Fire Country Boss Teases What's Next After That Big Family Premiere Twist

[Warning: The following contains spoilers from the series premiere of Fire Country. Read at your own risk!]

On CBS' Fire Country, fire is both a second chance and a family business, as was revealed in the final moments of the first episode. Bode (Max Thieriot) is not just a convict trying to make up for his crimes by training as a firefighter, but he's doing it in his hometown, surrounded by his firefighter family and constant reminders of the death of his sister. His parents are basically the surrogate parents of all firefighters in town, and there's some major tension in this family due to Bode's involvement with his sister's death. No wonder he was furious to discover that he was heading back home. 

The story of Fire Country actually originated with Theiriot, who wanted to create a show inspired by his small Northern California hometown, where huge wildfires are basically part of everyday life. Thieriot has friends and relatives who are firefighters, and they work side by side with inmates as part of a real California program in which inmates live in "fire camps" and help stave off wildfires using various tools to take out vegetation and create spots that will stop the fire from spreading. They earn up to five dollars a day for this work, and more when they're actually fighting a fire alongside California firefighters. For showrunner Tia Napolitano, this story felt like something she had never seen on TV before. "The inmate angle is a real program in California that I had never seen fictionalized before, and it seemed like a fresh way of looking at firefighting," she tells TV Guide.

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The real-life program is not without its controversies. Until a new bill was signed in 2020, it was very difficult for people with criminal records to turn their prison careers into a real career as a firefighter, and the pay is miniscule for such difficult, dangerous work. Plus, California's reliance on inmate crews has caused problems during times when fewer people have been incarcerated, like during the pandemic. But on the other hand, and as far as Napolitano sees it, the program provides a second chance for people who might otherwise struggle to rejoin society after being released from prison. 

"We're very committed to exploring the reality of this program," Napolitano says. "I think the program is very ambitious, and is very much looking to help people carve a path to redemption, and that's really what we're looking to highlight. There are all kinds of resources to help with the transition out of the prison system, out of fire camp and back into the real world. There's actually now a path for incarcerated firefighters to become firefighters when they're released, and our show explores all of those steps and the red tape and all the reality." 

All that said, Fire Country is also a soap opera, and the first episode made that clear with struggling romances and mysterious tension between former friends, and the fact that Bode nearly threw a fit when he realized his bus was headed to his hometown, and his return was not exactly met with celebration. Below, Napolitano teases what's to come from the series as we begin to learn exactly what went down between Bode and his family. 

There's so much tension in this pilot. How much does that carry through the rest of the season? 
Tia Napolitano: There's a lot of familial tensions beginning especially surrounding the original wound of losing Riley. How did that family act after losing a significant member? The show quickly propels from the past into the present with our Sophie twist. We've got love triangles, we've got allegiances that sort of sway throughout, new bonds, new alliances, new forces to get up against throughout our first season.

There's clearly a lot of history we have to learn. Will there be flashbacks? 
Napolitano: We are not flashback heavy. Our show lives very much in the present, but we do let the audience in on some key pieces of flashback that make the state of relationships today make a lot more sense, and feel more raw and emotional and deep. I don't think we ever envisioned originally for our show to play around with time, but as we move forward, I felt like what made Bode leave was such a pivotal piece of where we pick up with him today. What we're telling you is a non-traditional homecoming story. So it begs the question, how did he get so far astray from home and from the person he was? We felt that the audience would be craving some answers. 

Most of the other firefighter shows on TV are set in big cities like Chicago and Seattle, but we haven't seen a lot of small-town firefighting. How does that affect the storytelling? 
Napolitano: Our show is so geographically specific, we really want to bring small town northern California, the culture that Max grew up in, to screen and that felt like something I had not seen before in a firefighting show. We're outside. We're dealing with wildfire. We're dealing with demons of man versus nature. CalFire is a full service department, so yes, they answer structure fire calls, but there's more of a variety, more of a buffet menu of types of fires to see. And we really want to bring this small town community to life on screen. Our firefighters and our incarcerated firefighters at fire camp are custodians of this community. They are heroes.

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How does romance play into the show? 
Napolitano: There are romances left and right. There are some co-workers who strike up romantic love triangles. All of our young people are finding romance with each other and with new characters, and at the center of our show, Vincent and Sharon are a very interesting rock solid marriage and what I think are couple goals. They have conflicts and they really hash it out and they hold each other very accountable and always find their way back to each other at the end of the day. And I think the warmth and closeness and love that this couple has for each other is just something that you're going to want to tune in for. They are a couple that you want to spend time with. You feel like you want to have a dinner date with them. They're just very warm and real and grounded.

Can you talk about what the show will look like on a weekly basis? Is there a fire of the week? 
Napolitano: There's definitely an incident of the week. And like I said, CallFire is a full-service department so it might be a water rescue, it might be a carbon monoxide leak or a simple medical call or a huge structure fire, but there will be an incident to tune in for every week. There will be action to tune in for every week and a healthy dose of soap, cliffhangers, relationship entanglements, deep family exploration will always be there for you as well every week.

What are you most excited for people to see? 
Napolitano: Oh my gosh. I think overall, putting a show out there with these wonderful themes of redemption and family is something I'm very proud of. And I think we're bringing characters into your homes who don't shy away from the hard stuff. They're constantly changing, or like to say that fire is change. It's something that just can disrupt your life and take everything from you in a second. And our characters are constantly evolving and rolling with the punches and hopefully becoming better making some mistakes, but overall, clawing their way to becoming a better version of themselves. And I just think that's very relatable and very exciting and comforting to share with our viewers.

Fire Country continues Fridays at 6/7 on CBS, with episodes available the next day on Paramount+.