Boris Kodjoe has signed on to recur on season 2 of Station 19, ABC’s firefighter spinoff of Grey’s Anatomy.
Kodjoe, last seen on CBS’ Code Black and Fox’s The Last Man on Earth, will play “a seasoned firefighter with a mysterious past,” according to Deadline. Kodjoe’s character will be making a sojourn back to the Seattle fire department after spending time away, and he’s bringing back a unique set of skills with him, as well as new outlooks and a new approach to his job, a plan that sets him at odds with some of his coworkers.
The fact that Kodjoe’s character has a new approach that differs from his colleagues doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to be a Batman-esque vigilante. But, if he’s at odds with his coworkers over how he’s doing his job, then this, of course, could provide drama, but would it provide realism? Probably not.
In full disclosure, my dad is an assistant fire chief and paramedic, having climbed the ranks from the “grey shirts” all the way to the higher echelon. I can tell you that even though I don’t know everything that happens on the job–there’s a ton of stuff he’s seen that he’ll probably never tell my family and me for its gory content–I do know that while there is a ton of unimaginable drama from all sides, it’s also somehow not as dramatic as television shows make the job out to be. It doesn’t work in the vein of the TV hardnosed officer who doesn’t play by the rules and still gets to keep his job; if you don’t abide by the protocol as a firefighter, expect repercussions.
Someone like Kodjoe’s mysterious character, for instance, could be a big problem in the real world; you can’t just be a renegade in firefighting, a paramilitary organization that follows rank and stringent safety protocol. But this is drama, right? I’m sure half of the stuff that happens on Grey’s couldn’t ever go down in real life, but it makes for good TV. We’ll see just how much of a renegade Kodjoe turns out to be once the second season starts.
Station 19, executive produced by Shonda Rhimes, Betsy Beers, and headed by showrunner Stacy McKee, will return to ABC this fall. Kodjoe is also set to play O.J. Simpson in the film Nicole and O.J., coming March 2019.