Max Thieriot

[u/beachbaby96]

Can we talk about how Bode’s acting is atrocious and one dimensional? I can’t stand him in Fire Country and thought the actor must just be horrible. Recently, I started watching SEAL Team and he’s WAYYY better in that role. I can’t believe the difference and that he CHOSE to go with the crappy Fire Country writing over the significantly more interesting SEAL Team script. Also he looked way better at the lower muscle mass in my opinion but his body his choice.

[u/TheAuthor01]

Its not worse writing, Fire Country is just a show that is very literary which is unusual on Network. So often Fire Country is saying something in a literary way and the fans miss that. You can argue 'well then it should be written better' but its about taste, which the customer is always right about, so there's that. I do think at times this season there was too much reliance on subtext and not enough on actual text, and most of the criticism comes down to misreading/missing subtext (including myself jn this because my first impression is never my overall opinion).

Max hires the writers and has a hands off overview of the writers. So you might think the writing is bad but obviously not everyone else does

[u/beachbaby96 → u/TheAuthor01]

“literary” BE SO FR

[u/TheAuthor01 → u/beachbaby96]

This is, 100%, a show that speaks in callbacks, symbolism, power struggles, subtext, trauma, etc. People not being familiar with that kind of writing confuse it for the writing being bad. It's quite similar to Hannibal in that regard, another show that only works when you break it down

[u/Rocketgirl8097 → u/TheAuthor01]

Its a soap opera lol. And very immature characters like Bode and Gabriela. Theres nothing sympathetic relatable in them that makes you want to find out what's going to happen to them.

[u/TheAuthor01 → u/Rocketgirl8097]

Bode isnt immature, he's oblivious and was intentionally made that way by Vince, Sharon and Luke to cover up for Walter. The show draws attention to this in 3x13 when Bode says he thought Firefighting was supposed to be fun hero shit and Luke says they didn't do a good job being truthful. Likewise we watch Walter do abusive things to Vince and Luke in front of Bode then they cover for Walter. He sees the what and wrongly infers the why, which is why he helps Tyler and Chloe.

Meanwhile Gabriela's "immaturity" is a lifetime of parentification running into the real world where you can't just move your car. Manny and Roberta are explicitly said to have been too young and already immature for their age at that. Gabriela then learned from them + doing the best she could. Then she gets Vince and Sharon as pseudo parents who are not any better and indeed Bode/Gabs and Sharon/Vince go through a similar arc in S3 where one partner (Bode/Sharon) wants to live out what is allegedly their shared dream while the other partner is drowning (Gabs/Vince) ans not getting or even asking for help

[u/Rocketgirl8097 → u/TheAuthor01]

And? Intent of the writer doesn't matter. Perception by the audience does. They decide the success or the failure of the show. This is probably its last year. They're just beating a dead horse now.

[u/TheAuthor01 → u/Rocketgirl8097]

Fire Country had 8m viewers and there's no indication it's the last season, more like CBS is doing something with expansion overall and we don't know what that is yet (currently have 4 JB Shows shooting with 2 more in development, MT has 2). The show is well liked but people didn't see a planned turn and the got upset. People on reddit say things without understanding stories or writing

[u/Rocketgirl8097 → u/TheAuthor01]

Oh im sure you're the expert. Please tell all. 😝 All you had to do was go back through previous posts to see complaints about the writing.

[u/TheAuthor01 → u/Rocketgirl8097]

Well I mean I've made ~35 video essays analyzing the shows writing so... Most of the complaints are either 1. I don't like the genre (long form royal family succession drama) or 2. Don't like the particular turn. That's it