One Chicago performer of the week: Jesse Spencer, Chicago Fire

Our One Chicago Performer of the Week for the week of February 27 is Chicago Fire star Jesse Spencer for his work in the episode The F Is For.

It’s time to name another One Chicago Performer of the Week, and the star who impressed us the most this past week was Chicago Fire star Jesse Spencer.

Following on the heels of co-star Taylor Kinney, who won our last Performer of the Week award before the Olympic hiatus, Jesse Spencer turned in an all-around great performance in Thursday’s Fire episode “The F Is For.”

He was asked to do a little bit of everything in the episode, and he did all of it well.

First of all, he gets bonus points just for having to be absolutely miserable at the start of the episode, when his character Matthew Casey is pulled from the river. We’re talking Chicago in the winter months, so that’s no small feat there.

More from One Chicago Center

But beyond that, “The F Is For” was a great episode for Casey. You could argue that he got even more character development than Severide, even though the whole selling point of the episode was whether or not Severide would survive.

Instead, Chicago Fire served up every form of Casey we’ve come to expect over six seasons.

There were adorable romantic moments between Casey and Gabriela Dawson (Monica Raymund) as he recovered.

Then there was super-protective Casey when he caught a photographer trying to snap pictures of Dawson in the shower.

There was always entertainingly awkward boss Casey, in a brief scene where he had to handle yet another weird Firehouse 51 request (no, Capp, you can’t request a holiday off almost half the year in advance!)

And most of all Jesse Spencer gave us Matthew Casey the hero, who would do anything possible to help someone in need—the Casey that helped to make us fans of Chicago Fire in the first place.

“The F Is For” showed us that Casey is a bonafide hero, willing to throw himself into traffic to save an injured man, even when that man is the same guy who tried to sneak a look at Casey’s wife. It also showed us, though, that Casey doesn’t think of himself as a hero. To him, he’s just doing his job, and at least in this case he’s even second-guessing it a bit.

Sometimes it feels like Casey gets underappreciated a bit, because he’s the straight-laced one who’s holding the place together while Severide gets the juicier storylines with all kinds of trouble in them. (When was the last time Chicago Fire had Casey make a boneheaded decision? Um, other than this, we have nothing.)

But like his character Jesse Spencer really does lead this show. He’s always reliable (that’s why we named him Performer of the Year for 2017), he can play everything from random comedy to deep drama, and he has the charm and charisma to make Casey always endearing no matter what he’s doing.

Watch One Chicago on fuboTV: Watch over 67 live sports and entertainment channels with a 7-day FREE trial!

This week’s episode let him play multiple things within the same 42 minutes, and gave us more of an appreciation not only for Casey, but how well Jesse plays him week after week. He’s definitely the Captain of One Chicago.

Next: Look back at this Chicago Fire episode

Congratulations to Chicago Fire‘s Jesse Spencer for being our Performer of the Week! Which One Chicago actor stood out to you this week? Let us know in the comments.

Chicago Fire airs Thursdays at 10/9c on NBC.

Home/Jesse Spencer