NJRadioGuy

This is true, but then you get the reveal at the end of what was in the envelope at the mat, and watch as teams react when they find out they missed a fast forward or $10,000 in cash each. Or else you make it so one of the teams has to select the special envelope (maybe once in a while).

If you have a nice random mix of positives and negatives you could even put them in specially-marked envelopes and essentially dare the contestants to see if they feel lucky. Or not. The random elimination would suck bigly, but I really don't hate it, and I wouldn't put it in the first 4 or 5 legs either. Although generally I believe a team's lack of skill or ability should be the sole cause of their elimination, the fact is in a race, bad things can happen. Even traveling on your own you can lose a passport, miss a flight, get robbed, get sick, have a lost hotel reservation, etc. So if you have to bunch everybody up for cost-cutting reasons, that eliminates a bad flight connection, which has resulted in more than one elimination. So putting this variable in to shake up the race would be fair. The big question for me is since everybody is always on the same flight now, does production now hold onto their passports and other critical documents?

I'd be fine with printed maps, too, provided there is sufficient information on the map for the contestant to find the place they're going to. But a GPS might be better for TV, especially since modern/younger viewers have probably never needed to read a paper map. And since the 18-49 demo is the group who pays the ad bills.... By safe I mean "you will not die or sustain life-threatening injury," which is pretty much already the case. Which is why I cringe when contestants scream like they're in mortal peril when doing something daring, but in reality they they're firmly affixed with professional rigging that will, at worst, bruise their egos if they fail at the task. What were the odds of that happening with the watermelon challenge? I'd maybe even go beyond the "you've been U-turned/yielded" clue. Have a random clue in each clue box. A yield, a U-turn, a bonus task, an extra privilege, a "you're safe from elimination" pass, a fast forward, a bonus prize (instead of at the mat, and more random), and at least once in a season, "Sorry, but you've been eliminated."

I don't want to see them with phones, but giving them each a handheld GPS device would be huge. I have always hated to see teams eliminated because of a lousy cabby who didn't know where the destination was. This would give them no excuse other than their unfamiliarity with how to use the software or poor battery management. The bunching of flights is definitely a cost issue. Pandemic aside, flights now run at close to 100% capacity as much as possible, and often the only seats left are up front. It's certainly much harder to get 4 tickets in Y these days, and they can't travel in J/F so yeah. Bunching. Plus the fact the show draws typically a 0.6 or 0.7 rating, meaning advertising isn't supporting it nearly as much as it did in earlier years. Anything under 1.0 would have been a sure cancellation just 5 years ago; now that threshold is 0.5 to 0.6 (and falling every year). TAR is the most expensive reality show ever made so yeah, there have to be cost constraints when advertising dollars vanish. Or else seasons would have to be cut in half and only 5 or 6 teams competing instead of 11. I strongly agree with a major penalty for helping another team on certain specified tasks. Keep the rules simple and unconvoluted but bring back real competition and tasks that are safe, challenging, and completable by people of average strength and intelligence. U-turns suck, but I don't mind them. I love the idea of one clue in a clue box reading "You've been Yielded" or "You've been U-turned." THAT is brilliant.

Honestly, I don't think he'd give a crap about his reputation that early on, but rather why his rig almost killed a friend and possibly a civilian victim if he knows he did everything right. Did something happen on a different shift that the operator failed to log? That would have been my first call (or the officer's first call). Followed by Fleet Services to get the rig towed, inspected, torn-apart, and fixed. Unless the operator was a vacation-relief man ("floater" I guess in their parlance) or someone that nobody knew there's no second-guessing that the op. screwed up beyond "What the hell was that?" If he says it was a malfunction then it was a malfunction. Any other reaction means you don't trust the operator.

This storyline bothered me SO much, in so many ways. Casey's worked with and trusted Mouch on the stick for at least 9 years (if show seasons are supposed to vaguely track calendar years). No way in hell Casey disrespects his chauffeur/operator like that, beyond "What the hell happened?" Call another truck (there would have been at least 3 or 4 at a working fire in real life), put 81 OOS until further notice and get the dep't mechanics in to disassemble it down to the last nut and bolt if necessary. And of course they'd have every single service bulletin ever issued. It's not up to the FFs to diagnose and service their apparatus. Not to mention that there would be dozens of spectators taking videos and posting them to YouTube, so the fault and rescue would probably have made the news. Such utter horseshit. The bosses would have been burning up the phone lines to the manufacturer, too. Also, why didn't they throw ground ladders up too? For a truck company they never seem to throw ladders. And if Ford could have found me as the fifth owner of my ancient Ranger pickup ten years ago, Seagrave or whoever would be keenly aware of where each piece of apparatus with a potential issue would be in service. EDITED TO ADD: Mouch would have been livid after that happened and he'd be leading the fight to get to the bottom of the defect. It's his machine to operate and it nearly cost his friend his life (they were also WAYYYY too close to primary and secondary power lines in a few of those shots too, and I was afraid that's where they were taking the story). No way the officer and the operator aren't calling for someone's balls for bookends over shoddy maintenance. Yep, I noticed that too. Bugged the hell outta me.

The ones I look for are the ones who can cook and work the line, but don't get a lot of camera time at first. The more over the top or flamboyant, the greater the chances you're going to be cannon fodder; sooner if you're a lousy cook or have a shit palate, or later if you have talent but are a douchecanoe. After just one episode, the one guy I really like is Marc. He wears his heart on his sleeve, but he's got passion, drive, and he appears to know how to cook and present. And regardless of whether he wins the competition or gets eliminated, I think he's got a solid career as a chef ahead of him--unless he turns into a misogynistic, back-stabbing arsehole that nobody would want to hire. But my spidey sense is tingling and I think this guy might at least be a black jacket. A couple of the women seem above-average competent as well but I honestly don't remember their names. Declan can cook, but older overweight chefs are frequently the target of Gordo's ire and derision since they often can't move as quickly as a well-oiled brigade demands. Note that I say this as someone older and bigger than Declan, and share his Irish heritage, albeit by a generation removed. I've got a feeling he'll be gone after 4 or 5 episodes.

A few random thoughts on this. I didn't hate it but also didn't love it. The disabled detective - I'd watch the hell out of a show featuring Det. Mulaney. Ali Stroker pulled that part off brilliantly, and I hope we see her again. As for her circumstances, there's still plenty of good police work she could do with a squad. Undercover with a partner, chasing leads on active cases via computer (which is quite honestly how a great deal of real-world cases get solved today), being a skilled interrogator in the interview room, and best of all, taking the stand to give evidence. She'd be a rock star in the courtroom for the prosecution. Lineups are done with photographs these days, not live in the stationhouse. Interviews in the box are always recorded, and if he's not been charged he has the right to walk out the front door immediately. Period. If that smarmy prick was as smart as he was portrayed later, the first words out of his mouth would have been "am I being detained?" And if yes, his next words would have been "Lawyer. Now." Or if no, "I'm outta here. See you, Detective." When Flores looked to be a viable perp the first thing that should have been done was a GSR test, which either would have ruled him out immediately or put him as a prime suspect. When the killer was ultimately shot in the head, based on the angle of the wound and position of his head, they'd be able to recover the projectile and run it through a ballistic examination. Put out a confirmed 10-13 officer down on the radio and you'll have every RMP and detective in the area on scene within a minute. The entire scene will be a sea of blue. And hell yes, the commissioner and all the bosses would be at the hospital until the officer stabilizes or passes. Enjoyed the dinner scene. That was fun and a nice tension-breaker. No way the rapist gets convicted. The illegal tracker on his main vehicle yielded evidence that ultimately ended with the victim being rescued from the other car. Decent detective work, but without a warrant, that's a fruit of the poisoned tree defense that would likely get the charges dismissed. Why the lazy writing here? "Hey, Baez, we got a warrant for a tracker. Here's my plan..." All they would have needed. How would that perp have even gotten the call to pick up his initial victim? It's all done by phone messaging, and there's honestly no way to tap into that. Dumb writing. Again. The drunk driver's lawyer was awful quiet the whole time. All Erin has to do is turn the case over to the judge with no recommendation. Normally the State makes a recommendation, and the defence makes their case for a reduced sentence. The judge then reviews the sentencing guidelines, examines the conduct of the accused before and after the offense and more often than not comes up with a fair punishment. Even without the playground heroics, the guy was a first-time offender, probably gainfully employed, and showed extreme remorse for his actions. No way that earns the max, which would be reserved for a repeat offender 3X over the limit, leaving the scene afterwards, etc. Now, throw in the heroics, and I'd bet dollars to doughnuts he wouldn't even see the inside of a prison cell or at most a few months.

I should qualify that by saying that anyone who's earned their way onto a Homicide squad has my absolute respect, but I've known some real-life murder police and other U/Cs, and some are guys who are just a blast to be around. Larger than life, gregarious, and sharing a bottle of Scotch and a box of cigars, they'll tell the best war stories (true or otherwise) for hours on end. One was a neighbor of mine who worked drugs, gangs, and (briefly) homicide. He retired and moved to the desert southwest but man, our BS sessions were things you could write a book over. I can bet that half of my TV favorites would fit right into that category.

Yesterday I watched the "My First Homicide" episode featuring Det. Rayell Johnson in NOLA, with the case "Dead Wrong" from S16 being featured. This was one of those episodes where only a very, very small fraction of what actually happened made it to air. I googled the name of the one perp who ended up getting life without parole (not the shooter, but the ringleader), Tavis Leonard. Reading the ruling from that LA Court of Appeals that upheld his LWOP sentence was something you could make a movie from. The un-named "friend" and the friend's father who owned the house where it all happened were really big-shot drug dealers. The father and another member of the family ended up getting whacked because the son cooperated. The son never testified and bugged out for parts unknown (I don't blame him). This crew was not playing around and everybody involved, perps and vics, were hardcore. They managed to rip off a brick of coke and $90k in cash. The two victims were being taken to a secluded spot to get popped. The one made a run for it and got killed on the street, the other got lucky (for various definitions of the word). You can read the whole sordid sequence of events here. I found it pretty gripping, and the appeals court made things very plain.

I'm guessing they can't embed with the squads with Covid restrictions so they need to come up with something to keep interest up. I wish they'd do more "After the First 48" to follow up on interesting cases. He did, and now he has his own podcast. He's very camera-friendly and has the personality to pull it off. He's one of the superstars the show has managed to feature. My favourite of all time is Tom Armelli in Cleveland, and I'd rank Dave a very close second. I also really liked Nate Sowa (CLE) since he and I both love our cigars. Caroline Mason (Nashville), Timothy Bender (NOLA), Rob Barerre (NOLA), Dave Quinn, Scott Berhalter, Summer Benton, and Scott DeMeester (all Atlanta) are also great on camera and are or were excellent detectives. Cleveland, Atlanta, and Tulsa are my favourite cities. I'm pretty sure that the new shows since Sgt. Walker's retirement were from cases not broadcast because there was no resolution. Looks like they managed to make arrests in a few and I think at least one or two convictions IIRC.

Also known as Little to big, back to the rig!

No way Casey goes back to Gabby (i.e. leaves the show, since Gabby ain't coming back--and I refuse to think the unthinkable here). I can see either Mouch or Hermann getting written out, although as a Certified Olde Pharte myself, I like seeing the veterans on the job, not just a bunch of Hollywood Twinkies. I could definitely see Kidd getting knocked down by a white-shirt or some other factor. The whole promotion thing is a big plot obstacle, and frankly I don't see the writers being creative enough to plot their way out cleanly.

Yeah, I forgot about that one!

Jeez, do you blame him? It's obvious that he's got strong emotional feelings for her, she's in mortal danger and he's able to do something about it. Hell yes he's going to use every single bit of training and instinct to get to her. Frankly who wouldn't in that case? Hell, any good FF would do it for another member of the service to begin with, let alone a potential romantic partner. That's what medics and FFs do, plain and simple. They're not paid executioners, judges, or juries. And this is why I will always despise Cruz, because he did precisely that in Season 1. There'll always be the little voice in the back of your head saying "do it" but if you do, you're a murderer. From a storytelling perspective, you lose the hero status and don't deserve to get the girl. I'm seeing warning flags with Stella for sure, but honestly she really is a badass. Good for her making as many saves as she can. I knew a guy about 20 years ago who retired off an Engine company in a Really Bad Part Of Town as it were. He had more grabs than anybody else in his house or platoon, I think. He "just knew" where to be and when. Would that even be an issue if it was Severide or Casey making all the saves? FOR THE MOMENT, I think they're consistent with writing Kidd as an extremely competent firefighter, a great organizer, and a strong leader with a good future ahead of her, and if this was real-life she'd be a BC in a couple of years or on Squad if she wanted, or moving up to HQ. But as a dramatic character, they're setting her up for a big fall of some kind of another. The showrunners and actors have been teasing a proposal or whatnot in interviews, and I think she'll get that, but my spidey sense is telling me Kidd might end up getting killed off. Either she or her GOF protegée probably won't survive to the end of the season. I hope I'm wrong. Or they could go the other way and turn Kidd into Saint Gabby the Second, which I seriously hope they don't do. She's not a lead actor on the show so she's expendable in that sense. And as I've posted elsewhere, after she aces her LT exam (which of course she will) she'll have been written into a corner, and I'm trying to see a good dramatic way to move her along past that.

Yeah, in show-canon he'd get a rip for sure. In "Chicago PD" show canon 10-1 means something along the lines of "clear the air for emergency traffic" or "officer/member in distress," etc. I guess it translates to the FD. That's certainly the context in any event. Real-world equivalent in NYC is a 10-13 (Officer needs assistance). That basically gets every RMP in the zone rolling in lights-and-sirens. And of course he's got to save his girl! Train incidents are always over-dramatized. She could have easily been pulled out of harm's way, and from the distance the train saw the person on the roadbed most likely a 2-car or 4-car train could have stopped. Urban transit cars have far better deceleration characteristics than heavy freight trains, and on the el, I'd be surprised if they were doing over 25 or 30 MPH to begin with; likely 20-25. I was on a D train in Brooklyn last year (10 cars/600 feet long) going what felt like normal track speed that tripped on a signal and went B.I.E. (brakes in emergency). It went from about 35 MPH to stopped in about a half a train length. CTA trains are shorter and lighter. Oh, and WTF was the company doing up at Wilson Station? That's a long ways away from their quarters and certainly well out of their response area. Yes, yes, I know. It's a TV Show.

No, I disagree. She knows damn well exactly what she wants, but she also knows that she won't settle for anything less than twoo wuvv. And I don't blame her in the slightest. And she was right to shut him down when he confessed he didn' t know what he'd do. That question she posed is the fastest cure for the 4-hour-erection side effect warning on little blue pills that there ever was. I'd pity the boss who'd write up a top-notch LT for saving one of their own. Maybe some jobsworth asshat-in-a-white-hat but nobody with any leadership moxy would even consider it. IRL you wouldn't believe what goes down if someone's PASS goes off or there's a MAYDAY call. Nothing short of a wall of flame, live wires, or poison gas would stop every single member worth his or her helmet from risking it all to save a brother/sister, and to hell with their own life. At least I can say that about every one of the firemen I've known over the years. I was never on the Job personally, unfortunately, but my connections run deep to FD and PD. I'd have to rewatch the episode but the squad probably wasn't on the run or was returning to quarters. I watched this at 2am today so I don't remember precisely. What got me is that when the truck was looking for her and calling her on the radio neither medic answered. Even if their vehicle radios or antennas were damaged in the dive off the overpass (possible), their HTs would work, and if they're like every other first responders' radios they have panic buttons. And failing that, hit the manual siren button repeatedly in yelp. Obviously PD would have secured the scene and arranged the tow but as the camera left there were no police cars around the downed ambo, and I found that irritating. I wasn't sure where they were going with Severide's trip to the pound, but he also tampered with evidence. No way Old 61 was going to be parted out until after the perp was convicted and the vehicle no longer required as evidence. And the asshole impound lot attendant's attitude bothered me a lot, too. This should have been straight up and above-board. Sometimes you just know when someone's the right fit. Stella's intuition senses this kid's got what it takes. I love what Stella did for the kid. Any excuse to get her around the firehouse as much as possible and get a few bucks thrown her way. Bad writing for sure, but I like where it ended up. This is the bad writing I referred to above. Surely they could assign it to the low man/woman in the house, or get a member of service from HQ to come in. These tasks would be the perfect job for an injured member or a retiree to come in so they can stay around the Job even if they aren't jumping onto apparatus any more. There could be some awesome stories to come out of this for the show, too. But I'm glad the girl got the gig for the sake of the overall story. Nothing that a few applications of a cutting pad, wet sanding, polish, and wax can't fix. When the New 61 backed in, I was looking at the door and noticed the old lettering wasn't on the new door, so I applauded the continuity—they only have one vehicle for the show, and I was wondering if they'd have handwaved getting the lettering done for the new rig before it came into service. This was before I realized what Severide was up to, then I figured it out pretty quick. Nobody wants to get involved, and it's too common an occurrence. They'd rather take a video of someone dying and get famous on Youtube than put their goddamned phones down and try to make the save themselves. Happens here in NYC far too often. But do note that a 4- or 6-car train can stop within about a train length, or less at low speed. Shorter CTA trains probably only need about 200-300 feet from when the motorman throws it into emergency. Overall I really loved this episode. I love how they're making Casey work for his happy ending, and work through his feelings for She Who Must Not Be Named. Forge that relationship in the fire of experience and memory and then, if he survives, he gets the girl (after a few more perilous rescues, of course). But this leads to a problem, though. Half the house will be hooking up with the other half. Someone's going to have to leave, one way or the other. Not to mention the other problem evident from last week: Stella will be a LT without a rig.

I get that you have to intermix relationships and work on the show, although I still don't like it. I like them as a couple, but to do this kind of stuff in the House is every shade of wrong.

The answer to every question will always be money. How do they make enough to pay for production of an extremely expensive scripted drama with name-brand stars, location shooting, etc? Broadcast ratings are still in free-fall, and a 1.1 share in 18-49 is now a good night for One Chicago. So how can content producers convince sponsors to fork over obscene amounts of cash for a show that's getting more expensive to produce every season while the number of eyeballs watching the ads (the only thing ratings measure, period) is falling? Simple--don't piss off your audience and cut back the episode count. And be prepared to part with long-time favourite actors when they become too expensive. They've got a very fine line to tread here. This isn't to defend what they're doing (far from it), but reality is a harsh mistress and when you lose the eyeballs that are actually watching advertisements (Live+Same Day, and C3 ratings) the show's finished and the ad buys go to a show people like better. Police procedurals also tend to skew outside of the coveted 18-49 demo so the risk of losing even a handful of Neilsen viewers is extreme.

A year or so back I was talking to a friend in the production side of the TV industry, and best he could figure is that network TV shows like this skew older--much older--and the suits are deathly afraid that older audiences would react poorly and ultimately tune out, and that's why established canon is almost never changed significantly. Fewer eyeballs = no more advertisers = no more show. That's very definitely the circumstance on the show he worked on a few years back (Blue Bloods). You can get a lot more done on cable or streamers, but scripted network dramas are rigidly controlled by audience reactions and focus testing.

One of the things that's bugged me for a long time about this show is how the Intel unit only has one African-American undercover investigator in a city with so much crime from within the various minority communities, and I'm speaking both of the fictional world of "Chicago PD" and the real city itself. You'd think that having a squad of deep U/Cs that blend in with the groups they're trying to infiltrate and investigate would be a logical first step.

Yep, there was. We still only see Hermann and his Probie, Ritter, with speaking lines. And they still never have water in time. I'm pretty sure I read that the background actors on Engine 51 are actual CFD firefighters. That house is the real-world home to CFD Engine 18, so I'm guessing it's some of their off-duty personnel? And speaking of which, regarding Rescue 3. We know Severide is the officer, Capp, and Cruz are firefighter/specialists on the crew but there's a fourth man on the crew that we never really see much of and who almost never has speaking lines. He's the driver, Tony Ferraris, who is the actual operator for real-life Squad 2 on the north side. "Station 51" should never have been an engine-centric house on the show since E51 is never really featured in the plot and they haven't learned how to put the wet stuff on the red stuff 9 times out of 10. The cast is already too big, and having another 4 or 5 team members getting their own stories just wouldn't work. T81, R3, A61, and B25 are the stars.

Couldn't agree more. They shouldn't be in the same house or on the same shift. Her judgement is clearly compromised. Not saying in this case she made the wrong call, but the pattern has been established.

Classic trolley problem situation. Boyfriend or not, a brother's down and in mortal danger vs two civilians in mortal danger. There's only one you with no cavalry able to come in time. You don't know the civilians; you know and respect the colleague, and in this case have a romantic relationship with him, which could still happen if you are stationed in two different houses, or you're a spare board floater and happen to get toned-out to the job by fate. Policy may say you go after the civilians. The trapped colleague would probably insist on it if he knew. But basic instinct and human nature may well countermand that. I just can't snark on Kidd for that decision or question her judgement. If you're Kidd and you go after the civilians only to see them find an exit on their own or they realize they're going the wrong way and can make it out; you go back and find your colleague burned up, could you live with that? Could your fellow FFs? Double that if he was your romantic interest. You know for a fact your colleague will die horribly if you don't act. You do not know with 100% certainty that the civilians will perish. Forget the romantic aspect; if that colleague dies your career is over. Nobody would ever want to work with you again. Nobody would trust their back to you. Not to mention the lifelong nightmares, second-guessing every decision for the rest of your life, years in therapy, PTSD, etc. If the civilians die it's a horrible tragedy, you'll probably still have nightmares and PTSD, but your brothers and sisters on the job will support you and have your back (not to mention your money won't be any good in bars for a very long time). Sure, you'll carry the names and faces of those two civilians in the dark recesses of your mind, but they'll go in there along with the MVA victims your team couldn't get out of the crash, the baby who died in your arms after her mother OD'd and lit up the apartment by accident, the homeless guy that froze to death on Christmas Eve outside the bar where stockbrokers were spending their bonuses on hookers and blow, and the countless others that you couldn't get to in time.

That inappropriateness of candidate vs superior was inexcusable, but it did make for network TV storylines that could be cranked out in no time flat. This one has the potential for drama, sure, but here it's a very real plot problem of what to do with the character after making her promotion a major plot point for a portion of the season. So she earns her bugle...what do you do with an extra officer in a station that's got all the officers it needs. All I can think of is that Hermann is on the way out of the show (or he gets demoted or whatever) and she takes over Engine. Or she becomes a part-timer, and we only see her in cameos when she leads another company against 51 (since only 51 can be good guys), or as Mrs. Severide...which obviously won't happen. If the storyline of "Stella gets a promotion" put her in line for a specialist job (maybe a Hazmat specialist for the station, or something they make up entirely out of whole cloth for the show) then I think it would be workable. But unless a current cast member vacates a position, I can't see where an extra LT fits in. Sometimes they're funny but more often than not, cringeworthy. But look back 45 years to Emergency! and Chet Kelley. He wasn't any better, and that's putting it mildly. I wore out my fast-forward button on those horrible C-plots when I binged through all 7 seasons of that show in 2018.