So, this is going to be a short review. I’m still in half disbelief and half in mourning. Season 8 of 9-1-1 decided to go full-on chaos mode from start to finish. It started with a “bee-nado”..the scene with Eddie and the bees chasing him was stupid. Why did they have to spray the perfume on him? Like…could you not spray it on a piece of cloth or something..anything that absorbs the perfume, then have him run with it to lead them into the tent..put the perfume infused clothing down so they would swarm the piece of clothing..instead of having the bees all over his body waiting for the dude to vacuum the bees off him? Then they did the unthinkable…they killed off Captain Nash. Yes, that patriarchy, the emotional anchor, the moral compass, the guy who somehow made trauma recovery bearable. They took him out with a virus in  E15, and honestly, I’m still not okay. How many shows survive the death (writing off) of the main character? That’s a bold strategy Cotton, lets see if it pays off for them.

The show’s vibe also took a turn for the worst. It seemed like they made more scene for scene and word for word real world memes than before. Yes some of them were educational but most of them were just cringy. 

I’m putting my tin-foil hat on here. I think what happened was mimicked in the storyline in S08. I think they needed to make a budget cut for the series, so they were writing off Eddie to go back to Texas to live with Christopher. But Cap stepped up and wouldn’t let them cut Eddie…then at that point the studio made the choice to cut Cap instead and cited “creative” differences while the actors kind of hinted that creative difference was not the reason for the death.

In short, 9-1-1 Season 8 took a bold swing by removing its central figure, but the aftermath left the show feeling unmoored. It’s a season that will be remembered for huge risks, but whether those risks paid off is still up for debate.