NJRadioGuy

The Commissioner is appointed by the mayor, so presumably if he has some pull in the mayor's office (or has incriminating pictures of the mayor) he could be named to that position from a BC. You can imagine the shitstorm from the rank-and-file and the press if that were to happen, though. I'm guessing the promotion to captain will fall through because of a Plot Device To Be Named Later, thus keeping him in the house, since there is no position of captain in E51's quarters. Each rig has its own LT, and the BC (Boden) runs the house in this case. I'm guessing the rank of Captain would become the senior officer in a house that doesn't include a Batallion Chief, maybe? That's a bit unclear to me. The double transport in that case would make sense. The kid strapped onto the backboard with what appears to be a minor injury, and certainly a BLS transport, isn't going anywhere if that backboard is secured to the bench seat. The cardiac is an ALS transport for sure, and with no other resources available for 10 minutes (hint: real-life they'd have a sea of emergency vehicles for a collision involving a child) he needs to go ASAP. So, with no other ambo available, what else would they do? I suppose they could keep the kid strapped to the backboard on the ground with a couple of EMT-B firefighters or uniform cops to keep her calm until another ambo can get there. I would be quite surprised if, for an MVA, dispatch wouldn't roll 2 or 3 ambulances, since accidents often have more than one pt. Or at least an EMT supervisor who can maybe transport an ambulatory BLS pt in a pinch.

It wasn't just "so wrong" to me, it's a mark of absolute callousness and an evil that is irredeemable in my book. If they had shown it that would have been the end of this show for me, and probably a boycott of ABC. I get why they did it, though, but they went a bit too far. She was a douchecanoe of a mother in every way and I'm fine with them portraying her interactions with people as such, but that there crosses every single boundary between douchecanoe and just plain rotten-to-the-core evil. So yeah. Twisting Department, butthole spiders, acid vats; the works. Then slo-mo drop-kicked into the sun.

I was almost going to say that Eleanor's mother deserves to be drop-kicked into the sun, but then what fun would that be. It would be over too quick. Maybe drop-kicked into the sun s-l-o-w-l-y, following a prolonged stay in the company of Todd.

Fluff episode, but I did like the Hope reveal. I don't get the issue of doubling up in the ambulance. A critical ALS patient and an injured child, no second bus for 10 minutes, that's a no-brainer. Load and go. Just hope the girl on the backboard was properly secured to the bench seat. The $64,000 question was how did those two manage to get the bariatric pt on a stretcher into the ambo in the first place without a lift assist. Would a V-tach patient have sat up and been "normal" 10 seconds after being shocked? Conscious, yes, but able to sit up and talk? And why the hell wasn't he connected to the Lifepak? They obviously would have had to have him connected to detect the V-tach then to shock him, so where were the leads? Mullins is Chekov's Chief. Bet on it. TV-CFD seriously needs to examine its entire brass' leadership qualifications. But I do agree with Mullins on one thing. Cigar butts are nasty; they stink to high heaven. I have a dedicated ash can on the driveway filled with BBQ and fireplace ashes, and as soon as I'm finished a cigar that's where the butt gets dumped. If I were a boss I'd have been pissed to find those, too. This was a very short episode. 38 minutes from what I saw, where the average network drama is 41-43.

I thought something was off. If this turns into Chicago Police-politics I'm out. I don't turn to TV dramas for "a conversation about urban policing challenges." I watch to see TV cops arrest or kill the villains, solve the mysteries, tell compelling stories, and maybe have torrid affairs with each other along the way. 502 and 503 were as PC-preachy as the worst crap from the '70s.

Did Chicago PD get a new showrunner this season? It seems the entire tone of the new season is quite different, and it has nothing to do with Lindsay leaving. They had a formula that worked pretty well for 4 seasons. Ratings were acceptable and audiences knew what they were getting, including ocular discomfort from excessive eyerolling. This episode was just plan bad, but I wasn't particularly happy with the first two, either. Especially with no emphasis on patrol.

I'm sorry for any blacksmiths reading these forums. You will be unable to purchase your new anvils for quite some time since they were all used up on this POS of an episode tonight. Oh, and earth to CPD: the rest of the free world uses photo "6-packs" for positive ID, administered by a so-called blind detective (an officer who has no knowledge whatsoever of the case). And yes, a witness is allowed to change his or her mind after careful reflection. Idiots. Also, please show me a station house interrogation room that isn't recorded with at least two angles these days—one on the subject, one on the investigators. That said, I miss the TortureCage™. Because what police facility doesn't have at least a half dozen for those recalcitrant suspects! </sarc>. Oh, yeah, when the perp in the box says "lawyer," questioning stops immediately or else every single word uttered afterwards is inadmissable. Note to the writers: it'll still be possible to get the bad guys if you write within the guise of reality; you'll just have to work a bit harder at it. Only thing that surprised me is they didn't go after the Bentley-driving white owner of the meat processing plant, since in TV Copland, he's the most obvious bad guy. And one last thing. I hate Upton; Spiradakos still can't act. Oh yeah, and Burgess as a Wild Child? Bwahahahaha.

I do the same. A blacked-out home theater, 65" TV with a complex sound system and bass shakers in my recliner (they make all the difference!). Plus the fact my TV does a decent job at upscaling the image to faux-4k quality, means I get to see intricate details of those amazing costumes and props, but also the hairlines of the wigs, which are particularly annoying. The show is lit, shot and directed beautifully. I'll buy the series on 4k HDR Blu-Ray, if they are ever released in that format, without a second's hesitation. As a child of the 60s (born in '61), so much of their apartment's set decoration resonated with me 100%, and triggered some powerful memories as I watched. The snow globe and the reflector-backed Christmas tree lights (and the large C9-style outdoor lights, with no garish 21st century inflatable crap decorations) were staples of my childhood Christmases that always make me gooey inside when I see them on screen. And the pipe. Like most men of the day, my own father smoked a pipe (as I do now), and since aromas can bring back some powerful memories, moreso than even sights or sounds, I can see why they added that in there. In truth, an extinguished pipe positively stinks, but I'll handwave that for the sake of the emotion it's supposed to imbue to the scene. As for Sophie, I don't hate her, but I do think they could have done better. What I do think will happen after she goes back is that she'll need to fit in to the family dynamic, since she'll be living amongst first generation immigrants, and thus she'll eventually take on a more natural (less-fake-American) accent. I hope that's the case anyways. Also, she's still a 20 year old girl (Brianna; Ms. Skelton is 23), so I can forgive her one-dimensionality for now. As her importance to the story increases, and as she gets more worldly, I hope the actor will be able to rise to those challenges. The print shop. I was expecting that in two weeks, not tonight. I'm glad they did it now and it was everything I could have hoped for.

The Twilight Zone also did another similarly-themed episode that will always, always bring a tear to my eyes. It's called The Hunt; it's about an old hunter and his hound dog discover that they've passed away and, well, just find it and watch it. It's very relevant, that's all I can say without spoiling anything.

I did a double take at the kids' names — Luke and Leah. Yeah. Cute, show. Shouldn't the father (with a bad case of asthma) have been the villain in that case? We went from Mayor Diggle to Mayor Melfi. I've missed Lorraine Bracco since the Sopranos! I like Baker; always have, but her plot was sort-of muddled this episode. Maybe she'll get some better stuff as the season goes on. I'm curious why they decided to off Linda in the off-season. Budget cuts? Like every other damned show this year, it would seem. Creative differences? Maybe, finally they'll give Sean and Jack something to do, aside from make asinine comments at the dinner table.

Dear ghods, Gabby, just STFU and get off my screen, 'mkay. This episode did absolutely nothing for me except cause me to roll my eyes a few times. Enough with the genuine animosity between houses. It's awful every time they do it. Did nobody think to start unloading the boxes from the back of the rollover truck to help stabilize it before the chain got hooked up? All you'd have to do is get the ass end of that truck down about 6-12 inches and you have enough room to get 87's man out without deploying the bags. With no cargo on the back, all you'd probably need was 8 to 10 guys strategically placed in the back to pivot the front in that specific given situation. What's with all the oddball complex chemicals in that high school lab? And the tins of them in an unlocked cabinet? I doubt the kids will be experimenting with quarts of solvents, which is what those cans looked like. That was a headshake moment for me. Oh yeah, why was the interior of the lab still a smoky haze? Didn't 81 overhaul it correctly or is it still in the walls or something? I called the kid with the bandages, although it was a different reason. I figured he wanted to be the hero and rescue someone from a fire he set, not to get back at a bully. And the bully gets a pass for assault causing bodily harm? Even if he didn't start the fire he committed a felony of his own by beating a smaller kid to the point he had to be hospitalized, and should be getting locked up for it. The muster was anticlimactic and should have gone for one more episode, with more on the line than money. And why was only their shift participating? Why not B and C shifts, too? Including the New Guy from last season?

I wonder. I suspect they'll end up in the real Good Place at some point in the series, only to discover that it's not quite what they thought it would be, and not a place they'd ever want to spend eternity. What if the real GP was everything you ever dreamed of. A real soulmate, Ice cream and porterhouse steaks and fried chicken, and all your other favourite foods instead of FroYo (assuming you have a body and can eat), unlimited time to engage in all your favourite sin-free earthly pastimes? The Jags winning the Celestial Bowl every year in your own universe, etc. Wouldn't you get bored after a while, even doing everything you loved? It would cease to be the Good Place, and after an eon of sitting on clouds and polishing halos, it would become the Bad Place. What if the real endgame turns out to be getting another shot on Earth to do the right thing?

This. Right here, is one of my big problems with the Chicago franchise. Why do the stories all need to compliment each other? Why must every FD/EMS run, every PD patrol call, all have to do Something Really Important for the season's arc. What's wrong with a bunch of stand-alone B-plots that (GASP!) build up secondary characters? That's how we got Burgess and I loved those bits more than the main intel stuff some weeks. Patrol has always been the most interesting aspect of policing, and it's the one we all interact with at one level or another, so it's appreciated when it's depicted realistically and relatably. And there are so many stories they could tell.

I don't think Sophia was deserving any statuettes for Best Actress, but she was a very passable journeyman actor in a well-written role. You couldn't really help but like who Lindsay was as both a person and a bad-ass cop. Upton is one dimensional for now, but even as they give her more material to work with, I wonder if the actor herself can pull it off. There's just something about her that grates on me. I can't define it, but ever since NBC's Revolution a few years ago I disliked her. She dragged down every scene she was in, and I felt like we were having her character forced down our throats and maybe some of that experience is rubbing off here. We'll see, I guess, when they actually give her something to do. Lindsay was a main character from the beginning; she made things happen. Upton is just there in the background and is the kind of character that things happen to.

What an utter horse's arse of an episode. So much wrong, so much cringeworthiness tonight. We're supposed to believe the city's powers wouldn't (ultimately) be falling all over themselves declaring the guy a hero for what he did? Tragic life and death of a muslim cop who ultimately saved hundreds of lives by his intelligence work? Tracy Spiridakos can't act. She's not believable in character, she has one facial expression and has the gravitas of a bag of gummi bears as far as being an intel copper is concerned. She's the PD's version of Fire's Saint Gabby for me. Even moreso, maybe. I have to wonder whether it'll be a tie between her and Burgess for the show's Mary Sue. I actively don't like who Burgess has become. I loved her on the patrol side, and I miss that aspect of the show tremendously. Burgess spent how long as a uni, yet when Toma lowered his weapon she didn't have the presence of mind to disarm him? "Put the gun down?" not "Give me the gun?" Not use her agility and training to get it away from a distraught person? And Toma himself. Why the fucking riddles? Why not "I thought I had them. My apartment, above the sink, all the details are there. I could have done more but you can still get these sonsofbitches." Platt needs more to do, but with the loss of focus on the patrol side, she's little more than a set decoration this year, which is too bad. She's awesome (both the character and Amy Morton, the actor) and deserves more screen time this season, not less.

And bees. And flattening things....

I think Anna was the setup for a narrative pivot with Severide. Until last season he'd boink anything that moved. My guess is that after he goes through a few life-altering events, including almost being paralyzed in a fall, and nearly being sent up the river for vehicular homicide, he realizes maybe it's time to reconsider his life choices. Anna's death was a body blow that hit him in one of the worst years of his life. From a narrative position, when you knock down a hero character that far, you do it for a reason. I don't think he looks at Kidd as a potential partner at this point, but he knows her, trusts her, and values her friendship. She's been there for him (as a friend) when he was at his worst last season. She wants more, and I think it's fairly obvious they'll end up together as a couple sooner rather than later, but the question is, will his trials and tribulations from last season pay off with the ending of the Chicago Manwhore and the start of a long-term relationship and a shift to a different Severide. I hope so. I like Kidd, she's loyal to a fault with him and even though their chemistry on-screen hasn't been great (perhaps that's they way it's being written deliberately?), I like the pairing. Perhaps if they can stay friends/room-mates, and out of each others' pants, until the November break then maybe the writers will follow through with this plan. Thing is, though, the show invariably hits the reset button too often and Big Changes rarely stick, so I'm not hopeful that they could pull this off in the long term.

Where do you think all the CEOs, investment bankers, hedge fund administrators and corporate attorneys go? I'm just surprised they haven't outsourced to cheaper demons from a foreign universe.

Exactly. In my grade school and, to a lesser degree in my high school back in the '60s and '70s, the drills were unannounced, and critiqued by the staff and administration afterwards. Punishments were given to anybody who ran, or spoke about anything other than where and how to exit or where to assemble. In my grade school they liberally applied corporal punishment for those who misbehaved in drills, too. A different era, but we sure as shit understood what was at stake from an early age. One of my earliest memories from my first primary school had the local FD present at a drill, and we all got the meet the firefighters at the end of the day. My parents told me afterward that there had been a big fire in a movie theater the year before that killed and injured a number of kids at a matinee, so the schools were taking fire safety very strictly as a result. I don't know what it's like now, but in this paranoid age, I can't help but think fire (and, sadly, school shooter) drills are commonplace. Even later on in high school, when the buzzer went off we silently got up, walked single-file to our designated exit and about 50 feet beyond. Thankfully we never had the real thing happen.

I like Stella. After Anna last year, I'd be happy to see Severide fall into a serious relationship. They're already good friends now, and, like Boden's wife's school, they have both history and chemistry (and a minor in biology, IIRC). that's a pretty good foundation to build a relationship on, especially something that might be a Big Ratings Moment at the end of next season. Ever notice how every time Severide and Casey just get finished lighting up their cigars they get a run or Something Important intervenes? With their luck, they should probably smoke Nubs, Fuente Short Stories or something that size since they'll never get to finish 'em. I'd be one cranky bastard if tones dropped on me every time I got a $10 cigar going. That reminds me too, I wonder how many takes were needed to get them both sliding down the ladder the way they did, and how much training the actors required. That was a pretty awesome stunt. I doubt OSHA would be happy to see that on the fireground, but hey, if it saves your ass do what ya gotta.

Wouldn't that be on PD instead?

Basketball. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottie_Pippen

I'd happily nibble on Elanor when she's asleep. Or Tahani. Just sayin'.

That could have been a conversation off-camera. "They put me in a classroom on the fourth floor" or some such. Even before her office moved, my wife knew exactly where she'd be in her company's new building so that one didn't bug me all that much. For an inner-city high school there sure didn't seem to be a lot of kids, but I guess extras cost money, so....

I dunno, man. The ol' penis flattener would probably do it for me. Maybe, maybe not. But rebooting randomly without a full memory wipe, for eternity, would be real torture. Leave fragments out here and there. Constantly forgetting vital crucial events from previous reboots that would be critical in the current timeline. Would make for crappy TV, of course, but that would be just awful. What I don't get is why a special focus for just these four? None of them (well, maybe Elanor), were particularly deserving of the Bad Place, either new- or old-school. The Twisting Department doesn't make a lot of sense. ReallyBadPerson gets twisted until he breaks in two. That's what, an hour or two? Ten? Then what? Reset without a mind wipe and off to the vat of acid?