Fire Country Season 4 Premiere Review Shows The Show At Its Best –And Worst

The premiere of Fire Country season 4 begins right where season 3 leaves off, and it promises that this season will deal heavy body blows to the hearts and minds of characters and audience alike. Rather than taking the popular network tactic of a timeskip to avoid the messy problem of having to deal with a death and its immediate aftermath, Fire Country season 4 makes the bold choice to open with the moment Vince (Billy Burke) is lost.

From there, it jumps right to Vince Leone’s memorial and Station 42 and the Leone family doing their best to hold it together now that the heat of their family is gone. The station is at a breaking point, both emotionally and with each other, and after the drama of the last few seasons and now Vince’s loss, it has lost its way. That’s what the Fire Country season 4 premiere establishes up front; it will be the job of the rest of the season to get them back on track.

Fire Country Season 4 Premiere Shows Why Sharon Is A Leader – And Bode Isn’t

Image via CBS

The story of the Fire Country season 4 premiere is tough for everyone. Station 42 has lost its leader and father figure, and the Leone family has lost the central hub around which it spins. Sharon (Diane Farr) is barely holding herself together, and yet, she steps up when her boys–both biological in Bode (Max Thieriot) and quasi-adopted in Jake (Jordan Calloway)–are at a breaking point. She separates them as they get in each other’s face at the memorial and then informs them that Station 42 is suspended from active duty, pending immediately.

It’s an incredibly tough decision, but one made not by grieving widow Sharon, but by Cal Fire Division Chief Leone, and it shows exactly why she’s earned her place of leadership–and why her son, Bode, hasn’t. Even driven by grief, Bode once again allows his anger issues and poor emotional control to overwhelm him and immediately gets into a fight with Jake in the middle of his father’s memorial in front of their extended Cal Fire colleagues.

The moment underscores why the weakest link in Fire Country‘s character chain is, unfortunately, its protagonist. In three seasons so far, Bode has yet to truly grow as a character. He’s still impulsive in stupid ways. He’s still too much of a hothead to lead when they’re not in the field–and even then, his leadership skills are often nonexistent, even if his bravery isn’t. Bode’s unearned arrogance in Fire Country continues to be a problem.

Bode may want to continue his father’s legacy, but he has a long way to go before he can step into Vince’s shoes, and the season 4 opener shows it. Fire Country season 4 has an opportunity to finally truly evolve Bode as a character, and it absolutely must if the show is to continue. Audiences can only watch a character that takes up so much of a show’s focus retread the same stagnant emotional ground for so long before falling off.

But The Fire Country Season 4 Premiere Also Remembers The Show’s Greatest Strength

Image courtesy of Everett

Yet, the premiere also underscores exactly where Fire Country shines brightest. Outside of Bode and Gabriela’s (Stephanie Arcila) tortured love story, the supporting cast of Fire Country has unequivocally been the show’s strength, the easy dynamic between the characters flowing into moments of levity even as they navigate their new heartbroken normal.

Fire Country has always been strongest when it’s leaning into the camaraderie of Station 42 and firefighting rather than melodrama. While there’s certainly melodrama in the season 4 premiere–it is Fire Countryafter all–the best parts of the episode were the scenes where the characters were just being their authentic selves with one another: Jake and Eve (Jules Latimer) dragging each other, Manny (Kevin Alejandro) and Gabriela exchanging surreptitious notes on how Sharon and Bode are doing, Manny enthusiastically acting out being trapped car victim as an annoyed Gabriela rolled her eyes behind him.

When it stops trying so hard and just allows its characters to breathe is when Fire Country is at its best. There’s an entire season ahead of it, and it remains to be seen how the writers will navigate the devastating absence Vince leaves at Station 42 and Billy Burke leaves in the cast. If they remember the show’s strength, it should do just fine.

Release Date

October 7, 2022

Showrunner

Tia Napolitano

Directors

Bill Purple, Dermott Downs, Eagle Egilsson, Gonzalo Amat, Kevin Alejandro, Max Thieriot, Sarah Wayne Callies, Marie Jamora, Kantu Lentz, Antonio Negret, Laura Nisbet Peters, Lisa Demaine, Nicole Rubio, James Strong, Anton Cropper, Erica A. Watson, Joy T. Lane, Jacquie Gould, Chi-Yoon Chung

Writers

Tia Napolitano, David Gould, Natalia Fernandez, Barbara Kaye Friend, Tony Phelan, Joan Rater, Dwain Worrell, Julia Fontana, Sara Casey, Manuel Herrera, Jen Klein, Anupam Nigam, Tonya Kong