Is This Love in Edgewater? Fire Country Has Gone Full Romantic Soap and Forgot the Fire

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I know what you’re thinking. And yes, I’m complaining about Fire Country again.

But at this point, it’s hard not to notice that the show is in the middle of a full-blown identity crisis.

Somewhere along the way, it stopped feeling like an action-packed family drama about firefighting and started resembling something much closer to a Hallmark romance.

And that’s not a knock on Hallmark; it’s a reflection of just how far the series has drifted from what made it work in the first place.

Ironically, Fire Country was always a soot-covered soap opera. It wasn’t so direct in being exactly that, dare I say, tricking a demographic of viewers who wouldn’t normally tune into a primetime soap.

The trickery lay in the balance and the subtlety, too.

It had the ruggedness of prison life and wildland firefighting, a dash of romance for those who love a love story, and a strong foundation in family and legacy that’s universally appealing.

We also had natural disasters, gasp-worthy emergencies, and our fair share of flames.

But now? The most heat we’re getting is from these random romances the series is suddenly dumping at our feet, and some of those aren’t even igniting the type of flames that spark interest.

Ever since Vince’s death, Fire Country has leaned heavily into relationship drama, drifting even further from its firefighting roots, which is a problem that was already beginning to surface beforehand.

Once we got into Gabby and Audrey’s love triangle drama, which was after Bode, Gabby, and Diego’s love triangle drama, the series was already pushing that particular element to its limits.

But what Fire Country always did was balance some of its soapier plot points with familial elements and exciting emergencies that kept our blood pumping.

Bode and the others’ biggest conflicts weren’t just about whether they were ready for love again or whether their current love interest was ideal for them.

Now, everything feels more watered down. Edgewater emergencies tend to take a backseat to relationship conflict. In fact, if you want some real action and excitement, you tune into Sheriff Country.

Fire Country already had an issue with shifting so far away from its original premise. We traded in a unique plot point about an inmate firefighting program for a relatively puzzling juvenile mentorship camp program with a bunch of teenagers.

And by “bunch,” I mean, namely, the same two characters who ever get attention.

But that was something viewers could work with, as long as we still had the action, firefighting, and adrenaline-inducing plots that had us watching in the first place.

However, Fire Country Season 4 has shifted so far from that, too.

Outside of the big Country Crossover and that one fire just in time for hiatus, there haven’t been any really exciting emergencies worth discussing, and most of them, you can barely remember.

What there has been is an endless attempt at poorly fleshed-out romances.

One of the most prominent examples of this shift in tone is Fire Country Season 4 Episode 14. The big emergency was a rodeo stampede that didn’t even result in any particularly interesting cases or injuries.

It mostly served as a backdrop to all the relationship entanglements. It was an hour almost entirely devoted to Bode and Jake being on dates, Eve third-wheeling, and Manny flirting terribly with his new love interest, Camille.

We’ve already discussed the terrible execution of this SEAL Team reunion or Band-Aid with Bode and Chloe.

It’s a romance that’s resting entirely on the fact that Alona Tal and Max Thieriot worked together once before, and fans of that old pairing are nostalgic. But on paper, everything about Bode and Chloe sucks.

It’s a dynamic that has resulted in so much tiresome tension and conflict, that it becoming the center of Fire Country has been one of many reasons the season has been a difficult watch.

Meanwhile, Jake’s relationship with Violet is so underbaked that, despite following along with every single installment of this series, it’s still a struggle even to recall her name on a good day. I had to look it up.

Jake’s romance isn’t a compelling story arc that deepens his character. It’s just something for them to do with him. They never actually give us enough reason or screen time to invest in or care about them.

If the rodeo episode was emblematic of how the series has lost its grip on exciting firefighting, Fire Country Season 4 Episode 16 was a reminder of just how much romance has overtaken the show.

The entire hour revolved around it. Bode and Chloe were navigating more elements of their relationship and the never-ending fallout from the Zabel Ridge fire. Jake and Violet are suddenly engaged.

Manny is still struggling to figure out how to be in a relationship with Camille, only for his ex-wife to show up, because everyone adores love triangles, right?!

When it’s all they’re doing with his character, and the series isn’t bothering to dive into some of the arcs that could be interesting: navigating life without Gabby, finding his place as a firefighter in this station, and discovering who he is outside of his past and failures, it’s uninspired.

Eve, most likely just feeling left out, rotates between a pull toward her ex, Francine, while simultaneously having chemistry with another first responder that most certainly will lead to something, of course.

But it isn’t allowing Eve to evolve or giving us anything new or interesting about her. It’s just hamstrings her.

Hell, even Eve’s Three Rock babies are radiating enough vibes to spark their own cult of slash shippers against all odds and canon potential.

And if it hasn’t been hard enough for viewers to recover from Vince’s tragic death, they’re already thrusting male suitors in Sharon’s path.

They soft-launched the idea that even if Sharon wasn’t interested in dating the guy flirting with her, she wasn’t opposed to dating someone she actually found attractive.

Now we have that on the table, too. After merely months of Fire Country not knowing how to explore Sharon’s grief, they’re just giving up and moving on.

Truthfully, I haven’t trusted Fire Country not to have Sharon grief-kissing Manny, Luke, or Brett, so there are worst-case scenarios the series could produce for more soapy drama.

What we don’t have is freaking fires out of our eyeballs, emergencies that leave us on the edge of our collective seats, and the version of Fire Country that had us tuning into the series in the first place.

So, yes, Fire Country has gone full soap. I can begrudgingly accept that, even if I’m side-eying this fresh, creative start that they claimed the absence of Vince and Gabriella would yield.

If they want to commit to the melodrama, fine. But can we at least have our fires back?

It’s like yelling into the void sometimes — so if you’re out there, holler back.
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