NJRadioGuy

Good episode overall. Well, the non-Gabby/Brie parts, at least. They're continuing to be cheap with fewer rescues or other calls, but tonight's was still pretty good. Like the Hazmat guy but I still think Kidd and Severide are end-game. Too bad about Mr. Sprinkles, but Hermann's call at the end with the donation to the Humane Society was a nice touch. Also really liked Casey wanting to bunk with his men. The Hazmat rescue bugged me a little in that they didn't call for FD as soon as it became obvious that the vic was overcome by fumes and the scene was not safe. But with time being critical I can see them risking a reprimand or suspension for going down and pulling her out. What really bugged me about that call was why the actual hell did they treat her in the damned house? Forget taping up the basement door, get the vic and her daughter into fresh air PDFQ. Especially when they initially thought it was CO. Get the kid outside, and call Main for FD backup. Also, I'm actually surprised they didn't call Truck 81, with the Hazmat guys backing them up. Truck companies ventilate and investigate minor incidents like that. 81 would probably have been the closest truck company anyways, and they'd still have gotten HunkyHazmatLT into the picture. First rescue in the revolving door was decent, too, but I'm very curious how her foot could have gotten trapped like that in the first place. Makes no sense in two ways. There's virtually no clearance between the frame of a revolving door and the bottom plate, which serves as added insulation against cold air getting into the building, or keeping air conditioned air in the summer from leaking out. If the door somehow malfunctioned, and there was enough clearance to get her leg trapped, they could have just as easily propped the door up from below and pull her out. To me there seemed to be a risk for further damage from when the door frame tension changed after it was cut with the Hurst. The second bit of nonsense, is how a leg could even be at that angle in the first place. But I'll chalk that up to TV Physics.

Without rewatching the episode, I'd say the ideal way would be to get a tower ladder up there, or if it was a straight shot, a regular aerial, go right below them and lower them into the bucket or onto the ladder. Both devices have a reach of about 100' give or take, so that might have been impossible depending on how far up they were. If it was above the reach of a truck, then yeah, get at least 2 rescuers up above the victim(s), both tied off and secure, one lowers the other down, secure a line or climbing belt around the victim's waist (to prevent falling), then eventually lower them to the ground. Rewatch any episode of Emergency! and see how they did it back 45 years ago! As a big man myself, there's absolutely no way he'd have been able to hang on by his arms for however long it took for someone to call 9-1-1, the call taker routing the call to FD, then toned out to the stations, the trucks rolled, the rescuers put into position, and so on. The big guy did not "just give up." Gravity and physics simply won out. Given his predicament, even if he did try to reach up and grab numb-nuts' hand, in that brief time (maybe 2 or 3 seconds?) only one tired hand would be supporting all that weight. You try dangling suspended by one hand from a pull-up bar or something even a foot off the ground and see how long you could hold on. Many years and several careers ago, I was a press photographer on the overnight street beat. I had 9 scanners in my car and a trunk full of photo gear. There was one PD dispatcher who had a voice so sultry she could raise the dead. I'm talking a true "whisky-and-cigars" voice. I finally met her one day. She was in her 60s and most definitely not what one would expect her to look like. She was a great dispatcher, but she had a face made for radio, not television.

It's all soap opera, fewer runs, fewer rescues, etc. Those cost money and this is an old/expensive show now that doesn't pull ratings like it did in the first few seasons. Other than the omniscient and all benevolent St. Gabby, First of Her Name, I didn't hate it, but didn't love it either. And as if Boden can purchase for the entire city. Who tested those gloves? Who gets sued into oblivion if they were repackaged work gloves from Costco and a firefighter loses his hands as a result? Yes, an interesting story with a different ending that we'd come to expect, but not something that would or could happen in a major urban department.

Burgess has been dumbed down tremendously from her patrol days, and even then, she wasn't always the best police. I get what they were doing with her tonight and I didn't like it, but I see why they had to go there. In a network police procedural sometimes you have to beat the audience over the head with a story line before it sinks in. Tonight it served two purposes. One, it got to show Burgess was too smart by half (plus it now gives her some emo-baggage to carry around, and an excuse to bang her ex), and two, it got to paint Upton in a less-horrible light. Too bad Spiradakos can't act to grow into the role. She still has one and only one facial expression. So does Beghe, for that matter, but at least Voight is interesting. Upton...not so much. The funny thing is, I think Upton could have been an excellent patrol replacement for Burgess. She just doesn't seem a good fit for Intelligence—and sadly, neither does Burgess, at least as far as Burgess is being written this season. For that matter, the interchangeable prettyboys don't work well for me either. I could watch Voight and Olinsky TV-torturing dirtbags and solving crimes all night long. They're good characters, and Elias is the best actor in the bunch by a long shot. I've known my share of real world undercovers and he pulls it off well. As @doLLish said, it definitely felt a bit like old-school CPD tonight, but with that said, I sorely miss patrol antics as a change of pace.

Just saw "Engine 318" make a cameo appearance on Fox's Lethal Weapon (after a car explosion). Could there be crossover potential between these two shows?

I'm good with the captain/LT/whatever being in recovery. Sadly it can be A Thing for some people on the job. He's not wrong saying there are different coping mechanisms. I knew some guys who....Yeah. Let's leave it at that. And damned straight there are sex addicts, and a more-than-willing cadre of badge bunnies to fill the need. And yeah, Not-Fired Probie would have been Fired-and-arrested probie after the first stunt.

Not-Fired Probie using the deck gun on the Engine was pretty much fun, and something actually possible...if someone else was running the pump. Yes, the engine probably had a 500 or 1000 gallon tank, but that water doesn't get to the hose bed outlets or the deck gun on its own. The engineer is normally the person who runs the pumps (that panel behind the driver's door with all the levers and gauges). That directs the water to whichever port(s) are needed, and accepts water from the hydrants. You can't do that and run the deck gun on your own. Just as you can't (easily, at least) raise an aerial all by yourself.

If they can find their footing from a story-telling point of view they still have a chance to pull this off long-term. First responders—real ones, that is—are an integral part of everybody's every day newscasts, entertainment and (unfortunately for some) their daily lives. Even average people understand the very basics of how a FD operates, almost everybody has seen what a real fire scene looks like and how many firefighters and pieces of apparatus are on the fireground. Just drive around in any non-rural area and you'll see how many police cars, FD apparatus and EMS units respond to a pin job (accident with a victim trapped). Things like that. Joey the Bricklayer, Miranda the account executive and Tonya the high school kid all see this stuff every day in many cases. So when a piece of fiction throws up some unimaginable drivel masquerading as a story it rings false immediately and takes the viewer right out. There is no willing suspension of disbelief here when a probie snarfs the Truck for booty calls. I guess if they're content programming for viewers with room temperature IQs who get excited when they hear a siren, there's that. But competing for eyeballs at a time of Peak TV should mean something resembling good writing showing up on our screens 13, 18, or 22 weeks a year. Chicago Fire has far more than its share of problems, and I rag on it constantly (St. Gabby, first of Her name), but that's practically a Jack Webb procedural compared to this. As I've repeatedly said over on that board, it's more than possible to tell compelling first responders' stories and still get the physics of firefighting correct, the intelligence of good coppers, and the medicine of EMS. Technical consultants working with writers to get the basics right. Basically, I like to be entertained, but I don't like my intelligence insulted in the bargain. I get that for budget reasons Chicago Fire (and probably this show, eventually) can't show 12 to 15 pieces of fire apparatus, and have about 60 FF extras for every fire call. That I can handwave. Ditto for car wrecks, water rescues, building collapses, etc. But some of the crap they pulled in the 9-1-1 pilot was just egregiously bad. I loved the newborn rescue. Just great, and as much as I don't want it to have been based on a real incident, I'd bet money it was. The suicide was equally terrifying/heartbreaking. The snake lady rescue started off as a fun little B-story, but when that POS probie up and butchered the snake without trying less lethal means I was disgusted. For that alone I will always detest that character—that is, if I stick with this show. Same as with Cruz on Chicago Fire. He let someone burn up in a house fire in season one. A really bad guy, and someone who deserved Something Bad to happen to him, but not that. Not by a firefighter. And the pool rescue at the beginning: You don't shock flat-line (asystole), damnit!

Dear ghods, what did I just watch? And why? As Break21 stated, a good start then it fell apart. By my calculations, Jack Webb and Ron Cinader are up to about 10,000 RPM at the moment. Has anybody involved with this hazmat wreck of a show even bothered to do a day's worth of research into the fire service, EMS or dispatch? I'm just dreading their first working fire. For those here who just watch action shows for fun but don't really understand what's going on, here are some of the most egregious WTF moments: One FF (probie??) borrows a ladder truck--twice in one shift--and goes off solo? WTAF? PLUS he raises the stick up on his own, gets the outriggers down, balances it out, climbs on his own, etc? Are you effin' kidding me? Why was he not locked up after the first one, let alone the second! Is Nash a Batallion Chief, an officer or rank-and-file firefighter? He rolls up in a Batallion chief's van, yet he doesn't appear to be a chief, and later rides E118. So is the FD crew on Engine 118 or Ladder 118? There's a difference, you know. They can't be both. Dispatchers for FD can only talk to FD apparatus. Dispatchers for PD can only talk to PD personnel. 9-1-1 call takers in an urban environment only interact with the public; they pass the call on to PD or FD dispatchers. The level of wrongness displayed in that housebreak scenario defy every single bit of logic in all the assembled multiverse. One cop car with a single police officer on a call involving a child in danger? Seriously? There would be a sea of black-and-whites in the area. EVERY smartphone transmits its location, within a 3 to 10 foot accuracy in most cases. The location shows up on a map before the call-taker even connects. It's done that way for exactly the reason shown tonight. Having the caller give his/her location is just to ensure ANI-ALI info is correct. Since when can even a Batallion Chief terminate another firefighter, let alone his senior officer or training officer if he's a probie? Yeah, you could sit his ass for the shift and have HQ and the union rep there to do it in an emergency situation (like stealing a piece of apparatus to get a piece of ass). I can't speak for you, but I would refuse to work with that douchecanoe under any circumstances. He's a danger to everyone around him, as he so wantonly displayed. I can't even.... I did love the premise of the dispatcher never hearing how the call ends, and Nash in the confessional was great. Loved his character, and "Hen" Wilson (Aisha Hinds).

There's a Hollywood craft service company that relabels O'Douls with labels for fictitious-but-genuine-sounding brews, and sells them to production companies for $15 per bottle. HuffPo has a good article on the subject here: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/08/fake-tv-beer_n_5242749.html One resolution to the Peterson Ranch problem that would still keep the plot of the show moving forward might be for the boys to sell to Neumann's Hill, with Colt running it, not Rooster. Rooster stays with Beau on IRR until Rooster's permanent departure from the show. Colt stands to make a ton of money running ex-Peterson's, which he could invest back in to IRR and maybe implement some policies that keep IRR in better financial shape, or at least good enough to survive the next Plot Contrivance that threatens the ranch. After that, though, it gets tricky, and I think the writers need to start thinking endgame soon. It will be Beau and Colt, running a ranch all alone within about 6 or 7 hours of screen time.

Natural gas is cooled to -260°F, put under pressure until it becomes a liquid, and then sent via pipeline. It's only flammable if the stoichiometric ratio is about 5-15% LNG-to-air. If the pipeline were to rupture, and if the LNG didn't ignite, it would just evaporate.

Garrison's a stand-in for Ouray, a magnificent little town in the San Juans that we went to on vacation a few years back, and that's shown in the opening credits. All the other places they mention are real nearby towns. Durango, Silverton, Ridgway, and Telluride, (which is 50 miles away by way of the regular highway, however there is a shortcut, but unless you've drove the Black Bear Road before....) But I digress. If there's nothing in Grand Junction or Ridgway, or any of the local towns nearby then yeah, I could see it. The other issue is the cost of living. Between the southwestern part of the state where "Garrison" is located and Denver is a little place called Aspen (and Glenwood Springs). Nice if you're a billionaire but normal folks could never afford to live there, so most of the people who work there come in from towns one or two hours away, or so I was told when I was out there. Also, Denver or Colorado Springs are more likely to pay a decent wage and offer a chance at a real career and professional development, so I can see Abby's reasons for taking that offer. Incidentally, Ouray and the towns south of it are utterly spectacular, very tourist-oriented and have quite a "blue state" mentality. Beau would have been miserable since about the 70s. Only farmland is north of town and on up to Grand Junction. South of town it's all fourteeners, old abaondoned mines and mining roads, and sights that take your breath away. Only Bass Pros are in the eastern part of the state, though. Denver and Colorado Springs. And the nearest DQ is in Montrose (I actually ate there on our way back to the Denver airport). I've actually been quite fascinated by the sponsorship in the show by competing companies. Coors-Molson, AB Inbev (Bud), Pabst (PBR), Pernod-Ricard (Jameson's), Kirin (Four Roses), as well as Ford and GM, etc. Whisky is mostly iced tea (same colour), and beers are quite often non-alcoholic brews like O'Douls, relabeled. My understanding of the situation with Danny is that he will appear in all 10 episodes in Part 5 (summer 2018) but will disappear sometime in Part 6 next December. Hated the character from the beginning; didn't find out about the actor until a couple of weeks ago, so I won't be sorry to see him go. I hope they actually kill his character off. Or maybe send him to prison for sexual assault. As for the cliffhanger, yeah, that was incredibly predictable. So much so that I thought it might have been too predictable and they'd have gone a different way altogether. Selling to Neumann's Hill is the only logical thing to do, of course, but I hope they can pull a miracle out of their asses and resolve it differently. I do want to see Colt and Abby get their own ranch. But what if the sale had gone through. Colt gets the ranch with Rooster. They have to split time working on IRR and BBR or whatever they'd call it. When they're up at BBR, they leave their 72 YO father (with a heart condition) to run the whole thing? Yeah. No. Plus with Rooster flying the coop in Part 6, they'd have a staffing crisis. Sounds like both properties are marginal earners at best. Plus Rooster has already proven that he's unfit to actually run a ranching business, and Colt's only been back in the game for a year. Neumann's Hill is the best thing that could happen to the Peterson's place for those two dumbasses.

The sloppy writing hacks were at it again here. Re the dashcam: Lugo was smart enough to smash the camera but leave the SD card in it, but they could only get a single frame off it? Sorry, that's not how it it works. The better way would have been for Danny to come down from the truck saying "this genius had the same idea--he smashed the camera. But wasn't smart enough to pull the memory card. Proof positive that crime makes you stupid." Use that, solve the case that way. No way any good police is going to use the vic as bait like that. What if, after Lugo gets popped, he sends a message to an underling to whack the driver and his whole family? How'd Danny feel if that happened? Any detective worth his or her salt wouldn't hesitate to use (legal) deception to get a confession. But once again, they violate Dectetive-101: you don't bring the suspect in for an interview until you've got a solid case and are ready to lay a charge regardless if he talks or not. But that's probably not good TV. Shit, borrow from real life, get a search warrant for his phone, and track his location. In many areas you can get legal accuracy within 7 yards. Get him to admit he was "in the area" and that's enough for an arrest warrant. Also that warrant will apply to phone numbers called and a record of sent and received texts. You pop an 18-wheeler and you're going to be making arrangements to sell the trailer contents, and so on. They mightn't have gotten him on assault causing bodily harm or attempted murder, but they sure as hell could have collared him for the hijacking. Re the PA warrant. Dear ghods. You're a prosecutor up for election in a rural community. You hear about this guy's plight, learn his involvement was peripheral at most, but find out he saved three women in NYC. You don't go hardass on a charge that would at most get the guy a few months in the county lockup (at worst), you hail the hometown hero, swallow the charge and give him a damned parade back home. In fact, in the last pre-Christmas show, it could have been better if written this way: Play the hardass, insist on personally coming down to oversee the "extradition" and bring along local TV crews, family, etc, to deliver the good news that all's forgiven. I like Baker, and wish she'd have more to do on the show. What they should have done to end the episode is have Frank offer her any other squad in the city for which she qualifies as a Detective Second, and for which there's an opening. Make it her choice 100%. Or give her the option to stay if she wants. She's earned the right to write her own ticket. If Abigail Hawk was a few years older, I'd even say have her leave, then pick her up next season as a romantic interest for Frank (i.e. with her no longer Frank's immediate subordinate), but with the age differential and the target audience of the show, I don't think that would work. She's definitely underused, though. Could they please give Jack and Sean something intelligent to do on the show? They had one episode as something more than a Greek Chorus at dinner and now these teenagers suddenly without a mother are back to being TV-land well adjusted kids with no real opinions on anything.

Ah. Nothing consequential, then. Thanks.

Did anyone catch the very last line that Cain said to Lucifer? I played it back several times but it was mumbled just enough that I couldn't make it out (and my CCs weren't working for some reason). The switch to 8pm has hurt this show badly, having to dumb down and kiddify some serious themes. Imagine the fun we could have in a 10pm timeslot, or better still, on cable or streaming? This should never have been even a 9pm show, let alone 8.

Assuming Voight knew what was going on and Ruzek didn't come to him, Voight needs to dump this guy from his unit immediately. He's not trustworthy, plain and simple. There is no forgiveness for what Ruzek did in a unit that tight. If there's the slightest doubt that the guy may not have your back at some future point, he's a liability. Period. Turf him. Transfer him. Hell, promote him even, just get him the hell out of your unit, in a way that he can never, ever come back. Since I doubt he's being written out of the show after the break, that means either (a) he went to Voight weeks ago without us, the audience, knowing it, or (b), they're going to let him get off with a scolding or a couple of weeks off then back to business as usual. I'm obviously hoping for (a), or that he gets dumped out of Intel permanently.

Not just that, but it's an insult to the viewers' intelligence to believe that in as tight-knit a unit as Intelligence is, that when one member gets jammed up he won't go to his C.O. If your unit is decent, and you trust your commanding officer with your life, he's the guy you go to with Exactly This Kind Of Crap. Everybody in the unit knows Voight will go to the wall for his team so WTAF was Ruzek even thinking?

I actually liked the episode. Not much Spiradakos (a huge plus for me), an Olinsky sighting, a Platt sighting, and Burgess being the hawt badass. Only thing that bugged me (as it always does on TV-cop dramas) is how they continue to question the suspects after the suspects say the magic "L" word. And I still miss both the patrol facet of the show and the basement torture cage. But the show is starting to get the old feel back to some degree. The first half-dozen episodes under Eid felt wrong. Now they're getting their groove back a little bit. The ending's got so many possibilities going, Obviously Ruzek's in no danger, but how are they going to play this out? Now, if this were a movie, Ruzek would be sleeping with the fishes. But it's network TV with two good-guy TV heroes so we know they're all going to come out just fine. Did Voight have a wire up on Ruzek to suss this shit out weeks ago? Maybe, but I'm not so sure. He knew something was up, that was obvious, and the wheels were spinning just as obviously. More likely, I think Ruzek realized he was in too far over his head, goes to Voight and explains that Woods has arc-welded his balls in a vise. After Voight reams him a new one for "not coming to me sooner," he tells Ruzek to go to the meet with Woods and tell him to pound sand, and he'll handle it from here. Part of that handling might involve the favour he asked from the Judge. Ruzek is in the dark from that meet onwards; Olinsky and Voight get Ruzek there to explain their SooperSecretPlan™ to exact payback. Or what would be a real twist? This was all a test by Woods, in cahoots with Voight, to see how deeply Ruzek's loyalty was, if he would sell out, etc, to save his arse. He stands up and, what, he gets a top-secret deep undercover detail or some shit? That would suck far more. Woods is a weasel and I want to see Voight and Ruzek nail his ass for good this time.

I'll probably give it a few episodes but I just can't see it lightening up given the subject material.

Who knew the depression could be so depressing? Well done, but probably the darkest drama I've seen in a long time. Not quite sure if I'm up for it, to be honest. Decent performances all around and I did enjoy the soundtrack, so there's that.

One engine and one truck, so yeah, Truck would be the one overhauling with Engine supplying the water. Dumb fire plot, but I did like Stella's save. No way they're bringing everybody down the stick in that situation. Third Watch was one of my favourite shows.

I missed that part. Still, in a fairly high-end place like that they'd have chemical suppression, and firebreaks between the kitchen and the front of house, no? I was only half watching (and half asleep), but I though I saw one of those table-side brazier grills burning hot, and oddly enough, flames from a table with no visible source of combustion on it. Because flaming hot kitchen grease is going to spill on a table. More like the gallon of lighter fluid that was set off before they called 'action.'

Utterly predictable. I do hope Otis finally gets a romantic interest with Mac's daughter. Bye Hope. Hope Severide thoroughly disinfects....things. I still like Kidd and Severide. The only thing worse than Dawson on my screen is Daddy Dawson. Please bleed out on the platform. So a couple of tabletop-style grills go up and they don't just bring a couple of handcans and put 'em out? Not exactly super-combustible material there guys. Just charcoal. And if they're gas fed, duh, shut off the gas. Morons. At most, bring an inch-and-3/4 up the stick and go to town with it. Why risk all those customers maybe falling off the aerial when they're all safe on that balcony. Wait to put the fire out and down the stairs they go. They might even get to pay their tabs on the way down.

I think the shrimp might have a different viewpoint, though.

I've said it before. Saint Gabby, First of Her Name. And her middle name is Mary-Sue. Still a toss-up with Upton on "PD" for who wins the statuette for Worst Character in a Chicago Franchise series. Now that I think of it, it's Gabby. At least Monica Raymund can act, even though I hate the role she's playing. Spiradakos can't, but her character hasn't been defined well enough to despise (yet). I'll handwave the collapse and rescue logistics to a degree, since it's a network TV show budget. We the audience have to see, so of course the lights are still on, and it didn't immediately pancake down. I can work with that. I was rooting for the collapse to smush Saint Gabby, but we all know that can't happen. She bends the laws of physics, space, and time doncha know. The same cable set that carries electricity to the elevator will also carry the alarm signal and phone line. I can see the phone not connecting, but if there's power for the elevator car's internal lights (which there was), then the bell will work too, which the FD would hear. Where can I get one of those magic 27 MHz CBs that also transmits and receives on a 700 MHz digital trunking system? They could be handy. (Hint: it can't happen). I literally LOLd at that, since 2-way radio tech is my stock-and-trade. Cellphones most certainly do work 15 feet below ground. Well, my Verizon phone does, 1.4 miles from the closest tower to my own basement, but YMMV in Chicago. And even if that CB wasn't a Magic Transceiver, if it had power it would transmit a signal that I can guarantee SOMEONE would hear and hopefully relay by landline to 9-1-1. AND most CBs have a PA function in them, thus the "electrician" could probably jury-rig an external speaker from someone's car stereo easily enough so they could make some noise. And speaking of which, HONK THE FUCKING HORNS for heaven's sake. All of them. Nothing says "Come rescue us, we're trapped under 30 tons of rubble" than multiple car horns sounding in a way that they don't sound like an alarm system going off automatically. Idiots. Why would a Battalion Chief be the one bestowing the promotion? Wouldn't it be a DC, the Commissioner, or some other white helmet doing the honors at HQ? I don't get the badge history thing. Makes no sense, but maybe that's a Chicago thing. Probably not, but I don't know. When Boden tells BC4 that there's a trapped FF/PM in there, why wouldn't Casey have chimed in "She's also my wife." I sure as shit would have if it was the love of my life. And with that, the entire team would have Casey's back (unless they all knew Gabby and wanted her to end up getting slipped under the garage door instead).