Friday 23 July 2021

L.A. Firefighters | FOX | 1996

June - July 1996
FOX | 6 episodes | Drama


WHO'S IN IT? Jarrod Emick, Christine Elise, Miguel Sandoval, et. al.

SYNOPSIS: L. A. Firefighters follows the lives of the members of Fire Company 132 in Los Angeles.

The show was burned by critics and real-life firefighters called for a boycott of the show (they even held a press conference to denounce it), saying it made them look unprofessional and that "just about every scene is rife with sexual innuendo". The show was supposed to return in the fall and a further seven episodes were produced but were never aired in the US.

VERDICT: The show opens with a baby in a crib - thick smoke pouring out of the air vent, the building soon a raging inferno. Minutes later, a fireman tackling the blaze, and not wearing proper protective equipment, quips: "Is it me, or do you smell something burning?" (the baby does survive, btw). The action scenes are good, but the dialogue between the firefighters when they're not on the scene is just so clunky and cliché - for example, asking whether a female colleague is gay, or delivering doubly cliché lines such as: 

"I've been protecting you since we were kids!"
"You always have to be a hero, don’t you, Jack?"

CANCELLED BEFORE ITS TIME? No, not a forgotten gem. I could barely get through the episode.

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