Reviews

I don't usually write spoiler reviews, but I'm seriously doing this so you don't waste your time like I just did.

The one good thing I'll say is the acting while predictable and cringe at times, wasn't that bad. There were more than couple times where Natalie said or reacted in such a way where I thought "man I felt that".

Now for the bad... To echo what most others have already said, it's the same ol' same ol. Start off like some supernatural entity is causing a disturbance only to find out, nah it's just a plain old human, being weird for an unexplained reason.

Secondly, while the movie was still pretending to be an act of the paranormal, Natalie's sister is "taken" and aside from a fake text that we later learn is clearly from the weird dude in the basement, her disappearance is a complete afterthought. The movie ends a month later, and no one seems to find it odd that Dani has not been seen or heard of since the events occurred.

Then there's the typical detective who instead of doing any actual police work, spends all of his time low key accusing the victim of being crazy or a suspect. Any real law enforcement officer would have found that hiding spot, the first time they reported the house being broken into or very soon after.

This weird dude who hasn't bathed in Lord knows how long, apparently doesn't reek of body order or our main characters have lost their ability to smell. He's also incapable of leaving any trace of dirt in this mostly WHITE clean house.

Once it started coming together that all the weird stuff was an act of a human and not some malevolent spirit, you get overwhelmed with how ridiculous everything is.

Like the motive for this dude to start messing with Natalie to begin with. The origin of the original owners is never fully explained either. Like why nobody noticed or cared that this Otto guy was missing. A house with two homicide victims, isn't combed through from the ground up? Not even when it's being sold? How a malnourished, smelly man with no human contact could somehow be so savvy he evaded any and all camera footage, leaves absolutely no trace of his being around by smell or even dirt. And could move about in such a manner where you can only assume he's not human? What did he eat in the entire time that house couldn't get sold? I could go on and on. But you get the point.

It was all just dumb.

I'm a paramedic who also has had extensive firefighter training. That being said, it took about 5 minutes into the episode before I was laughing and shaking my head "no" as I was overwhelmed with the inaccuracies. Now I understand that it's TV so I know it's not going to be perfect. However I long had my doubts before actually watching it. The first thing that's wrong with it, is that it's on NBC, which means there's a foul language barrier. Anyone who knows real firefighters ESPECIALLY firefighters in Chicago; know that the majority of us can't say more than ten words without swearing or saying something vulgar. So the show pretty much has lost it's realism in the dialog alone. Now I don't argue that you can't make it work, because Third Watch did fine with it for a long time, however the focus wasn't only on firefighters in that show.

Taking that away there's still plenty wrong with this show. Really it's the little things that just build up and make you say "come on!" Now some of it are things only someone on the job would notice, but then there are the obvious. So here are some to name a few: A lot of these guys look like they walked off the cover of a magazine, especially the women. They show one of the ladies after a 24 hour shift and she's all dolled up. A paramedic on the box in Chicago; I'm positive has zero interest in looking all pretty in the morning on the way home!! Are there good looking firefighters and paramedics? Sure but not THAT many. You can have a good show without a bunch of models running around with their shirts off! Lots of the guys have some sort of chin hair. NO FIRE DEPT ON THE PLANET ALLOWS THIS!!! Facial hair interrupts the sealing of the face piece, making it ineffective and even dangerous to wear in a compromised environment.Then it's the lack of focus while responding to calls. Now I'll admit, when you've done this job long enough, certain calls hardly make your heart rate go past 70, but you will NEVER see a guy, on his way to a fire with his feet up, reading the paper...ridiculous! Next, one of the female paramedics is slipping one of the guys some sort of drug, I forget which. If I remember correctly it was a narcotic of some sort. Because of on the job drug abusers in the past, it's nearly impossible to steal drugs from an ambulance without pointing the finger right back at you! So then there are the locker room scenes. Wait I said that wrong, then there are the co-ed locker room scenes. I don't think that needs explaining. Moving on, one of the paramedics in one scene is doing a complicated (and very rare) procedure for whatever reason. They show the little girl's heart rhythm on the monitor even though she doesn't have a single lead on her body. Not a big deal but annoying nonetheless, also if she were that bad off, there'd be more than one paramedic back there at least to set up the non existent IV.

To pick at the actual story. It's painfully predictable and phony. If a fighter died in a fire, you're not gonna see the lieutenant (or anyone for that matter) just rest their head on the ladder as if someone brought then coffee with two sugars as opposed to one. Then the show bounces from character to character not really showing us anything. One guy has a name, that's not really his name, it's confusing what person is assigned to what, considering it's Chicago, the bosses are WAY too young. Especially the guy running the squad. But I digress.

So between all that, the cheesy lines, the sub par acting, and the predictable story lines, I'll say this: Whoever the technical adviser is needs to be fired, because he or she definitely lied about having any kind of background in thus field!! My suggestion: Don't waste your time with this garbage. It'll be gone before you know it. Just like that other show...oh right, "Trauma"!