There comes a moment in the inaugural season of many series where they feel the need to help reintroduce people to the world of the show. They expend one episode to let new watchers get their sea legs and decide if they want to go further with this journey or abandon ship. So it was that Sirens took some time to bring the latecomers into the fold, and it did a decent job of it.
Tonight’s edition doesn’t have much to it, really. It was framed by a lecture all the EMTs were giving to a large group of potential new recruits, with them all recounting a recent strange and eventful day. But as we’ve already established, it’s really about letting us see the broad strokes of the characters and their relationships with one another. The banter between Johnny and Hank (they have a fun discussion about which of First Ladies they’d like to bang), Stats and her Asperger’s, the weird world of Theresa and her moronic partner, and the rest of the team’s little peccadilloes.
They move from home base to going out on calls to help heart attack sufferers or a woman who thinks she’s having a stroke. But it all culminates in both teams responding to drive-by shooting and helping get a couple of victims to the hospital safely.
As with Rescue Me, the show goes to great lengths to be sure we see these people as heroes, providing an essential service that isn’t easy for the average citizen to do or imagine. They connect this idea to some broad physical comedy and hilarious arguments, like Johnny spending much of the episode trying to figure out who ate the majority of the expensive donuts he brought to the station. Still, they are shown doing their jobs wisely and well. For all the goofiness, these folks don’t stumble in the heat of the moment.
Not a bad way to spend a week with these characters and this show, and a nice palate cleanser as we gear up for next week’s season finale. Whether it bumps up the numbers of viewers for the 10th episode and helps bring Sirens back for a second season is the big mystery at this point. We’ll be waiting to report on the results as soon as we know them.
Robert Ham is a Portland-based freelance writer and regular contributor to Paste. You can follow him on Twitter.