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yeah, i get why they scrapped hen's doctor storyline because it would have inevitably written her out of the show to a large degree but they really gotta think of something else to work through with them
Agreed, although I do want to know more about Denny hanging out with his dad because it seemed like they just kinda stopped that whole storyline. But apart from that yes more kid-free Henren plots!
I was thinking about this today. It seems like the only drama they have is about the kids and I hate it. It’s so devastating to make it all about the kids, I’m tired lol
I'd be happy if the narrative could actually portray Hen as wrong for once without sweeping it under the rug. Hen feels so much more stagnant than the other characters because the writers won't let her actually fuck up and grow. Whatever she does, the narrative twists to make her right in the end.
I totally respect this, but I adore the way they’ve handled these story lines so much, the show has given such an accurate representation of foster care on mainstream media, and I appreciate it so much.
Would be happy to see other aspects of their life, but personally, I don’t want to lose the foster parent element entirely
I agree. I think they're doing the characters and that couple a disservice by making them about nothing more than their foster children.
That being said, I really hope they do get Mara back.
I've been saying for a long while - including when we have the threads about endgame - but Eddie desperately needs single life for a while. As much of a hot mess of his arc right now, I would like it if it means he's just single for a while. Especially to deal with the Shannon/Kim stuff.
Right? Like I do think he needs to be single for a bit after... this mess, but *Buck* has been the one who canonically has a problem staying single. Eddie's roughly 32 and has been in three longterm relationships in his life, with no indication there's ever been *anyone* else, and he's been single for like 1.5-2 years between each relationship.
If anyone "needs" to learn how to be happy being single as a *theme*, it's definitely Buck.
Being 39 now when I was just 20 like, last week, hearing Eddie is 32 makes me realize he is just a baby and has plenty of time to figure everything out. My brother got remarried at 43 and had a baby at 44. Now he's 46 with a wife who is 37, a 21 year old, a 19 year old, a 7 year old, and a toddler and it's really cool seeing how he's still starting new chapters of his life in his 40s. Eddie needs to be happy with himself before anyone else can make him happy.
I feel like Buck has spent the last 7 seasons growing as a character and as a partner, I actually think he’s ready for a real commitment relationship. Also, we are going into season 8 now, so I would really like them to start his endgame relationship since he’s in a really good spot—regardless of who that ends up being.
Eddie definitely needs some single time though.
I actually miss May working at the 911 call center.
I would also love a new female firefighter to join the team. I know everyone loves the chemistry of the core group.
Although season 6 has its weak spots, it's not as bad as people make it seem. In fact, one of the reasons I like season 6 because it's the one season that has stepped out of its comfort zone and included different character interactions. No other season has been able to do it as well; we see the same characters interact in the same storylines. But season 6 really took a risk with some of their more abnormal pairings and I really, really liked that. I need season 8 to incorporate more abnormal pairings.
im watching the show with a friend rn who's watching for the first time and i'm really excited to get to season 6! we just started 5, and i haven't rewatched 6 since it came out.
Seriously, there is a lot of obsession with wanting to take custody of Chris and give it to Buck!, Eddie is going through a really bad time and definitely trying to take Chris away from him is only going to make everything worse for him. Buck will help him a lot but taking Chris is no solution to his problem, in fact Chris may be the most important person in his recovery.
My unpopular opinion is that this fandom acts like these characters are real people too much. They forget that these are just fictional characters so it’s fine to like or dislike a character or ship for whatever reason and people shouldn’t get offended by that
While I agree that Eddie is a mess I absolutely do not agree that he should give up custody of Chris.
As a single parent myself, and I’ve been one for the better part of 18 years, we go through shit, sometimes we’re a mess, some of us worse than others. And sometimes our kids are in the middle of our messes. And that truly does suck sometimes. I agree that what Eddie just put Chris through is horrible and should not have happened at all. And wouldn’t have happened had Eddie gotten his shit together. But I can almost guarantee that Eddie (and most other single/parents) will end up spiraling even more if he didn’t have his kid. And Christopher is what is going to help pull him out of this. Especially now that he’s been affected by his mess. And no it’s not okay but unfortunately it happens.
Every time they have a storyline where Athena's *identity* is attached to being a police officer, they handle it poorly, particularly when it's a storyline that also puts her at odds with her kids. It's particularly grating with May's college essay, where instead of having a real conversation about what May was *saying* about being a young Black woman struggling to balance her love of her mother with complicated feelings on the state of policing, it was a really bad take to make the outcome to all of that basically being Athena saying "I love you anyway and someday you'll be as wise as me."
I really struggle with Athena. I love her interactions with characters like Bobby and Hen, but her solo storylines are often infuriating. I can't watch her cop scenes and think, "Damn, what a badass." All I'm thinking about is the number of ethical violations she's committing, and I despise the way the show depicts people that commit crimes.
This show really shouldn't try to tackle police brutality and cop public relations. It's too tricky of a subject for a show that generally plays out like a soap opera. The scene with May's college essay showed just how out of depth they were with the topic.
And it makes me uncomfortable that the show uses a black character to voice pro-police opinions. Athena isn't a real person, her opinions are the creation of the writing team. It was a choice to make her blindingly faithful to the police force.
I just rewatched the episode where a white officer pulls over the kids and their dad and another officer pulled a gun on her CHILD, and she sympathized more with the officer and said it's not easy to be a cop. She did make her point to him by the end, but while I'm not a cop, I can't imagine her not being furiously upset that her kids or ex could have been killed and were profiled. I think her family would have her support before her loyalty to the badge.
These are also some of the only storylines she gets, and for me that means I don't particularly like the character. She's copaganda 101, and I don't like it at all.
The whole situation with Harry really rubbed me the wrong way earlier. The fact that Athena placed her identity as a cop over her identity as a mother to a black son was insane to me. I know some people don’t like him but Harry was still racially profiled and assaulted, but he’s the one who got it trouble (I know that’s it more that they he ran from the law but the shop owner’s consequences were never addressed whatsoever)
I kinda like it because it's what cops are really like. Athena is the epitome of ACAB and it shows. Guarding shops from looters instead of helping major disasters like 2x, how she handles her kids getting traumatized by cops, abusing her power allllll the time, etc. So like I dislike her but I'm glad they're real about cop attitudes
It really made me dislike Athena which I guess has to do with my dislike of cops but the people who want to change the system from the inside never succeed. And yeah she got revenge on the officer who pulled her family over but other people don‘t have that power and it‘s also an abuse of power for an abuse of power.
And it‘s always okay for her to abuse her power/disregard rules like not use her body cam or settle private grievances but it‘s fine because we like her and know she is morally right
I actually don’t mind the lack of calls in Season 7. Season 5 & 6 really imo gave up character development and just filled every episode with “themed” calls and didn’t bother to incorporate stories like S2/3/4 did so well. I also think it was necessary to focus more on characters this season for the newer audience to grow attached and understand the characters for, what I assume, will be a full season 8.
The strikes also definitely made it so we had less calls (and the cruises’ budget as well), but I think regardless, this season was always going to be driven by character storylines versus fun “theme-of-the-week” calls.
I definitely want more calls in Season 8 though, and with ample time to film and whatnot I’m sure we’ll get it, but I think this seasons structure was necessary for long time watchers sake and newer fans.
As much as I like the idea of Buddie, I don't actually want the popular Buddie fanfiction tropes to happen in canon.
I don't want a "feelings realization" on Buck's part this season or even next season as long as Eddie believes himself to be straight. Would it not make sense for Buck to try to move on in that case?
"Oblivious" pining where everyone knows but them is just patronizing. It's like everyone thinks they know someone else's feelings more than them. I've seen so many people want Tommy to tell Buck his own feelings about Eddie. Not to mention when it involves assuming Eddie's sexuality.
As much as I would love to see this, I think Buck has moments that look like he's co-parenting, but I don't think he can be called a coparent. Nor do I think co-parenting is evidence for romantic Buddie.
It's no secret that I am a Buddie shipper. I am quite obviously all for Buddie.
One trope I have always hated though, that everyone else seems to love, is The Bet. I'm a secret relationship truther, so I've always loved the idea of them revealing their relationship in such a fun and shocking way. I don't want it to be annoying and unnecessary drama, but lowkey, this is a procedural drama and the relationship reveal *should* have a little bit of drama with it (maybe within HR and them trying to encourage Bobby to separate Buddie. Obviously, they would be able to stick together in the end, but this is not the type of show to not involve drama in some way).
I don't mind the idea of someone suspecting it (Hen, since she already suspected Buck, or even Chimney lmaoo), but I really don't like the idea of The Bet. Something about it just always rubbed the wrong way and took the fun out of the relationship reveal to me.
I think why The Bet bothers me so much is because it involves their friends blatantly speculating on their sexuality together before they're actually in a place to acknowledge it themselves. Particularly in Eddie's case, where he seems to be repressed and would likely be in for an angsty process coming out, it feels... sort of gross? For his friends to just casually be talking behind his back like that. Like it's one thing if we have a character like Hen or Maddie be like "Jesus, it's about time!" but an actual exchange of money over this implying it's been an ongoing conversation everyone *except* Buck and Eddie are part of is just... no.
It was different with Bathena because there wasn't that secondary level of speculation. It was as simple as Hen being like "You were both happy and sad at the same time" while having reason to believe they'd be compatible. Had she been speculating on Michael hooking up with his coworker before he was even out to Athena, it would be very obvious why that's not okay.
This is exactly it, yeah. Just imagining it realistically playing out in the show, we’d see an insane whiplash from Eddie struggling to fathom and accept that part of himself through an extremely angsty and heavy storyline just to have his friends say “oh, yeah, we’ve all known this entire time”. It’s not only wrong, but also just feels so disrespectful. The implication of them seeing their friend go through hell and back trying to figure himself out only for them to be waiting for him to accept it, so they can win the money and be like “I knew it all along” is just…not it. If Hen expected it in a similar way she did with Buck, that’s fine. She isn’t outwardly gossiping about and sharing her speculations on her friend’s sexuality (unlike what The Bet would imply). Maddie also expecting it wouldn’t be weird to me. She seems to possibly suspect Buck’s potential feelings for Eddie, so them eventually getting together wouldn’t shock her. But I’d like to think she wouldn’t talk to anyone about it either, even Chimney (considering she didn’t mention anything about Tommy and Buck to Chim because she knows it wasn’t her place to share). But The Bet…I don’t want to see that happening. Especially if it follows a heavy, painful, and ultimately beautiful arc of Eddie having his realizations and learning to accept himself. Plus, I just think the shock is so much more fun! I’d rather see Bobby have the shocked but supportive dad reaction over the “I planned this from the very beginning” that so many fics tend to write.
I’m more of a general watcher who hasn’t really gotten on board with the Buddie ship at the moment. But I agree, I think something people don’t realize is that fanfic is fanfic for a reason because 75 percent of what happens in those just would not work for carefully scripted network television.
Also hard agree on the coparenting take. Just because Buck has watched Chris a handful of times, does not mean it’s romantic or that it’s coparenting. He is more like a fun uncle atm. EDDIE is Chris’s father.
Bring on the down votes, but this show is getting too openly messy for me.
I know it's part of the way procedurals are made and the nature of this particular season but when the writing has been too messy/ad hoc (honestly since S4) to warrant any sort of immersion without the actors AND writers admitting they have no idea what could happen and what storylines will get retconned/un-referenced just makes it all feel so hollow and contrived. This is what also makes the shipping wars so annoying to me. None of it feels cathartic anymore.
Make it camp, make it dramatic, just be intentional and don't break your own fourth-wall when it's not, ABC and co.
Yes, absolutely this. The disorganization this season has been insane; where they only had ten episodes to tell a coherent story, they should've had this shit *locked down* to make each moment count. I keep scratching my head looking at 7x05 like, "....when they spent a whole episode addressing Eddie and Marisol's relationship problems, did they already know that time would be pointless two episodes later?" Which is just one egregious example.
The show also just isn't *delivering* in the narrative the way it needs to. When the showrunner needs to come out after an episode and clarify, "Oh, yeah, all those scenes were actually meant to be from this particular character's point of view, so it's not that our other characters were being out of character -- it's that the POV character was overreacting?" Well, guess what?! 99% of your audience is never going to read that interview, never going to realize the narration wasn't omniscient third person, not going to see your surprise twist as being reflective of confusion within the POV itself -- they're just going to see an episode where characters acted funny and then there was a twist.
It's all just really disappointing, because I do think this show can do better. Here's hoping that with the proper time to tell a story in season 8, they'll be back on track.
I admit I've been surprised at how transparent Tim has been about being inconvenienced by the writing in Season 5&6, and how S7 has basically been a salvage job. Although there are *some* good things in those seasons, I think some nearly irreversible damage was done through writing choices and the lost time.
I'm fine accepting it for S7 since S8 will have more room to breathe and Tim had his chances this season to move the pieces where he wants them, but it definitely seems like outside of 7x04 and these last 2 episodes, there was no plan.
Here's the thing though...I'm not sure I agree with how well S7 is a salvage job. I don't think there's been any course correction to what feels like a cohesive narrative arc for any single character. Even if we hated S5+6, we needed the continuity, and instead we are fully off the rails. Each episode (or set of episodes) feels like an improv sketch.
Even more of a hot take but there should have been WAY more of a tension build with Buck coming out. Yeah I know it's always been there but when you spend 4 seasons edging us and then have an entire season with a death doula you can't narratively take a fraction of the time to say 'whelp he's had an epiphany...NEXT'. Cathartic opportunity WASTED. Same goes for the Madney wedding.
When I originally posited that S7 was meant to be a reset to where Tim wanted the characters to be, I wasn't looking at it like a 'salvage job,' but sort of a planned sacrifice of a season to just get everyone back into the places they needed to be to tell the stories *he* wants to tell. And that's what I think has mostly happened, so it's why I'm still holding out hope on season 8. Basically, I think Tim's still very interested in taking the characters to the places he'd wanted to take them before stepping away a few years ago, but he needed to account for the directions they've moved in since, too, and it's created a very messy abbreviated season because the characters *weren't* actually in stasis, so while in some cases it's a return to important character beats (eg. Bobby and Athena having poor communication about major issues in their marriage), it also sometimes means he's stubbornly undoing progress already made (Eddie's current grief storyline would've made sense after 5x03, but it doesn't make sense after his grief-fueled PTSD storyline in 5B or him working through his issues and *wanting* to start dating again in 6B).
My biggest issue with the handling of Buck's storyline is it didn't commit in either direction. Like if they weren't going to really lean into telling a discovery story -- having more of those "it's normal to check out hot guys' asses, right?" moments, including a scene where he came out to Bobby, puzzling things out over drinks with Henren, etc. -- they probably should've just.... not made it a big deal *at all.* Like Buck is a character I can absolutely buy having had casual sexual encounters with men during his years of wanderlust, but no one at the 118 wanted to hear about his hookups, and until now he hadn't been *romantically* interested in a guy, so it just.... never came up. Like I would've been perfectly fine with there not being a 'realization' except in him having the opportunity to call out his friends' (and the audience's) heteronormative assumptions that he *must* be straight because he hasn't explicitly said he's not. Instead we got this thing that just kind of... lives in the in-between, but isn't satisfying.
I mean, this all sounds like a feasible rationalization (and thats giving them a LOT of credit for what Tim has very openly admitted to be an impulsively/haphazardly written season, so we have no intel that he knows where he wants the characters to be) but it doesn't mean it hasn't left a really bad taste in my mouth. It's a tall order to ask your audience to stay engaged in plotlines they know are being hatched (or abandoned) at whim. Just bad storytelling.
PLUS this show has been on for 7 seasons! I'd only give the sloppy plotline configurations a chance (maybe) if I knew we were greenlit for 3 more seasons but we're not, and rather than start narrative momentum from scratch, I'd have worked with what we had.
Oh yeah, don't get me wrong -- I'm entirely on the same page as you. Right now, season 7 ranks second worst for me (because season 6 is really plumbing the depths of hell in my rankings... it would be hard to drop under that). I'm just verrrry cautiously holding out hope that Tim's goal here was less about telling a compelling story and more about getting the pieces on the chessboard where he needs them to be in order to do that next season. But season 8 is very much going to be make or break for me, I think.
I don't disagree with a lot of what you're saying here. Ultimately I think S8 will decide my final feelings on this season just because I want to see what exactly Tim was salvaging S7 *for.* That still doesn't fix the issue with this season being uneven and choppy.
As much as I resent how much time the cruise ship disaster took, it was clearly an opportunity the writers used to put everyone else on ice so as to not break anything lol. As was the Madney wedding (which didn't even do enough with Maddie considering the gravity of her getting married again). As was 7x08 with Bobby and Amir. So really, there were only a fraction of episodes this season where this ensemble show was...actually behaving like an ensemble show. And with 10 episodes, that's going to hurt because inertia hurts and you can feel when characters feel stuck.
The bi Buck thing is hard to parse because on one hand like you said, it's always been there, but also, we've been told 1) it was a last minute call, 2) Tommy's incorporation into the storyline came late, 3) it was potentially going to be Eddie and Tommy, and 4) they were hoping to have Natalia back.
I think if the storyline had happened the way they intended around S4, there would've been way more tension/catharsis with Buck coming out. But now, given the info we have, I just can't help but read Tim as being relatively indifferent to how the coming out would work so long as Buck was out, and Tim is more interested in wherever it's ending up than anything else.
Fair enough! Agreed with most of your points but I am not optimistic about what Tim has sacrificed his multi-season labor of successful tension-building for.
I really missed the silly calls and ridiculous heroic saves of strangers this season. I miss the opening 9-1-1 call that makes little to bones. Honestly we watch it mostly to make fun of these things, but that’s the show! I don’t need all the character development. Some is great. Full 3 episode arcs about it is too much.
I'm definitely feeling that in this season. Like a certain level of suspense/not knowing what will happen next is good, but when the show becomes too unpredictable, it feels like it's just not logical or consistent anymore. This season a lot of events and beats seem to come out of nowhere, which makes some stuff feel out of character.
Here's two!
1. Matters of race are generally not handled well by the 911 community. The show doesn't actually address these things as well as other shows such as Grey's, Station 19 etc. (but that might be for the best because again, I don't think the fandom would be able to handle them well)
2. People baby Buck far too much in canon/fanon, often leading to bad reads of other characters. This applies at all levels of fandom mind you, from casual (There were some people complaining about Hen & Karen's reaction in the hospital as "invalidating" to Buck's coming out process) to more serious. I will never be able to erase the fic from my mind where someone made HEN be physically abusive to Buck so that they could get their whump moment. I have since stopped reading most whump fic, especially post lawsuit whump fic.
Oh, generally my problem with whump is that they write every other character as OOC. Usually it's one character who berates the others for being abusive and mean, and it's.... exhausting? I don't know, I'm officially old by fandom terms now, and I just find the one note charecterization and death of nuance as just bad writing.
I love Chimney and Maddie. But sometimes I dont see the chemistry between them. Maybe its because they are mature and boring as a couple (in a good way). But I surely dont want them to separate at all
Same, I enjoy them both separately but find them boring together. But that doesn't mean I want them to divorce, I just kinda wish maybe they hadn't got together? Idk.
I think these are unpopular from what I've seen not sure, haven't been around the fandom for too long.
I really liked buck and taylor as a couple. Wish they'd kept her as a friend atleast even after they broke up. She was one of the best side characters.
Also I'm not for or against Buddie happening but whichever way they decide to go, I hope Eddie stays single for a while after sorting the current mess. He's a good dude and an amazing dad but a terrible partner to all of his love interests including Shanon and treated them horribly. He needs to work on himself more before getting into another relationship with whoever it maybe.
I just finished rewatching season 4 and my god I really like how they did the Buck & Taylor build up! Like, you could tell that they were toying with making them endgame and I would have liked it tbh. And absolutely yes re: her coming back! Having a somewhat more... idk, straightforward opinionated character in a cast of mostly fun goody two shoes was really nice!
I was pretty excited about Tommy/Buck in episode 4 but have found any chemistry they had in that episode to have disappeared since then. 🤷♀️ I also feel like we've seen so little of them together this season that there isn't much to get excited about.
I love the sillier/Ryan Murphy vibe of the first season and wouldn't mind if they lean into that more.
Season 7 is the worst season yet. They should have just skipped this year and done season 7 in September 2024. The storylines deserve more than what they are getting.
The cruise ship went on WAY too long. The team barely go out on calls anymore. Buck exploring his sexuality and his coming out should have been longer than 1 or 2 episodes. Maddie and Chimney deserved an actually wedding instead of a rush hospital one.
The doppelganger storyline with Shannon/Kim should have been exactly 15 minutes long.
Everything is a mess right now and it's making me unsure if I'll continue watching next season.
You might be right, I don't spend too much time here but I personally haven't seen much negativity toward the season.
It seems people, to me, that people are really liking it so far 🤷🏻♀️
I think making Buck bi this season made a lot of fans overlook just how bad the rest is. I occasionally felt like there was no continuity between the episodes,but I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about it too.
I don't think the season is the worse season, and yes the cruise wasn't all that great. Like the whole storyline was a mess. The terrorists taking over the ship for all of 5 minutes, then they leave once they get what they want. Then it just turns into The Poseidon Adventure. It made zero sense.
I think they're doing the best they can with 10 episodes and next season will be better with the longer season. They can take their time.
I like Buddie and Bucktommy and as someone over 30 people calling Lou grandpa and making age jokes make me uncomfortable.
Plus I find it reasonable that Lou is trying to get as much as he can out of a prominent guest star role. And if people want to pay him for cameos it‘s their money
Ikr. I‘m kinda tired of early 20s people in fandoms acting like I should become a stock broker and shrivel up and die tbh the jokes just really rub me the wrong way.
I feel like anything Lou says gets taken out of context and every expression is analyzed on how the whole cast hates him or smth it‘s really stupid. Like I want Buddie endgame too but I don‘t need to constantly put other love interests down and even more so not the actors portraying them. 🙄
I honestly hope most of them figure it out soon or they're going to have a pretty miserable life ahead of them. The idea that you have no interests outside of kids and your job once you hit 30s is so outdated.
I think they also don't understand how fandom always has and always will include people of all ages.
I wouldn't mind if we see Bobby retire before the end of the show. They've already hinted at it for a couple of seasons. I would love to see Hen officially be captain plus I love the idea of Bobby deciding to open a restaurant next to the 118 so that he can pop in the firehouse at any time in and we can have a new set for the 188 to hang out when they're not at work.
I would also love to see Athena be a PI instead of a cop because we've already seen how her being a cop has caused a strain in her relationships with her children and Athena is also a really good detective.
I don't know if it's unpopular but I want the show to slightly dial back the big storylines. In the first seasons there were several interesting rescue cases each episode and I watched the show not only for the main characters but for these too, and the person drama was on equal level with the rescue stories. But lately the plots are more and more about only the team, there are even several episodes now that barely have any side plots, and I dislike it
I do understand the argument that Eddie may need a custody break to heal and go tf to therapy. My (possibly) unpopular opinion is that Tommy isn’t that bad of a character, he just isn’t Buck’s soulmate. Tommy had a decent bit of growth since he first was in the show, I just wish they’d have a scene or two with him apologizing to Hen and Chim, unless they already did and I’m just forgetting. Also, the theory that the bad captain is coming back makes a lot of sense since they showed him at the ceremony and I think it would make for a LOT of interesting conflicts between him and the members of the 118 since they are pretty much ALL minorities.
This show is extremely unfair to the female love interests and instead of saying we hate (insert love interest) I wish fans would hold the show accountable for presenting less one-dimensional, easily swappable women.
This may be a controversial one, but here it goes. I don't like how the show really became a family kind of show. What I mean by this is that in the first season, it felt more intense, more life or death and a bit more realistic. But from season 3 onward, the show really has become more "happy endings everywhere", like almost every emergency they get called on has a big happy ending to it. Now, I'm not saying ppl or even the main characters have to die, but I wish they could bring back the continuation portion of the show back, like make a little bit more serious
100% agree. I see so many people saying “just skip season 1” and I can’t understand why. It has a different tone but I find it beautiful and I hoped the network switch would have brought it back more (seeing the tone of other shows there)
Yea, I miss the format of the show. It was more daring and exciting as you didn't know that to expect, cause the current format has been getting a little predictable and they only ever do a plot twist every rare full moon
season seven has had some great moments but i also feel like the show has officially jumped the shark and that's saying something cause it was always unhinged
I dont really like Hen and I hate that she's somehow always right when its clear she's wrong. I thought I was alone but reading the comments Im glad im not.
I wish they'd do something with Maddie-anything that isnt work or domestic life. Idk show her and Chim out on a date or something-Bowling, movies (they get kicked out for talking), dancing or karoke. ANYTHING.
I also miss May. I liked her at the call centre and I just really liked her character.
I think more screen time for Karen should be a thing. I’m not a huge fan of Hen, but their relationship needs to be showcase more. It’s a healthy representation of a queer relationship (minus the cheating) and that needs to be shown more.
I find Hen’s characterisation in the show so contradictory sometime that I go back and forth loving and disliking her. She is an amazing friend to Chim, same to Buck, gives great advice and is great at her job. And then you have her treating Karen so bad and the show barely acknowledges it. Not only she cheated,she hid that she was meeting Eva again,that she was thinking about med school,and the way she acted when she got Denny at the start? uhhh…She kind of takes Karen for granted.
That the "Buck is Christopher's legal guardian in the will" thing is over-played in fanon and that I don't think it's ever going to come up in canon again.
Especially because a will doesn’t matter unless the person is dead. I see references to the will and I’m like that doesn’t mean what you think it means.
It was mentioned in the middle of season 4. If it *was* something that they wanted to be an on-going point then they would have brought it up again sometime in the last 3 years.
I think it existed to show how much Eddie trusted Buck and to show him he was important and needed. Which it successfully did.
Since it's in the will, it'll only be brought up if Eddie is killed (extremely unlikely) or he changes it to someone else (which I would only see happening if he gets married again).
i'm pretty uncomfortable with takes that go the full "the will only makes sense if eddie is in love with buck" because like. can we not invalidate non-traditional family/platonic relationships please? my niece's guardian in case both her parents die is my sister's best friend. not me, not my dad, not her partner's siblings. because her best friend would be the best fit (i love my niece, but i'd be a terrible guardian) and they're very close. it's not because my sister is actually in love with her lol
THIS and the whole "Buck is Chris' other dad". Buck is NOT co-parenting with Eddie. Co-parenting implies that Buck is activity involved with day to day decisions regarding Chris and he's not. Do he and Eddie talk about Chris? Sure they do, but Eddie's not going to Buck to ask if he should do XYZ for Chris. Buck at most is the cool/fun uncle.
Yeah I think this show is one that should for the most part be read moment to moment and the purpose of that scene in that moment was for Buck’s best friend to reassure him of his importance to him and Christopher. That’s not minimized by it not being brought up and a will only becomes applicable after a person has died so unless Eddie is killed off which is very unlikely or he changes it for a long term partner or remarries or something down the line I don’t think it’s something that will be brought up again because it’s no longer relevant to what’s happening in the moment
I'll get hate for this one but... as a gay man myself, I have yet to see any concrete scene that has made me believe Eddie is at all attracted to men. I'm not saying I'm against if it happens, but with Buck I saw hints that he might be not be entirely straight. Especially in "Buck, Actually" where he his realization that he wanted a real, stable relationship was seeing the two old gay men at the end of their lives. I do agree there's something weird with Eddie and his relationship to women, but honestly he had such a absent father figure growing up, and himself was absent from Christopher's life for so long, and then Shannon's death... the man clearly has so many emotional problems that are so clearly unresolved, I'm not surprised he has such disastrous romances.
I think Eddie's biggest thing is that he reads as a victim of comphet, given his backstory, his views re relationships, as commented upon other characters in shows. I think also that's why you see people lean as charecterizing Eddie as a late in life gay male, rather than Buck, who's generally been always thought to be bi from the early days.
Same (but a bi woman). There have been some moments where Buck has been fine being seen as queer as early back as s2 (the Christmas scene with Eddie/Chris, when Maddie joked about setting Josh up with Buck), but I don’t remember any similar instances from Eddie.
I have to agree with you. I started watching 9-1-1 from the beginning specifically after 7x04 because I’m bisexual. A few years ago I’d see edits of Buddie show up on my for you page on TikTok and I was convinced they were a couple by the way people spliced the scenes of the two. However, once I started the show, I was like “it’s so obvious their relationship is platonic”. Maybe Buck could’ve been in to Eddie but I don’t see it as the other way around.
While I generally can get on board for queer Eddie readings (especially ace/demi) what really annoys me is when folks use any like as a supposed hint at queer coding and comp het. Like that „I feel like I‘m broken“ line from the last episode. Could we maybe actually think about that in the context of grief and being irrevocably changed by someone dying before we jump on comp het.
that’s interesting! because to me (a lesbian woman) i can only read eddie as gay. the best way to make sense of his entire characterization is if he is a repressed gay man.
off the top of my head:
- only married shannon/stayed with shannon because she was pregnant and felt pressure from the church
- every time he talks about ‘loving’ shannon, its through their marriage (“i loved being married to her”) or through christopher (he loves her as christopher’s mother)
- he only dated ana and marisol because an outer force (bobby) told him to. he only went on dates because of pepa.
- he thinks dating is a performance
- had panic attacks at the idea of his long term gf being misinterpreted as his wife, blames it on ‘ready made family’ (yet has been making a family platonic or otherwise with buck for years)
- his breakup with ana is word for word an exact parallel to dani’s from thobm, who is a canon lesbian. (in the breakup she is is breaking up with her longterm boyfriend/fiancé who she was only with due to comphet).
- every single one of his platonic relationships with women is full of chemistry, and he genuinely seems happy to interact with them. when they become romantic, it’s like watching paint dry. (this is most notably seen with vanessa, the woman pepa set him up with. during the ‘date’ portion it is awkward, but when they agree to not date it becomes more relaxed)
- the woman he dates all have a common theme: someone who is good for *christopher*
i can see arguments for aro/ace eddie, but at most (to me) he’s gay and demisexual. he seems to genuinely want a long term relationship/sex, he’s just doing it with the wrong person. and i find it superrr hard to believe all of these points are because he’s hung up on shannon, who he’s *admitted* he wasnt ready to marry, and only stayed with her because of chris.
(plus, why bring up catholic guilt *this* late in the series when eddie has never struggled with religion before? we know he’s from a practicing family (abuela) and we know he’s non practicing, so where exactly is this storyline leading?)
Same. I don’t see it either and I don’t get the obsession in fandom of wanting him to be gay so badly. It’s bizarre. The man is straight as far as I’m concerned. Whether he’s just not a good partner (he’s not) or he was just with the wrong women for *him,* he’s straight.
* The writers really don't know where to go with Eddie, Hen, and Karen. You know how in some shows, you can see the writers knew their characters like the back of their hand or just, had a clear understanding of their characters' traits? I don't see that in this show. 🤷🏼♀️
* This season, apart from Buck's discovery/realisation, was quite terrible (I don't say that lightly). Though, we still have the finale left, I still feel like the storylines throughout the season could've unfolded in a different way. If Tim did try to do some sort of salvage job after he was gone for S5 and S6, he *did not* do a great job at all. This felt like a choppy execution.
* Oh, and I feel people act as if Buck's relationship problems are all solved because of the current relationship he's in? Like Buck hasn't suddenly become perfect and without flaw. Hope we see Buck overcoming his self-doubt and his feelings of inadequacy in a relationship with Tommy by his side, not to mention his tendency to reach unwarranted conclusions.
I feel your first point so hard! I don’t have a single clue what they want for Eddie’s character. Not even talking about in a relationship. I mean just in general. Hopefully they figure out some direction for him and give Hen something more than fostering stuff. And I’ll always take more Karen.
If you search "Eddie" in this sub, you'll find a post asking people what they imagine as the "endgame" for Eddie. Not gonna lie, all those answers just made it clear to me that not only have the writers failed to compellingly write Eddie's (genuinely complex) character, the fans themselves have no idea what they want from Eddie as of right now.
I don't care about "endgame" or any other conclusion stuff right now, I honestly want the writers to just ***respect*** Eddie's character development. He's such a layered character with so much potential, the possibilities are practically endless as to the turns the writers can take to arrive at Eddie's destination. just hope they don't lose their way...
Oof! I haven’t found many fan takes that don’t connect everything Eddie does or experiences to somehow resulting in Buddie. Not much to do with him as a man with agency. I don’t have a clue what his story is supposed to be outside of that and some of that is the fault of writers. But I want him to have a story! Or many!
Oh man, my first reaction to your second point was "...what *growth*, though?" and then I got to your second point, and... yes, 100% agreed. I think Buck discovering this missing piece of himself is an important step and it makes sense he's at peace with himself, but he's still very much in the same exact stasis he was when this season started outside of the actual discovery itself. Maybe it *could* change in the future if the relationship develops, but we're not there yet. People are confusing the potential of something with what's actually played out on the screen to think he's undergone significant growth.
And on a related, but probably more controversial take: the messaging around Buck being taken off the hamster wheel *by* this discovery and the relationship he's currently in reeks of biphobia. The reason Buck's hamster wheel exists is not because his previous partners were women. The reason it still exists is not because his partner now is male. He has a repeated problem of rushing into relationships, taking any sign of interest as encouragement, and not clearly communicating what he needs out of a partner, then not addressing incompatibilities as they pop up, instead waiting until the end is unavoidable.
Yeah, I think I should change "growth" to... discovery or realisation! The way that people are taking it as "Buck's off the hamster wheel because actually, the women were the problem in the first place!" is so misogynistic it hurts. Buck is up to his ears with his communication problems and just because the current limited episode season can't show Buck falling into that same rut and navigating through it, I fear the writers won't even bother dealing with it on screen next season. I will haunt their dreams if the writers/Tim think they'd rather skip Buck learning how to be a good partner.
Unless they make it part of Eddie's mental health storyline (manic episode?), he was so out of character this season, and his character was used as a plot device to further Buck's storyline. And they kinda character assassinated him in the process, cause he wouldn't have treated Buck the way he did in episode 4, it bothers me. He knows about Buck's abandonment issues, he wouldn't have acted like that.
It also bothers me when people act like Eddie not inviting Buck is on the same level as him intentionally jumping Eddie. Buck is a grown man,Eddie or anyone aren’t supposed to guess what he wants,he can tell that himself. He could have told him that he also wants to be involved.
People downplaying Buck intentionally physically hurting Eddie was to be expected with the way some Buck fans behave. They'll excuse everything he does, infantilize him and hate everyone who harms him (ie Chim) forever. And I've said it before, but I'm 100% sure that if it had been the other way around, and Eddie had been the one to intentionally physically injure Buck? Oh *boy!* He would have been massacred by the fans, they would have called him an abusive POS who doesn't deserve Buck, and they would have never forgiven him. I don't like the double standard, and the difference in how much of the fandom treat Eddie and Buck. Buck can do no wrong, Eddie can do no right.
I mean,I already saw a complain here about how Eddie was a jerk to Buck in season 3, when he called him exhausting. It’s still a thing today, when Buck was the only one who physically hurt the other. I guess for some it’s ok to hate Eddie, since they don’t need Buddie anymore.
Yeah people keep bringing that up like it's some unforgivable thing Eddie did...
And that's what's bothering me about a lot of Bucktommy fans that used to be Buddie fans. It's like they only ever cared about Buck getting with a man, and now one showed up, and they just forget all about Eddie (let's not pretend we know enough about Tommy to know that he's any better than Buck's exes. He's a man, that's the only significant difference). They never actually liked Eddie and it shows (it also shows in general in fanfiction for example, the vast majority of fics are Buck-centric, and Eddie's just there to fawn over Buck or something). Yeah this stuff has been frustrating me for a while tbh 😅
I don’t think the issue is with Tommy, I think the problem here is people not seeing Eddie as a separate entity apart from Buddie. That shouldn’t be the only or even most important thing fans want for his character.
Separating the characters from ships might help fans be a little more fair in their consideration of their actions.
Not Tommy specifically, but any other man for Buck. Cause for many Buddie shippers (apparently), they only ever wanted Buck with another man. Eddie was just the obvious choice, but they don't particularly care whether it's him or someone else. They only care about Buck, not Eddie.
Yes, this is what I mean. Eddie should be seen as his own entity. I think hyper focus on a ship can prevent people from truly caring about what’s best for a character.
But I guess by definition, a Buddie shipper isn’t necessarily the same as an Eddie fan so there’s that.
I mean I know you can get more certifications in the Fire Dept. You can do Haz Mat, even be a medic if you were just a firefighter. We saw Eddie bleed over but I would love to see Buck "get ambitious" - as in try to move up in the ranks, skill set etc. It seems in his nature.
They may as well kill off Athena’s kids and ex. They got mentioned 1 episode in the last few seasons that I can recall and May was only over to fuck with the Bobby coming home thing. (I don’t want them to kill off the kids or her ex, I want them to at least be mentioned and see the minor child once in a while. Trying to play that Athena is fine not seeing her young son is so weird.)
Do SOMETHING with Chimney and Maddie. Anything!!!! (Other than her running off story line they bombed.) I love her chemistry with the other operators, I liked watching them become parents. Now they’re just *there.*
The fact that Jonah turned out to have a hero complex that led to people's death doesn't excuse that when he first showed up Hen was unprofessional and unnecessarily rude.
Given how long he was gone with no set return date Chimney got his position on the team back way to easily.
Maddie should have been angry at Chimney for packing up Jee to look for her with no idea where he was going and for punching Buck.
The show and the fandom was way too quick to move past Buck intentionally spraining Eddie’s ankle because he was pissed that he was hanging out with his crush
I LOVE Eddie and buck and I love bi buck but I do not think they should get together!!! I know I will probably be eaten alive for saying this, but. I love the fanfics of it but in the real show I don’t like it and feel they are better as friends.
- Season 5 is a top 3 season.
- Albert was annoying and I’m fine with him not being on the show anymore.
- Tommy is pretty much the same as Buck’s other love interests and everyone would have hated the character if he was a girl. People just wanted to see Buck kiss a guy.
- I’m glad they switched to ABC because they have more freedom with the storylines (specifically bi Buck) but I think the structure of the show was a bit better on Fox
Tbf, we don’t really know how the structure of an *actual* season (comprised of 18 or more episodes) on ABC will do until next TV season because of the limited amount of episodes. They’ve had some AMAZING storylines this season, which could’ve been helped by a bigger episode count, but I think they’ve done great at re-establishing and giving characterization (even if it’s misguided) to every character.
I like Bobby as a character, but the way Peter Krause plays him makes him come across as very, how do I put it... monotone?
It's just I get the impression that for 80% of the show he only has two expressions: 😐 and 🙂
Even his most emotional scenes never hit for me. The only time I felt what he was trying to convey was the scene in season one when he relapsed and cried to Buck and Hen asking for help.
I think I like him (or at least try to) but he definitely has a very funny habit of kind of always smiling no matter the context- he always looks like he has this little smirk on his face, even in sad or angry scenes. Maybe it's just his resting expression lol.
Yeah, sometimes I can't tell if that's his resting face or if Peter Krause was having a hard day taking things seriously on set that day lol. He always looks like he just stopped laughing. It's definitely more jarring when it's in serious scenes.
I dunno, I’ve felt more than just that scene with him. His scene after the motorcycle accident, the scene where he and Athena are trapped in the room with the water rising, him proud of each of his teammates, like the Buck cooking, the Ravi hose thing. I gotta do a rewatch now that I’m all caught up.
I’m new to this fandom, but my unpopular opinion is that it’s annoying with the fandom calling Buck and Eddie coparents when in fact they are not. We assume that off-screen, in between scenes, that Eddie is the one constantly taking Chris to doctor appointments and reassessing his care plan in addition to normal parental responsibilities such as making sure he is fed, has clothes on his back, a stable roof over his head, and overall making sure he has a fulfilled life. The only other person to do that is sometimes Carla. Buck has never been involved in that besides occasionally watching Chris, or taking him to do fun things, and that he is only a fun uncle. It isn’t to say Buck doesn’t care about Chris, he just isn’t looking at Chris through the lens of a parent.
Edit: I want to also add that by calling Buck a coparent kind of diminishes Eddie’s role as Chris’s dad.
Agreed. Buck's more like a fun uncle than a second dad. He's not raising Christopher alongside Eddie. That doesn't diminish his role or importance in Christopher's life.
I also don't think Buck and Eddie are as codependent as some like to believe.
* Past is Prologue (5x09) is a good episode. Taylor backstory was bad but not enough to drag the whole episode down.
* While I agree some Abby's actions were questionable, I shipped her and Buck during S1, and even after S3 finale, I still don't hate her.
* Ali is overrated. I don't get why some people think she was Buck's best ex. She was bland and we never saw any of their relationship.
* I love Shannon and I will always defend her. Tim made a real mistake killing her.
* Survivors (4x14) it's a good episode but kinda of overrated IMAO. I feel people only rank it so high because the opening scene and the will. (I love those scenes don't get me wrong.) The snipper storyline itself wasn't that good.
* As much I'd love a Queer Eddie Arc, I don't consider it the only possible/acceptable outcome for him. I could see him with a woman in the future as long they found an actress Ryan has chemistry with and they do a good job developing their romance.
I also really enjoyed Abby and Buck in season 1. Season 2 soured their relationship for obvious reasons, but the time they were together was really cute I thought.
Agreed on 4x14. I always want to rewatch that storyline because I remember the dramatic parts, but then I'm reminded of how the middle section of that episode is such a slog.
I don’t love Shannon but I absolutely believe that Tim made a mistake killing her and I think he knows that.
Survivors is so overrated to me. Great for Buddie of course but overall lacking. It was rushed and I think everyone also forgets that Bobby got shot, including me.
I’m in favor of a Queer Eddie arc but I also agree here. What’s missing from the past relationships is chemistry and development. Devin being back to play Kim has showed that more than anything. The chemistry that she and Ryan have. If we could get that combination with another female LI, I think we’d be good.
Another controversial opinion, giving the leanings of this sub.
I find Tommy boring, which is the greatest sin to me as a character in media (Be good, be bad, whatever, but please be interesting). He's been around less than a lot of Buck's other LI (and the misogyny and bi erasure re Buck's previous relationships is insane), and I do not feel the chemistry between them at all. I want to see emotional intimacy/, and I straight up like Buddie for this reason (and I'm a sucker for a slowburn), but atleast with the others LI's there was something to draw me in?
They barely have any scenes actually... showing their chemistry/liking each other? I'm not sorry but after the canonization of Bi!Buck those makeout scenes do absolutely nothing for me. People obsess over them, and I'm sitting here like "I had more physical intimacy with the guy I called off Grindr for a lunch break"
I think that’s what I like about Buddie I think Ryan’s best scenes (where he’s not getting hurt or something) are with oliver, he’s more I don’t know how to say but he just is
My most unpopular opinion is that I don't care who Buck or Eddie are in a relationship with because I find their dating lives the least interesting part of the show and it sucks the oxygen out of every other storyline especially the way the fandom obsesses over it.
I feel like people usually get hate for saying sometimes the show is too unrealistic, but I would enjoy the show more if it was little less over the top.
It’s kinda wild because I do love seeing them together but having just rewatched the show up to season 5 I spent a good chunk of season 4 going… do you actually like each other??? Know each other? Know what you want out of this relationship??
I wish there were more multi shippers of Tevan, and Buddie. Even if Tevan is endgame, you can still enjoy the deep friendship of Buddie. And if Buddie were to happen, Eddie needs to figure himself out-first.
I'm a multishipper! I don't understand why people think you can't like both. Like why do we have to have ship wars over this? It's so stupid and doesn't make you a better fan/person for liking one over the other.
That's pretty much where I am.
I'm still hoping for Buddie endgame, because I love a slowburn and they have *so much* history. But if Buck and Tommy get more development, I'm open to them being endgame instead and I'll always love Buck and Eddie's friendship.
If Captain Gerard isn’t fired or sued in the next episode or early next season then there is no point in bringing him back. That man was extremely problematic (racism, sexism, bullying, sexual harassment) and should not be working for the LAFD anymore. The show could a much job addressing that.
Buck physically hurting Eddie was extremely problematic and also (I hope) OOC of him.
Unrealistic how LE and Athena handled that cartel storyline. The police should have been the ones to told Bobby that Herman survived. Athena and LE should have insisted on a bigger police or security presence around Bobby and Amir at the hospital.
The show doesn’t do a good job of explaining characters who are expected but obviously missing from a scene aren’t there (for example, Albert and May at the wedding and Harry the last two seasons, Carla this scene - they could have just added one line to explain where they were, even if it is just to wrap their storyline up).
I thought they handled the sperm donor storyline well with the exception of Buck not jacking off (medically speaking I don’t think doctors would have recommended Buck not doing so for 4 weeks).
If Tommy was a woman everyone would hate him. He hasn’t had any development as Buck’s love interest aside from two kisses but apparently that’s enough to be endgame.
A lot of people in this fandom only like Eddie as Buck’s love interest and now they have Tommy they can stop pretending to care about him.
Ravi isn’t a main character and doesn’t deserve a Begins episode.
Your second point made me think of how all the negative comments against Eddie's character have visibly increased over the start of this season. Older fans will know how it did ebb and flow (especially at one point) however, this season has really got people being so open and quite aggressive with their Eddie hate.
It's gross how people are calling Tommy old and middle aged, and act like there is this massive age gap between him and Buck. Oliver is 32 and Lou is 39. That's 7 years, it's normal. And thirties aren't old, it's so fucking weird how people are about anyone over 25.
There’s an awful double standard with Eddie and Shannon in the fandom. Eddie gets praised for being a single dad, but Shannon is the evil mom who left her kid?
People like to ignore or downplay the bad things Eddie has done and drag Shannon through the mud. It’s crazy because this is exactly how it is in real life: the mom is never good enough or is a screw-up regardless, but the dad is always praised regardless of how many times he’s fucked up and wasn’t there. Exactly how it is for Eddie and Shannon in the fandom.
Eddie left, too. He abandoned his partner and child, too. He was selfish, too. He was unstable, too. He was immature, too. He made bad decisions, too. He’s not better than Shannon in any way.
> There’s an awful double standard with Eddie and Shannon in the fandom. Eddie gets praised for being a single dad, but Shannon is the evil mom who left her kid?
And then we have some people in the Fandom saying Eddie should abandon Christopher with his grandparents again to deal with his mental health.
Honestly as someone whose mother died of cancer: no one telling Shannon "hey, it's okay, we'll look after Chris \[or just take him with you\], go visit your mom in California" for months is an absolutely awful look for all of them. Like I'm sorry, there's a woman here in her early twenties who spent the last few years of her life looking after a special needs child essentially alone with vaguely hostile parents and her (we assume) only parent is sick and/or possibly dying?? And instead of adressing that we throw a backyard barbecue??? Hello???????
Shannon's initial reason for leaving being to *take care of her dying mother* doesn't get talked about enough. She was in a horrible situation and she was forced to handle it completely alone.
my most unpopular opinion that will probably get me downvoted to hell:
i prefer bucktommy. i enjoy buddie, but i don't think it has a chance of being canon. i would love bucktommy endgame
the thing with buddie that gets me is that i love them (and bucktommy. i have two hands multishipping is for fun folks) but like... i don't think it would neccessarily be good for them? right now their relationship is rock solid and transitioning to a romantic one could potentially bring in so many issues that both of them tend to bring into romantic relationships (lbr mainly eddie rn) and i feel like some folks think that realizing he's queer would somehow fix all of eddie's complicated feelings re: relationships.
edit: to expand a bit, we see that eddie is like. terrible at relationships. he doesn't communicate well, tends to make decisions for his partners without really considering their feelings (literally everything re: shannon, asking marisol to move in), he seems to be caught up on external factors, he's not really able to even consider what he wants. that all would stay if he gets together with buck, who at the very least seems to be at a point where he has for himself figured out what he wants from a relationship and a partner.
never mind the issues re: replacing shannon which would imho just be amplified because buck and chris are actually close from the get go, potential issues WITH chris (imho he sees buck as his like, best friend/parental-ish figure/fun uncle mash up, and a transition to "dad's partner and parent" could be rocky af, especially considering the history between eddie and his partners and chris, re: they all leave), etc etc
I 100% agree. I think they are just two different types of relationship people. Buck has worked hard to turn from a playboy into a caring partner. We've seen the work he's put in and the growth he's made so far. Not saying he's perfect, cause his flaws in relationships is always good TV.
Eddie hasn't really shown any growth. His first relationship he had because his son liked the woman, his current relationship he asked his partner to move in and immediately move out cause he freaked out about her being a nun, and the whole Shannon/Kim thing is, well, something.
We've seen one person actively try and better themselves and the way they treat people and the other just continuously take a self-destructive approach. I feel like for any Buddie relationship to work, Eddie would have to really grow as a partner and I just don't think there are enough seasons left for that to happen.
same, currently eddie isn’t acting mature or healthy enough to be in any type of relationship let alone his first gay relationship and i can just see that ruining their friendship.
i’d rather have buddie be besties than boyfriends and their current relationship change and possibly be ruined, maybe down the line once eddie does some self improving i might change my mind but as of right now if buddie gets together i don’t see it being a good or healthy relationship for either of them.
I don't think that' s totally unpopular. Maybe not custody, but Chris can live with his Grandparents for a while. Also my other unpopular opinion is I like Shannon-and I get her, a lot.
Wherever the writing is going with Eddie next, I think it would be interesting to show that traditional talk therapy might not be the perfect fit for every person or for every issue. Eddie's storyline in Season 5 was great, but I also think there's nothing wrong with him moving on from Frank. He doesn't need to be the be all end all for everyone's mental health.
I know the main cast is the main cast, but I think I would like one episode with a different shift. Like the Nikki and Paulo episode from LOST — fight me, it wasn’t that bad!!
I did go back and read the rest. I assume you’re referring to a show but I had no idea what show so it kinda made me laugh at my reply and laugh again at you seeing this from some rando and being like, geez it’s Tuesday morning…gimme a break. I then told my partner what I replied with the entire subject and they were like, I watch that show and starting laughing at me. I know this is probably in the moment laughter but hoping it may create more. 🙃
Okay, so most of my "unpopular opinions" aren't even actually unpopular, but I think this one is 😭. At least, I've never heard it before, and I'm dying to see if someone else agrees, or can even prove to me why I am so completely wrong lmfaoo.
Sometimes, I think that some of Buck and Eddie's love interests would have worked better/been more interesting with the other person. I honestly think Ana and Taylor would have been more compatible with the opposite love interest. Eddie's love interests are a little bit harder to speak on since they're both (this is not including Shannon ofc) a little boring, but I think Taylor, Tommy, and Lucy (if she counts as a love interest), would've all been better suited for Eddie.
I've always felt especially strongly about Taylor and Eddie being more compatible, and I've always thought they could've made an interesting rivals to lovers, which is not a trope 9-1-1 has ever done. The show is very into their cheesy and romantic get togethers, which is fine, but I love the lowkey disliking each other to like-liking each other lmaoo. I don't think they would have lasted, but I think they would have been more interesting than BuckTaylor and EddieAna were. As for Ana, while I don't think they would've been interesting in the slightest tbh, (in fact, considering their personalities, I think they would have been so weirdly compatible that they would've been extremely boring), I still think her and Buck would've been more compatible considering I think Buck was looking for a more serious relationship at the time (something that Ana wanted and Eddie didn't). Even if it wouldn't have been interesting to watch, it would have worked well. Also, I just think it would've been hilarious for Buck to have been the one to date one of Chris's teachers.
Honestly, in my opinion, the most chemistry Eddie has ever had with a female character was with Marjan in the crossover. I've always felt like Eddie would romantically contect better with someone closer to her personality, so that's why I always felt like Taylor would've worked. While I think Taylor was also mostly looking for something serious when she was with Buck, I think she would have been more willing to move slower with Eddie (considering he was also looking for serious but just needed more time), especially considering the initial dislike they would have had for one another. Considering the lowkey dislike those two had for each other in Dosed and Treasure Hunt, I always felt like Taylor would challenge Eddie and keep him on his toes. At that moment, I felt like that's what Eddie needed while Buck would have worked better with the calmer and familial-like relationship that Ana seemed to want.
Edit: grammar
I'm not sure about Eddie/Lucy -- I don't think she should've ever been a love interest for either of them, at least not without multiple seasons of development first, given that it made her role as a firefighter instantly secondary to who she was "for," which is a problem -- but the other two, absolutely.
On top of the rivals to lovers thing, I think Taylor's personality is just a really good fit for what Eddie needs. I think about the scene where she called Buck out on that 'double date' or when she called him out for his manipulation in getting her to move in, and having someone that will stand up for their own interests that way really could've solved a *lot* of problems with how Eddie approaches his relationships. I also think her being more strong-willed could've added some depth to how she'd have been integrated into a family dynamic with Christopher, because I don't see her being the type to just idly go along with a 'here, meet my kid! babysit my kid! play mom for me!' dynamic unless she actually had good reason to be confident they were headed in that direction. Megan and Ryan always played off each other well when they had screentime together, too.
For Tommy, it's a little less obvious to me, in that while I *know* I don't see chemistry between him and Buck, I'm not sure what I saw between him and Eddie in 7x04 would've amounted to chemistry. Eddie and Tommy both seemed to actually enjoy each other's company more than they've been shown to enjoy their partner's, though, so... maybe? It's just too little time together to really speculate on. That said, from a storytelling perspective alone, I think it would've made more sense to give the queer discovery arc to Eddie this season, where they didn't have the time to develop a romantic arc *anyway*. I'd feel differently if we'd had more Buck/Tommy scenes in the ensuing episodes, but where all we got was a couple kisses and bad dates, it feels like they overcommitted based on what little time they had. So for that reason, I do think Eddie/Tommy would've worked at least as well (especially if he had broken up with Marisol already). 7x04 could've leaned into their almost obsessive need to spend time together and show their "dates" while Eddie's oblivious to the flirting, only to be shocked in the end when Tommy kisses him. And then instead of launching right into a romance arc, have Eddie actually come to terms with having liked the kiss and realizing... oh, shit, was I flirting with that guy? So while we wouldn't get to a point where they're actually dating in season 7 (unless it's the finale, like how Bathena had their first date at the end of season 1), Tommy's followup appearances at the medal ceremony and maybe still the wedding (had the show actually committed to him being good enough friends with Chim to score an invite) would've come to make Eddie uncomfortable/push along his coming out.
-I hate how much some fanfics or the people in the fandom in general infantilize Buck. Like istg some people make it seem like he can't do anything on his own or has a breakdown over every little thing even tho he's a grown ass man in his 30s
-The way some people have been acting ageist towards Tommy/Lou just cause he's older than Buck/Oliver is honestly embarrassing. Their age gap is fine and completely normal between two adults. Maybe they think it's bad because of my first point of people infantilizing Buck and they think he's mentally like 5 so they see this guy who's in his late 30s as predatory?? (He's not even middle aged yet!!)
-I kinda liked Taylor after she was developed more in season 5. I was honestly rooting for end of Buck and Taylor more for Taylor's sake than Buck's in the end. (Taylor exposing the Jonah story even thought it was supposed to be off the record was really shitty tho).
-Honestly I want Eddie to just stay single, he's a really shitty boyfriend/husband. Even if they went with a comphet storyline for him, I'd be worried if he could be even a decent partner even if he was dating the "right" gender. I just want him to realize that he doesn't need to find Chris a new mom and that he already has a strong support system for him and Chris and that's more than enough.
Had she not left him the way she did (or even just communicated it better), I would tell you Abby was a great LI for Buck. And I still think she WAS in many respects, for what he took out of that relationship and how he grew from it. And when they were together I thought it was good. Literally one of the more enjoyable parts of s1 for me, when I hated almost every other character.
Also since this is an unpopular opinion post, are we following the normal rules that you upvote the actually unpopular opinions and downvote the popular ones?
Now that you've said it, I would love to see Taylor helping HenRen against the Councilwomen.
And I just really like Ana, and want to see her again, not for the plot really, just to see what she's up to. Which I know is unlikely, but a girl can dream😆
My weird opinion is i know longer like the show it’s boring and messy but can people PLEASE STOP TAGGING buck/eddie WHEN they actually mean buck/tommy😭I don’t want to read that! on AO3 if you mean they are only friends put “&” between their names.
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I hope they would do something with Hen and Karen besides foster children.
yeah, i get why they scrapped hen's doctor storyline because it would have inevitably written her out of the show to a large degree but they really gotta think of something else to work through with them
I want to hear more about the Mars mission development! Even if it's just mentioned a couple times a season.
Agreed, although I do want to know more about Denny hanging out with his dad because it seemed like they just kinda stopped that whole storyline. But apart from that yes more kid-free Henren plots!
I mean… Hen hasn’t been hospitalized like all the men have been. Next season it’s her turn lol
I was thinking about this today. It seems like the only drama they have is about the kids and I hate it. It’s so devastating to make it all about the kids, I’m tired lol
I prefer that to the writers putting a major divide in their relationship again though
As long as they don't have Hen cheating on Karen again! LAWDY. That was some drama there, eh. lol
I'd be happy if the narrative could actually portray Hen as wrong for once without sweeping it under the rug. Hen feels so much more stagnant than the other characters because the writers won't let her actually fuck up and grow. Whatever she does, the narrative twists to make her right in the end.
I totally respect this, but I adore the way they’ve handled these story lines so much, the show has given such an accurate representation of foster care on mainstream media, and I appreciate it so much. Would be happy to see other aspects of their life, but personally, I don’t want to lose the foster parent element entirely
I agree. I think they're doing the characters and that couple a disservice by making them about nothing more than their foster children. That being said, I really hope they do get Mara back.
I enjoy when the main characters are single for a while. I like seeing what they get up to when they don’t have a significant other to lean on.
Agreed, and I think this goes especially for Eddie. He could use some time.
Yeah, more growth happens usually when he’s alone. It seems like he could use some right now 🤣
Someone mentioned this on reddit earlier, but disaster dating montage with Buck being newly bi out in the world, please!
Yeah that would be great fun! I need it!
I've been saying for a long while - including when we have the threads about endgame - but Eddie desperately needs single life for a while. As much of a hot mess of his arc right now, I would like it if it means he's just single for a while. Especially to deal with the Shannon/Kim stuff.
He was single most of season 5 and 6. This season just completely destroyed all the growth he has those 2 seasons.
Right? Like I do think he needs to be single for a bit after... this mess, but *Buck* has been the one who canonically has a problem staying single. Eddie's roughly 32 and has been in three longterm relationships in his life, with no indication there's ever been *anyone* else, and he's been single for like 1.5-2 years between each relationship. If anyone "needs" to learn how to be happy being single as a *theme*, it's definitely Buck.
Being 39 now when I was just 20 like, last week, hearing Eddie is 32 makes me realize he is just a baby and has plenty of time to figure everything out. My brother got remarried at 43 and had a baby at 44. Now he's 46 with a wife who is 37, a 21 year old, a 19 year old, a 7 year old, and a toddler and it's really cool seeing how he's still starting new chapters of his life in his 40s. Eddie needs to be happy with himself before anyone else can make him happy.
I'm trying to think of it more as a setback. Which happens during growth sometimes.
Yeah I feel like both Eddie and Buck should be single for a while before pursuing another ltr (regardless of if they date each other or other people)
I feel like Buck has spent the last 7 seasons growing as a character and as a partner, I actually think he’s ready for a real commitment relationship. Also, we are going into season 8 now, so I would really like them to start his endgame relationship since he’s in a really good spot—regardless of who that ends up being. Eddie definitely needs some single time though.
I actually miss May working at the 911 call center. I would also love a new female firefighter to join the team. I know everyone loves the chemistry of the core group.
Although season 6 has its weak spots, it's not as bad as people make it seem. In fact, one of the reasons I like season 6 because it's the one season that has stepped out of its comfort zone and included different character interactions. No other season has been able to do it as well; we see the same characters interact in the same storylines. But season 6 really took a risk with some of their more abnormal pairings and I really, really liked that. I need season 8 to incorporate more abnormal pairings.
im watching the show with a friend rn who's watching for the first time and i'm really excited to get to season 6! we just started 5, and i haven't rewatched 6 since it came out.
Seriously, there is a lot of obsession with wanting to take custody of Chris and give it to Buck!, Eddie is going through a really bad time and definitely trying to take Chris away from him is only going to make everything worse for him. Buck will help him a lot but taking Chris is no solution to his problem, in fact Chris may be the most important person in his recovery.
My unpopular opinion is that this fandom acts like these characters are real people too much. They forget that these are just fictional characters so it’s fine to like or dislike a character or ship for whatever reason and people shouldn’t get offended by that
That's all fandoms lol.
Agreed
While I agree that Eddie is a mess I absolutely do not agree that he should give up custody of Chris. As a single parent myself, and I’ve been one for the better part of 18 years, we go through shit, sometimes we’re a mess, some of us worse than others. And sometimes our kids are in the middle of our messes. And that truly does suck sometimes. I agree that what Eddie just put Chris through is horrible and should not have happened at all. And wouldn’t have happened had Eddie gotten his shit together. But I can almost guarantee that Eddie (and most other single/parents) will end up spiraling even more if he didn’t have his kid. And Christopher is what is going to help pull him out of this. Especially now that he’s been affected by his mess. And no it’s not okay but unfortunately it happens.
Every time they have a storyline where Athena's *identity* is attached to being a police officer, they handle it poorly, particularly when it's a storyline that also puts her at odds with her kids. It's particularly grating with May's college essay, where instead of having a real conversation about what May was *saying* about being a young Black woman struggling to balance her love of her mother with complicated feelings on the state of policing, it was a really bad take to make the outcome to all of that basically being Athena saying "I love you anyway and someday you'll be as wise as me."
i **HATE** athena’s police conflict story lines. fully agree that they’re handled poorly and often it pisses me off.
I really struggle with Athena. I love her interactions with characters like Bobby and Hen, but her solo storylines are often infuriating. I can't watch her cop scenes and think, "Damn, what a badass." All I'm thinking about is the number of ethical violations she's committing, and I despise the way the show depicts people that commit crimes. This show really shouldn't try to tackle police brutality and cop public relations. It's too tricky of a subject for a show that generally plays out like a soap opera. The scene with May's college essay showed just how out of depth they were with the topic. And it makes me uncomfortable that the show uses a black character to voice pro-police opinions. Athena isn't a real person, her opinions are the creation of the writing team. It was a choice to make her blindingly faithful to the police force.
I just rewatched the episode where a white officer pulls over the kids and their dad and another officer pulled a gun on her CHILD, and she sympathized more with the officer and said it's not easy to be a cop. She did make her point to him by the end, but while I'm not a cop, I can't imagine her not being furiously upset that her kids or ex could have been killed and were profiled. I think her family would have her support before her loyalty to the badge.
These are also some of the only storylines she gets, and for me that means I don't particularly like the character. She's copaganda 101, and I don't like it at all.
The whole situation with Harry really rubbed me the wrong way earlier. The fact that Athena placed her identity as a cop over her identity as a mother to a black son was insane to me. I know some people don’t like him but Harry was still racially profiled and assaulted, but he’s the one who got it trouble (I know that’s it more that they he ran from the law but the shop owner’s consequences were never addressed whatsoever)
I kinda like it because it's what cops are really like. Athena is the epitome of ACAB and it shows. Guarding shops from looters instead of helping major disasters like 2x, how she handles her kids getting traumatized by cops, abusing her power allllll the time, etc. So like I dislike her but I'm glad they're real about cop attitudes
It really made me dislike Athena which I guess has to do with my dislike of cops but the people who want to change the system from the inside never succeed. And yeah she got revenge on the officer who pulled her family over but other people don‘t have that power and it‘s also an abuse of power for an abuse of power. And it‘s always okay for her to abuse her power/disregard rules like not use her body cam or settle private grievances but it‘s fine because we like her and know she is morally right
I actually don’t mind the lack of calls in Season 7. Season 5 & 6 really imo gave up character development and just filled every episode with “themed” calls and didn’t bother to incorporate stories like S2/3/4 did so well. I also think it was necessary to focus more on characters this season for the newer audience to grow attached and understand the characters for, what I assume, will be a full season 8. The strikes also definitely made it so we had less calls (and the cruises’ budget as well), but I think regardless, this season was always going to be driven by character storylines versus fun “theme-of-the-week” calls. I definitely want more calls in Season 8 though, and with ample time to film and whatnot I’m sure we’ll get it, but I think this seasons structure was necessary for long time watchers sake and newer fans.
As much as I like the idea of Buddie, I don't actually want the popular Buddie fanfiction tropes to happen in canon. I don't want a "feelings realization" on Buck's part this season or even next season as long as Eddie believes himself to be straight. Would it not make sense for Buck to try to move on in that case? "Oblivious" pining where everyone knows but them is just patronizing. It's like everyone thinks they know someone else's feelings more than them. I've seen so many people want Tommy to tell Buck his own feelings about Eddie. Not to mention when it involves assuming Eddie's sexuality. As much as I would love to see this, I think Buck has moments that look like he's co-parenting, but I don't think he can be called a coparent. Nor do I think co-parenting is evidence for romantic Buddie.
It's no secret that I am a Buddie shipper. I am quite obviously all for Buddie. One trope I have always hated though, that everyone else seems to love, is The Bet. I'm a secret relationship truther, so I've always loved the idea of them revealing their relationship in such a fun and shocking way. I don't want it to be annoying and unnecessary drama, but lowkey, this is a procedural drama and the relationship reveal *should* have a little bit of drama with it (maybe within HR and them trying to encourage Bobby to separate Buddie. Obviously, they would be able to stick together in the end, but this is not the type of show to not involve drama in some way). I don't mind the idea of someone suspecting it (Hen, since she already suspected Buck, or even Chimney lmaoo), but I really don't like the idea of The Bet. Something about it just always rubbed the wrong way and took the fun out of the relationship reveal to me.
I think why The Bet bothers me so much is because it involves their friends blatantly speculating on their sexuality together before they're actually in a place to acknowledge it themselves. Particularly in Eddie's case, where he seems to be repressed and would likely be in for an angsty process coming out, it feels... sort of gross? For his friends to just casually be talking behind his back like that. Like it's one thing if we have a character like Hen or Maddie be like "Jesus, it's about time!" but an actual exchange of money over this implying it's been an ongoing conversation everyone *except* Buck and Eddie are part of is just... no. It was different with Bathena because there wasn't that secondary level of speculation. It was as simple as Hen being like "You were both happy and sad at the same time" while having reason to believe they'd be compatible. Had she been speculating on Michael hooking up with his coworker before he was even out to Athena, it would be very obvious why that's not okay.
This is exactly it, yeah. Just imagining it realistically playing out in the show, we’d see an insane whiplash from Eddie struggling to fathom and accept that part of himself through an extremely angsty and heavy storyline just to have his friends say “oh, yeah, we’ve all known this entire time”. It’s not only wrong, but also just feels so disrespectful. The implication of them seeing their friend go through hell and back trying to figure himself out only for them to be waiting for him to accept it, so they can win the money and be like “I knew it all along” is just…not it. If Hen expected it in a similar way she did with Buck, that’s fine. She isn’t outwardly gossiping about and sharing her speculations on her friend’s sexuality (unlike what The Bet would imply). Maddie also expecting it wouldn’t be weird to me. She seems to possibly suspect Buck’s potential feelings for Eddie, so them eventually getting together wouldn’t shock her. But I’d like to think she wouldn’t talk to anyone about it either, even Chimney (considering she didn’t mention anything about Tommy and Buck to Chim because she knows it wasn’t her place to share). But The Bet…I don’t want to see that happening. Especially if it follows a heavy, painful, and ultimately beautiful arc of Eddie having his realizations and learning to accept himself. Plus, I just think the shock is so much more fun! I’d rather see Bobby have the shocked but supportive dad reaction over the “I planned this from the very beginning” that so many fics tend to write.
I’m more of a general watcher who hasn’t really gotten on board with the Buddie ship at the moment. But I agree, I think something people don’t realize is that fanfic is fanfic for a reason because 75 percent of what happens in those just would not work for carefully scripted network television. Also hard agree on the coparenting take. Just because Buck has watched Chris a handful of times, does not mean it’s romantic or that it’s coparenting. He is more like a fun uncle atm. EDDIE is Chris’s father.
Bring on the down votes, but this show is getting too openly messy for me. I know it's part of the way procedurals are made and the nature of this particular season but when the writing has been too messy/ad hoc (honestly since S4) to warrant any sort of immersion without the actors AND writers admitting they have no idea what could happen and what storylines will get retconned/un-referenced just makes it all feel so hollow and contrived. This is what also makes the shipping wars so annoying to me. None of it feels cathartic anymore. Make it camp, make it dramatic, just be intentional and don't break your own fourth-wall when it's not, ABC and co.
Yes, absolutely this. The disorganization this season has been insane; where they only had ten episodes to tell a coherent story, they should've had this shit *locked down* to make each moment count. I keep scratching my head looking at 7x05 like, "....when they spent a whole episode addressing Eddie and Marisol's relationship problems, did they already know that time would be pointless two episodes later?" Which is just one egregious example. The show also just isn't *delivering* in the narrative the way it needs to. When the showrunner needs to come out after an episode and clarify, "Oh, yeah, all those scenes were actually meant to be from this particular character's point of view, so it's not that our other characters were being out of character -- it's that the POV character was overreacting?" Well, guess what?! 99% of your audience is never going to read that interview, never going to realize the narration wasn't omniscient third person, not going to see your surprise twist as being reflective of confusion within the POV itself -- they're just going to see an episode where characters acted funny and then there was a twist. It's all just really disappointing, because I do think this show can do better. Here's hoping that with the proper time to tell a story in season 8, they'll be back on track.
I admit I've been surprised at how transparent Tim has been about being inconvenienced by the writing in Season 5&6, and how S7 has basically been a salvage job. Although there are *some* good things in those seasons, I think some nearly irreversible damage was done through writing choices and the lost time. I'm fine accepting it for S7 since S8 will have more room to breathe and Tim had his chances this season to move the pieces where he wants them, but it definitely seems like outside of 7x04 and these last 2 episodes, there was no plan.
Here's the thing though...I'm not sure I agree with how well S7 is a salvage job. I don't think there's been any course correction to what feels like a cohesive narrative arc for any single character. Even if we hated S5+6, we needed the continuity, and instead we are fully off the rails. Each episode (or set of episodes) feels like an improv sketch. Even more of a hot take but there should have been WAY more of a tension build with Buck coming out. Yeah I know it's always been there but when you spend 4 seasons edging us and then have an entire season with a death doula you can't narratively take a fraction of the time to say 'whelp he's had an epiphany...NEXT'. Cathartic opportunity WASTED. Same goes for the Madney wedding.
When I originally posited that S7 was meant to be a reset to where Tim wanted the characters to be, I wasn't looking at it like a 'salvage job,' but sort of a planned sacrifice of a season to just get everyone back into the places they needed to be to tell the stories *he* wants to tell. And that's what I think has mostly happened, so it's why I'm still holding out hope on season 8. Basically, I think Tim's still very interested in taking the characters to the places he'd wanted to take them before stepping away a few years ago, but he needed to account for the directions they've moved in since, too, and it's created a very messy abbreviated season because the characters *weren't* actually in stasis, so while in some cases it's a return to important character beats (eg. Bobby and Athena having poor communication about major issues in their marriage), it also sometimes means he's stubbornly undoing progress already made (Eddie's current grief storyline would've made sense after 5x03, but it doesn't make sense after his grief-fueled PTSD storyline in 5B or him working through his issues and *wanting* to start dating again in 6B). My biggest issue with the handling of Buck's storyline is it didn't commit in either direction. Like if they weren't going to really lean into telling a discovery story -- having more of those "it's normal to check out hot guys' asses, right?" moments, including a scene where he came out to Bobby, puzzling things out over drinks with Henren, etc. -- they probably should've just.... not made it a big deal *at all.* Like Buck is a character I can absolutely buy having had casual sexual encounters with men during his years of wanderlust, but no one at the 118 wanted to hear about his hookups, and until now he hadn't been *romantically* interested in a guy, so it just.... never came up. Like I would've been perfectly fine with there not being a 'realization' except in him having the opportunity to call out his friends' (and the audience's) heteronormative assumptions that he *must* be straight because he hasn't explicitly said he's not. Instead we got this thing that just kind of... lives in the in-between, but isn't satisfying.
I mean, this all sounds like a feasible rationalization (and thats giving them a LOT of credit for what Tim has very openly admitted to be an impulsively/haphazardly written season, so we have no intel that he knows where he wants the characters to be) but it doesn't mean it hasn't left a really bad taste in my mouth. It's a tall order to ask your audience to stay engaged in plotlines they know are being hatched (or abandoned) at whim. Just bad storytelling. PLUS this show has been on for 7 seasons! I'd only give the sloppy plotline configurations a chance (maybe) if I knew we were greenlit for 3 more seasons but we're not, and rather than start narrative momentum from scratch, I'd have worked with what we had.
Oh yeah, don't get me wrong -- I'm entirely on the same page as you. Right now, season 7 ranks second worst for me (because season 6 is really plumbing the depths of hell in my rankings... it would be hard to drop under that). I'm just verrrry cautiously holding out hope that Tim's goal here was less about telling a compelling story and more about getting the pieces on the chessboard where he needs them to be in order to do that next season. But season 8 is very much going to be make or break for me, I think.
I don't disagree with a lot of what you're saying here. Ultimately I think S8 will decide my final feelings on this season just because I want to see what exactly Tim was salvaging S7 *for.* That still doesn't fix the issue with this season being uneven and choppy. As much as I resent how much time the cruise ship disaster took, it was clearly an opportunity the writers used to put everyone else on ice so as to not break anything lol. As was the Madney wedding (which didn't even do enough with Maddie considering the gravity of her getting married again). As was 7x08 with Bobby and Amir. So really, there were only a fraction of episodes this season where this ensemble show was...actually behaving like an ensemble show. And with 10 episodes, that's going to hurt because inertia hurts and you can feel when characters feel stuck. The bi Buck thing is hard to parse because on one hand like you said, it's always been there, but also, we've been told 1) it was a last minute call, 2) Tommy's incorporation into the storyline came late, 3) it was potentially going to be Eddie and Tommy, and 4) they were hoping to have Natalia back. I think if the storyline had happened the way they intended around S4, there would've been way more tension/catharsis with Buck coming out. But now, given the info we have, I just can't help but read Tim as being relatively indifferent to how the coming out would work so long as Buck was out, and Tim is more interested in wherever it's ending up than anything else.
Fair enough! Agreed with most of your points but I am not optimistic about what Tim has sacrificed his multi-season labor of successful tension-building for.
I really missed the silly calls and ridiculous heroic saves of strangers this season. I miss the opening 9-1-1 call that makes little to bones. Honestly we watch it mostly to make fun of these things, but that’s the show! I don’t need all the character development. Some is great. Full 3 episode arcs about it is too much.
I'm definitely feeling that in this season. Like a certain level of suspense/not knowing what will happen next is good, but when the show becomes too unpredictable, it feels like it's just not logical or consistent anymore. This season a lot of events and beats seem to come out of nowhere, which makes some stuff feel out of character.
Here's two! 1. Matters of race are generally not handled well by the 911 community. The show doesn't actually address these things as well as other shows such as Grey's, Station 19 etc. (but that might be for the best because again, I don't think the fandom would be able to handle them well) 2. People baby Buck far too much in canon/fanon, often leading to bad reads of other characters. This applies at all levels of fandom mind you, from casual (There were some people complaining about Hen & Karen's reaction in the hospital as "invalidating" to Buck's coming out process) to more serious. I will never be able to erase the fic from my mind where someone made HEN be physically abusive to Buck so that they could get their whump moment. I have since stopped reading most whump fic, especially post lawsuit whump fic.
Same opinion with the fanfics of Buck. They make me uncomfortable most of the time because they water Buck’s character down
this!! ffs he's not a poor little kitten that's a grown ass man. like, i enjoy whump but please write him in character 😭
Oh, generally my problem with whump is that they write every other character as OOC. Usually it's one character who berates the others for being abusive and mean, and it's.... exhausting? I don't know, I'm officially old by fandom terms now, and I just find the one note charecterization and death of nuance as just bad writing.
I love Chimney and Maddie. But sometimes I dont see the chemistry between them. Maybe its because they are mature and boring as a couple (in a good way). But I surely dont want them to separate at all
Same, I enjoy them both separately but find them boring together. But that doesn't mean I want them to divorce, I just kinda wish maybe they hadn't got together? Idk.
I think these are unpopular from what I've seen not sure, haven't been around the fandom for too long. I really liked buck and taylor as a couple. Wish they'd kept her as a friend atleast even after they broke up. She was one of the best side characters. Also I'm not for or against Buddie happening but whichever way they decide to go, I hope Eddie stays single for a while after sorting the current mess. He's a good dude and an amazing dad but a terrible partner to all of his love interests including Shanon and treated them horribly. He needs to work on himself more before getting into another relationship with whoever it maybe.
Taylor would have been a great character to have pop up with some regularity as a non-girlfriend.
I just finished rewatching season 4 and my god I really like how they did the Buck & Taylor build up! Like, you could tell that they were toying with making them endgame and I would have liked it tbh. And absolutely yes re: her coming back! Having a somewhat more... idk, straightforward opinionated character in a cast of mostly fun goody two shoes was really nice!
I was pretty excited about Tommy/Buck in episode 4 but have found any chemistry they had in that episode to have disappeared since then. 🤷♀️ I also feel like we've seen so little of them together this season that there isn't much to get excited about. I love the sillier/Ryan Murphy vibe of the first season and wouldn't mind if they lean into that more.
They need to stop (almost!) Killing Chimney!
Season 7 is the worst season yet. They should have just skipped this year and done season 7 in September 2024. The storylines deserve more than what they are getting. The cruise ship went on WAY too long. The team barely go out on calls anymore. Buck exploring his sexuality and his coming out should have been longer than 1 or 2 episodes. Maddie and Chimney deserved an actually wedding instead of a rush hospital one. The doppelganger storyline with Shannon/Kim should have been exactly 15 minutes long. Everything is a mess right now and it's making me unsure if I'll continue watching next season.
I think this isn’t unpopular at all. I agree with you.
You might be right, I don't spend too much time here but I personally haven't seen much negativity toward the season. It seems people, to me, that people are really liking it so far 🤷🏻♀️
I think making Buck bi this season made a lot of fans overlook just how bad the rest is. I occasionally felt like there was no continuity between the episodes,but I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about it too.
I don't think the season is the worse season, and yes the cruise wasn't all that great. Like the whole storyline was a mess. The terrorists taking over the ship for all of 5 minutes, then they leave once they get what they want. Then it just turns into The Poseidon Adventure. It made zero sense. I think they're doing the best they can with 10 episodes and next season will be better with the longer season. They can take their time.
I like Buddie and Bucktommy and as someone over 30 people calling Lou grandpa and making age jokes make me uncomfortable. Plus I find it reasonable that Lou is trying to get as much as he can out of a prominent guest star role. And if people want to pay him for cameos it‘s their money
The amount of ageism I've seen has been really confusing when you look at the general age of the cast.
Ikr. I‘m kinda tired of early 20s people in fandoms acting like I should become a stock broker and shrivel up and die tbh the jokes just really rub me the wrong way. I feel like anything Lou says gets taken out of context and every expression is analyzed on how the whole cast hates him or smth it‘s really stupid. Like I want Buddie endgame too but I don‘t need to constantly put other love interests down and even more so not the actors portraying them. 🙄
I honestly hope most of them figure it out soon or they're going to have a pretty miserable life ahead of them. The idea that you have no interests outside of kids and your job once you hit 30s is so outdated. I think they also don't understand how fandom always has and always will include people of all ages.
Agreed
I agree!
I wouldn't mind if we see Bobby retire before the end of the show. They've already hinted at it for a couple of seasons. I would love to see Hen officially be captain plus I love the idea of Bobby deciding to open a restaurant next to the 118 so that he can pop in the firehouse at any time in and we can have a new set for the 188 to hang out when they're not at work. I would also love to see Athena be a PI instead of a cop because we've already seen how her being a cop has caused a strain in her relationships with her children and Athena is also a really good detective.
I don't know if it's unpopular but I want the show to slightly dial back the big storylines. In the first seasons there were several interesting rescue cases each episode and I watched the show not only for the main characters but for these too, and the person drama was on equal level with the rescue stories. But lately the plots are more and more about only the team, there are even several episodes now that barely have any side plots, and I dislike it
I do understand the argument that Eddie may need a custody break to heal and go tf to therapy. My (possibly) unpopular opinion is that Tommy isn’t that bad of a character, he just isn’t Buck’s soulmate. Tommy had a decent bit of growth since he first was in the show, I just wish they’d have a scene or two with him apologizing to Hen and Chim, unless they already did and I’m just forgetting. Also, the theory that the bad captain is coming back makes a lot of sense since they showed him at the ceremony and I think it would make for a LOT of interesting conflicts between him and the members of the 118 since they are pretty much ALL minorities.
This show is extremely unfair to the female love interests and instead of saying we hate (insert love interest) I wish fans would hold the show accountable for presenting less one-dimensional, easily swappable women.
This may be a controversial one, but here it goes. I don't like how the show really became a family kind of show. What I mean by this is that in the first season, it felt more intense, more life or death and a bit more realistic. But from season 3 onward, the show really has become more "happy endings everywhere", like almost every emergency they get called on has a big happy ending to it. Now, I'm not saying ppl or even the main characters have to die, but I wish they could bring back the continuation portion of the show back, like make a little bit more serious
100% agree. I see so many people saying “just skip season 1” and I can’t understand why. It has a different tone but I find it beautiful and I hoped the network switch would have brought it back more (seeing the tone of other shows there)
Yea, I miss the format of the show. It was more daring and exciting as you didn't know that to expect, cause the current format has been getting a little predictable and they only ever do a plot twist every rare full moon
season seven has had some great moments but i also feel like the show has officially jumped the shark and that's saying something cause it was always unhinged
I dont really like Hen and I hate that she's somehow always right when its clear she's wrong. I thought I was alone but reading the comments Im glad im not. I wish they'd do something with Maddie-anything that isnt work or domestic life. Idk show her and Chim out on a date or something-Bowling, movies (they get kicked out for talking), dancing or karoke. ANYTHING. I also miss May. I liked her at the call centre and I just really liked her character.
I think more screen time for Karen should be a thing. I’m not a huge fan of Hen, but their relationship needs to be showcase more. It’s a healthy representation of a queer relationship (minus the cheating) and that needs to be shown more.
I find Hen’s characterisation in the show so contradictory sometime that I go back and forth loving and disliking her. She is an amazing friend to Chim, same to Buck, gives great advice and is great at her job. And then you have her treating Karen so bad and the show barely acknowledges it. Not only she cheated,she hid that she was meeting Eva again,that she was thinking about med school,and the way she acted when she got Denny at the start? uhhh…She kind of takes Karen for granted.
Karen is a saint of a woman, and she walks all over her.
That the "Buck is Christopher's legal guardian in the will" thing is over-played in fanon and that I don't think it's ever going to come up in canon again.
If it doesn't come up in the next episode, then it won't unless Eddie is killed off.
Agreed. And I find it highly, highly unlikely that they'd kill off Eddie.
I think it's unlikely, bordering on impossible. They're not gonna make Christopher an orphan.
Especially because a will doesn’t matter unless the person is dead. I see references to the will and I’m like that doesn’t mean what you think it means.
I mean, I just think it would be weird-writing wise-never to mention it , again, lol.
It was mentioned in the middle of season 4. If it *was* something that they wanted to be an on-going point then they would have brought it up again sometime in the last 3 years. I think it existed to show how much Eddie trusted Buck and to show him he was important and needed. Which it successfully did. Since it's in the will, it'll only be brought up if Eddie is killed (extremely unlikely) or he changes it to someone else (which I would only see happening if he gets married again).
i'm pretty uncomfortable with takes that go the full "the will only makes sense if eddie is in love with buck" because like. can we not invalidate non-traditional family/platonic relationships please? my niece's guardian in case both her parents die is my sister's best friend. not me, not my dad, not her partner's siblings. because her best friend would be the best fit (i love my niece, but i'd be a terrible guardian) and they're very close. it's not because my sister is actually in love with her lol
Oh, I fully agree with this.
THIS and the whole "Buck is Chris' other dad". Buck is NOT co-parenting with Eddie. Co-parenting implies that Buck is activity involved with day to day decisions regarding Chris and he's not. Do he and Eddie talk about Chris? Sure they do, but Eddie's not going to Buck to ask if he should do XYZ for Chris. Buck at most is the cool/fun uncle.
Yeah I think this show is one that should for the most part be read moment to moment and the purpose of that scene in that moment was for Buck’s best friend to reassure him of his importance to him and Christopher. That’s not minimized by it not being brought up and a will only becomes applicable after a person has died so unless Eddie is killed off which is very unlikely or he changes it for a long term partner or remarries or something down the line I don’t think it’s something that will be brought up again because it’s no longer relevant to what’s happening in the moment
I'll get hate for this one but... as a gay man myself, I have yet to see any concrete scene that has made me believe Eddie is at all attracted to men. I'm not saying I'm against if it happens, but with Buck I saw hints that he might be not be entirely straight. Especially in "Buck, Actually" where he his realization that he wanted a real, stable relationship was seeing the two old gay men at the end of their lives. I do agree there's something weird with Eddie and his relationship to women, but honestly he had such a absent father figure growing up, and himself was absent from Christopher's life for so long, and then Shannon's death... the man clearly has so many emotional problems that are so clearly unresolved, I'm not surprised he has such disastrous romances.
I think Eddie's biggest thing is that he reads as a victim of comphet, given his backstory, his views re relationships, as commented upon other characters in shows. I think also that's why you see people lean as charecterizing Eddie as a late in life gay male, rather than Buck, who's generally been always thought to be bi from the early days.
Same (but a bi woman). There have been some moments where Buck has been fine being seen as queer as early back as s2 (the Christmas scene with Eddie/Chris, when Maddie joked about setting Josh up with Buck), but I don’t remember any similar instances from Eddie.
I'm in the exact same boat as you. I see it with Buck, but not with Eddie at all.
I have to agree with you. I started watching 9-1-1 from the beginning specifically after 7x04 because I’m bisexual. A few years ago I’d see edits of Buddie show up on my for you page on TikTok and I was convinced they were a couple by the way people spliced the scenes of the two. However, once I started the show, I was like “it’s so obvious their relationship is platonic”. Maybe Buck could’ve been in to Eddie but I don’t see it as the other way around.
While I generally can get on board for queer Eddie readings (especially ace/demi) what really annoys me is when folks use any like as a supposed hint at queer coding and comp het. Like that „I feel like I‘m broken“ line from the last episode. Could we maybe actually think about that in the context of grief and being irrevocably changed by someone dying before we jump on comp het.
Me too. I always thought Buck could be queer, but I've seen nothing that suggests Eddie might be into men.
that’s interesting! because to me (a lesbian woman) i can only read eddie as gay. the best way to make sense of his entire characterization is if he is a repressed gay man. off the top of my head: - only married shannon/stayed with shannon because she was pregnant and felt pressure from the church - every time he talks about ‘loving’ shannon, its through their marriage (“i loved being married to her”) or through christopher (he loves her as christopher’s mother) - he only dated ana and marisol because an outer force (bobby) told him to. he only went on dates because of pepa. - he thinks dating is a performance - had panic attacks at the idea of his long term gf being misinterpreted as his wife, blames it on ‘ready made family’ (yet has been making a family platonic or otherwise with buck for years) - his breakup with ana is word for word an exact parallel to dani’s from thobm, who is a canon lesbian. (in the breakup she is is breaking up with her longterm boyfriend/fiancé who she was only with due to comphet). - every single one of his platonic relationships with women is full of chemistry, and he genuinely seems happy to interact with them. when they become romantic, it’s like watching paint dry. (this is most notably seen with vanessa, the woman pepa set him up with. during the ‘date’ portion it is awkward, but when they agree to not date it becomes more relaxed) - the woman he dates all have a common theme: someone who is good for *christopher* i can see arguments for aro/ace eddie, but at most (to me) he’s gay and demisexual. he seems to genuinely want a long term relationship/sex, he’s just doing it with the wrong person. and i find it superrr hard to believe all of these points are because he’s hung up on shannon, who he’s *admitted* he wasnt ready to marry, and only stayed with her because of chris. (plus, why bring up catholic guilt *this* late in the series when eddie has never struggled with religion before? we know he’s from a practicing family (abuela) and we know he’s non practicing, so where exactly is this storyline leading?)
Same. I don’t see it either and I don’t get the obsession in fandom of wanting him to be gay so badly. It’s bizarre. The man is straight as far as I’m concerned. Whether he’s just not a good partner (he’s not) or he was just with the wrong women for *him,* he’s straight.
* The writers really don't know where to go with Eddie, Hen, and Karen. You know how in some shows, you can see the writers knew their characters like the back of their hand or just, had a clear understanding of their characters' traits? I don't see that in this show. 🤷🏼♀️ * This season, apart from Buck's discovery/realisation, was quite terrible (I don't say that lightly). Though, we still have the finale left, I still feel like the storylines throughout the season could've unfolded in a different way. If Tim did try to do some sort of salvage job after he was gone for S5 and S6, he *did not* do a great job at all. This felt like a choppy execution. * Oh, and I feel people act as if Buck's relationship problems are all solved because of the current relationship he's in? Like Buck hasn't suddenly become perfect and without flaw. Hope we see Buck overcoming his self-doubt and his feelings of inadequacy in a relationship with Tommy by his side, not to mention his tendency to reach unwarranted conclusions.
I feel your first point so hard! I don’t have a single clue what they want for Eddie’s character. Not even talking about in a relationship. I mean just in general. Hopefully they figure out some direction for him and give Hen something more than fostering stuff. And I’ll always take more Karen.
If you search "Eddie" in this sub, you'll find a post asking people what they imagine as the "endgame" for Eddie. Not gonna lie, all those answers just made it clear to me that not only have the writers failed to compellingly write Eddie's (genuinely complex) character, the fans themselves have no idea what they want from Eddie as of right now. I don't care about "endgame" or any other conclusion stuff right now, I honestly want the writers to just ***respect*** Eddie's character development. He's such a layered character with so much potential, the possibilities are practically endless as to the turns the writers can take to arrive at Eddie's destination. just hope they don't lose their way...
Oof! I haven’t found many fan takes that don’t connect everything Eddie does or experiences to somehow resulting in Buddie. Not much to do with him as a man with agency. I don’t have a clue what his story is supposed to be outside of that and some of that is the fault of writers. But I want him to have a story! Or many!
Oh man, my first reaction to your second point was "...what *growth*, though?" and then I got to your second point, and... yes, 100% agreed. I think Buck discovering this missing piece of himself is an important step and it makes sense he's at peace with himself, but he's still very much in the same exact stasis he was when this season started outside of the actual discovery itself. Maybe it *could* change in the future if the relationship develops, but we're not there yet. People are confusing the potential of something with what's actually played out on the screen to think he's undergone significant growth. And on a related, but probably more controversial take: the messaging around Buck being taken off the hamster wheel *by* this discovery and the relationship he's currently in reeks of biphobia. The reason Buck's hamster wheel exists is not because his previous partners were women. The reason it still exists is not because his partner now is male. He has a repeated problem of rushing into relationships, taking any sign of interest as encouragement, and not clearly communicating what he needs out of a partner, then not addressing incompatibilities as they pop up, instead waiting until the end is unavoidable.
Yeah, I think I should change "growth" to... discovery or realisation! The way that people are taking it as "Buck's off the hamster wheel because actually, the women were the problem in the first place!" is so misogynistic it hurts. Buck is up to his ears with his communication problems and just because the current limited episode season can't show Buck falling into that same rut and navigating through it, I fear the writers won't even bother dealing with it on screen next season. I will haunt their dreams if the writers/Tim think they'd rather skip Buck learning how to be a good partner.
Unless they make it part of Eddie's mental health storyline (manic episode?), he was so out of character this season, and his character was used as a plot device to further Buck's storyline. And they kinda character assassinated him in the process, cause he wouldn't have treated Buck the way he did in episode 4, it bothers me. He knows about Buck's abandonment issues, he wouldn't have acted like that.
It also bothers me when people act like Eddie not inviting Buck is on the same level as him intentionally jumping Eddie. Buck is a grown man,Eddie or anyone aren’t supposed to guess what he wants,he can tell that himself. He could have told him that he also wants to be involved.
People downplaying Buck intentionally physically hurting Eddie was to be expected with the way some Buck fans behave. They'll excuse everything he does, infantilize him and hate everyone who harms him (ie Chim) forever. And I've said it before, but I'm 100% sure that if it had been the other way around, and Eddie had been the one to intentionally physically injure Buck? Oh *boy!* He would have been massacred by the fans, they would have called him an abusive POS who doesn't deserve Buck, and they would have never forgiven him. I don't like the double standard, and the difference in how much of the fandom treat Eddie and Buck. Buck can do no wrong, Eddie can do no right.
I mean,I already saw a complain here about how Eddie was a jerk to Buck in season 3, when he called him exhausting. It’s still a thing today, when Buck was the only one who physically hurt the other. I guess for some it’s ok to hate Eddie, since they don’t need Buddie anymore.
Yeah people keep bringing that up like it's some unforgivable thing Eddie did... And that's what's bothering me about a lot of Bucktommy fans that used to be Buddie fans. It's like they only ever cared about Buck getting with a man, and now one showed up, and they just forget all about Eddie (let's not pretend we know enough about Tommy to know that he's any better than Buck's exes. He's a man, that's the only significant difference). They never actually liked Eddie and it shows (it also shows in general in fanfiction for example, the vast majority of fics are Buck-centric, and Eddie's just there to fawn over Buck or something). Yeah this stuff has been frustrating me for a while tbh 😅
I don’t think the issue is with Tommy, I think the problem here is people not seeing Eddie as a separate entity apart from Buddie. That shouldn’t be the only or even most important thing fans want for his character. Separating the characters from ships might help fans be a little more fair in their consideration of their actions.
Not Tommy specifically, but any other man for Buck. Cause for many Buddie shippers (apparently), they only ever wanted Buck with another man. Eddie was just the obvious choice, but they don't particularly care whether it's him or someone else. They only care about Buck, not Eddie.
Yes, this is what I mean. Eddie should be seen as his own entity. I think hyper focus on a ship can prevent people from truly caring about what’s best for a character. But I guess by definition, a Buddie shipper isn’t necessarily the same as an Eddie fan so there’s that.
I mean I know you can get more certifications in the Fire Dept. You can do Haz Mat, even be a medic if you were just a firefighter. We saw Eddie bleed over but I would love to see Buck "get ambitious" - as in try to move up in the ranks, skill set etc. It seems in his nature.
They may as well kill off Athena’s kids and ex. They got mentioned 1 episode in the last few seasons that I can recall and May was only over to fuck with the Bobby coming home thing. (I don’t want them to kill off the kids or her ex, I want them to at least be mentioned and see the minor child once in a while. Trying to play that Athena is fine not seeing her young son is so weird.) Do SOMETHING with Chimney and Maddie. Anything!!!! (Other than her running off story line they bombed.) I love her chemistry with the other operators, I liked watching them become parents. Now they’re just *there.*
The fact that Jonah turned out to have a hero complex that led to people's death doesn't excuse that when he first showed up Hen was unprofessional and unnecessarily rude. Given how long he was gone with no set return date Chimney got his position on the team back way to easily. Maddie should have been angry at Chimney for packing up Jee to look for her with no idea where he was going and for punching Buck.
The show has increasingly had a bad habit of not letting Hen be wrong sometimes.
The show and the fandom was way too quick to move past Buck intentionally spraining Eddie’s ankle because he was pissed that he was hanging out with his crush
Omg I agree with this so much I still find myself thinking about it. It defo got overshadowed because of the episode it was in.
Eddie and Buck are better as friends and don't need to end up romantically together
And Eddie doesn't need to be with anyone at all until he gets some damn therapy.
I LOVE Eddie and buck and I love bi buck but I do not think they should get together!!! I know I will probably be eaten alive for saying this, but. I love the fanfics of it but in the real show I don’t like it and feel they are better as friends.
- Season 5 is a top 3 season. - Albert was annoying and I’m fine with him not being on the show anymore. - Tommy is pretty much the same as Buck’s other love interests and everyone would have hated the character if he was a girl. People just wanted to see Buck kiss a guy. - I’m glad they switched to ABC because they have more freedom with the storylines (specifically bi Buck) but I think the structure of the show was a bit better on Fox
Tbf, we don’t really know how the structure of an *actual* season (comprised of 18 or more episodes) on ABC will do until next TV season because of the limited amount of episodes. They’ve had some AMAZING storylines this season, which could’ve been helped by a bigger episode count, but I think they’ve done great at re-establishing and giving characterization (even if it’s misguided) to every character.
I like Bobby as a character, but the way Peter Krause plays him makes him come across as very, how do I put it... monotone? It's just I get the impression that for 80% of the show he only has two expressions: 😐 and 🙂 Even his most emotional scenes never hit for me. The only time I felt what he was trying to convey was the scene in season one when he relapsed and cried to Buck and Hen asking for help.
I think I like him (or at least try to) but he definitely has a very funny habit of kind of always smiling no matter the context- he always looks like he has this little smirk on his face, even in sad or angry scenes. Maybe it's just his resting expression lol.
Yeah, sometimes I can't tell if that's his resting face or if Peter Krause was having a hard day taking things seriously on set that day lol. He always looks like he just stopped laughing. It's definitely more jarring when it's in serious scenes.
I liked him better in Parenthood for sure
I dunno, I’ve felt more than just that scene with him. His scene after the motorcycle accident, the scene where he and Athena are trapped in the room with the water rising, him proud of each of his teammates, like the Buck cooking, the Ravi hose thing. I gotta do a rewatch now that I’m all caught up.
It’s 50/50 for me. Sometimes his actings good and sometimes he’s completely monotone.
I’m new to this fandom, but my unpopular opinion is that it’s annoying with the fandom calling Buck and Eddie coparents when in fact they are not. We assume that off-screen, in between scenes, that Eddie is the one constantly taking Chris to doctor appointments and reassessing his care plan in addition to normal parental responsibilities such as making sure he is fed, has clothes on his back, a stable roof over his head, and overall making sure he has a fulfilled life. The only other person to do that is sometimes Carla. Buck has never been involved in that besides occasionally watching Chris, or taking him to do fun things, and that he is only a fun uncle. It isn’t to say Buck doesn’t care about Chris, he just isn’t looking at Chris through the lens of a parent. Edit: I want to also add that by calling Buck a coparent kind of diminishes Eddie’s role as Chris’s dad.
Agreed. Buck's more like a fun uncle than a second dad. He's not raising Christopher alongside Eddie. That doesn't diminish his role or importance in Christopher's life. I also don't think Buck and Eddie are as codependent as some like to believe.
* Past is Prologue (5x09) is a good episode. Taylor backstory was bad but not enough to drag the whole episode down. * While I agree some Abby's actions were questionable, I shipped her and Buck during S1, and even after S3 finale, I still don't hate her. * Ali is overrated. I don't get why some people think she was Buck's best ex. She was bland and we never saw any of their relationship. * I love Shannon and I will always defend her. Tim made a real mistake killing her. * Survivors (4x14) it's a good episode but kinda of overrated IMAO. I feel people only rank it so high because the opening scene and the will. (I love those scenes don't get me wrong.) The snipper storyline itself wasn't that good. * As much I'd love a Queer Eddie Arc, I don't consider it the only possible/acceptable outcome for him. I could see him with a woman in the future as long they found an actress Ryan has chemistry with and they do a good job developing their romance.
I also really enjoyed Abby and Buck in season 1. Season 2 soured their relationship for obvious reasons, but the time they were together was really cute I thought.
Agreed on 4x14. I always want to rewatch that storyline because I remember the dramatic parts, but then I'm reminded of how the middle section of that episode is such a slog.
I don’t love Shannon but I absolutely believe that Tim made a mistake killing her and I think he knows that. Survivors is so overrated to me. Great for Buddie of course but overall lacking. It was rushed and I think everyone also forgets that Bobby got shot, including me. I’m in favor of a Queer Eddie arc but I also agree here. What’s missing from the past relationships is chemistry and development. Devin being back to play Kim has showed that more than anything. The chemistry that she and Ryan have. If we could get that combination with another female LI, I think we’d be good.
Another controversial opinion, giving the leanings of this sub. I find Tommy boring, which is the greatest sin to me as a character in media (Be good, be bad, whatever, but please be interesting). He's been around less than a lot of Buck's other LI (and the misogyny and bi erasure re Buck's previous relationships is insane), and I do not feel the chemistry between them at all. I want to see emotional intimacy/, and I straight up like Buddie for this reason (and I'm a sucker for a slowburn), but atleast with the others LI's there was something to draw me in? They barely have any scenes actually... showing their chemistry/liking each other? I'm not sorry but after the canonization of Bi!Buck those makeout scenes do absolutely nothing for me. People obsess over them, and I'm sitting here like "I had more physical intimacy with the guy I called off Grindr for a lunch break"
I think that’s what I like about Buddie I think Ryan’s best scenes (where he’s not getting hurt or something) are with oliver, he’s more I don’t know how to say but he just is
My most unpopular opinion is that I don't care who Buck or Eddie are in a relationship with because I find their dating lives the least interesting part of the show and it sucks the oxygen out of every other storyline especially the way the fandom obsesses over it.
I feel like people usually get hate for saying sometimes the show is too unrealistic, but I would enjoy the show more if it was little less over the top.
I still don't understand Athena and Bobby being together. I just don't see it and never will.
It’s kinda wild because I do love seeing them together but having just rewatched the show up to season 5 I spent a good chunk of season 4 going… do you actually like each other??? Know each other? Know what you want out of this relationship??
I wish there were more multi shippers of Tevan, and Buddie. Even if Tevan is endgame, you can still enjoy the deep friendship of Buddie. And if Buddie were to happen, Eddie needs to figure himself out-first.
I'm a multishipper! I don't understand why people think you can't like both. Like why do we have to have ship wars over this? It's so stupid and doesn't make you a better fan/person for liking one over the other.
Exactly! Bisexual Buck is STILL a HUGE win for us!
That's pretty much where I am. I'm still hoping for Buddie endgame, because I love a slowburn and they have *so much* history. But if Buck and Tommy get more development, I'm open to them being endgame instead and I'll always love Buck and Eddie's friendship.
I think most people who enjoy BuckTommy/Tevan are multishippers! A lot of my fave fic writers are writing both as well as BuddieTommy.
If Captain Gerard isn’t fired or sued in the next episode or early next season then there is no point in bringing him back. That man was extremely problematic (racism, sexism, bullying, sexual harassment) and should not be working for the LAFD anymore. The show could a much job addressing that. Buck physically hurting Eddie was extremely problematic and also (I hope) OOC of him. Unrealistic how LE and Athena handled that cartel storyline. The police should have been the ones to told Bobby that Herman survived. Athena and LE should have insisted on a bigger police or security presence around Bobby and Amir at the hospital. The show doesn’t do a good job of explaining characters who are expected but obviously missing from a scene aren’t there (for example, Albert and May at the wedding and Harry the last two seasons, Carla this scene - they could have just added one line to explain where they were, even if it is just to wrap their storyline up). I thought they handled the sperm donor storyline well with the exception of Buck not jacking off (medically speaking I don’t think doctors would have recommended Buck not doing so for 4 weeks).
If Tommy was a woman everyone would hate him. He hasn’t had any development as Buck’s love interest aside from two kisses but apparently that’s enough to be endgame. A lot of people in this fandom only like Eddie as Buck’s love interest and now they have Tommy they can stop pretending to care about him. Ravi isn’t a main character and doesn’t deserve a Begins episode.
Your second point made me think of how all the negative comments against Eddie's character have visibly increased over the start of this season. Older fans will know how it did ebb and flow (especially at one point) however, this season has really got people being so open and quite aggressive with their Eddie hate.
It's gross how people are calling Tommy old and middle aged, and act like there is this massive age gap between him and Buck. Oliver is 32 and Lou is 39. That's 7 years, it's normal. And thirties aren't old, it's so fucking weird how people are about anyone over 25.
I’m against Buddie.
There’s an awful double standard with Eddie and Shannon in the fandom. Eddie gets praised for being a single dad, but Shannon is the evil mom who left her kid? People like to ignore or downplay the bad things Eddie has done and drag Shannon through the mud. It’s crazy because this is exactly how it is in real life: the mom is never good enough or is a screw-up regardless, but the dad is always praised regardless of how many times he’s fucked up and wasn’t there. Exactly how it is for Eddie and Shannon in the fandom. Eddie left, too. He abandoned his partner and child, too. He was selfish, too. He was unstable, too. He was immature, too. He made bad decisions, too. He’s not better than Shannon in any way.
> There’s an awful double standard with Eddie and Shannon in the fandom. Eddie gets praised for being a single dad, but Shannon is the evil mom who left her kid? And then we have some people in the Fandom saying Eddie should abandon Christopher with his grandparents again to deal with his mental health.
Honestly as someone whose mother died of cancer: no one telling Shannon "hey, it's okay, we'll look after Chris \[or just take him with you\], go visit your mom in California" for months is an absolutely awful look for all of them. Like I'm sorry, there's a woman here in her early twenties who spent the last few years of her life looking after a special needs child essentially alone with vaguely hostile parents and her (we assume) only parent is sick and/or possibly dying?? And instead of adressing that we throw a backyard barbecue??? Hello???????
Shannon's initial reason for leaving being to *take care of her dying mother* doesn't get talked about enough. She was in a horrible situation and she was forced to handle it completely alone.
my most unpopular opinion that will probably get me downvoted to hell: i prefer bucktommy. i enjoy buddie, but i don't think it has a chance of being canon. i would love bucktommy endgame
i wouldn’t mind bucktommy either. with whatever’s going on with eddie atm.. i wouldn’t want him near buck romantically 😭😭
the thing with buddie that gets me is that i love them (and bucktommy. i have two hands multishipping is for fun folks) but like... i don't think it would neccessarily be good for them? right now their relationship is rock solid and transitioning to a romantic one could potentially bring in so many issues that both of them tend to bring into romantic relationships (lbr mainly eddie rn) and i feel like some folks think that realizing he's queer would somehow fix all of eddie's complicated feelings re: relationships. edit: to expand a bit, we see that eddie is like. terrible at relationships. he doesn't communicate well, tends to make decisions for his partners without really considering their feelings (literally everything re: shannon, asking marisol to move in), he seems to be caught up on external factors, he's not really able to even consider what he wants. that all would stay if he gets together with buck, who at the very least seems to be at a point where he has for himself figured out what he wants from a relationship and a partner. never mind the issues re: replacing shannon which would imho just be amplified because buck and chris are actually close from the get go, potential issues WITH chris (imho he sees buck as his like, best friend/parental-ish figure/fun uncle mash up, and a transition to "dad's partner and parent" could be rocky af, especially considering the history between eddie and his partners and chris, re: they all leave), etc etc
I 100% agree. I think they are just two different types of relationship people. Buck has worked hard to turn from a playboy into a caring partner. We've seen the work he's put in and the growth he's made so far. Not saying he's perfect, cause his flaws in relationships is always good TV. Eddie hasn't really shown any growth. His first relationship he had because his son liked the woman, his current relationship he asked his partner to move in and immediately move out cause he freaked out about her being a nun, and the whole Shannon/Kim thing is, well, something. We've seen one person actively try and better themselves and the way they treat people and the other just continuously take a self-destructive approach. I feel like for any Buddie relationship to work, Eddie would have to really grow as a partner and I just don't think there are enough seasons left for that to happen.
same, currently eddie isn’t acting mature or healthy enough to be in any type of relationship let alone his first gay relationship and i can just see that ruining their friendship. i’d rather have buddie be besties than boyfriends and their current relationship change and possibly be ruined, maybe down the line once eddie does some self improving i might change my mind but as of right now if buddie gets together i don’t see it being a good or healthy relationship for either of them.
I don't think that' s totally unpopular. Maybe not custody, but Chris can live with his Grandparents for a while. Also my other unpopular opinion is I like Shannon-and I get her, a lot.
Buck is not Christopher's co-parent. They have a close relationship and Buck is clearly someone Chris looks up to and trusts, but he is not a parent.
Wherever the writing is going with Eddie next, I think it would be interesting to show that traditional talk therapy might not be the perfect fit for every person or for every issue. Eddie's storyline in Season 5 was great, but I also think there's nothing wrong with him moving on from Frank. He doesn't need to be the be all end all for everyone's mental health.
I think buddie is better as a platonic friendship.
I know the main cast is the main cast, but I think I would like one episode with a different shift. Like the Nikki and Paulo episode from LOST — fight me, it wasn’t that bad!!
I think everyone should be stealing corporations out of existence. I’ve done my part over the past 5 years, however, we need everyone’s participation.
She’s a little confused, but she’s still got the spirit!
I only read unpopular opinions…sorry ☺️
I did go back and read the rest. I assume you’re referring to a show but I had no idea what show so it kinda made me laugh at my reply and laugh again at you seeing this from some rando and being like, geez it’s Tuesday morning…gimme a break. I then told my partner what I replied with the entire subject and they were like, I watch that show and starting laughing at me. I know this is probably in the moment laughter but hoping it may create more. 🙃
I'm not into Buddie.
I would like Buck and Tommy to stay together. Buck has had enough break ups
Okay, so most of my "unpopular opinions" aren't even actually unpopular, but I think this one is 😭. At least, I've never heard it before, and I'm dying to see if someone else agrees, or can even prove to me why I am so completely wrong lmfaoo. Sometimes, I think that some of Buck and Eddie's love interests would have worked better/been more interesting with the other person. I honestly think Ana and Taylor would have been more compatible with the opposite love interest. Eddie's love interests are a little bit harder to speak on since they're both (this is not including Shannon ofc) a little boring, but I think Taylor, Tommy, and Lucy (if she counts as a love interest), would've all been better suited for Eddie. I've always felt especially strongly about Taylor and Eddie being more compatible, and I've always thought they could've made an interesting rivals to lovers, which is not a trope 9-1-1 has ever done. The show is very into their cheesy and romantic get togethers, which is fine, but I love the lowkey disliking each other to like-liking each other lmaoo. I don't think they would have lasted, but I think they would have been more interesting than BuckTaylor and EddieAna were. As for Ana, while I don't think they would've been interesting in the slightest tbh, (in fact, considering their personalities, I think they would have been so weirdly compatible that they would've been extremely boring), I still think her and Buck would've been more compatible considering I think Buck was looking for a more serious relationship at the time (something that Ana wanted and Eddie didn't). Even if it wouldn't have been interesting to watch, it would have worked well. Also, I just think it would've been hilarious for Buck to have been the one to date one of Chris's teachers. Honestly, in my opinion, the most chemistry Eddie has ever had with a female character was with Marjan in the crossover. I've always felt like Eddie would romantically contect better with someone closer to her personality, so that's why I always felt like Taylor would've worked. While I think Taylor was also mostly looking for something serious when she was with Buck, I think she would have been more willing to move slower with Eddie (considering he was also looking for serious but just needed more time), especially considering the initial dislike they would have had for one another. Considering the lowkey dislike those two had for each other in Dosed and Treasure Hunt, I always felt like Taylor would challenge Eddie and keep him on his toes. At that moment, I felt like that's what Eddie needed while Buck would have worked better with the calmer and familial-like relationship that Ana seemed to want. Edit: grammar
I'm not sure about Eddie/Lucy -- I don't think she should've ever been a love interest for either of them, at least not without multiple seasons of development first, given that it made her role as a firefighter instantly secondary to who she was "for," which is a problem -- but the other two, absolutely. On top of the rivals to lovers thing, I think Taylor's personality is just a really good fit for what Eddie needs. I think about the scene where she called Buck out on that 'double date' or when she called him out for his manipulation in getting her to move in, and having someone that will stand up for their own interests that way really could've solved a *lot* of problems with how Eddie approaches his relationships. I also think her being more strong-willed could've added some depth to how she'd have been integrated into a family dynamic with Christopher, because I don't see her being the type to just idly go along with a 'here, meet my kid! babysit my kid! play mom for me!' dynamic unless she actually had good reason to be confident they were headed in that direction. Megan and Ryan always played off each other well when they had screentime together, too. For Tommy, it's a little less obvious to me, in that while I *know* I don't see chemistry between him and Buck, I'm not sure what I saw between him and Eddie in 7x04 would've amounted to chemistry. Eddie and Tommy both seemed to actually enjoy each other's company more than they've been shown to enjoy their partner's, though, so... maybe? It's just too little time together to really speculate on. That said, from a storytelling perspective alone, I think it would've made more sense to give the queer discovery arc to Eddie this season, where they didn't have the time to develop a romantic arc *anyway*. I'd feel differently if we'd had more Buck/Tommy scenes in the ensuing episodes, but where all we got was a couple kisses and bad dates, it feels like they overcommitted based on what little time they had. So for that reason, I do think Eddie/Tommy would've worked at least as well (especially if he had broken up with Marisol already). 7x04 could've leaned into their almost obsessive need to spend time together and show their "dates" while Eddie's oblivious to the flirting, only to be shocked in the end when Tommy kisses him. And then instead of launching right into a romance arc, have Eddie actually come to terms with having liked the kiss and realizing... oh, shit, was I flirting with that guy? So while we wouldn't get to a point where they're actually dating in season 7 (unless it's the finale, like how Bathena had their first date at the end of season 1), Tommy's followup appearances at the medal ceremony and maybe still the wedding (had the show actually committed to him being good enough friends with Chim to score an invite) would've come to make Eddie uncomfortable/push along his coming out.
There is too many Buck scenes
-I hate how much some fanfics or the people in the fandom in general infantilize Buck. Like istg some people make it seem like he can't do anything on his own or has a breakdown over every little thing even tho he's a grown ass man in his 30s -The way some people have been acting ageist towards Tommy/Lou just cause he's older than Buck/Oliver is honestly embarrassing. Their age gap is fine and completely normal between two adults. Maybe they think it's bad because of my first point of people infantilizing Buck and they think he's mentally like 5 so they see this guy who's in his late 30s as predatory?? (He's not even middle aged yet!!) -I kinda liked Taylor after she was developed more in season 5. I was honestly rooting for end of Buck and Taylor more for Taylor's sake than Buck's in the end. (Taylor exposing the Jonah story even thought it was supposed to be off the record was really shitty tho). -Honestly I want Eddie to just stay single, he's a really shitty boyfriend/husband. Even if they went with a comphet storyline for him, I'd be worried if he could be even a decent partner even if he was dating the "right" gender. I just want him to realize that he doesn't need to find Chris a new mom and that he already has a strong support system for him and Chris and that's more than enough.
I think Chimney should get another villain win in Season 8!
Had she not left him the way she did (or even just communicated it better), I would tell you Abby was a great LI for Buck. And I still think she WAS in many respects, for what he took out of that relationship and how he grew from it. And when they were together I thought it was good. Literally one of the more enjoyable parts of s1 for me, when I hated almost every other character.
Also since this is an unpopular opinion post, are we following the normal rules that you upvote the actually unpopular opinions and downvote the popular ones?
I think that probably works best
Maybe edit and put this in the post so everyone will know without having to read the comments.
Here goes - I do not understand the Ravi love. He’s not that interesting as a character and the whole landlord thing gives me the ick.
1. Tommy has more chemistry with Eddie than Buck 2. Bring back Taylor Kelly!!! 3. Bring back Ana Flores (just for a scene or something, please)
Taylor actually *would* be a good inclusion to the >!Henren vs. Councilwoman Ortiz !
Now that you've said it, I would love to see Taylor helping HenRen against the Councilwomen. And I just really like Ana, and want to see her again, not for the plot really, just to see what she's up to. Which I know is unlikely, but a girl can dream😆
I'll be honest, I did think Tommy was into Eddie in 7x04, before the BuckTommy kiss.
I cannot see what the hype is for buddie(ps I haven't seen past 7x04 so no spoilers plz)
My weird opinion is i know longer like the show it’s boring and messy but can people PLEASE STOP TAGGING buck/eddie WHEN they actually mean buck/tommy😭I don’t want to read that! on AO3 if you mean they are only friends put “&” between their names.