Chicago Fire Fans Can’t Stand The Series’ OFI Storylines – Looper

One possible reason “Chicago Fire” viewers so strongly resist the idea of OFI stories or spin offs appears to be character-related. As it turns out, the de facto Firehouse 51 OFI point-person so far on the show is Taylor Kinney’s Rescue Truck 3 leader, Kelly Severide. A popular presence on the series since it debuted, Severide is someone fans expect to see charging into danger as the show’s alpha-dude hero, not lounging at a desk analyzing incident data on a laptop. Even worse for fans, Kinney recently stepped away from the show for personal reasons, with his absence explained by Severide being sent to Alabama for (uh oh) intensive training in arson investigation techniques.

In this respect, Redditor u/BrokenMineCart responded to the OFI question posted on the above thread to say, “I think it would end up being boring after a few episodes, fire investigation probably is interesting more because of severide than the fire itself.” User u/okay234576 felt the same way, referencing the OFI work of Severide’s father Benny (Treat Williams). “Yeah, ‘some’ of the cases like the one where Severide finished his dad’s work but otherwise most cases were dull,” they wrote. And for “Chicago Fire” fan u/lkjhggfd1, investigation plotlines are basically anathema to Kelly’s first-responder action-hero persona. “OFI made severide boring. I’d rather he stays far away from it,” they opined.