Chicago Fire “A Little Taste” 

Well, as most of us suspected at the end of last week’s episode, Severide (Taylor Kinney) has his surgery and is back in the firehouse in no time, good as new.  With that plot laid to rest (at least we think so), new storylines begin tonight in the squad that never seems to be lacking in drama.

Severide may have come through the surgery with flying colors, but now, he’s got another problem, and that involves being caught between two women and a baby.  Ever since Clarice (Shiri Appleby) left her husband, Daniel, and moved back in with Shay (Lauren German), I knew there would be trouble.  Granted, I was pleasantly surprised to see them getting along quite nicely with Severide, but now that Clarice’s baby has been born, the real problems have begun.  If you were Daniel and your wife left you for her lesbian lover, wouldn’t your ego be a tad bit hurt?  Well, that certainly appears to be the case, because just hours after Clarice gives birth, both Clarice and Shay are served with court papers where Daniel is suing for full custody.  I certainly don’t think the “my baby should be taken from his mother because she’s a lesbian” argument will work, but it’s going to complicate matters for quite a while.  I think it’s a good thing Severide didn’t go to Madrid because Shay is going to need all the support she can get.

Then, there’s the matter of Dawson (Monica Raymund) and Peter Mills (Charlie Barnett).  Oh, wait! Maybe, it’s Dawson and Casey (Jesse Spencer)!  Dawson, Dawson, Dawson.  You’ve really woven yourself a mess of a web.  Dawson continues to sleep with Mills, even though her comments about his “giving a lot of attention to detail” indicates that she’s really not into him.  At the same time, Mills is getting attached and has asked Dawson to meet his Mom.  Ouch.  To make matters worse, Ms. Casey shows up at the firehouse and immediately recognizes Dawson as someone who was at her parole hearing.  With Mills standing right there, Dawson tries to dance around the awkward moment but does a terrible job.  The cherry on top is Ms. Casey’s comment to her son, “Forget, Hallie.  This is the woman I’ve always envisioned you with”.  But, it may not matter because her text to Casey that was meant for Mills may have just wrecked any chance she has with Casey anyways.  Casey now knows that while Dawson was trying to get close to him, she has been involved with another man.

Finally, we have some new drama with Dawson’s brother, Antonio (Jon Seda).  Even though he’s vice, he’s secretly working a case involving a prostitution ring, where pimps are giving payback for stealing their girls and business by putting tainted heroine on the streets.  So far, five prostitutes have died from the bad heroine, and Antonio seems to be on a mission to apprehend who is behind it, even if his own mental health is at risk. Wow, this guy is unraveling.  He shows up at the firehouse to visit Dawson panicky and glassy-eyed, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he were on drugs himself.  But, whatever he’s gotten himself into, it certainly has gotten someone’s attention because he is shot at the end of the episode.  Stay tuned until next week to see if he survives the attack.

Now that 10+ episodes of Chicago Fire have aired, we now get a feel of how the series is developing.  Before the show premiered, most people believed it would follow the lead of other Dick Wolf dramas, like the Law and Order franchise, and fall into the pattern of a fire or accident-of-the-week and nothing else.  That is where the series has surprised viewers and what I believe is its greatest strength.  There really isn’t a main story centered around an accident every week.  Instead, there are usually one or two main storylines that span multiple episodes, with several other minor arcs, all being developed at once.  The Otis (Yuri Sardarov) transfer to Morningside, Herrmann’s (David Eigenberg) bad investment idea into the bar – all of these were other small plots running alongside the above main ones.  In a couple of episodes, the writers may have overdone it and had too many storylines going at once, but for the most part, they’ve done a good job and have keep the show very interesting.

All in all, I thought this was a good episode, and the series still has my attention.  Given the fact that the series averages 7.5 to 8 million viewers per week (very good for an NBC show) and tends to focus on character development instead of action, that should give you an indicator of the caliber of the writing.  Let’s hope Chicago Fire continues in that direction.

Chicago Fire airs on Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. EST on NBC.