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Fire Country

firefighters resting - Fire Country

Credits

Cast

Network

Reviewer

Emily Tsiao

TV Series Review

Bode Donovan left Edgewater, California, for a reason.

Don’t ask him why. He won’t tell you.

Maybe it’s because he wanted to get out of the small town in Northern California’s “fire country.” Maybe it’s because he and his dad, Fire Chief Vince Leone, were on bad terms. Or maybe it’s because he was responsible for the car crash that killed his younger sister, Riley.

Whatever the reason, leaving didn’t help. Bode went down a dark path and eventually got arrested after holding up a convenience store at gunpoint in San Francisco.

But now Bode’s being given the opportunity to redeem himself.

The clerk he threatened wrote a letter to the parole office, telling them that he forgave Bode and thinks the young man deserves a second chance.

The board won’t grant him parole, but they will let him reduce his sentence. All he has to do is join the Inmate Firefighting Aid Initiative and return to the town he abandoned.

Little Fires Everywhere

Even without Bode’s return, Edgewater still has its share of problems. The fire captain’s daughter, Gabriela, decides to give up her dream of becoming an Olympic diving champion (she feels like a failure even after finishing 14th at the most recent Olympic Games), creating tension with her dad since he thinks she’s staying to be with her boyfriend, Jake.

Jake is known for his dalliances with the ladies, but he insists he’s growing up and taking his relationship with Gabriela seriously. Unfortunately, Bode’s return might bode ill for Jake since Bode is the only one who knows that Jake dumped Riley the night she died. She was so emotionally distraught, she tried to get out of her brother’s moving vehicle. When Bode reached over to pull her back in, he lost control of the car and Riley perished.

And of course, you can’t discount the town’s constant danger of being reduced to ash by an uncontrollable blaze.

We Didn’t Start the Fire

Fire Country demonstrates the real-world dangers of wildfires. Firefighters heroically work to beat the flames and save others (and sometimes themselves). But sometimes it’s not enough. We hear about people, including firefighters, who have died in fires before.

Fires aren’t the only danger though. People get into fights. And, as I already mentioned, Bode is an inmate who was arrested for a violent crime. It stands to reason that some of the other inmates working to reduce their sentences have less-than-wholesome pasts themselves.

Language is in line with the show’s TV-14 rating. We see couples kissing, but so far, nothing further. And there are some LGBT characters as well.

Fire Country isn’t the worst thing on television, but it’s also not a burning success.

Episode Reviews

Oct. 7, 2022 – S1, Ep1: “Pilot”

Bode is shocked to learn his first duty station as an inmate firefighter is back in his hometown.

A firefighter is burned when he falls into a stump hole (the result of a tree catching fire and burning below ground). Shortly after, a burning tree falls on him, knocking him to the ground and trapping him. He is rescued by two other firefighters, but the three are forced to hide under emergency fire shelters when surrounding flames become too large to pass through. (They all survive.) We hear about civilians and firefighters who passed away in previous wildfires and homes that were destroyed.

Bode risks his life and freedom to save Jake (his enemy) and Eve (another firefighter) when they get trapped. A woman and her baby are rescued from their crashed car just before it explodes. Many civilians help firefighters cut line (removing flammable foliage to stop fires from spreading) instead of evacuating.

We hear that Bode robbed a man at gunpoint (though he’s remorseful and his victim forgives him). We also hear that Bode was responsible for a car accident that killed his sister. Two men fight and a woman tries to separate them. A woman draws a gun to protect herself from a man she believes is dangerous (but she doesn’t use it).

Inmate firefighters are warned that if they try to escape their training camp, they will go back to prison with longer sentences. Bode manipulates a fellow inmate into helping him obtain a contraband phone. When they are caught, he lies to protect his friend from punishment.

Some couples kiss and flirt. Two women flirt with each other at a bar. Some women wear revealing outfits. People drink alcohol. The fire chief asks a bar to shut down during a fire so that people will evacuate instead of “getting drunk.” Adult children argue with their parents. We hear uses of “a–,” “d–n” and “h—.” God’s name is also abused once.

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Emily Tsiao

Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.

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