Seismic Shifts

It's upsetting how clear this season was basically only outlined by the head writers and showrunners, given a greenlight and possibly a far to soon to manage deadline, and then churned out as last minute as possible.

Nearly every major arc from the beginning of the season involving a main character was not properly given time or resolve. The only exception possibly being Chimney, whom Kenneth Choi did another stellar job injecting emotion into. Every other character and their relationships were handwaved yet again.

Much of this season has felt wholly impersonal and a bit mean to both the cast and the fans. I'm leaving a season finale disheartened. For an episode titled seismic shifts, we are circled back yet again to status quo. Even the unexplained, seemingly unjust firing of a mainstay actor whom was adored on and behind the camera feels to be an afterthought. There has been and will never be closure on his death due to the circumstances that surround it. And that would be fine if the show was not pounding the pavement to move on as quickly as possible from any meaningful plot point it has had.

Overall I'm shocked at the variation in quality of season 8. How the showrunners have created a story so human and uplifting yet their goals seem to be aligned with how to remake your favorite movie of the week. And then churn out a script and cobble together footage then put it to screen, not caring how that comes across because the money was already made and spent, and the show is already renewed so we can just fix it later.

Well later won't come now, and if we as viewers do not see the work, then the issues don't feel fixed, they feel ignored and thrown away. Very bitter taste left in my mouth.

The emergency was fine, nothing crazy but ok ig. Chimneys speech at the end was powerful and his reconciliation with Athena was nice. THAT being said, what a waste. ABC please fire your show runners and writers or at least scare them into writing better. You had the PERFECT set up for a great finale with 8x17, you did an insane press tour, and truly had the perfect setup for a great last episode. Instead you gave us nothing, that was so lame I can't even put it into words. You are taking these characters a certain way and then completely 180ing them. Does no one communicate about where each of the character arcs are going?? I mean you really messed up buck and eddies start for season 9 after such a perfect set up in the previous episode, what about the empty casket from 8x16, and most importantly BRING BACK PETER KRAUSE. I love this show but I cannot stress this enough, get your stuff together and write the way the show should be written!!

Between arcs going nowhere, having important scenes happening off screen or being rushed to give time to boring emergencies and side characters, this finale had me once again asking myself a question I've asked one too many times this season: what was the point?

If a viewer chose to skip season 8 for whatever reason, they could go right away into season 9 without feeling too lost because none of the characters had any major development and there are maybe four or five things that have actually changed, and none of them are worth sitting through 18 episodes for.

With season 7 being shorter and mostly a way to fix certain things and considering that this was the first 18 episode season on the new network and with the original showrunner coming back, viewers most likely expected the show to go back to what it was like in the earlier seasons just to be left disappointed.

There have always been inaccuracies and questionable choices have been made in the past too, but season 8 in particular clearly suffered from a lack of direction and consistency. Too often characters either said one thing just to do the opposite the following episode or had scenes that seemed to set up some sort of arc that was poorly flashed out, if it even happened at all.

Maddie and Hen were given some spotlight only when scenes involved their families or they had something bad happened to them, Chim had a few moments throughout the season but still felt sidelined, Buck's storyline in 8b lead nowhere and 8 seasons in, he's still stuck on a hamster wheel, Eddie's arc had too many moments happening off screen and the core issues that had to be dealt with were completely ignored. And well, so much could be said about Athena and Bobby but none of it would be positive.

Out of all the things I had hoped or expected to see this season, Gerrard being the only character with some sort of development was not on my list at all.

Season finales used to give viewers some sort of closure and most of them ended in a way that felt hopeful. This season finale, however, was a perfect example of what has been wrong throughout the whole season and doesn't leave anyone hopeful for the next.

At this point, it's becoming harder and harder to believe things may get better as clearly, the fans' opinions are totally ignored and nothing can stop the derailed train this show has seemingly become.

It's a little sad to see a beloved show go downhill so fast in the span of a couple episodes. How do you completely misunderstand your own audience?

First off, Eddie deserved better in terms of writing.

His storyline was sidelined for a good chunk of the season. So much so that by the end it didn't feel resolved nor did it feel satisfying. Which is sad to say the least because there's so much that could be done with Eddie's character and yet the writers and the showrunner don't know how to properly utilize him.

What was the point of having Christopher go to Texas and have Eddie go after him only for them to not even have a conversation about what happened last season? Ohh that's right, it probably did happen but off screen.

Seriously, what was the point of creating a rift between the two of them? It would've made sense if it led to more development for Eddie's character, which at some point it did feel like it was moving in the right direction only for it to go nowhere.

And don't even get me started on the alleged "genius" creative decision of killing off Bobby. All for the sake of realism? The same show that had a ghost dial 9-1-1 cares about realism? Sure. And only for Bobby to not even get a good send off.

If this shows wants to keep people around even after making the horrible decision of killing off one of their main characters, there needs to be GOOD fleshed out character arcs that are PROPERLY resolved. Along with follow ups because why bring something up and then never talk about it again?

It feels as though Tim has forgotten exactly why people love and cared about this show in the first place. The emergency calls may be part of it but it's mainly the character driven stories that keep people around.

People care about these characters and their personal lives and the problems they deal with on a day to day basis. Big emergency calls may be fun but it's gotten to the point where having multiple in one season puts certain storylines in the back burner.

All people want are well written storylines instead of whatever the hell has been going on in these past few seasons. I don't think that's too much to ask for but who knows maybe it is.

I'm not sure how many people will stay tuned in after this season but at this rate there won't be much of an audience left if the writers and Tim Minear continue to go in this direction.

There's more I want to say about all of this but I'll stop here.

Spending the majority of the episode on a big emergency and then cramming in a less than 5 minute montage of development in the characters' personal lives at the end perfectly illustrates how out of touch the writers/showrunner are with what their viewers want. We as viewers of the show don't care about having bigger and grander emergencies every week. The heart of this show was the bond between the characters and the found family aspect which has decidedly been lost since the disastrous decision to kill Bobby off. This didn't feel like a season finale and it certainly didn't leave anything to be talked about during the hiatus. Definitely doesn't make me want to come back for season 9!