Chicago Fire: Season Three

Law & Order creator Dick Wolf's Chicago Fire is a sturdy drama centering on the men and women of a firehouse who face danger and death every day. These are the first responders to car wrecks, collapsed buildings, and other potentially fatal accidents, and an emergency medical team is part of their unit. Season two ended with an explosion during a warehouse fire with the crew still inside. This season picks up with the death of a team member in that conflagration and the reverberations are felt throughout the narrative arc, as the team seeks justice after discovering that the fire was an act of arson. The primary storylines here revolve around EMT Gabriela (Monica Raymund) becoming the first female firefighter on the squad; the tension (once again) between the truck crew and the rescue crew; and firefighter Matt Casey (Jesse Spencer) being recruited by the Chicago police to be their undercover operative in a nightclub run by a former fireman who is involved with the Russian mob and human trafficking. The show follows a familiar TV formula—part rescue thriller, part blue-collar ensemble drama—but does it well and has found a following. Compiling all 23 episodes from the 2014-15 third season, along with crossover episodes from Chicago P.D. and Law & Order: SVU, extras include behind-the-scenes featurettes. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)