#bucks leg injury -> tsunami -> lawsuit -> rejoining the 118 was like 7 or 8 episodes

[harrowharkwife]

tbh i feel like we're all maybe forgetting that 6A was kind of destined to be a little bit boring or slow-paced from the get-go because of how 5B ended so *perfectly* with everything tied up in a neat little bow. i mean 5x18 was literally called "starting over," and this is a show that (for better or for worse, this specific post is not pro-911s-pacing or anti-911s-pacing but a secret third thing, confused-and-trying-to-make-sense-of 911s-pacing) routinely and consistently takes right around ~10 episodes to cash in on big narrative plot points. not situational or episode specific or more technical plot points, like madney going from unsuccessful house hunting to finding a place within 2 episodes, or buck agreeing to be a sperm donor inside of 1 episode- those are typically resolved pretty quickly, within an episode or two. the show scaffolds these more-quickly-resolved plot points together into larger, more character driven arcs that typically always take around ten episodes for the full emotional fallout and significance to play out. 911 has always been a show where what happens matters a hell of a lot less to the story than how the characters feel about what happens, so because this is such a character driven show, inside of those ten set-up, pawns-on-the-chessboard episodes, it can be pretty difficult at times to figure out what they're angling at, or where they're planning on going (buck! where the hell are you going!), or how any of the plots are going to coalesce into something useful, profound, and cohesive. typically, the B season ends with at least a *couple* of loose threads that carry over into the arc-resolution-conclusion phase in the following A season, giving us an A season that's like 70% setup for new arcs and 30% wrapup of old arcs- but 5B ended on a true blank slate, so almost *everything* in 6A (with the exception of the conclusion to hen's super-drawn-out-but-very-realistically-paced med school arc) has been... scaffolding from the ground up.

and scaffolding looks pretty unimpressive and odd and boring on its own, like a big pile of ugly junk getting in the way of everything, but put it alongside the Sistine chapel ceiling it was built to accomplish, and suddenly it seems a little more worthwhile.

#this is just some food for thought! I've felt that 6a was good but kinda boring at times #thinking about how much of a blank slate starting over gave us was rather illuminating #911 #911 meta #again! this is just me making sense of things it's not me trying to throw stones in any particular direction or make any kind of assertion #this is just my hunch #here's hoping 6B delivers and i have a feeling it will!!! #6A being 9 episodes really just feels like edging lmfao nyfxtnrnsbtd like cutting us off right when things are about to get crazy #which makes me think 6x10 is like. A Big Pivot Episode that couldn't hang on its own for 4 months with no followup #bucks leg injury -> tsunami -> lawsuit -> rejoining the 118 was like 7 or 8 episodes #eddies panic attacks -> ana breakup -> quitting the 118 -> therapy -> breakdown arc was like 11 or 12 eps #(also can we talk about how that arc started with him lying to buck about his mental health and ended with buck helping him with it) #there's more examples but im tired and need to go make dinner so. anyway #a 9 episode A-half coming on the heels of a wrapping-everything-up B finale #just kind of left them with. very minimal runway in which they could pull off any real satisfying conclusions to narrative arcs #while staying true to this 10-episode rhythm they seem to have settled on! #again: for better or for worse! like it or not this show is consistent in *how* it is written. when it comes to like. methodology