NJRadioGuy

I'll go one further and say this was an excellent episode overall. I really don't hate the fictional character of Hailey Upton personally. I just think the wrong actor was chosen for the role, and Spiradakos takes me out of the show with every line and every closeup. IMHO she doesn't have the acting chops to pull this off, and as for her facial expressions, you know how creepy the giant plastic Burger King head is in those ads? I think he was her acting coach. I like morally gray dramatic characters in the right context, and being a LittleVoightWannabe isn't the worst storyline the show could have come up with, but sadly T.S. just can't play the part convincingly to me. The character of Hailey Upton is tough on the outside but vulnerable underneath, and here she's in way over hear head. A good actor would be able to convince the audience of this and sell the story. And her Leading Lady duties with her male co-star lack any form of romantic sizzle whatsoever. There's no (visible-to-the-audience) love, lust, passion, caring, or...much of anything between them. Compare Upton's dramatic scenes with Burgess' scenes and you tell me which actor plays their respective role more convincingly. Maybe in real life she's the kindest, sweetest person in the world, calls her mother, and adopts orphaned puppies, but she just isn't the right actor for this part and her scenes just grate on me to the point I'm out of the story when she's onscreen.

Maybe water tank filming costs more to shoot than a smoke box? The show's pulling a 0.8 share this year...gotta save those pennies where you can!

Eid is also going to be showrunner on the Law and Order series revival on NBC, so now I have to wonder how much input he'll have on PD/FD/Med going forward, if any at all. We can always hope he steps down and puts all his efforts on that show.

Marina Squerciati's acting talents are being wasted on this show IMHO. Undoubtedly she's extremely well paid, though, so there's that.

You beat me to it. I thought that "last talk" between Boden and Hermann would involve Hermann losing his bugles and starting the merry-go-round. I don't see Cruz quitting, though. If the actor were leaving the show why not kill him off on the boat and let him die a hero? But I definitely get the Gallo-on-Squad vibe for sure. So no spoilers for who's the new BC25? If it's a new Chief, then it seems to me he/she would have been in the firehouse the day the promotion was announced to make the transition go smoothly. And if it's Casey, he'd have known already. Something's really fishy here. As for Griffin, I'm betting his mom is actively trying to sabotage his getting into the Fire Service and he's come to Matt for help. Or he's already a probie who's just been assigned to the house. For drama's sake it can't really be much more than that I don't think. Hermann with that kid....damnit. Yeah. Makes up for a lot the HermanHate™ I've seen. Loved him throwing himself on the grenade for Brett. As for that call, the EMS chief should have been ripping the supervising dispatcher a new one for not redirecting every ambo on the South Side that way—which absolutely happens when a mayday goes out for a kid dying. Please don't ask me how I know this. Plus Brett and her partner would have heard Hermann's urgent message transmission since they should always have their radio volume up for precisely that reason. And all Brett would have needed to do would have been to pick up the radio and say that 61 heard the call, is a couple of blocks out, and responding code-three (or whatever terminology they use for highest-priority/lights-and-sirens), with a 2-minute ETA. Low priority calls get dropped all the time for more critical calls. It's the nature of the beast. That chief would lose his entire Battalion's respect in a heartbeat if he'd ripped Brett for her actions had Hermann not stepped up. At worst she should have gotten an unpleasant talking to one-on-one, in private. If I'm Brett I'm getting together with all the other crews and putting the word out that the new chief won't back them up. I'd also bet that a real-life CFD ambo on the south side is mostly handling frequent fliers needing a hit of Vitamin N, coupled with mentally-ill homeless folks in crisis, and the odd MVA and GSW thrown in.

Yep, and of course if you have an actor in a leading role you can't very well move them out on a whim—which is also the Eamonn Walker conundrum on this show too. I'm good with a cast shakeup to a certain degree, but isn't that usually reserved for the winter finale, and the summer cliffhanger?

Herrmann is the Lieutenant of the Engine truck. He's not still waiting for an assignment. Sorry if you knew that, I couldn't quite tell how to read your post. (Casey is a Captain but still covers Truck, and Severide is the Lt. for Squad.) I think the OP was referring to the fact that Hermann had to wait many years between passing the LT's exam to receiving first LT position. Kidd passed the exam but so have many others ahead of her, and she (likely) has a long wait ahead of her. Or should. There are more FFs who have passed their promotion exam than there are open slots for LTs, so when one retires, dies, or gets promoted, whoever's next on the list gets that open job.

F/V Northwestern posted this from their FB account today: No Red King season this year. I guess it's all Baiardi this fall?

I never thought of that. This would make the most sense if nobody's being written off the show this season. DDC position moves to 51's quarters, Matt becomes BC, Boden keeps his promotion, and E51 continues to not put water on fire. All good <g>. DDC's position should also come with a driver; even BCs have drivers in many FDs.

The last few seasons were badly put together, but this year was just horrible. I also miss the specials like The Bait and After the Catch. They were always a bit of fun. Disco is milking this cash cow for all its worth. Honestly, if I never see Josh Harris or a picture of Saint Phil on the CM again it will be too soon. Casey's OK, but Harris is a waste of space that Disco is forcing down our throats.

I'd have been good about killing Cruz off as well, but if they do, it needs to be in a fire since he let someone burn up in a fire season 1, IIRC (a scumbag who definitely deserved a TV-death if ever there was one, but still). It would be fitting and appropriate IMHO. Plus it would really amp up the drama of his fiancée and sprog, seeing the firehouse react and take action on that front, etc.

Jay would make sense, but Eid wants to ram WoodenFelonBarbie™ down our throats with the force of a giant Acme Anvil. Hope she visits someone over at Chicago Med and a helicopter falls on her—and every character of that six alarm debacle.

Oh ghods yes. All of this. Especially the roof rescue. Was Mouch too lazy to swing the stick? That's, what, a 100' rear-mount, and a four story building. Still more than enough ladder. Ritter was told to take the hydrant, so....then what? Did he take it and walk home with it or something? Because the Waterless Fire Department was at it again. Imagine being the nozzleman, backup, or engineer on E51. You never have to do anything beside show up. Safest job in the department! Why would the BC out of 19 (is it still rat-infested these days?) take over all of a sudden? E51 and T81 are still in the 25 Battalion. They'd just need to bring in a new BC onto the show. But since Walker isn't going anywhere this season—I hope—then either they relocate the 25 elsewhere or St. Stella gets her wish and Boden commits career suicide by turning down DDC. I'm guessing in Chicago parlance a DDC is the equivalent of a Division Chief (next level of command up from BC)? The issue with Boden being DDC from the point of view of the show is that he wouldn't, or shouldn't, be responding to simple calls like he does now...so what does he do on the show? The problem still remains of how do they keep Kidd on the show when her number comes up for promotion unless Herman puts in his papers (or they kill him off mid-season, etc). And if they did, what would she even do on Engine, since they don't seem to actually do Engine stuff. How did they manage to get the proposed candle scent of "crispy critter" past standards-and-practices? wowzah. That's some wonderfully dark shit there. I LOLd.

I almost wonder if this is the beginning of Beghe's exit from the show. He takes the fall, Upton takes over intelligence. Although using WoodenBarbie™ and intelligence in the same sentence is indeed a stretch.

Late to the party here; I'm catching up after taking most of the past year to concentrate on a major work project. I loved this episode. Although I've never worked as a first responder I have a lot of personal connections in PD and FD (and tangentially in EMS). The aura surrounding the Q Word is very, very real. And taboo in any firehouse I've visited. I ended up in the Emergency Department as a patient for an evening earlier this year (false alarm, thankfully). The department was very...not-busy, and as the nurse was giving me an IV I said to her "careful with that stick or I'll say the Q word very loudly." The. Look. She. Gave. Me. Was. Priceless.

One of the best interview techniques starts off with asking the suspect or person-of-interest a lot of benign questions, eliciting the longest/best answers possible and maybe even kidding around a bit in the room. Get him talking about nothing. Find out what makes him tick, what makes him open up (or close down). Then go for subjects that he's going to always agree with (damn, the Giants really do suck this year, etc). Affirmative answers. Then get into the meat of things and if you're lucky you might get something usable before he realizes he's just been sold 40 years worth of Florida swamp land. The stereotypical "good cop" role.

Nikki Hanna from S19, who'd been Amber's sous chef in NJ until recently, is now a head chef at Hudson's Mill, in Garnerville NY. Good article on her here. Hopefully Amber's got a new sous to help her temp chicken properly.

There's a PV in North America most years. It's normal. And yeah, it sucks if you hate cold. It's only really news when it hits more southern regions of the country. I'd expect it in AK and northern Canada. Josh can go f--k all the way off. And when he gets there, he can keep f---ing off. I'm half willing to bet that the bosses at Trident gave him an earful about bringing their company's name into disrepute by his assholery on camera since he's wearing their gear. Either that or Disco no longer needs a villain. As for the deckhand, the one part of the conversation that was missing was explaining to the now-demoted deck boss in nice small words, exactly how to motivate the 'horn, and let his skills develop. If the Skipper is willing to endure the new guy's slowness and learning curve in the hope he turns into a good employee then he has to make that fact known to the entire crew. And if he isn't, then dump the new guy on a boat who can let him develop better. The crew sure as shit was.

Casey is a hell of a skipper and knows the boat inside out and backwards. What does Josh bring to the table, other than a face for the cameras? Who'd you rather have at the helm if things go to hell in a hurry? If there's no TV show, which of the two offers the owners a better skillset?

Yup. Raw chicken is almost always a one-way ticket back to Palookaville.

Sometimes various pieces of the same cuts of meat cook differently. This is definitely the case with brisket. I've had a 14 pounder get to probe-tender on me in as little as 12 hours and as long as 17 hours. I could also never get the whole finger-test thing for steaks. I just "know" from feel what rare and mid-rare is, and I can tell if I accidentally let it get past medium. Pork chops are easy to mess up since there are no real visual clues so I always temp it, and ditto poultry, but at the other end of the scale, I don't think I've ever once temped ribs, and I've smoked hundreds of 'em, and hamburgers ditto.

Granted I'm not a line cook in a professional kitchen, but I won't cook any meat, especially poultry, without my Thermapen. I cook competition-style barbecue (brisket, pork, ribs, and chicken) and that's the single best tool at my disposal. But that said, I find it's far better to cook steaks by feel than by internal temp, especially if I've put a nice Mailliard crust on it on a flat-top.

Just thinking more about this. What could work is promote Boden to DDC, staying at 51's quarters, and make Casey his driver. That gets both chiefs doing their own thing and opens up a spot for Kidd being the officer on T81. The only problem here is that BC Casey would be called out far more often than Boden, and to different incidents. So back to two command vehicles. But for the sake of Show Logic, I suppose it could work.

I think that would be best case, but then you have another piece of apparatus to deal with; the DDC command vehicle, the BC vehicle, Engine, Truck and Ambo. Is there even space on the apparatus floor? Boden has gravitas and can hold a room. I can't think of one other character on this show who could pull that off. Voight on PD, and maybe Dr. Charles on Med. The guys you just don't f**k with. The show needs that character, and no offense to Jesse Spencer, but Lt. Casey (BC Casey) ain't it. He's a Nice Guy and an excellent firefighter/officer but he's not written as the proverbial Leader of Men, and it would be foolish to try.

From a storytelling perspective this would make the most sense and would be the path of least resistance. It might also make financial sense since Eammon Walker is likely commanding a very big payday already for a mostly-supporting role. My only problem with that is that Walker is the best actor in the entire show and it would be a shame if he left. Obviously the Boden character would become an outstanding DDC but it would be a shame to lose him as a regular. They could still bring him in for cameos at major fire scenes, where he's in charge of the entire fireground (a very real thing).