5 reasons why Chief Grissom will be a terrible commissioner

5. The show wants him to be bad

Let’s get the most obvious strike against Carl Grissom out of the way first: he’s going to be a bad boss because that’s what Chicago Fire wants him to be.

The show has zero inclination to make him anything else. He was introduced this season as a foil for our heroes, and only got worse as the season went along. The writers aren’t suddenly going to change their tune and say he had an epiphany between seasons and now he’s a shining example of public administration.

That’s not how TV works. If Grissom suddenly became an upstanding character, there would be no tension and no drama for Chief Wallace Boden (Eamonn Walker) or any of the other characters as they interact with him. Having characters all get along is great in principle, but it’s much less fun to write. And if there’s one thing we know about Chicago Fire, it’s that the show loves drama.

It’s not going to spend a large portion of the season making Grissom into this thorn in Boden’s side and then waste the opportunity. Grissom is going to be a terrible Fire Commissioner because he’s been written as a terrible person, and there’s no reason to think that’s going to change in Chicago Fire season 7.