NJRadioGuy

I served on a homicide jury once a few years ago and even though the State's case was a slam-dunk in my eyes it still took the jury 3 days to come to an agreement. In the end, the killer got 60 years. They do. It's just that sometimes the case doesn't get resolved for 3,4, or 5+ years. 100% correct. And it's not just enough to say "lawyer," either. You must positively assert your desire to remail silent. "I am asserting my right to remain silent and I will not be making any statements. I wish to speak with a lawyer immediately." I think about half the time or more the perps who have been incarcerated in the past know this and just keep their mouths shut, but there's still a large number who sell themselves down the river because they don't understand these things. What I did find interesting was that in Canada and the U.K. you cannot terminate an interview by asking for a lawyer. You don't have to actually answer the investigators' questions, but they can force you to remain in the interrogation room and listen to them ask questions. You can keep saying "I decline to answer" but they'll keep going. In Canada, you have no right to have your lawyer in the room while you're being questioned, and in the U.K., if you refuse to give police a good reason why you aren't guilty that fact can be given in evidence against you--you have to aid your own defense rather than force the Crown to prove your guilt!

This episode was just...off. Nothing really made sense, characters weren't really in character, etc. Everything in Frank's story was forced and awkward. Did someone bring a baggie of extra-potent weed into the writers' room this week?

That one was just strange, and quite frankly I don't know if I'd convict if I was on a jury. I'd say "reasonable doubt" might come into play. Best would be a plea to something line 2nd degree manslaughter IMHO, because I really don't think they'll get a conviction on murder one. One of the things I like to do after watching a rerun of a particularly egregious older case is to look and see if there's been an appeal post-conviction, and if there has, the appellate court rulings are usually available online. They paint a far better picture of the full story than we see on TV.

Let him plead to a misdemeanor rather than a felony with the agreement that his community service would involve hard labor or something unpleasant (cleaning up graffiti, picking up trash and cutting brush in abandoned lots, etc). And have it be made 100% crystal clear that this was his one and only break. He almost killed a police officer. Next time he goes away and gets forgotten about.

The show is 100% filmed in Chicago. Interiors on a replica-firehouse set, exteriors at E18's quarters on Maxwell St. and on location throughout the city. Lake Michigan won't mind if a couple of hundred gallons go missing temporarily. Severide's job doesn't involve operating a hose line. He's the commanding officer of the Rescue Squad. That apparatus (show and real-life) is an elite unit that responds to major incidents like, building collapses, drownings, multiple alarm fires, entrapments, technical rescues, plane/train crashes, etc. Some heavy rescues are also HazMat teams. The crew and apparatus whose job it is to put water on the fire is the Engine company (51 in this case), but it wouldn't be Hermann on the nozzle. The chauffeur would be operating the pump, the nozzleman and backup would be responsible for duties like taking the hydrant and humping hose and the C.O. would be monitoring the crew resources, directing his/her actions or their role as assigned by the incident commander. They're supposed to go in with Truck or Rescue whenever there's a person trapped in a burning building and open up a line to suppress the fire while the truckees get the glory and make the save :) :) :). Except on this infernal show, where the rescuers go in without water--an easy way to get dead IRL.

Remember, you're only seeing maybe 5 or 10 minutes of what is likely a 2-3 hour interrogation interview. It's edited for time and content, and the only parts you'll see on the show are those that fill in the blanks of the narrative being told to the audience. You can bet that investigators are far, FAR more meticulous that what might be shown here. At least one would hope so. An interview may get investigators following 12 different leads, but the only ones you'll see on this show are what leads to the Eureka Moment when they ID their guy.

My big question is "What's Next?" For the main show I can't see another season since there's no crab fishery operating for the foreseeable future, and it really looked like Norway was a bust. I think we might just have seen the last of them.

it's gotta be budget related, plain and simple. It's an old/expensive show with actors who command a premium, and ratings that just 2 or 3 years ago would have resulted in overnight cancellation of the show (less than a 1.0 in the adult demos). Fire and rescue scenes have to be staged perfectly with all sorts of safety precautions, real PD/FD/medics on set, etc, and I'll bet they can only afford to do that maybe 4 or 5 times a year in any greater capacity than a few MVAs.

I just loved the fact that FelonyBarbie™ had all this time freelancing the case full-time and got nowhere. Meanwhile Kim drops by for two minutes, sees one sticky note, and cracks the case wide open in however long it takes to cross a state line, go into a creepy abandoned bunker without a search warrant, or having state, county, and municipal pleece arriving with lights-and-sirens. The only thing that was missing would have been if the bunker doors closed in behind them as the credits rolled. As usual, Marina rocked her scenes as well as Tracy didn't. And there REALLY has to be a come-to-Jesus knockdown/dragout between Kim and FelonyBarbie™.

Didn't really care about the the investigation with Pryma. Just give Severide a promotion to OFI already. And you could easily guess the resolution of that inane stop sign plot in about 3 seconds flat. Trudy for the win, though. Gallo. Holy hell that was rough. The actor nailed it and the VFX and his hundred yard stare during the debrief sold it even more. Well done to all involved. He and Carver were remarkably lucid for a pair of guys who just shut down several bars at 4am. I expected the talk between Gallo and Carver in the locker room, but I would have bet that it would have been Violet who would have been there for him, in whatever capacity that was needed. Too soon for Brett and New Guy? I guess after Jesse Spencer left they had to do something with her character's love life. Because Show. Hopefully they won't drop a building façade on him. Hooray, Hermann got top open up a charged hose line again in this episode. I loved how Gallo kicked out the bus window where, if you looked closely, you could see hinges from the emergency escape window one seat forward. Or they could have just popped windows by default.

It's an old saying--even my dad used it 50+ years ago. And in cases like this, it's fitting. Ditto with real world kiddie-diddlers, mass murderers who somehow don't qualify for the Bonus Round, and those who harm animals.

One huge procedural screwup here. The got not just one, but two eyewitness IDs and statements that the guy was good for the rapes. They didn't need anything else. After the first ID that would be enough for an arrest warrant right there. The chef victim was just a bonus. At least the perp was smart enough to lawyer up, but not before he dug himself into a hole. Sad part is that in the real world he'd probably be allowed to plead out. Guy needs to be thrown under the jail. Really liking Quinlan and Sandeford, and I hope they don't bump off either one, which I suspect they will once their characters are firmly established. Because writers and showrunners like to do that to audiences.

Maybe I missed it, but what happend to Dodge's body after Bode-Dodge vanished? Did it, too, go away? I was actually hoping annoying Body would come back and inhabit Dodge's body for an episode, which might have actually been interesting. And the former mean girl who ended up in the well (I forget her name now), after they unceremoniously dumped her off the cliff someone would have found her, so another loose end. I honestly didn't give a crap about the main battle, and I wish the entire story wasn't just so damned idiotic, but rather dealing with the keys themselves and their ramifications, rather than fighting a Big Bad. I think that would have been a more interesting story. I was good with the epilogue, since I was more invested in their personal stories than the dumb twists and turns of the A plot. A small fishing town in rural Nova Scotia Massachusetts probably never had anything filmed there so the locals would probably be interested in it if everybody knew everybody involved. I mean this show was almost as campy as The Splattering and it probably had a couple of million viewers, so....

I do like the fact they've shown Severide as a skilled arson investigator, but you're right, as squad C.O. it's not his job. I think the way they could work this is to have him become a fully-qualified OFI investigator, but assigned to a field office in 51. OK, it would be stretching reality even further than this show usually does, but since we're talking about a fire department that doesn't seem to use water all that much, we can surely have a field investigator at a firehouse. Plus that would free up a LT spot on Squad.

Obviously the writers never went to a high school that had lockers. Any 3-foot set of bolt cutters will go through a typical padlock even if they're dull. Because physics. The K12 would have been more efficient, but it would take an extra 5 minutes to get it out of a compartment, prime it, start it, use it, and stow it back. But use any tool you have that is not a risk for injury to a crewmember first. That axe should have been the tool of last resort.

At the locked gate why didn't they just bust out a set of bolt cutters or a K-12? I'm not so sure that Sharon is going to make it out of this season alive. She's the one pulling for Bode. If she's gone it's just Vince, which would really amp up the draaaaahma. But I really love them as a couple. Too few older happy couples on scripted series and these guys are great.

Great episode. Probably the best they've aired so far. But at the same time, there's absolutely no way a motorman for Transit would have any access to a Masepth freight yard. Maybe (almost certainly) they just couldn't get permission to film in Livonia Yard. It's entirely on the el structure and is right in the neighborhood where the show is filmed, just east of the New Lots 3 station. In fact, slow-speed 3 trains shown in this episode were likely Livonia yard moves.

All that was missing from that scene was after the receptionist handed him the cup and the...visual materials...I expected him to emerge from the private room just about 10 seconds later.

If I had to guess I'd say it's some serious cost-cutting. These shows are old and very expensive to produce, and ratings are a fraction of what they were even 5 years ago. Reduced episode counts, cheaper cast/crew, streamlining production, fewer VFX or big sets, etc. IIRC, they pulled a 0.9 or less in 18-49, which would have been instant cancellation a few years ago, now it's the best scripted drama ratings you'll find on broadcast TV. Advertisers' dollars are fewer and harder to find now.

I was thinking the same thing about the bar but I'd prefer the serial-killer story instead. One of my least favorite TV tropes is "I've got a secret." Gaaaah. It's lazy writing, but then again this show's been on Cruz-control (see what I did there) for years now in terms of writing. With Haas' departure I'm hoping we may get a breath of fresh air into the writers' room.

100% absolutely THIS. Not just bureaucrats either, but in public service in general.

Just replying to this, if that $4M number was correct. I didn't think their quota was anywhere near that. 100,000 pounds or something? That would have been $2M. I'm too lazy to rewatch.

But then they wouldn't be able to work together as partners. I agree, though, Danny could do a lot worse, and he's waited a respectable time after his wife's death to wade into the dating pool again.

Took him long enough to get that 2-1/2 line in there, though. Plus I don't know if I'd want to be around an actor inside a set with that nozzle wide open, so I'll forgive the ineffectively part. "Lt. Kidd, please explain to the jury what your credentials are in fire investigation techniques." I can barely accept that Severide would be allowed into an active fire investigation scene on his own, without an actual trained fire investigator from OFI present. Let alone just him and his wife. That was just nucking futz. That whole jewelry store story was just inane on every level. No need for the extended Javier drama. Cruz is a secondary character to begin with so just put the adoption through off-camera, hoist a round at Molly's, and promote the kid to a semi-regular cast member. I guess we're supposed to care about Carver's drinking/bar-hopping problems now. Why? He hasn't earned that scrutiny yet as a character in the show.

With a little back-of-the-envelope maths, for $4,000,000 gross that would equate to 25,000 average-sized crabs. If you figure a typical Red King is between 6 and 10 lbs each, call it 8 lbs per critter x $20/lb, so each crab would earn them $160. A pot with 25 crab is about $4,000, so they'd need to pull 1,000 pots with a 25 average to hit $4m in gross. With the paltry numbers they were appearing to get for most of the season that would be a stretch. Then factor in food/fuel/boat rental fees off that, so the $4m gross would be far less net. And Norwegian taxes aren't known to be low either.