Station 19 vs. Chicago Fire: How do they compare?

Station 19 competed with Chicago Fire on Thursday, so how did ABC’s Shonda Rhimes firefighter show compare? Were the two alike? Here’s our breakdown.

Thursday night featured a head-to-head showdown between Chicago Fire and the premiere of the much anticipated Shondaland firefighter show Station 19.

Many TV fans pointed out that Station 19 sounded a lot like Chicago Fire, but were the two shows really anything alike? How did the new firefighter series on the block measure up to the action at Firehouse 51?

According to ABC, Station 19 follows a group of heroic firefighters from the Seattle Fire Department in the titular station, from the captain down the ranks to the newest recruit, in their personal and professional lives.

It’s the second spin-off series from ABC hit Grey’s Anatomy, and is produced by Shonda Rimes’ production company Shondaland (Grey’s, Scandal, How To Get Away with Murder, For The People) and ABC Studios.

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There’s one similarity, as Chicago Fire comes from another powerhouse producer in Dick Wolf, who built not one but two franchises on NBC and produces both with Universal Television, which is part of the NBCUniversal family.

But after that, the two shows pretty much diverge.

Fans of Chicago Fire are accustomed to a series where the personal lives of the members of Firehouse 51 provide a backdrop for the action-packed firefighting, rescue and paramedic response-focused episodes.

Each episode of Fire features several emergency response scenarios that are packed with highly realistic fire simulations, stunt work and, although often stretched a bit for dramatic purposes, generally accurate firefighting and medical response recreations. In short, Chicago Fire is an action series first and a relationship drama second.

The premiere of Station 19 offered up an opposite approach: a relationship-focused drama with the work setting as the backdrop. Shondaland productions are known for their dense and quickly-paced dialogue, often delivered at a heightened, and even somewhat over the top, emotional pitch with the main characters “inspirational thoughts” dialogue over the visuals.

Station 19 creator and showrunner Stacy McKee (a longtime Grey’s Anatomy writer and executive
producer) stayed true to this framework.

The first fifteen minutes of the premiere included rescuing a dog from a fire in the home of a woman who was cyberstalking her ex-boyfriend, arguments between the firefighters about how to respond to said somewhat mundane fire, and the disclosure of the fact that the main character
Andrea “Andy” Herrera (Jaina Lee Ortiz) is the daughter of the station captain.

Audiences quickly found out that Andy is “secretly” having a great deal of sex in the locker room with Station 19 second-in-command Lieutenant Jack Gibson (Grey Damon), who wants to marry her. Then there was the completely unnecessary, unrealistic and over-the-top way Andy rammed the fire engine into a police cruiser belonging to her ex-boyfriend Ryan Tanner (Alberto Frezza).

That’s a lot of personal drama in the opening act! And the overall plot of the episode stretched credibility in terms of how a firehouse would seriously function.

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Station 19‘s pivotal moment was Andy’s father and captain Pruitt Herrera (Miguel Sandoval) collapsing due to previously undisclosed stage two abdominal cancer, on the scene of a fire. Andy held Gibson responsible for this and angrily confronted him in the hospital hallway.

We were treated to a cameo by Dr. Meredith Grey (guest star Ellen Pompeo from Grey’s Anatomy), who stood guard by a supply closet so Andy could have an emotional breakdown accompanied by inspirational music. Andy then had drunken sex with ex-boyfriend Ryan to ease her troubled mind.

When Captain Herrera was forced to step down because of the incident, he promoted Andy to lieutenant—a position she hadn’t even previously applied or qualified for—and left charge of Station 19 to both her and Gibson.

Enter the Battallion Chief who pointed out that nepotism was the only reason Andy Herrera is being promoted, but did nothing to change it, and then decided to pit the two against each other for the next month with alternating shift “acting captain” status to determine who gets the final nod up to Captain. Everyone else at the station went along with this odd idea, and the premiere ended with an inspirational speech from Andy and a big celebration of sliding down the fire pole.

One area of common ground between Station 19 and Chicago Fire was providing plenty of action across two hours, but there’s a marked difference between Fire‘s emergencies and the rescues in the ABC show.

In one scene that you can watch above, Station 19 was called out to an overturned tanker. The resulting highly dangerous ethanol “blue fire” that developed, trapping two firefighters, had great potential—but the focus was placed on the other firefighters arguing about how to rescue their friends. The solution took far too long, even though it seemed evident from the start. The scene also relied heavily on obvious CGI effects that were distracting.

In contrast, the production team on Chicago Fire has obviously been staging big rescue scenes for more than 100 episodes now, and they’ve been able to create moments that feel much more real and tense. But that could be something that comes to Station 19 with time.

Another relatively small difference—but one important for the longevity of the show—was that while Chicago Fire has clearly defined the roles of all of its main characters and we know what to expect from them, things aren’t so clear on Station 19.

Beyond the identified lieutenants, all the characters seem to function interchangeably. Instead of paramedics, the medical response on scene is provided by “aid cars.” It appears these are staffed by some level of EMT-trained firefighter, based on the character of Travis Montgomery (Jay Hayden), but the character bio provided by ABC lists Travis just as a firefighter with no additional EMT classification.

The vague roles will become more firm as more episodes air and fans get used to seeing these characters, but that’s an easy differentiation that really should have been immediate, especially in a pilot where the entire goal is to define characters and their world. A little less time arguing and more time on character definition would have proved useful.

Chicago Fire fans know who does what and why, and we get to spend more time watching them do what they do best, rather than being uncertain about what they’re going to do or where they’re going.

So what’s the bottom line? These two shows may be about the same subject, but they’re really nothing alike.

Fans of Grey’s Anatomy and the Shondaland formula will gravitate to Station 19, as could One Chicago fans yearning for more shipping and melodrama. Fans of more serious, action-centered drama with a consistent attention to detail, accuracy and solid stunt work with real effects are undoubtedly going to remain tuned in to NBC on Thursday nights.

Next: What happened in last night's Chicago Fire event

Did you watch or DVR the Station 19 premiere? Tell us what your impressions were and how you think it compares to Chicago Fire in the comments below.