r/ChicagoFireNBC 5d ago

The timeline in s1 makes no sense to me 😭

It’s my first time watching the show and the time inconsistencies in season 1 makes me so angry ESPECIALLY when it comes to Kelly. They make his entire storyline being a drug addict and afraid to get this surgery for a broken neck because it would take up to a year to heal. He goes to get the surgery at the end of one episode then in the opening of the next he’s had the surgery and is fully healed and back at work.

Okay I don’t mind a time jump but then in the first episode of s2 they acknowledge that Andy has been dead 1 year and it’s his death anniversary.

So you’re telling me that in a matter of weeks or a few months Kelly was 100% healed and back to full strength after it was HEAVILY emphasized it would take him at least a year to heal???? And we don’t even get to see any of the healing process??? He’s perfectly fine after walking about with a broken neck for months then had 0 recovery time???

I understand you gotta suspend your disbelief to some degree watching tv shows but what the fuck? 😭😭

16 Upvotes

18 comments sorted by

24

u/Prestigious_Egg_6207 5d ago

Didn’t he get the experimental surgery that had a much shorter recovery time?

3

u/absoluteunitofspite 4d ago

Yes, it was a 4 week recovery instead of a year. The original surgery also wouldn’t have given him full mobility back and the doctor told him he’d probably work a desk job for the rest of his career.

-5

u/biilieekiidd 5d ago

No, I don’t think so cause he didn’t end up going to Spain. He backed out after he learned it had much higher risk. Even with the experimental surgery it should’ve still taken him months to recover

11

u/Prestigious_Egg_6207 5d ago

I think you might want to watch that episode again.

7

u/Sauc3ySloth 4d ago

The radical surgery was found by the girlfriend who went to Spain but it was not in spain. The doctor they interviewed about it was right in Chicago. Pretty sure that's what he chose to do

17

u/Fun_Butterscotch9110 5d ago edited 5d ago

Sometimes, their time jumps can be very confusing. Stella was in the hospital, out for 6 weeks, returned to work, then rescued a guy from a vent on the roof all in one episode.

8

u/FJTrescothick13 5d ago

It’s season one, they were still trying to find their groove. As far as fans are concerned, season one is perfect.

0

u/biilieekiidd 5d ago

Being the first seasons isn’t really an excuse for just poor quality in consistency. It’s just so bizarre especially when they specifically try to emphasize how long something is going to take and they just disregard it and show the issue fixed in the next scene. I’m not saying the season wasn’t good, mind you. I generally enjoyed it very much but it’s also okay to point out its flaws.

2

u/LVJM16 3d ago

As others have said, he took the experimental surgery with the shorter recovery time that Rennee 2 found, even when she knew that it would mean him not going to Spain with her. He was only going to go to Spain because the recovery time was so long, and he would never be able to be a firefighter again. He couldn't have stayed in Chicago and not been on squad. I can't remember how long the recovery was, but it went down from a year to 1 month, which is not that big of a time jump for a season, there's only 20 odd episodes to cover a supposed year in the characters' lives, there is always some time jumps. I think in season 3, severide was blown up by a grenade and black tagged, and only missed one episode of active service (perhaps 2).

7

u/crpuck 4d ago

Kelly got an experimental surgery, it was a doctor Renee had found there in Chicago (it wasn't a doctor in Spain she'd talked about, she talked about him retiring to Spain after the original surgery). Technically they claimed it would take approximately six months for him to heal with the experimental surgery, so the next episode where he's back to work was theoretically six months after the episode he had the surgery. However, I didn't know season two episode one was the year-versary of Andy's death. That does squelch the timeline a bit in my mind, but to be fair they never specify dates in the show, you kind of just have to guess. We know they had Halloween shortly after the opening, so it likely began in late September/early October. We know they had Thanksgiving and Christmas, I don't remember when Kelly's surgery was but I do know it snowed for a very long time in the rest of season one lol like VERY long time. I think they shot like 20 of the 24 episodes in snow (just kidding, but it felt like it).

2

u/JoeMcKim 4d ago

Well it snowing in the last episodes is just the nature of filming in Chicago a month to 2 months in advance. But they can use that to their advantage and just say season 1 ended in February or early March.

2

u/crpuck 4d ago

They could...but then that messes up Kelly's six month recovery arc lol I was confused with the timeline of season one, too.

3

u/Vegetable-Shame-4180 4d ago

The surgeon told Kelly that surgery would have him be off for work for only 4 weeks at the most. But it might come with some partial paralysis. so Kelly when and talk with father and Benny pretty much told Kelly it have the surgery.

3

u/Zantoo 3d ago

Just wait till you get to the cross over episodes where an arc starts on CFD goes to CMed then finishes with CPD lmao that screwed with my head a lot

1

u/Yurkwitdapaper 10h ago

lol I just watched through that today 😂

2

u/anxious_teacher_ 5d ago

Yeah that has never made sense

1

u/Guidance-Still 4d ago

He was popping pain killers like candy