Halloween and his temper gets out of hand conflicts arise between Casey and Detective Voight and when Casey dares to fight back, the political consequences begin to unfold. Dawson adds to the drama by behaving badly on the job and as if we didn’t already know it was going to happen, his arm fails him during a rescue effort. Wouldn’t you know that he just happens to have an ex-lover in pharmaceuticals that he goes to for help.
The tone is firmly established before we’re halfway through the season
There are many daring rescues and the action is realistic as we see the crew interact with the victims, but we can nearly be certain at this point that someone is going to feel guilty or accuse someone else of making a mistake. The drama is at times nearly too intense and there are times when we just wish that the characters would lighten up a little. Of course in the life and death situations that they face daily, it’s understandable that there is going to be a lot of tension. We know by now that we can expect to see a little romance from time to time, and a whole lot of human emotion from the darker side of humanity.
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