After three fiery episodes and one mediocre one, Fire Country settles into its regular rhythm in this episode.

Fire Country Season 4 Episode 5, “Happy First Day, Manny,” features all the classic themes the show is known for — strained relationships, unique and thrilling emergencies, Bode, and some mystery.

The underwhelming developments in Fire Country Season 4 Episode 4 elevate this one, but it stands out in its own right. It’s Manny’s first day as Battalion Chief, and with that comes some adjusting from all corners.

I wasn’t elated with how Manny became chief, but it wasn’t because of his ability to do the job; it was because it felt contrived.

But whether I like it or not, that’s the new reality for the show and the characters.

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Manny’s First Day Brings Growth and Chaos

To highlight how abrupt the transition is, no one has had the time to adjust when the episode begins. To Eve, this is always the Manny she’s always known. However, she does try to recognize his new role. With time, it’ll stick, and Chief Perez will roll off the tongue easily.

Despite having his heart broken by not becoming BC, Jake adjusts, as he has always done.

Fire Country has always mistreated two characters: Jake and Gabriela. This is because of their proximity to Bode, who can never stop himself from abusing and misusing the people who like him.

With Gabriela gone, Jake is left as the punching bag, but we have seen some changes this season. He refuses to dim himself for the fear of upsetting Bode.

He continues on this trajectory in the episode by telling Bode some truths, however uncomfortable those truths may be. And props to Bode because he listens and plans on adjusting. That’s progress coming from Bode.

However, I’ve always felt that their “friendship” and “brotherhood” were just ideas on paper. We have heard a lot about how close they were when they were younger, but we’ve never seen it.

It causes me second-hand embarrassment to see Jake try to rekindle a connection that may no longer exist. Seeing him try to maintain a cordial relationship with Bode and calling him “B” is painful.

People grow up and apart; that’s a fact of life. What worked as children might not work anymore because people change. Trying to maintain childhood friendships can be exhausting; I’ve done it, and I wouldn’t recommend it. But maybe Jake is a better man than I.

We’ve seen this dance before, where they seem like things are getting better, only for Bode to get triggered by something or another and fly off the handle. The fact that Bode has moved back in with Jake does not inspire confidence about the future of this friendship.

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The question becomes: how long will it take before they’re at odds again? When that happens, it’ll become another cycle in this oscillating storyline that offers no progress.

However, the show is making progress with many of its storylines, especially with Vince’s death.

I admire how the writers have handled this by keeping his memory alive through the characters without pushing it down the viewer’s throat. Whether it’s the shot of the empty locker space with his name tag, or Sharon’s struggles with change after she’d gotten used to him so much, or even (and it hurts me to write this) Bode’s misguided missions.

It makes the loss feel real without stagnating the story, something that has been happening on 9-1-1 since Bobby Nash’s death.

Three Rock Needs to Stay Closed

Nonetheless, that’s not to say the show isn’t trying to get stuck in the past; a good example is the Three Rock storyline.

I’m not a fan of reopening the camp because, at this point in the show, it doesn’t do it any service. It’s just another plot that takes away from developing all the characters and staging amazing emergencies.

Their desire to keep this storyline going underscores a fundamental problem with Fire Country and Eve, where they have never known what to do with her.

Season 3 was a significant turning point for her, as it saw her personal life unfold, including her romance with Francine and the strained family relationship with her father.

Instead of digging deeper, the writers want to saddle her with Three Rock and move on from her personal life. For a show about life-threatening emergencies, this feels like the beginning of torturing the character.

For example, what’s with the chicken in the firehouse? That was an unusual way of introducing potential solutions to the budget issue plaguing the reopening of the fire camp.

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The problem is that I don’t buy it. Having chickens produce eggs would offset the budget by $20,000, but is that sustainable?

Anyone who has reared chickens can tell you that it’s not as easy as it seems. They don’t feed on empty air, live on trees, and lay huge eggs. Chickens require attention like any other domestic animal.

Add Eve’s proposal of arable farming to the mix, and that camp will no longer be about fighting fires; it’ll be a full-time farm. But what do I know? I’ve never run an inmate fire camp.

Gut Check

“Happy First Day, Manny” is like every episode of Fire Country, but with some progressive storylines. It’s everything good about the show packaged inside an hour, and as a result, it becomes an entertaining watch. It’s good, but it’s not bold. And in a season that promised upheaval, that feels like a letdown.

Stray Observation

• I love it when Bode saves the moment. How could a dozen firefighters catch one chicken without his talents?

• I just know Bode was dying to be the moment’s hero and bring down the drive-in theater’s screen. He will never forgive Jake for driving that truck so well.

• The cliffhanger hints at the appearance of Sharon’s mother, and she’s already interesting without having a single scene. Can’t wait to meet her!

• So Richards and James are gone just like that?

Over to you, Fire Country fanatics. What did you think of the episode? Do you like Manny as the new BC? Is Three Rock worth reopening, or has it run its course?

Drop a line in the comments section. It’s always fun to read another perspective.

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Boston Blue took on the difficult subject of teenage boys shooting up public places, and it didn’t go where I expected.

That was partially my own bias. I thought for sure an interracial family of cops would take on a police-involved shooting and didn’t expect a story about trying to make sense of yet another 16-year-old turning a public place into a war zone.

The police-involved shooting will likely come up at some point, but Boston Blue Season 1 Episode 5 went in a different direction.

The Public Shooting Story Was A Litmus Test That Boston Blue Mostly Passed, But It Was Still Problematic

I try to avoid comparing Boston Blue to Blue Bloods too much because it needs to be its own show, not merely an extension, spinoff, or similar cop/family drama.

However, one thing I loved about Blue Bloods was that it would present various sides of an issue through each character’s eyes and let the audience make up their own minds.

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That’s something that is all too rare in our ultra-politicized world. Many shows use characters as mouthpieces for the writers’ perspective and don’t leave space for the audience to decide what they think.

Boston Blue did its best to present the issue fairly of who is responsible for a teenage shooting spree, and for the most part, it succeeded.

The Silvers disagreed on this issue, with Sarah convinced that the parents were responsible for their son’s decision to take a gun to the yogurt shop.

This is a tough issue, and I have my own opinions on it that I will discuss in a bit.

Boston Blue did a decent job of showing multiple perspectives. However, it loses major points for Sarah being so wedded to the idea that parents couldn’t possibly be oblivious to a child’s desire to commit murder.

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I feel like Danny should have had a stronger voice in this debate.

During the final few seasons of Blue Bloods, Frank often expressed gratitude for the Sunday dinners, while regretting that the tradition of families eating together seemed rare these days.

Given that background, Danny should have seen the issue of oblivious parents as another consequence of the loss of family time in modern society.

It was great that he referenced Linda’s desire not to let the boys handle guns, a callback to Blue Bloods Season 4 Episode 2.

However, he was raised with the idea that family time should be sacrosanct and that this value was dying out, so he should have had a lot to say about why it’s plausible that parents wouldn’t know their son was homicidal.

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That would have added something to the debate and solidified the family values aspect of Boston Blue.

That said, why was the focus only on what the parents knew or didn’t know?

Sarah talked to Kyle’s teachers, but didn’t hold them at all responsible for what Kyle did.

Realistically, teachers, especially in large cities, are overworked and don’t have the time to attend to every student’s psychological needs — which is part of the problem.

Besides, by Sarah’s own theory, if the parents were irresponsible, so were the teachers, especially the ones who noted Kyle was having mental health issues and didn’t do anything besides inform his parents of the problem.

I love shows like Boston Blue that shed a light on complex issues without sermonizing.
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The truth is, public shootings represent a complex social problem with no one answer.

Easy access to guns is one part of the puzzle, but not the only piece, and the issue also won’t be solved by arresting parents for their kids’ choices.

I wasn’t clear on exactly what Sarah thought the parents should have done that they didn’t.

Were they supposed to notify the principal that their son was on an anti-psychotic? That seems discriminatory to me.

I have more than one bone to pick with that plot point. The majority of people with severe mental illness — including hallucinations and delusions — are non-violent, and I’m sick of TV shows equating mental illness with violence.

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In fact, one thing that Lena said was false: a person being prescribed risperidone does NOT mean they are violent or a danger to others.

The medication helps control delusions and hallucinations that are upsetting to the sufferer. Period.

There is no such thing as a drug that stops people from being violent, and the idea is no less offensive here than when Days of Our Lives used it to rehabilitate serial killer Ben Weston.

In fact, it’s worse on a police procedural, which is taken more seriously than a soap opera.

In any case, the parents had no obligation to tell anyone that their son was on this medication unless he needed it administered in school.

Nor was their gun ownership neglectful. They locked their gun up and taught their son gun safety.

There is no law that says you can’t have a gun if your teenager is on an antipsychotic medication, and laws about parental responsibility for shootings usually specify that the parents gave the child access to a gun, not that they simply possessed one while living with a child.

I Applaud Boston Blue For Exploring The Reasons Behind These Types of Crimes, But They Badly Missed The Mark

It would have been more realistic and effective to explore how many systems failed Kyle, leading to this result (and also, leave out the idea that violent drawings mean someone is about to kill, which is also patently false.)

They also somewhat missed the mark on the man with apparent dementia.

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It was great that Sean and Jonah had compassion and tried to help, but I didn’t think it was realistic that the man magically became fully lucid when his real son came to visit.

I’d have loved it if there had been a reference to how Jamie always worried that Sean’s great-grandfather was suffering from cognitive decline, and it only offended Henry. That would have been a GREAT callback.

Even With These Flaws, This Was a Solid Episode

The stories held my interest and were well-intentioned, although the art theft/murder story was silly. And I loved that Danny and Sean struggled to find the right balance in their relationship, although Sean and Jonah moving in together seems like a bad sitcom plot.

But what did you think?

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If you enjoyed our coverage of Boston Blue, you might like our reviews of other police shows like Chicago PD and FBI.

Boston Blue airs on CBS on Fridays at 10/9c and streams on Paramount+ on Saturdays.

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