User Reviews

I would freak out if it came to Buddie. But, I don't like how the fandom is handling it. The criticisms are often not about the episode and the plot, but whether there is enough or too little interaction between Eddie and Buck. Too little is homophobic, too much is queerbaiting.

Fans overlook the great performances of the actors. The facial expressions, the gestures, the talent. From everyone on the show.

The criticism of the sperm donation storyline? That's Buck. Helping others and not thinking about what he wants.

It's a difficult subject and interesting to see from a donor's point of view. What is done with one.

I know I will be attacked for what I write.

But do not forget, everywhere there is a person behind it. Everyone has feelings. Even the actors and writers of the show. Criticism ok, but insults not.

Alternately titled "disappointed but not surprised". Once again, the cast and their chemistry in group scenes together give us a sparkling reminder about what they can do and what made us fall in love with the show in the first place. The firefam all having insomnia and getting some quiet moments to chat and drink hot chocolate was sweet and that 4-way call (despite the subject matter) was delightful and is one of the few "filler" moments this season that felt like it told us something about the group and their dynamics. The Hen/Eddie chat was also a nice surprise and proof that playing around with different dynamics just for a scene or two can still work without throwing out all other dynamics (yes I saw that interview, and Kristen completely missed what people are actually upset about to no one's surprise). Unfortunately, that doesn't quite counteract the multitude of things that drag down the episode, from storylines coming out of nowhere with no build up, awful storylines dragging out into even worse territory, more "filler" in a season of filler, nonsensical emergencies that are somehow still left hanging unfinished, and probably the least exciting fire this show or ANY show has ever seen. It's frustrating that for every "good" part of a thing, there are equal or more "bad" parts, leaving fans and casual viewers alike feeling bored, lost, and frustrated with the continued floundering of the new showrunner who 2 seasons in actually seems to be getting worse instead of better.

Maddie/Chimney The good: Maddie and Chim taking a dark, abandoned tragic house and filling it with light and love is such a good metaphor for their relationship. They deserve some happiness, and some space to flourish. The bad: Literally two episodes ago the show reminded us how superstitious Chim is, to the point of refusing to even TOUCH a supposedly "cursed" bracelet. Yet he displays not even a single qualm about the murder house. No jumping at noises, no asking to leave because it freaks him out, nothing. WHAT?! How does that make ANY sense? We could have had MADDIE taking the ghost call, asking Chim if the house looks good and if he thinks they could get a discount because it's a murder house and Chim being spooked as usual, but he loves Maddie so he looks more into it and figures out it's not haunted and agrees they should buy it. (Also, as much fun as it was seeing Josh and Linda again, we've BARELY seen dispatch all season so it felt forced into this episode, and that "prank" ultimately felt kinda....mean. They could have just talked to Sue and then shown us commiserating with Josh about all the super crazy calls instead of pitting them against each other)

The Wilson Family The good: The Wilsons continue to be a delight on screen, Denny is sweet and loves his moms SO much and every scene showed that. The bad: Does Kristen remember that we already met Denny's bio dad back in season 2? That he agreed to follow Hen and Karen's lead and wasn't going to try and take Denny or disrupt their family, and they agreed to allow him to be in Denny's life? Exploring this situation isn't necessarily bad, but treating it like some huge cliffhanger we know nothing about is. THIS could have been the story in What's Your Fantasy, leading to a resolution and family-focused Christmas episode to end the season but alas.

Bobby The good: It is about time Bobby got a focused storyline that doesn't end with the episode never to be mentioned again. And it looking to be him struggling but working on an investigation instead of a full-blown relapse is something I'm actually looking forward to in 6b. The bad: This storyline came out of NOWHERE. In 6 seasons we have never met or even HEARD of this sponsor and now they want to use his death as an emotional hook?? Even if the show messed up by not mentioning him before so they had a name in the back of the audience's mind for when they were ready to do a storyline with him, knowing that this was where the storyline was heading THIS season, we should have met Wendell in 6x01 and had mentions of him off and on so his death could actually hit an emotional beat. No amount of the promised flashbacks in 6b are going to change the INITIAL moment of his death being meaningless to the audience because we have no idea who he is and met him 5 minutes ago. Hearing what an apparently "important" part of the Grant-Nash family this guy has been for years from a post mortem interview and not in the actual show is just...BAD and worse, LAZY storytelling. (Also not a fan of hearing that voicemail and not seeing Bobby try to do anything, not even calling for a wellfare check. About as un-Bobby and Chim was un-Chim about the murder house.)

The sperm donor arc The good: completely out of context of the storyline, Buck buying a little firefighter onesie is ADORABLE. The bad: Literally everything else. IN the context of the show, it would have made more sense seeing that onesie as a gift for Jee, or later when he's getting a kid of his own to keep, but we are again having Buck's big "first" moments (like his first "I love you") happening with rando side characters we don't care about. Buck spent s1-3 trying to figure out who he was, why he was Like That, and how to be better. S4 gave us that reason with his backstory slotting SO many pieces into place for the audience and for Buck himself. S5 SHOULD have been about Buck confronting allowing himself to be unhappy just to make someone else happy, but Kristen bungled the Taylor storyline and kept her around for far too long, adding cheating into the mix and ultimately ending, not due to Buck admitting he was unhappy and not getting the support he needed out of the relationship, but as a moral stance because of what his gf did to his friends. This sperm donor storyline had the potential to show us Buck being asked to give of himself, and agreeing because he thinks that "spare parts" is all he's good for and it's more important to make others happy, and in the end realizing that he cannot make others happy at the cost of his OWN happiness and choosing not to go through with it. Instead this arc has been treated like a joke most of the time, without even a deep Bobby, Eddie, or Maddie talk trying to set him straight, and after the first time it came up Buck hasn't seemed even slightly hesitant, just super happy about the whole thing. Meaning that the only way this storyline can go is him being abandoned *again* either by his friends getting what they need and leaving (sperm banks, even ones taking personal donations, typically require signing away parental rights in order to donate), or a miscarriage, unless they WANT a baby hanging over Buck's story forever (UGH). No discussion of his "defective parts" with a history of childhood cancer, no growth where he gets to choose to leave something that isn't good for him, just more of him being a "clinger" and having wasted a season with him learning nothing and going nowhere. Eddie nope-ing out of the conversation immediately was what all of us wished we could do.

The Calls The good: The opener was fun with the "clap your hands" montage (if nothing else the 911 music department is ALWAYS on point), Eddie chasing the guy down, and the multiple appendages that never went with the person holding it made me chuckle (though Buck looked SO COLD and it was never explained why everyone but him was bundled up), and Buck and Eddie's reactions to the naked woman were hilarious. The Bad: That "wildfire" was even more of a letdown than the blimp emergency and that's saying something. It could have been taken most of the episode and had the body as the cliffhanger but instead it was over in less time than probably any other call this whole season, despite having an "important" death involved. The other two calls ended with BIG questions: "Where is our 3rd victim?" and "Where did this lady get this car?" neither of which were answered. For a season that has spent so much set up on pointless things and followed up on every random emergency that DIDN'T leave anything hanging, when it counted we got nothing. Typical.

This felt far more like a Halloween episode and honestly it could have worked as one FAR better than Cursed (which focused too much on the guest star instead of the mains). Also as a Halloween episode, it would have been around the middle of 6a, and given the last few episodes some meaty arcs to work with leading into a big, family-centric happy Christmas episode like we used to get, with a few surprises leading to next season. Instead we got no real Halloween OR Christmas episode.

Final thoughts: Kristen has said a lot of ridiculous things in these post mortem interviews from STILL talking about bringing Lucy back, to explaining Ravi has been off training his peers at the academy even though he's barely out of probationary status (little help to the general audience who was NEVER given this information in the text of the show), to talking about Eddie learning to date again (does she even watch this show? That was explicitly stated as the reason he asked Ana out in s4), to banging on about how deeply important and anchoring Wendall had been for Bobby AND the entire Grant-Nash family for years, which is odd considering the man's name hasn't come up ONCE in 6 seasons. But by FAR the most egregious thing is this: "I will say, every time that we're short and we can't figure out what it is I do make a joke about making a musical one day because with songs you need less story because they take up a lot of space!"

Can someone PLEASE explain to me why she has this job if she is constantly struggling to fill time and looking for ways to get out of making stories which is LITERALLY the job of the showrunner? It has been said across every platform by fans and general audience/casual viewers alike that this season has felt like all filler with very little story or depth. I guess now we know why.

It really has been 9 episodes and nothing important has happened. Buck's storyline makes no sense at all, if they wanted him start thinking about paternity and whatnot there were many interesting ways to do so (not whatever this is).

Maddie and Chimney's development has happened mostly off screen. I'm happy that they're good again but I would have enjoyed more if we actually saw them working to get together, they literally were slipt up one episode and then everything was great again, with no in deep conversation or anything important happening.

Athena has mostly been a side character this season, and that feels like such a waste when you have Angela Bassett.

Eddie's arc has been a way to fill in some minutes when they don't have anything else. Midseason finales were usually about bringing everyone together, and they literally didn't include two of their regulars in there.

It feels like the Wilsons are the only thing that somehow makes sense anymore. I would have loved if most of their scenes went pass that cute family portray, but at least they are amazing together and their storylines are not as horrible as the rest.

And lately: The (lack of) emergencies. Not only have had to watch 10 minute emergencies about the lamest most boring topics that when they finally have a decent one, they wrap it up in less than five minutes. The Santa Ana winds could have totally be a big emergency like this show used to do, but of course they don't take the opportunity.

At this point I don't really know what they're doing with the show anymore. The arcs involving the mains are boring, they don't have a purpose and instead of flowing through the season, they just come and go as a swing. The emergencies are too long and boring and they are only related to the title because they say the name. And the overall feeling of the episodes is just like a brick of information that won't go anywhere and it won't mean anything.

I am not an avid fan Fic participant but since the show runner bragged in several interviews that this is where she got her start I wandered over to read a few. Have to admit - it all makes sense now. Since season 3 this show's writing has mostly been very soapy - pathetic most of the time. I see the fan fics have competitions apparently where a number of phrases or simply words are offered to a group and from that they write a story-could be 1,000 words or 10,000 but the phrase gets repeated often. Some actually call it a Bingo series. That is the same thing happening by the 911 writers/show runner. Every scene envelops the title - over and over. Does someone in the writers room get to yell Bingo when they fill 42 minutes with this garbage??

What happened to the excellent writers from the first 3 seasons?? The original show runner took them with him to 911 LS and others just escaped with their credibility. Kristen you have demolished the characters every chance you get. So sad.

That little scrap fire warranted all the firefighters in their smoke gear?? Come on - I've seen neighbors put those out with a garden hose. What has happened to the real emergencies from years past? She says season 6B will have "a storm with thunder and lightning but no rain" - my god woman - do your research- it's called dry lightning and happens frequently.

You've relegated Cap to near nothing for 8 episodes, Athena has been off doing movies so we get very little of her. Chim & Maddie has most everything happen off screen - so we get about the same as season 5 which is nothing. Hen & Karen are appreciated- at least we've seen them with some consistency.

Buck is regressing in maturity level each week. Thought he'd really make personal progress after dumping Taylor but instead he's going backwards. He didn't pay attention to Hen when she told him he'd be "a donor not a dad." He ran out and bought the kid a firefighter inside already?? Is that supposed to touching? Aww how sweet. What next - is he going to be handing out cigars when the kid arrives and then he gets tge wake-up call when it goes home with his idiot shallow old friend and mommy? And then Buck goes back home and wonders why he got left again?? This is malfeasance- what you are doing to his character.

Eddie and Chris seem to be the brief comedy relief - Chim's old job. That's the best you can do - but you're going to have Eddie start dating again soon - so that will make him right with the world. Hope you do better casting than last time. One bright spot is we only had 3 minutes of Lucy this season so far - but knowing Kristen she'll figure out a way to punish us and bring her back. Cruel. And pity the poor crew that have to work the long hours to actually bring this product to our screens.

Maybe Ryan's allowing this because most of the casts' contracts are up and it will be easier to low ball them if the demo keeps going down as it has. Would he really do that to his own show? After the last three years I'd say anything is possible. Have to wonder if he or Tim ever watch this disaster. Fox is moving LS to Tuesdays. Wonder if OG will also. Good luck with being up against the three FBI shows. Maybe Fox is making a strategic decision for the group. Kristen can always go back to fan fic - seems like she never really left.

Does anyone miss when this show used to be good?

Remember the days of decent storylines and big emergencies? Since season 4, this show has felt like it's sliding down a landslide and the quality just gets worse.

For a mid-season finale, those of us that were barely hanging on, probably won't be back. Boring stories, boring characters, boring emergency. I keep giving it another chance, but don't think it will get any better.

Don't even get me started on how awful the donor storyline is. What is the point? Buck is almost unrecognizable in his immaturity. This story won't end well, there were plenty out opportunities given and they didn't take them.

Since season 4 it's like there's a dartboard in the writers room and they throw darts to see where they land.

The reviews and ratings are declining and yet, every week the show just gets more soap opera like and less entertaining.