Chicago Fire season 8: What to watch for in the new season

3) The firehouse’s future

Now that we’re on Chicago Fire season 8, some fans may be wondering how many more seasons the show has left in it (hopefully a lot). That also poses the question of how many more years that some of the characters have left in them.

Three of the main characters—Chief Wallace Boden (Eamonn Walker), Mouch (Christian Stolte), and Christopher Herrmann (David Eigenberg)—have either been thinking about their age or their overall future in the Chicago Fire Department in the last few seasons. One of last season’s most uncomfortable scenes was when Mouch felt slighted because of his age.

But he’s contemplated retirement, and Boden thought about stepping out of the field when he ran for Fire Commissioner, and Herrmann is still adjusting to an unexpected promotion. So was most of that just talk, or will anyone actually start to move toward hanging up their helmet?

It’s a tough question to answer, because obviously if someone retires, that means that character would also be off the show. And the series doesn’t need to lose any more cast members, with the likelihood of a death in the season premiere. But age has become a talking point recently, and that isn’t something that’s going to go away.

Plus, it’s important. So many TV shows focus on young, attractive characters in their 20’s or 30’s, but the One Chicago universe has been more representative than that, with several heroes in that older age group. These are questions they’d realistically face in their careers, and it’s important that we have that conversation, and represent them fairly. Boden, Mouch and Herrmann may be older, but they’re still more capable of kicking butt than most of us watching at home.

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