TV Review: ‘Chicago Fire’ 

Jesse Spencer as Matthew Casey in ‘Chicago Fire’
Jesse Spencer as Matthew Casey in ‘Chicago Fire’(NBC)

Watching "Chicago Fire," which has some potentially interesting characters and story lines, there are just a few too many moments when it feels like we're watching actors playing firemen and first responders.

That doesn't make them bad actors. It does suggest "Chicago Fire" isn't drawing viewers into its world.


Created by Dick Wolf of "Law & Order" fame, "Chicago Fire" draws a little from FX's late "Rescue Me" and more from the kind of procedurals that "Law & Order" helped institutionalize.

It stars Jesse Spencer from "House" as Lt. Matthew Casey and hunky Taylor Kinney as Lt. Kelly Severide.

They at first provide the internal friction, but their story line seems almost resolved by the end of the first episode.

Casey is also the brooder, the guy who takes his work home and lives with every what-if. It's hard not to think of Denis Leary's character in "Rescue Me," except Casey drinks less and is less nuts.

Much of the first-night setup revolves around conflicts among the firefighters and their adjacent rescue squad, which is undoubtedly an interesting dynamic in many real-life operations.

Unfortunately, it doesn't immediately create riveting TV. Instead it leads to a scene where the veterans haze new guy Peter Mills (Charlie Barnett) by encouraging him to say something inappropriate to an unsuspecting person.

The scene might be amusing if we didn't feel like we could recite it word for word as he says it.

"Chicago Fire" scores ambition points simply for attempting a firefighter show, which is much harder than a credible cop show.


It also has complex and possibly interesting ideas and subplots.
