Stream It Or Skip It: ‘9-1-1’ Season 7 on ABC, Where Bobby And Athena’s Cruise Turns ‘Poseidon Adventure’ Meets ‘Titanic’

Following a FOX cancelation, an ABC pickup, the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, and a 10-month hiatus, Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Tim Minear’s ambitious procedural drama 9-1-1 returns with its highly-anticipated Season 7. The series may be airing on a new network and a new weeknight, but it promises the same characters, charm, and compelling crises that fans know and love.

9-1-1 SEASON 7: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Bassett’s Athena Grant sits in a therapy session explaining her anxieties to a familiar face.

The Gist: When we last saw Bobby (Peter Krause) and Athena (Angela Bassett) in the Season 6 finale, they were walking onto a ship for an impromptu honeymoon cruise that they decided not to tell anyone about. The first three episodes of Season 7 show their dream vacation turn into a potentially deadly nightmare when armed pirates climb aboard the ship and threaten passengers’ safety. Back at the 118, Hen (Aisha Hinds), Chimney (Kenneth Choi), Buck (Oliver Stark), and Eddie (Ryan Guzman) hold down the fort while bride-to-be Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) navigates emergencies from the call center.

Our Take: What unfolds over the course of 9-1-1 Season 7’s first three episodes is described as The Poseidon Adventure meets Titanic meets…Bathena, of course. Longtime fans of the Fox-turned-ABC drama know that today’s other TV procedurals don’t execute disaster episodes quite like 9-1-1 does. Over the course of six seasons we’ve witnessed jaw-dropping depictions of an earthquake, a tsunami, a blackout, a train derailment, and more, but Season 7, Episode 1, “Abandon ‘Ships,” sets sail for what sounds like 9-1-1‘s most ambitious production to date. Heated water tanks, the largest rotating set (aka roll room) ever constructed — yes, bigger than the one used when filming Christopher Nolan’s Inception — and more savvy tools were used to achieve 9-1-1‘s big-budget homage to the “Master of Disaster” Irwin Allento. Though we’ve only scratched the surface of the cruise chaos to come at the end of Season 7’s premiere, promos tease a mini made-for-TV disaster movie with a massive scale.

In true 9-1-1 fashion, the premiere brings back several familiar faces, with Season 2 freeway flasher Lola (Romy Rosemont) and her husband Norman (Daniel Roebuck) returning as retirees living on the cruise ship. The episode marks trouble in paradise for Bobby and Athena in more ways than one, however, with both their physical safety and — in a twist — the safety of their marriage, in jeopardy. “I love my husband, and our life together is a whirlwind. But take away, take away the chaos, I’m not sure what’s left,” Athena says after some chilling introspection. “When it’s just the two of us, who are we?” (As a reminder, Krause and Bassett also serve as executive producers.)

While Captain Nash and Sergeant Grant-Nash are out on sea, however, it’s business as usual for members of the 118 back on land. Right out of the gate, Season 7 reminds viewers of 9-1-1‘s remarkable ability to juggle and intertwine multiple storylines, while striking a delicate balance between dramatic tragedies, comedic commotions, and fulfilling peeks into core characters’ personal lives. We get the thrill of epic, high-stakes adventures and the show’s signature brand of wacky emergencies that will get you giggling. In terms of character-driven storylines, Season 7’s premiere gives Christopher a more age-appropriate narrative, shows a more intimate connection between Buck and Eddie blossoming (not like that — yet!), and it puts Maddie and Chimney to the test ahead of a Madney wedding. Seven seasons and nearly 100 episodes (704 is the big one!) deep, 9-1-1 remains a genre-spanning success that continues to raise the bar for typical network TV procedurals.

Sex and Skin: Despite Bobby suggesting that he and Athena stay in their room for the duration of the cruise 👀 our main characters keep it PG in the Season 7 premiere. Everyone’s too busy stressing and saving lives to get hot and heavy, but someone is having sex this episode in a storyline you’ll have to see to believe.

Parting Shot: A nail-biting cliffhanger teases a whole lot of trouble ahead. The parting show shows a cruise ship intruder ordering passengers to stay calm so nobody gets hurt.

Sleeper Star: Everyone on 9-1-1 is a star, but the unexpected premiere standout was Christopher Diaz (Gavin McHugh). We’ve watched McHugh and Christopher grow up on this series, so to see him start dating and navigating complex emotions so soon after the show’s return makes us hopeful that deeper Christopher storylines lie ahead in Season 7.

Most Pilot-y Line: “I don’t just want a honeymoon phase, I want a honeymoon life.” No spoilers on who says the line or why, but the desire for lasting love and the fear of losing it is definitely a running theme in the Season 7 premiere.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Hard. With co-creator Tim Minear taking the reins as showrunner and ABC treating 9-1-1 like a first-season show, the series returns reinvigorated and raring to take fans on a wet and wild ride.