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S03.08: Promise Me

Danielg342

By Danielg342
in Fire Country

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Danielg342

Danielg342

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I really thought this episode had a lot of potential...but man, did it become a dumpster uncontained wildfire in a hurry.

We know Bode will live. Gabriella, being a main cast member, has a chance too. So that leaves Audrey James, who's just a recurring character.

Which would be a crying shame, because Levin Rambin has more than earned her place to stay on this show or have a show on her own.

...and, honestly...though I hate to trash actors, I have to call out their performances when they're not up to par and, well...

Let's be honest...pouty, whiny, childish and ridiculous Gabriella has more than run her course on this show. Rambin's Audrey James would be a significant upgrade over Gabriella.

...but...

What do I know about running a TV show?

Perhaps the only good part about this show was seeing an older Jackie Chiles Elroy Edwards (played by Phil Morris) tear Eve a new one after Eve and Vince could not save his ranch. It looks like a situation where the character is just there for a one-off appearance, though part of me hopes- if only for meta reasons- to have Elroy in a courtroom suing California and Cal Fire for the loss of his home.

Oh, and the joke about "the stubborn old man" and Vince realizing it was him was absolute gold.

Other than that...well, the show used the well-worn trope of the characters getting into trouble by simply being idiots.

I mean, did Gabs owe that woman and her daughter anything? Yeah, Gabs is a dumpster fire herself right now, but an experienced firefighter knows not to get in too deep with strangers, especially on a call when things could go sideways.

(...and Gabs is an experienced firefighter. She's been one for two and a half years now)

Further to the point...can Cal Fire really break your car if you're parked in front of a fire hydrant? I figure there are less destructive methods to get a car out of the way.

Still, Gabriella stealing gas, whining about it, whining about "why no one understands me" and then walking into the fire was...well, stupid.

Of course, in true FC fashion, she's not the dumbest one on the show, surprisingly enough.

Because there was Bode...oh, Bode, Bode, Bode.

It's a broken record at this stage, Bode being heroic stupid. Maybe Audrey stands a chance because the writers won't want Bode's actions to have too serious of consequences.

Then again, Bode facing real consequences for his actions would be the only meaningful narrative that he has, and I might enjoy watching Bode get knocked down a peg from his pedestal.

I just wish he wouldn't take one of my favourite characters down with him.

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Danielg342

Danielg342

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10 minutes ago, buckboard said:

The 49er's coach said that the football player who left the team in the middle of the game will never play for the team again.  The same thing should happen to Gabrielle for just leaving in the middle of a fire.  She should be kicked off the force for abandoning her fellow fire fighters.

I'm not sure it's exactly the same comparison because De'Vondre Campbell had been on the bench and refused an order to go out and play whereas Gabriella was already out on the field, let her emotions get the better of her and walked away, but I'd agree it's equally as unprofessional.

If Gabs isn't dead to start the second half of the season she should be reprimanded severely by Cal Fire for what she did.

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Danielg342

Danielg342

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2 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

Can Cal Fire really break your car if you're parked in front of a fire hydrant? I figure there are less destructive methods to get a car out of the way.

Another addendum:

Perhaps any of our resident firefighters can clarify this for me, but ChatGPT told me that it is, in fact, legal for firefighters to break a car's window to fit a fire hose to a hydrant or make any other modifications to a car if there's an emergency and the car is obstructing the fire hydrant. Evidently, too, Cal Fire and the state are exempt from liability in this case.

Stealing the car's gas...that might be harder to defend, though perhaps Gabs could argue (or should have argued to Jake) that her stealing gas allowed someone else to evacuate.

possibilities

possibilities

(edited)

Bode's original tragedy was his sister dying in his care. That one didn't seem to be his fault, but if they let Audrey die, he will have actually gone full circle but in a downward spiral because this one IS his fault.

I was actually okay with Gabriella stealing the gas-- it was reckless but it was not done out of self-absorption, it was empathy and it was saving the family. What were they supposed to do? WALK out of there? Yelling at them to find a ride was callous and stupid and unrealistic. I would have liked to see some better solution than stealing the gas from the other person, but my sympathy for the person blocking the hydrant is much less than for the homeless family who was trying to evacuate.

Walking into the fire was stupid. Gabriella is depressed, and has been for a while. Maybe Manny will save her and die in the process, and then she and Bode will reconcile because they'll both be in suicidal self-destruct modes if Audrey dies, too. This is not what I want to see, but it seems like something the show might do.

So far this show has not been the kind of show that feeds us that much heartbreak; killing main cast members hasn't been their thing yet-- they just off the newbies, so probably Manny saves Gabriella, and THEY reconcile, and everybody lives and nobody has terrible consequences, except I do fear they will kill Audrey because I like her so much.

I'm more in the mood for happy than tragic tv lately (real life is fucked up enough), but the cycle of stupid and no growth is tiresome, too. The constant reset to same dysfunctions is boring. I wish we could have happy AND growth.

I don't blame Eve for the ranch catching fire. Why is that her fault? Wasn't Cal Fire following protocols, and Vince was her superior anyway. Plus, the ranchers didn't do anything to protect the place, and were interfering with the work of CalFire. That fire was coming for them anyway, wasn't it? Or did I misunderstand?

I feel like Bode's reckless attempts at heroism are coming from the way his sister died. He's trying to make up for that, and until he deals with that trauma, his guilt makes him stupid. It's not just that his parents are both hero types who also take risks. It's that he's not rational about it. Trauma re-enactment is what you get when you don't deal with the original trauma.

It's not that it wasn't crushingly sad about the house he was trying to save. I felt for the guy who didn't want to lose it. And for once I thought Max T did some good acting when he was staring at the fire with total zombie eyes and Audrey was trying to snap him out of it and he just kept hosing the house and looking like he was in a fugue state while she was saying it's too late, the house is already gone, they have to go. And then when he finally snapped out of it, his affect changed.

But you can't make it as a firefighter if you can't handle that level of grief. It will kill you. And if it constantly sets you back into a flashback of your own unhealed trauma, you will not be rational on the spot. So that is why I think Bode needs therapy. You'd think 3 Rock would have that as a component of the program. But that's not exciting TV, not compared to flames everywhere.

The show has to decide if it wants to teach Bode a lesson, get him therapy, or just cannonize him as the Saint of Reckless Heroism.

So far, they have paid lip service to option 1 while actually advancing option 2.

Likewise, they have to decide whether they want to keep having Bode and Gabriella go on the treadmill of dysfunction together, or whether they want to actually for real break them up and make them healthy people. I like Audrey and actually think she and Bode are good for each other. I also liked Diego and thought he and Gabriella were good together-- she was happy with him, not a moping disaster. But look how that turned out. So, I'm not going to expect the writers will change their habits, and probably this will just be another reset back to the usual.

The show has very good ratings, so I don't think they are probably thinking there's anything wrong with their formula.

Edited by possibilities
typos
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Dowel Jones

Dowel Jones

2 hours ago, buckboard said:

She should be kicked off the force for abandoning her fellow fire fighters

And former CO Perez too, for deserting the hand crew.  That's attempted escape, by the way.  A felony.

While breaking the car windows is likely legal in an emergency, any hydrant will have at least two discharges, and the crew could lead off another one.  Keeping mobile is extremely important in a fluid situation like that, and they're stuck with disconnecting and draining the 5" hose (no easy feat) and pulling it back to the engine.  Use a smaller hose and don't get tied to the car.

Eve.  Are you a veterinarian or a fire captain?  Daddy doesn't have anyone else that can deliver a foal?  You should have been reamed for leaving your crew unsupervised (a CO is not proper supervision on a fire) and allowing a potential crisis to develop with the gunslinging cowboy.  That was bad, really bad.

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The Wild Sow

The Wild Sow

10 hours ago, possibilities said:

I was actually okay with Gabriella stealing the gas-- it was reckless but it was not done out of self-absorption, it was empathy and it was saving the family. What were they supposed to do? WALK out of there? Yelling at them to find a ride was callous and stupid and unrealistic. I would have liked to see some better solution than stealing the gas from the other person, but my sympathy for the person blocking the hydrant is much less than for the homeless family who was trying to evacuate.

Yep, I was cracking up when she decided to siphon that person's gas - although it is possible to do that without getting gasoline all the way into your mouth!  Hey, I've siphoned to clean fish tanks - and I think dirty fish water would be arguably worse than gasoline!  

Yeah, I fear for Audrey's life too.  Funny, because I didn't expect to like the character, figured she was just there to be a spoiler and would be your basic soap opera manipulative b-word.  But she turned out to be a pretty cool person and probably better for Bode than Gabs is at this point.  But it always ticks me off when a person reaches adulthood (or any age over maybe 10!) without knowing how to swim!  How the hell does that happen?  It's such a basic and important life skill, and even if you're not an avid swimmer like me, it's something everyone should learn!  (Sorry, every time there's a news story about an adult or older kid drowning, it almost always includes the line "so-and-so did not know how to swim....")  Yeah, knowing how to swim won't stop every drowning, but it certainly gives you a fighting chance!

OK, off my soapbox now....

Dowel Jones

Dowel Jones

2 hours ago, The Wild Sow said:

But it always ticks me off when a person reaches adulthood (or any age over maybe 10!) without knowing how to swim!  

Not to mention, pools are almost always built with a shallow end, sloping to the deep end.  Put your feet on the floor and stand there.  Duck down as necessary.

Point of interest on the subject:  Championship yacht racers claim they don't know how to swim.  To do so would imply that they might be okay with falling off the boat during a race, which is humiliating, I suppose.

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Dowel Jones

Dowel Jones

Sure, no problem, except for some smoke inhalation.  A deep in-ground pool isn't going to absorb enough heat to parboil any occupants.  In fact, residents of Maui who sheltered in the ocean were afflicted with hypothermia afterward.  Back in 1870, I think, the infamous Peshtigo Fire in Wisconsing burned through several towns and killed a lot of people.  Some were killed when they took shelter in a raised water tank, but that was different. 

Of course, Bode can probably breathe underwater so he would be fine.  Avery, being a mere mortal, might be in trouble.  Bode would have to do mouth to mouth to save her, right?  The kiss at last!

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Danielg342

Danielg342

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On 12/14/2024 at 2:30 AM, possibilities said:

I feel like Bode's reckless attempts at heroism are coming from the way his sister died. He's trying to make up for that, and until he deals with that trauma, his guilt makes him stupid. It's not just that his parents are both hero types who also take risks. It's that he's not rational about it. Trauma re-enactment is what you get when you don't deal with the original trauma.

I like this idea and I believe you're correct in your interpretation. I just feel that, if we're supposed to have this interpretation as an explanation for Bode's heroic recklessness, the show should better explain and establish this. This episode had a perfect opportunity when Bode could have had a picture of Riley in his firefighter hat instead of a picture of his entire family (though that picture may have had all four of them).

I also feel like the show's "Flanderized" Bode in this way, in that now his entire character is about him being recklessly heroic. Now, I'm not sure how well developed Bode was before and Bode having one identifiable trait seems more than most characters on this show, but it does feel like Bode does nothing else except trying to be a hero. Gabriella, too, seems to be similarly reduced to simply being the whiny, petulant child. She doesn't seem to do much else any more now.

The show doing this is not a good sign, especially because- rarely- is there any way back.

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Danielg342

Danielg342

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I really don't understand why shows rely on soap opera plots. Nightmate S.W.A.T. is doing the same thing and it's dragging that show down too.

I get that characters are what drive a show, but I say leave the soap opera plots for the soap operas, because they can better handle those plots and better develop them. Character drama for "shock value" has never worked, especially on shows that are not designed for them.

possibilities

possibilities

It's not that I disagree with you, but the ratings are really high for this show, so I think they do it because it's easy to write, and it works in the sense that people will watch it. Some of the shows I personally think are best, are low rated. I think what you and I might think is actually a minority view. And the big money is in the shows that draw big ratings.

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Danielg342

Danielg342

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49 minutes ago, possibilities said:

It's not that I disagree with you, but the ratings are really high for this show, so I think they do it because it's easy to write, and it works in the sense that people will watch it. Some of the shows I personally think are best, are low rated. I think what you and I might think is actually a minority view. And the big money is in the shows that draw big ratings.

There's two ways to look at its ratings.

One, yes, in terms of where it stands among all the TV shows on air, Fire Country does do better ratings that most TV shows.

However, TV ratings themselves- particularly on broadcast TV- have experienced a substantial freefall over the past few decades. In 1991, the 30th ranked TV show in terms of overall viewers (The Wonder Years) drew 14 million views. In 2001, #30 (a three-way tie) drew 8.6 million viewers. In 2011, the #30 number fell to 6.9. In 2023, the #30 number was 5.94 million viewers.

Further, as recently as 20 years ago, you'd have the top 20 TV shows drawing at least 10 million viewers. Last season, only one scripted TV show (Tracker) accomplished that feat.

The 18-49 ratings (the ones TV networks really care about) are even worse. In 2011, 130 shows scored a 1.0 or better. Last season? Only three, and none were a scripted TV show.

Now, there are plenty of reasons why ratings are down, and the actual numbers and what they mean are debated. However, I truly think the TV landscape, especially in Hollywood, lacks that truly "buzzworthy" appeal. I remember, when I talked about the end of The Blacklist that Hollywood has seemed to move on entirely from making shows that have broad, mass appeal. FBI and Fire Country seem to be attempts to buck that trend (FC is going to get its own spinoff for the 2025-26 season in Sheriff Country), but I don't know how well it's working.

Not sure how many people gather around the water cooler and talk about Bodiella...let alone can pick Max Thieriot out of a police lineup.

Another point about FC's strong ratings is that its Reddit community, which is far more active than these boards, is tearing the show to shreds. Now, I know Reddit might not be representative of FC's total audience, but to see a place where many comment and they all say the same thing tells me something about where the overall audience reaction to the show may actually be. If these boards and Reddit hate the show, maybe it's not doing as strong as it thinks it is.

Personally, I try not to dwell too much on how individual shows are doing. All TV shows inevitably decline, and FC is no exception. Plus, given Hollywood's recent struggles with scripted TV (and movies, for that matter), it seems like they have bigger concerns that the quality of an individual series.

possibilities

possibilities

I have been assuming that the overall lower ratings (not for a particular show but for all shows) is due to there being more choices, so the audience is spread out more. But I don't have any data to back that up.

Tracker is another show with lazy, formulaic writing. The scenery is usually awesome, though. 

I'm not defending bad writing or crappy shows. I'm just kind of cynical about the industry, and moreover about the general population, at the moment.

Danielg342

Danielg342

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6 hours ago, possibilities said:

I have been assuming that the overall lower ratings (not for a particular show but for all shows) is due to there being more choices, so the audience is spread out more. But I don't have any data to back that up.

Tracker is another show with lazy, formulaic writing. The scenery is usually awesome, though. 

I'm not defending bad writing or crappy shows. I'm just kind of cynical about the industry, and moreover about the general population, at the moment.

I get what you are saying about the cynicism aspect. It can be hard to stomach all this poor quality and wonder if there's any way out.

Maybe it's just the optimist in me, but I think there may be a way. I mean, maybe we'll never see a show get to the literal heights of something like Dallas or Seinfeld but we can still get something nearly as culturally dominant.

If Hollywood wants such a show- and I believe they will- they'll eventually have to wake up to the fact what they're producing just hasn't been good enough.

Hollywood has "played it safe" for too long. They're either trying too hard to be "edgy" (learning the wrong lesson from off-broadcast shows that have generated buzz, like Game of Thrones) or they're doubling down on tropes that have worked before in the hopes they'll work again (Fire Country). At some point, Hollywood will realize that the only way those "buzzworthy" moments work are with stories and characters the audience actually cares about.

Madding crowd

Madding crowd

On 12/14/2024 at 2:14 PM, buckboard said:

The Wild Sow
"But it always ticks me off when a person reaches adulthood (or any age over maybe 10!) without knowing how to swim!" 

If a person doesn't live near the water and has no intention of ever going into the water, why should they be expected to know how to swim?   

I grew up poor with non swimming parents and no access to a pool. As an adult I took a beginner swim class twice only to find the other people in the class already knew how to swim but wanted to be stronger swimmers so the instructors changed the class to start in the deep end and I was too scared to start there. After that I had kids and work and never learned. 

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