Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1531774
9-1-1: Lone Star is many things, but simple and subtle it is not. Taking place in Austin, Lone Star leans into the "Everything's Bigger in Texas" mantra: It's a big explosion, big-budget, big emotion kind of show. Everything in the Ryan Murphy universe is an artful spectacle and the 9-1-1 franchise serves up an over-the-top, crisis-filled TV world of good-looking first responders putting each other first. Think: A gorgeous train wreck you can't look away from. A firehouse, but make it elegant as if John Pawson designed it. A nuclear reactor meltdown, but make it leave you breathless and rolling your eyes at the same time. OK, copy that. Beautifully ridiculous disasters, coming right up. An Action Movie on a TV Schedule The story of 9-1-1: Lone Star, both on and off the screen, can be summed up as an exploration in contradictions; of taking things that seem to be at odds with one another and somehow making it all work. In the story, Rob Lowe plays firefighter Owen Strand, the lone survivor of his NYFD firehouse after 9/11 and is a kind of "lone star" survivor who is relocated to Austin, TX, to help rebuild a fire company whose crew had been wiped out in an explosion. A woke city boy in cowboy land, he assembles a team of first responders (Who are "lone stars" themselves, each standing out from the crowd thanks to their diverse backgrounds.) that learn to work together despite their differences and the chaos of their work. Behind the scenes of Lone Star was also a hardworking crew, working together to fight chaos. Specifically, the chaotic contradiction of trying to make an action movie on a TV schedule. As an hour-long drama, Lone Star had ambitions to deliver the feature-quality thrills audiences have come to expect from TV in the streaming era. With locked air dates on FOX, there simply wasn't enough time in post to build the disasters in VFX. As much as possible had to be practical. Lowe himself actually commented on this in People magazine (of all places) when discussing a train derailment set we built for the season five opener saying: "I mean, first, you just can't believe how big it is. I was taking pictures on the set, videos on the set, and sending that to everybody I know, but you just can't believe that this is not a $200 million movie—that's what it looks like. That we're able to do that and deliver it is like, as an actor and a producer, that's the thing I'm really really proud of. I put that up against anybody. It's impossible to A. ROB LOWE ON TRAIN WRECK SET. SET PHOTO BY CREW MEMBER SEAN CALVANO. B. BURNING TANKER SEQUENCE. TO SECURE THE PROPANE TANKER SET PIECE, THE CREW HAD TO PRECISELY DENT THE CONTAINERS WITH HEAVY MACHINERY TO CRADLE THE SET PIECE TO LOOK NATURAL. HIDDEN WITHIN THE DEBRIS ARE CUSTOM-WELDED BRACES SUPPORTING EACH TRAIN CAR AS WELL. PRODUCTION STILL. B