The 118 is officially back, but 9-1-1 Season 8 doesn't take us back to what we're familiar with. Instead, our team is thrown off-kilter without their captain — and right as a superswarm of bees attack Los Angeles. Even worse, most of the team is facing one problem or another while also having to deal with the tyrannical Captain Gerrard (Brian Thompson). Much like the Season 7 premiere, Season 8 is kicking off with a three-episode arc, this time involving a massive swarm of killer bees that accidentally gets released into the city of Los Angeles. If that sounds both horrific and also somewhat underwhelming, you'd be right. Struggling in the shadow of greater disasters, like the tsunami arc of Season 3 or the blackout that hit in Season 5, the team feels more disparate than ever, and the tempo and tone of the season just don't gel.
The 118 Team Is Too Scattered To Make an Impact in the '9-1-1' Season 8 Premiere
One thing that becomes really obvious in this premiere is that, in many ways, the episode lacks the type of levity and joy that's become so closely associated with 9-1-1. Sure, we've had some very dark episodes, but season openers tend to be partly a reunion between the audience and the show as well as a tabula rasa moment, as is typical in television procedurals. But, in picking up where Season 7 left off, it's revealed the 118 have been suffering a grueling three months under the command of Captain Gerrard. It's still unclear how this man, who was openly racist and sexist (to the point of harassment) toward the people working for him, got this job. It's a pretty glaring plot hole, considering how egregious Gerrard was in the past.
But, if the higher-ups are willing to overlook Gerrard's past crimes, they definitely won't mind a bit of tough love... or plain old torture. Instead of relaxing around the kitchen while Bobby cooks up a feast, Buck (Oliver Stark), Eddie (Ryan Guzman), Chim (Kenneth Choi), and Hen (Aisha Hinds) spend their days cleaning every inch of the firehouse. And when they're not cleaning, they're running laps until they pass out. Would you feel safe if the firefighters who came to rescue you were already exhausted and broken down by running pointless laps all morning? I don't know if I want to put my life into the hands of someone who is keeling over trying to catch their breath.
On the other side of town, Bobby (Peter Krause) is working with Station 119, but unlike the 118, this one exists purely on (digital) celluloid. It's unclear how Bobby ended up on a film set as an advisor for actors playing firefighters, but it's clear that he's there under the department's orders. Perhaps his attempts to get his job back failed, and this is where he's been saddled. It's disheartening because Bobby has often been the glue that sticks the team together. He's an important person to the entire team, and they rely on him for leadership and guidance. Sure, we can see now how much the team needs Bobby, but was that ever in doubt? As silly and entertaining as it is to watch Bobby getting meta on set and being compared to the real-life Jake LaMotta (while the actor compares himself to Robert De Niro, of course), it feels like this storyline is just a placeholder for Bobby. At least in Season 7's premiere, we got him with Athena (Angela Bassett), a winning duo that always plays well on screen, but Athena is shipped off pretty much immediately for a quest of her own. And while Athena's is easily the most interesting plot of the episode, and Bassett kills her performance as usual, it still adds to the odd jumble of stories of this premiere.
'9-1-1' Season 8 Has To Reckon With the Show's Leftover Storylines
One of the main reasons why Season 8 doesn't feel so cohesive is that, in many ways, it feels like we're watching Season 7.5, not Season 8, with the majority of the storylines in the premiere carrying over from the finale. The shorter Season 7, impacted by the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes last year, meant that all the storylines were put on ice until more episodes could follow. But, as a result of the strikes and the fact that the show's jump to ABC has made 9-1-1 more serialized as opposed to episodic, this premiere bears more of a resemblance to a mid-season break.
Christopher (Gavin McHugh) is still in Texas with his grandparents, and Eddie does his best to celebrate his son's birthday while being physically and emotionally pushed aside by him. Hen and Karen (Tracie Thoms) continue to struggle to get back their right to foster kids, while Mara (Askyler Bell) stays with Chim and Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt). Bobby and Athena are still house hunting after their home burned down. And Buck is still happily dating Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.), sharing flirtatious smiles with him and seeming genuinely content. It's a stark difference from what the show used to be, where every season premiere felt like a clean slate. Though that's not necessarily bad, it gives the impression that the entire team has just been running in place for the last three months.
Gerrard Makes for a Lousy Villain in '9-1-1' Season 8
While Season 7 ended with the bombshell that Gerrard was replacing Bobby, Season 8's premiere feels far less impactful. Much of Gerrard's menace was rooted in his hateful demeanor. He was overtly racist towards Chim and Hen, and he constantly prioritized his own ego over his job. The Gerrard of the past felt like the most oppressive and suffocating version of The Man that you seemingly couldn't escape. That version of the character makes Season 8's Gerrard look completely toothless. He's been watered down, and while it's unclear if the network didn't want to make any waves by making the captain actually controversial, the end result is cartoonish.
Gerrard's insecurity manifests in bullying Buck, the character who earns all of his vitriol this season. When Buck comes up with an idea that leads to him saving the day, Gerrard disciplines him for going rogue and then takes credit for the success. It's underhanded but not much more than that. What's more, it's disappointing — because when 9-1-1: Lone Star brought back its old captain, Billy Tyson (Billy Burke), his character was thoroughly hateable, but Burke had the type of charisma that still made him quite compelling. The winning combo there was that no matter how bad Tyson got, he still had people who wanted to be on his side. Gerrard is neither mean enough to enrage the viewer nor interesting enough for us to hope for a redemption arc.
What's Good About '9-1-1' Is Still Good in Season 8
While there are several issues with how this season has kicked off, that doesn't mean the show has taken a major dip in quality. What's good about 9-1-1 is still very good. It's great to see Buck, Eddie, and Tommy bonding together and hanging out as friends — though are they really his friends if they let Eddie grow out that pornstache? It's also nice to see Hen, Karen, Maddie, Chim, and the kids all together in a pseudo-blended family. It's especially cute to hear Chim yelling spells from Harry Potter with Mara, who fires her own spell right back at him. It's clear the show is setting up a potential conflict between Chim and Hen as Mara grows closer to her new foster family.
But what stands out the most is Athena's story, which is easily the most interesting of the premiere. Brought into work, she is told that she must escort a prisoner from Arizona back to Los Angeles to testify. The prisoner is highly important since he was cellmates with, essentially, a fictional Jeffrey Epstein. And now that that man is dead, he can inform on him to law enforcement and give up the man's high-powered clients. But, due to the influential nature of the dead man's clientele, the prisoner is obviously at risk. It all seems like a standard day in the life of Athena Grant, right? Wrong. The prisoner in question is Dennis Jenkins.
We first learned about Dennis back in Season 3 with Athena's backstory. He was the man who shot her fiancé and went unpunished for years, eventually turning his life around to try and be a better man before Athena caught him and sent him to jail. Despite Dennis' attempts to rehabilitate himself, Athena has never forgiven him, and she is shocked to hear that Dennis requested her personally as his escort. It's no secret that Athena gets some of the most intense storylines of the series. Not only does an actor of Bassett's caliber deserve it, but she's able to impart her gravitas on every scene she's in. Taking her out of the beenado storyline to lean into this arc is a fantastic use of the character, even if it is so disjointed from the main story. She is intuitive, passionate, and unflinching in her duty. Even though she still grieves for her fiancé, she remains the same courageous and noble police officer she's always been.
'9-1-1' Still Embraces What Makes It Unique in Season 8
While the bees are definitely no cruise disaster or earthquake, releasing 22 million killer bees in the city of Los Angeles is just the type of classic ridiculousness that made this show so entertaining. A swarm of bees stinging an assistant who has been doused in her boss' perfume product during an influencer party? Oh, and the only way to save her is to douse someone else (Eddie) in that perfume to distract the bees while she's pulled out of the bottom of a pool where she's been breathing through a lawn hose for half an hour? It's both very LA and very 9-1-1. A mother and daughter tragically trapped in their car right near the hives where the bees are swarming also happen to have a genetic predisposition to being allergic to bee stings? Yep, that sounds right. Oh, there's only one EpiPen? No problem. Maddie is here to talk the little girl through how to make the most of what is left in the pen to save her mom's life. MacGyver, eat your heart out.
Ultimately, it's hard to fully judge the episode, as the version I saw had no completed special effects. That means not getting to see Christopher's reaction to seeing his dad on the webcam, and also an episode completely bereft of bees! On the one hand, it's a nice reminder of the situations actors are put in when they have to act opposite a blue screen or pretend they're being swarmed by imaginary bees, waving their hands around wildly when nothing is actually attacking them. On the other, it breaks the immersion and exposes some of the episode's weaknesses. There's a reason why Athena's story still stood out so much, and bees had nothing to do with it.
It's definitely too early to judge the entire season of 9-1-1 based on its premiere, and this show has historically thrown some pretty wild twists at its audience. Still, at least in the realm of season disasters, Season 8's premiere falters in comparison to previous openers, as the show is clearly stumbling and recovering from its truncated season. However, it hasn't lost its heart, and the storylines it's picking up are still intriguing enough to keep us coming back for more.
New episodes of 9-1-1 Season 8 air on ABC on Thursdays and stream on Hulu the next day in the U.S.
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