S02.E01: Back In The Saddle

[formerlyfreedom]

The 126 crew responds to a military tank on the loose in downtown Austin and a human pile-up at the roller derby. Meanwhile, new paramedic captain, Tommy Vega, joins the team and Owen is reunited with his ex-wife and T.K.'s mother, Gwyneth, and receives an update on his cancer

Airing Monday, January 18, 2021.

[Raja]

The vismod tank was okay but with its turbine the M1 tank sounds like no other and that was all wrong.

[juno]

Good to have the show back.

While Gina Torres is a much better actress than Liv Tyler, she doesn't seem to fit the role.

I have seriously taken Lowe's skin cleansing routine to heart.

Cause millions in damage with a stolen tank but somehow a speech from a Fire Fighter will stop you dead in your tracks. Okay, sure...

4 police cruisers and some hand guns vs an M1. Okay, sure... Maybe 4 police cruisers and 4 large IEDs or a Javelin missile.

Aside from the roller derby, I found the show to be Hallmark..ish and kind of boring!!??

Back in the Saddle is a very popular Aerosmith song: Aerosmith-Steve Tyler-Liv Tyler??? A bit of a shot??

 

[possibilities]

Was the show always this bad? Is it me that's changed? Ye Gods, I think I hated every second of this, and I don't remember hatewatching it before.

[PrincessPurrsALot]

I was so happy to not see Liv Tyler and hear her whispery breathiness that the show worked for me.  Mindless entertainment told in OTT emergencies.  Never know when someone is going to start shooting electrical workers with a cross bow.  Always seems to happen after someone steals a tank.  You know, just a regular day in Texas!  🙂 

[Lady Calypso]

So...the show IS better without Whispery Liv Tyler, so that's a plus. And I like Gina Torres, so that part worked. But there are still things to snark at on this show. Once again, the filter they choose for this show is so washed out and dull. Again, this show, compared to the original, isn't as fun, even when it could be.

Plus, the inconsistencies on mask wearing was extremely distracting. 

The stories were...meh. I guess the roller derby one was ok, and the crossbow one was kind of interesting, but the tank one was questionable with how useless the entire police department were to try to stop it. Did they REALLY assume guns and standing their ground would be enough? 

TK's mom was interesting enough. Lisa Edelstein was great on House, but never given a lot of fun material. I haven't seen her other shows, so seeing her here was fun. 

Probie is now the worst character on this show with Michelle gone. He probably could be more annoying and useless, which is a scary thought since he grated on my nerves just by complaining about cheese balls. 

This show also suffers from not utilizing their main cast nearly enough. No, Lone Star, showing some of them in the spotlight once in a while last season isn't enough. So this episode, we barely got Grace besides her call center scene and the last scene with Tommy and her husband, and we barely got Marjan and Paul, who only had a few funny lines. 

Overall, a vast improvement from my memory of season 1 but a show that still has enough issues where I can complain here about them.

[thewhiteowl]

The set lighting was sporadically better. Some indoor scenes actually showed the actor's faces. LE looked oddly haggard in her first scene but by the end of the show she looked great. I can't say much about the calls because they are what they are and difficult to take seriously but somewhat entertaining. GT was really good. I want to see more of her.

[iMonrey]

Quote

While Gina Torres is a much better actress than Liv Tyler, she doesn't seem to fit the role.

I thought the character change was a vast improvement, but Ryder was way too over the top as her cheerleader. We don't need someone extolling her virtues to us, just let us get to know the character through her actions. 

I must have missed something with the stolen tank - wasn't it stolen from some kind of museum? Would it really be armed with missiles or cannonballs or whatever? Would it even have gas in it?

And they're doing a cross-over event? Really? Why do networks love crossovers so damn much?

Edited January 19, 2021 by iMonrey

[lorbeer]

What month is in the show? Did I hear correctly the kale girl that she said "it's february 2020"?! I thought it was August or September

[MyArchangel]

53 minutes ago, iMonrey said:And they're doing a cross-over event? Really? Why do networks love crossovers so damn much?

Well it appears they are going to be pulling from news reports and do a wildfire episode where mutual aid from surrounding states will be called upon to help with an out of control wildfire. For me that hits far too close to home. My son’s a fire fighter out here in the LA area. I am an ER/trauma RN unit coordinator so we see each other all the time but when wildfires hit I won’t see him sometimes for a few weeks. Plus it looks like someone is going to die. I figured at some point these 2 shows would do a crossover with either the 118 going to Texas to help with hurricane recovery and I also figured they’d send the 126 out here to LA for wildfire assistance. 

[tennisgurl]

Sometimes you feel like the writers of this show are really trying to outdo the mothership shows craziness. So how do we start this season off? We start with a guy stealing a damn tank to try and blow up a hospital, and end with a woman about to be swallowed by lava, because we are going to be at an eleven all season long. 

Replacing whispery stalker Liv Tyler with coming out of retirement mom Gina Torres? Oh show, you didn't have to get me anything as a welcome back present! I like Gina Torres's character already, even though I could do without the characters telling us how awesome she is. I also admit that I laughed at everyone talking about how awesome Michelle was and how much it sucks that she left, clearly these people were watching a very different show than the one I watched where she was a barley competent drip with a dozen restraining orders against her who brought out the worst in any character she was in a scene with. 

This episode was alright, a solid enough start to a new season, its definitely gotten better than when the show first started, but it still has some real issues. For some reason the show is still shot really weird, with this strange tint that makes everyone look haggard and tired for no reason, and while I get that they had to introduce a new main character and spend a decent amount of time with Owen and his ex (who is now sticking around) and finding out that his cancer is in remission, it felt like we hardly any any time with the other characters. Most everyone got a few lines, but no one had much time to shine because they needed the new character to save the day to introduce herself to the characters and the audience. We only got two brief scenes of Grace, and Grace is one of the best characters on the show, her and Judd's relationship was one of the strongest aspects of last season, but we hardly got any of them. 

The cases were honestly kind of dull, even if they were all pretty crazy in a 9-1-1 kind of way. Weirdly,  it was the most mundane stories, the roller derby one and the guy choking on his Zoom call, that stood out the most to me. They managed to do some decent quick character stuff with the roller derby girls, at least enough to get some tension out of one of them getting hurt, and the Zoom call was kind of funny and used the pandemic to create a story that seems to be specific to it without being an obvious idea, someone having a medical emergency while on a Zoom call so the person they're talk to can only call for help and wait to see what happens. The two wilder stories were basically variations of a similar story, someone having a breakdown and using weird weaponry to cause chaos so that a main character can look cool in stopping them. The tank one seemed especially confusing, why was a tank in a museum fully armed and capable of maneuvering and using ammunition? When they kid was playing with it, I thought that the the tank had accidently rolled off and they had to stop it from rolling down a busy street, not that some guy stole it. I also guess that we are also supposed to assume that those cars he was running over were empty and that people had already jumped out of their cars, because I didn't see the blood rivers that would certainly follow a person being crushed by a tank. 

[Moose135]

5 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I must have missed something with the stolen tank - wasn't it stolen from some kind of museum? Would it really be armed with missiles or cannonballs or whatever? Would it even have gas in it?

It wasn't armed, he was just causing mayhem by running over things. I don't think they ever said anything about him firing rounds at anything. It was at a museum, and it is unlikely that it would be ready to drive off like that. I'm involved with a couple of military museums back on Long Island, one aircraft and one military vehicles, including several tanks. Both have numerous operational vehicles, but they aren't just sitting around waiting for someone to drive/fly off in. And if it isn't being maintained in operational condition, it won't have fuel, or a battery to start it, or any of the other things required to operate. I was rolling my eyes pretty good at that scenario. On the other hand there have been a few instances of someone stealing a tank from a Guard or Reserve unit, where it is more likely that you would find one ready to roll.

 

4 hours ago, lorbeer said:

What month is in the show? Did I hear correctly the kale girl that she said "it's february 2020"?! I thought it was August or September

She said she bought the food truck in February 2020, as a way to illustrate her luck in life.

[juno]

8 minutes ago, Moose135 said:

And if it isn't being maintained in operational condition, it won't have fuel, or a battery to start it, or any of the other things required to operate.

I didn't think about this. Imagine the tank with the 120mm cannons at full cap, fuel full and battery also full. Good thing they had 4 cruisers and their 9mm's to defend. 🙄

Still going to take me a while to see Gina Torres in this role. She is a great actress yet I still see her as Jessica Pearson in suits.

[PrincessPurrsALot]

The intermittent mask wearing bothered me.  Hey, let's stop by without warning!  Well, then, come on in!  Oh, the gang has an apartment they can hang out in because they're not together enough at the firehouse.  Everybody, put on a damn mask!  If they are firefighters and paramedics, they have seen the impact of the virus. Grrr. . . . .

It does seem like they brought in yet another character with a deep, dark secret.  Did something bad happen?  Is that why she stopped working? Is her confidence loss more than just not being in the field for awhile? They really don't all need to to bond over extreme personal trauma.  Shared trauma in their profession should be enough. 

I agree on the um, Liv Tyler's character wasn't the world's greatest paramedic or leader.  She made bad decision after bad decision and took actions that put herself and others at risk.  Between that and the terrible acting and voice affection, anyone would be better. 

Also, where do I get a freezer full of restaurant food supplies?  I want breakfast chateaubriand and a hunky chef to cook it for me.  

[anna0852]

1 minute ago, PrincessPurrsALot said:

 

It does seem like they brought in yet another character with a deep, dark secret.  Did something bad happen?  Is that why she stopped working? Is her confidence loss more than just not being in the field for awhile? They really don't all need to to bond over extreme personal trauma.  Shared trauma in their profession should be enough. 

 

I didn't get that at all. Just that she left work to raise her kids while her husband ran the restaurant. Those 24-hour shifts wouldn't have worked well with young kids, especially when the other parent was working restaurant hours.

[mojoween]

I don’t mind a new character if they felt they must replace Liv, but that was a LOT of new character storyline for one hour.

Also people don’t do drop-ins during a pandemic for cod’s sack.

Is Rob’s leathery 911 face real or is his smooth Atkins commercials face real?

[formerlyfreedom]

I did like that Tommy and Grace are friends. Grace and Jed are my favorites, so it's a nice bonus getting to see them have a couple to hang out with. Somehow, I don't see hanging out with Owen and Gwyneth to be tons of fun (too much skin care regimen discussion).

[LeisureTime]

I got a laugh at Rob Lowe and Lisa Edelstein talk about getting a second chance, given their West Wing history. Overall I really enjoyed this episode and...since I had to remind myself of who Blake even was, I'm clearly not going  to miss her.

[Raja]

5 hours ago, Moose135 said:

It wasn't armed, he was just causing mayhem by running over things. I don't think they ever said anything about him firing rounds at anything. It was at a museum, and it is unlikely that it would be ready to drive off like that. I'm involved with a couple of military museums back on Long Island, one aircraft and one military vehicles, including several tanks. Both have numerous operational vehicles, but they aren't just sitting around waiting for someone to drive/fly off in. And if it isn't being maintained in operational condition, it won't have fuel, or a battery to start it, or any of the other things required to operate. I was rolling my eyes pretty good at that scenario. On the other hand there have been a few instances of someone stealing a tank from a Guard or Reserve unit, where it is more likely that you would find one ready to roll.

 

She said she bought the food truck in February 2020, as a way to illustrate her luck in life.

Even if we are no longer guarding the Fulda Gap from a tank army are old M1s now museum pieces? We were transitioning to them when I was on active duty and now feeling like a senior citizen.

I just made my own head canon that the tank was on loan for a show like aviation units more famously do and some crew is in big trouble off screen. 

The ripped from the history books was a  California National Guard M60 tank which was only stopped  when the driver tried to bust through a freeway wall and got the tank hung up on it like a tank trap. Since we never pushed to the limits in training watching that chase was as close as I got to know how big an obstacle we could get through 

[Moose135]

44 minutes ago, Raja said:

Even if we are no longer guarding the Fulda Gap from a tank army are old M1s now museum pieces? We were transitioning to them when I was on active duty and now feeling like a senior citizen.

Yes, there are a number of them in museums these days. I know it seems strange, but they have been in use for 40 years now.

[ali59]

I wish I could have gone through chemo looking as good as Rob Lowe does.  Really, no hair loss or even thinning?  My loving husband did hold my puke bag for me.

What the heck was that moving towards the food truck?

[Raja]

53 minutes ago, ali59 said:

 

What the heck was that moving towards the food truck?

Lava, stay tuned same 911 time, same channel 

[Ailianna]

They did say the guy who stole the tank volunteered at the museum and did the maintenance for the tank. So he'd have a chance to get it ready to roll if he planned even a little ahead.

Also, I'm constantly hearing people seriously say they can't hear while wearing masks.  SMH.

[anna0852]

I have trouble hearing what other people are saying through their masks. My ears work fine, their mouths are muffled.

[marceline]

On 1/19/2021 at 9:22 AM, Lady Calypso said:

Once again, the filter they choose for this show is so washed out and dull.

Yes! And I don't know why. It's so offputting. Why won't they tape the same as the original series? 

[Raja]

1 hour ago, marceline said:

Yes! And I don't know why. It's so offputting. Why won't they tape the same as the original series? 

Probably to emphasize they are different shows. The CSI franchise did it with the different Miami and Las Vegas looks,

[Moose135]

6 hours ago, Raja said:

Lava, stay tuned same 911 time, same channel 

I'm going to tune in just to find out where there is a volcano in Austin.

[possibilities]

9 hours ago, Raja said:

Lava, stay tuned same 911 time, same channel 

You know, from the famous Texas volcano.

--

I think something doesn't have to be old or obsolete to wind up in a museum. There are "museums" that showcase things that may not be old, but which are not often available to the general public. You can go to learn about whatever those things are, up close. It doesn't mean you're old if you worked with that stuff. I think it just means most people don't, and they find it interesting. So don't worry! You have a fascinating career, and people are clamoring to know more about it! 

 

 

[Ailianna]

11 hours ago, anna0852 said:

I have trouble hearing what other people are saying through their masks. My ears work fine, their mouths are muffled.

But the tour guide was loud and clear. And usually in real life these are people unhappy about the mask (though no one loves them) but who have hearing problems they don't like to admit to, in my experience.

[dshgr]

re:  the masks and hearing.  I've had a progressive hearing loss for 30+ years, and I guess I've learned to read lips.  The shows where people are wearing masks make me use closed captioning.

[shapeshifter]

16 hours ago, dshgr said:

re:  the masks and hearing.  I've had a progressive hearing loss for 30+ years, and I guess I've learned to read lips.  The shows where people are wearing masks make me use closed captioning.

I always use closed captioning, and occasionally do a bit of lip reading, but IRL, unfortunately, when people wear masks there is no closed captioning.
Due to the pandemic I am way overdue to see the audiologist who last said I was not at the point where hearing aids would help, and to come back in 2 years.

So I can imagine the 9-1-1 shows having a plot in which they are trying to help someone who is functionally deaf or blind because the pandemic has prevented them from getting assistive devices –– either because the facility is closed, or because they don’t have transportation (previously relied on a neighbor or relative who died), or due to finances. 
 

Back to the episode: Were we supposed to laugh when the gun part of the tank bopped Owen in the nose? And was that done with CGI or a foam noodle gun prop? It was pretty cartoony.

Edited January 22, 2021 by shapeshifter

[kicotan]

So the tank is all fueled up and loaded with ammo as it sits in the museum?  Just ready to go?
 

I obviously am not a fan because I had to look up who was being replaced...ohhh yeah, now I remember Liv Tyler’s character.

Yawwwwwn

[PamelaMaeSnap]

I just love Paul. I want more Paul. I need more Paul. That is all. 

[Kel Varnsen]

On 1/20/2021 at 8:57 PM, Ailianna said:

They did say the guy who stole the tank volunteered at the museum and did the maintenance for the tank. So he'd have a chance to get it ready to roll if he planned even a little ahead.

I caught that too which was a nice way to cover a potential plot hole. Because how hard would it be to fill the tank with diesel and connect the battery.