TV review: 9.1.1 seriously awful show

I thought the American TV drama 9.1.1. on TV3 was going to be a gravelly insight into police, fire and paramedic first responders.

Admittedly I thought, okay this is probably a Californian show with Hollywood-style dramatics but I'll give it a whirl.

To give it its due, I was drawn in from the opening scenes in that I quite liked the actors. But sadly what came out of their mouths was basic and boring and simplistic in the extreme.

So who on earth are the writers?

They say in their publicity blurb that this series is a fast-paced exploration into the lives and careers of first responders, police officers, paramedics and firefighters.

I quote: "For these are the individuals who put their lives on the line every day to save others.''

The show's publicity says the programme draws from the real-life and high-pressure experiences of emergency response providers. What a huge overstatement.

Here was me thinking the show could have been a lesson on public safety for the masses.
But it was seriously awful.

From the set up, emergency situations to the dialogue between the actors was not only awful, their so-called urgent conversations were ridiculous.

I mean the primary school lingo they were using was an insult to the real emergency workers we admire.

This week a plane crashes into the sea and of course there is fire, mayhem and screaming.

But seeing the paramedics diving into rescue crafts and out to sea without life jackets was insane. There was a lot of pushing shoving and yelling - none of it rang true.

I thought maybe there would at least be an in-depth debrief after the emergency.
Instead there was one chap drowning his sorrows when two of his colleagues burst in on him, shoved him in the shower, telling him to at least weep for what he had seen.

And another first responder from that night who also hit the bottle and suddenly panicked when her elderly demented mum (who lives with her) had disappeared from her bed.

As a viewer I was wanting more on the few survivors, especially as one scenario was a boy and his mum.

It was all terrible. Bad production and pathetic scripting. Those poor actors up there in front of the cameras being made to look and sound like imbeciles.

Trashy writing. Huge waste of what could have been a good show.