Chicago Fire's Herrmann is the Best Character on TV
So, I've just gotten done watching the season 2 premiere of NBC's Chicago Fire. It's a really good show, very high-stakes drama in terms of the people they are rescuing (even more so than House [in which Jesse Spencer also starred as Chase] since there are usually multiple people in trouble). The show also seems to me to be doing a good job with representation: one of the EMTs is a lesbian, and the fact isn't made into any type of joke or anything, and she deals with the very real issue of motherhood as an LGBT parent. There are also several actors of color in main or recurring roles in the show (Chief, Dawson and her brother, Peter Mills [bonus for mixed race I think]). And this season looks very promising with some character development for Mouch.
But maybe the best thing about the show is just one character, Christopher Herrmann. He is one of the Truck crew (the less prestigious of the two crews) and of middling rank. And yet, for me he is the heart and soul of Fire House 51, the one without whom it would all fall apart.
Several of the firefighters are concerned - perhaps overly so - with rank and moving up in the organization: from candidate to firefighter, from truck to squad. But not Herrmann. He never complains when younger people are promoted ahead of him, never seems dissatisfied to be "merely" truck. He just does what he's supposed to do, and does it well. Everyone can count on Herrmann.
And if you think about it, of all the characters he has the most reason to complain and become resentful for not rising in rank and, presumably, pay. He has several kids (I think 5 or 6, including the new baby his wife just had at the end of last season) to support, and moved in with his parents-in-law after his house was foreclosed. Extra cash would be welcome, to say the least. Yet he doesn't grumble about it; he just goes on about his duties.
The big family is because his wife (and I guess him to an extent) is a devout Catholic who doesn't believe in contraception. Even though it probably bothers him a bit, he never, EVER pressures her to compromise her beliefs. And the unplanned baby boy that adds strain to an already tight budget is welcomed whole-heartedly, immediately. Never once does Herrmann articulate any of the myriad problems or resentments many people would have in such a situation.
He really cares about his job and his firehouse family as well. He is the one who most frequently expresses frustration over bureaucratic crap messing with their operations, notably so in this premiere. He is outraged that a fellow firefighter doesn't get a respectful funeral, and then - in the most touching scene I have seen in any television show ever - orchestrates one for a young neighborhood boy with aspirations of being a firefighter who died in an accident. I can't even tell you how hard I cried at that part.
Herrmann just brings the house together. He's the main force driving their acquisition of the bar, Molly's, which, in addition to providing an income boost for his co-investors, creates a safe haven for the crew to relax after work hours. He recognizes the Chief's sadness and difficulty coping when no one else does, and invites him home for dinner with his family to cheer him up (adding yet another mouth to feed that day). In tonight's episode, when Mouch announces he's running for union president, Herrmann gives him a wide smile and says, "That's the best news I've heard all day!" boosting Mouch's confidence and drawing the house back together from literally the middle of an argument in support of one of their own. And last season, he honored Shae and Severide by naming them the godparents of his newest son, in appreciation for their role in saving the lives of both child and mother.
Some of you might be saying, This is what any good guy would do: help his friends, support his family cheerfully, express gratitude. And yeah, Herrmann is just an unabashedly good guy, like you hope to find down the street, in your own community (preferably in positions of leadership). But how often do you see that in television nowadays? The heroes are all flawed in some major way or possess some ridiculous talent/skill/quirk (super intelligence, deductive reasoning, eidetic memories, horrendous social skills) or else caught up in these unrealistic and even supernatural situations- heck, most of them on the shows that have been popular lately cause those situations and border on anti-hero status. But Herrmann is just your average Joe, a plain, decent hardworking guy. Part of why I love him so much is how rare that type of character is on TV, especially in a leading or lead supporting role.
He is genuinely happy for others and genuinely grateful for what he does have, which gives him a resilience and optimism I'd like a bit more of in my life. It is a major credit to actor David Eigenberg that I just smile the moment he appears on camera, and my chest gets all full of joy pretty much every time he speaks. He's my favorite character on television right now, bar none. So I certainly plan to continue watching Chicago Fire, and I hope many of you do as well, because we all need some Christopher Herrmann in our lives.
But maybe the best thing about the show is just one character, Christopher Herrmann. He is one of the Truck crew (the less prestigious of the two crews) and of middling rank. And yet, for me he is the heart and soul of Fire House 51, the one without whom it would all fall apart.
Several of the firefighters are concerned - perhaps overly so - with rank and moving up in the organization: from candidate to firefighter, from truck to squad. But not Herrmann. He never complains when younger people are promoted ahead of him, never seems dissatisfied to be "merely" truck. He just does what he's supposed to do, and does it well. Everyone can count on Herrmann.
And if you think about it, of all the characters he has the most reason to complain and become resentful for not rising in rank and, presumably, pay. He has several kids (I think 5 or 6, including the new baby his wife just had at the end of last season) to support, and moved in with his parents-in-law after his house was foreclosed. Extra cash would be welcome, to say the least. Yet he doesn't grumble about it; he just goes on about his duties.
The big family is because his wife (and I guess him to an extent) is a devout Catholic who doesn't believe in contraception. Even though it probably bothers him a bit, he never, EVER pressures her to compromise her beliefs. And the unplanned baby boy that adds strain to an already tight budget is welcomed whole-heartedly, immediately. Never once does Herrmann articulate any of the myriad problems or resentments many people would have in such a situation.
He really cares about his job and his firehouse family as well. He is the one who most frequently expresses frustration over bureaucratic crap messing with their operations, notably so in this premiere. He is outraged that a fellow firefighter doesn't get a respectful funeral, and then - in the most touching scene I have seen in any television show ever - orchestrates one for a young neighborhood boy with aspirations of being a firefighter who died in an accident. I can't even tell you how hard I cried at that part.
Herrmann just brings the house together. He's the main force driving their acquisition of the bar, Molly's, which, in addition to providing an income boost for his co-investors, creates a safe haven for the crew to relax after work hours. He recognizes the Chief's sadness and difficulty coping when no one else does, and invites him home for dinner with his family to cheer him up (adding yet another mouth to feed that day). In tonight's episode, when Mouch announces he's running for union president, Herrmann gives him a wide smile and says, "That's the best news I've heard all day!" boosting Mouch's confidence and drawing the house back together from literally the middle of an argument in support of one of their own. And last season, he honored Shae and Severide by naming them the godparents of his newest son, in appreciation for their role in saving the lives of both child and mother.
Some of you might be saying, This is what any good guy would do: help his friends, support his family cheerfully, express gratitude. And yeah, Herrmann is just an unabashedly good guy, like you hope to find down the street, in your own community (preferably in positions of leadership). But how often do you see that in television nowadays? The heroes are all flawed in some major way or possess some ridiculous talent/skill/quirk (super intelligence, deductive reasoning, eidetic memories, horrendous social skills) or else caught up in these unrealistic and even supernatural situations- heck, most of them on the shows that have been popular lately cause those situations and border on anti-hero status. But Herrmann is just your average Joe, a plain, decent hardworking guy. Part of why I love him so much is how rare that type of character is on TV, especially in a leading or lead supporting role.
He is genuinely happy for others and genuinely grateful for what he does have, which gives him a resilience and optimism I'd like a bit more of in my life. It is a major credit to actor David Eigenberg that I just smile the moment he appears on camera, and my chest gets all full of joy pretty much every time he speaks. He's my favorite character on television right now, bar none. So I certainly plan to continue watching Chicago Fire, and I hope many of you do as well, because we all need some Christopher Herrmann in our lives.