9-1-1 Season 1: 5 Things We’d Like to See

Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk are at it again. After two highly successful shows like Glee and American Horror Story, people were wondering if these creative dynamos could do it again. To be honest, there is a really good chance that 9-1-1 is that next successful venture.

With a highly charged series premiere, there are high hopes for a successful season. This show has the markings of a great primetime drama series. Hopefully, they can keep up the momentum.

Here are my 5 hopes for the rest of 9-1-1‘s introductory season.

1. Abby stepping into her own.

Abby Clark is a first responder, and the first character we meet.

It’s clear from the beginning that she has one side to her: selfless. She goes to work day in and day out to help those who are having emergencies of their own. Then she comes home and takes complete care of her mother.

I want to see her build upon Buck’s words to her, “You’re the real hero here,” and become the hero in her own life. She needs to become Abby the selfish and not stay Abby the selfless.

Abby deserves time to herself just as much as anyone, if not more. She should go out and date. It has been a year. Take time for Abby; let others handle the emergencies for a while.

Ultimately Abby needs to be Abby. She needs to realize that she can’t hide behind the dispatch or her mother forever. If she does, she might wake up one day and regret her life.

2. Buck to Buckley

Oh to be green and young. While there is much to be said about enjoying your life and making time for yourself, see last point, there must also be limitations to that.

Evan Buckley, or Buck, is proof of that.

While he is clearly enjoying his life, and not taking the stresses of his job too seriously, he needs to grow up. His actions are starting to really affect his job.

Sex at stop lights and foolishly running head first into emergencies are not the most redeemable qualities you want in a firefighter. Buck needs to “buck up” and take his job to heart a bit more.

After the premiere, I have high hopes of this happening.

In one short episode, we got to see the groundwork being laid for him to go from Buck to Buckley. He is realizing that his actions have consequences, and they aren’t all good.

I think that his relationship with Bobby Nash is really going to help steer him down the right path. As Bobby pointed out at the beginning of 9-1-1 Season 1 Episode 1, Buck looks to Bobby as a father figure. I just hope that the bond can go both ways for these characters.

More on that in the next point.

3. Is Bobby going to bend or break?

Bobby tells his struggles to a confessional, and the audience, early on. He talks about how it started with alcohol and soon moved into drugs, more specifically painkillers.

A decade, plus 18 months, later he is sober and strong. Or is he?

Bobby’s candidness about his struggles makes me believe, and hope, for a boiling point. He’s only been clean 18 months. While that seems like a long time, it really isn’t, and Bobby has the most stressful job imaginable.

Even more troubling is that Bobby has said he uses his job as a method to keep the addictions at bay. However, what happens when his job starts to play on his emotions?

I’m really curious to see just what is going to break him. Or will that trigger only bend him til he almost breaks? Either way I think Bobby is in for a bumpy ride this season.

My biggest hope for this situation is that Buck will see Bobby struggling and be inclined to help.

Bobby taught Buck some invaluable lessons during the premiere. It’ll be great to see the young man grow enough as a person to take those lessons and use them to help Bobby.

I really like Bobby, and I think he has much to offer all who work with him. So, here’s hoping that he will merely bend til he almost breaks instead of breaking entirely.

4. Athena, Goddess of War and Reason

Athena has already lived up to her name and then some. When the firefighters were only worried about the baby found in the pipes, Athena was worried about the mother.

Athena is a fierce protector. She will go to war for anyone.

Except herself.

This season I want to see Athena rear back her head and cry her battle cry for her own life. She is stuck in an impossible situation, one that she’s currently avoiding/shying away from.

She needs to listen to that voice in her head, the one I know is there, that tells her she is worth it.

Athena needs to prove to herself and her husband that she is a goddess, that she is strong and independent. Athena is number one to Athena.

It is my hope that Athena will find the courage to walk away from her current home life — not her children, but her unhappiness. She can’t stay with a man who can’t and doesn’t love her in the way she needs.

This doesn’t mean she has to abandon Michael completely, but she does need to focus on herself first and no one else.

5. Hen and Han

Like I mentioned in my 9-1-1 Season 1 Episode 1 review, I love that the show has a core set of characters, but doesn’t shy away from the side ones as well. In fact, it often feels like no one character is the most important because they are all equally so.

Henrietta, or Hen, and Han are prime examples of side characters that feel like main ones. There isn’t much known about these two LAFD members yet, but I’m hopeful for more to be revealed in subsequent episodes.

More specifically I hope that we get to see more of Han talking out his relationship woes with his coworkers. It’s already clear that he has a lot of heart and only wishes to be loved. Will he find love this season?

I also feel that Han has the potential to be there for both Buck and Bobby as they work through their struggles. Who knows maybe he will be the turning point character for both of them.

I also desire more information on the other badass woman character, Hen. She’s not only a woman paramedic, but also a person of color.

She knows the struggles of her patients because she has lived some of them. Hen clearly has a story to tell. Let’s just hope 9-1-1 shares it.

I want Hen to help Athena stand up for herself in her marriage. After all, these women already seem cordial with each other. Who’s to say Hen isn’t Athena’s best friend. Now that would be super cool.

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All in all this show has a very strong potential of being my top favorite show of 2018. I just hope it doesn’t crash and burn with no first responders there to save it.

What are your hopes for the first season of 9-1-1? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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9-1-1 airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on FOX.

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