Fire Country Season 5's Action Without Believable Stakes Hurts The CBS Drama | Review
Antonella Gugliersi (she/them) has been a feature writer for Screen Rant since 2021. While studying for her bachelor’s in Economics & Management, they started writing about movies and TV shows for Turin-based The Unconventional Mag. After a brief internship at TPI, she decided she wanted to pursue journalism and graduated with a degree in International Journalism from Brunel University.
Fire Country season 5’s premiere returns with a proverbial bang through its disaster-of-the-week, offering glimpses of the CBS firefighting drama’s best qualities and a clear picture of its recurring problems that it still struggles to solve. Despite Fire Country season 4 ending with a flood that effectively left Bode (Max Thieriot) and Jake (Jordan Calloway) stranded with an uncooperative civilian from Bode’s past, Fire Country season 5 opened with a very different tone, almost cheerful and full of hope, at least where Bode and his immediate family are concerned.
Behind the scenes, Fire Country underwent colossal changes, including that of showrunner, after Tia Napolitano exited the firefighting drama at the end of Fire Country season 4. Eric Guggenheim, whose producing and writing credits include Hawaii Five-0 and Magnum P.I., replaces Napolitano, who had been an integral part of Fire Country since its inception. Despite the consequential change, Fire Country season 5, episode 1 has all the markings of a typical season premiere of the firefighting drama, including moments when Fire Country is at its best and others when it falls short.
Fire Country season 5’s premiere starts CBS’s 2026-2027 TV season in more serene circumstances than its predecessors. After all, Fire Country season 4 needed to set up two original characters’ exits with Vince Leone’s (Billy Burke) death and Gabriela Perez’s (Stephanie Arcila) departure from Edgewater, which also included finding a new direction, as two characters whose storylines greatly shaped Fire Country’s overall story weren’t there anymore. This doesn’t mean that Fire Country season 5 doesn’t have key storylines to continue, as Sharon’s (Diane Farr) surprise return and Jake and Violet’s (Nesta Cooper) unexpected personal news showed.
Fire Country Season 5 Struggles With A Lack Of Consequences & Telling, Not Showing
Despite its hopeful opening sequence, Fire Country season 5, episode 1 jumped straight into action with a massive sinkhole opening on Main Street during the Founders’ Day Festival. The event being the perfect justification for reuniting Edgewater’s community, thus maximizing the negative effect of the accident, made a point of playing up Fire Country’s small-town atmosphere to audiences and new characters alike, as CJ’s (Olivia Thirlby) offhand comments about Bode knowing everyone in town proved. However, that also inadvertently highlighted Fire Country’s lingering problems that have plagued the firefighting drama for some time.
Fire Country season 5, episode 1 emphasized Station 42’s lack of resources several times, through Battalion Chief Manny Perez’s (Kevin Alejandro) speeches and sequences showing the firefighters of Station 42 being overworked. Edgewater's lack of funding and firefighters inevitably made the sinkhole an even bigger problem than before, raising the stakes for the few first responders who were at the scene. The rescue became more dangerous once flammable gas from the sewer tunnel was discovered, and yet, despite the incredibly difficult circumstances, the rescue went relatively smoothly with no casualties and a swift resolution, making the win feel entirely unearned.
Both messages being repeated over and over made the viewing experience feel fractured and distracted from the story, undercutting the drama of the rescue at the heart of the episode.
Fire Country season 5, episode 1 also inexplicably disregarded the reliable “show, don’t tell” narrative technique despite brilliantly setting up the scene with the opening sequence by simultaneously showing Station 42 going from one call to the next and Bode updating Sharon via voicemail. Such a choice made the challenges Edgewater is facing extremely clear, and yet, Manny reminded audiences of the shortage of funds plaguing Edgewater in his encouraging speeches to his firefighters, in his altercation with two of Smokey’s patrons, and in a discussion with the Board of Supervisors leader that ended up wounded when the sinkhole opened.
Bode’s reminders about Sharon being away on a motorcycle trip had a similar effect throughout Fire Country season 5, episode 1. When Bode’s role in the story wasn’t that of Edgewater host and representative in front of CJ, he reminded Walter (Jeff Fahey) of Sharon’s absence, and through him, audiences too. Both messages being repeated over and over made the viewing experience feel fractured and distracted from the story, undercutting the drama of the rescue at the heart of the episode.
Fire Country Season 5's New Characters Remind Us What Makes It Great
Beyond Cal Fire’s challenges in the wider Edgewater area, the biggest development Fire Country season 5’s premiere introduced is the arrival of new inmates at Three Rock Conservation Camp. Fire Country season 4 reversing Three Rock’s tragedy by making it into a self-sustained fire camp upended the firefighting drama through its inclusion of juvenile convicts, as the group caused Eve to face brand new challenges. Leading the new Three Rock inmate firefighters came more easily to Eve by Fire Country season 4’s ending, as the group had become close. An influx of new inmates nevertheless threatens the camp’s newfound balance.
That couldn’t have been more evident with Angel (Ethan Jones Romero), whose arrival at Three Rock managed to ruffle the feathers of both Manny and fellow inmate firefighter Tex (Elias Kacavas). The conflict that Fire Country season 5, episode 1 teased through Manny’s harsh warning to Eve and the threat to Tex’s authority is reminiscent of the best storylines in Fire Country’s past, as it raises the emotional stakes between characters. Angel’s arrival does that by putting Eve and Manny on different sides of the issue and by challenging Tex, propping himself up as the next Three Rock leader.
CJ’s introduction and how those at Station 42 reacted to her and Bode’s quick bond also featured Fire Country’s best qualities, proving that its strength is in its characters more than the death-defying rescue calls. CJ’s matter-of-factly attitude and outsider’s perspective were a breath of fresh air in Fire Country season 5’s premiere, bringing back the sense of discovery that characterized season 1 when Bode was getting to know Edgewater again.
The life-or-death situations Fire Country repeatedly puts its characters in always set the tone of the firefighting drama. However, Jake’s quips during the rescue of Mrs. Ritter, Eve’s affectionate taunts targeting Bode, and CJ’s humorous opposition to Bode’s praises of Edgewater all proved that Fire Country can take itself less seriously, and when it does, it offers a much-needed balance to the terrifying circumstances its characters find themselves in. Hopefully, Fire Country season 5 can build on its premiere’s strengths and include more playfulness, working through its most glaring problems, at last.
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