What’s your emergency?
Season 5 of action series 9-1-1 throws the first responders into personal and professional crisis.
9-1-1
Season 5 Wednesdays (from 8 June) M-Net (*101) 19:30
It’s all hands on deck as action series 9-1-1 returns for more non-stop drama – and they’ve thrown loadshedding in-to the mix! “We’ve taken the regular emergencies from the previous seasons and included them, combined with a whole new group of issues for our characters to deal with and overcome,” says Angela Bassett (Ramonda in Marvel’s Black Panther superhero movies). And her LAPD beat-cop character Athena is going to start the season with an unwelcome blast from the past when a dangerous criminal on trial escapes. “The ransomware computer virus theme was fabulous!” she says of the storyline that will then unfold. “Because it’s a real problem in the real world and as much as we hate to think that it could happen, it does. We just don’t read about it…”
VIRUS PROTECTION
Episode 1 starts with criminals infecting the Los Angeles Municipality computer servers with ransomware – a virus that breaks into a system, finds important personal info, which includes banking passwords and login details, and then threatens to release it if a ransom isn’t paid. “We’ve seen this in real life – there is a hacker group called Anonymous and they do something similar but not maliciously,” says Angela. “They break into government databases to expose criminal behaviour – so they do it for good.”
In 9-1-1 though, the criminals are putting their virus to bad use. One woman’s car navigation system directs her into the ocean (which she blindly does, not stopping to think that there’s maybe a problem and her GPS is wrong), and there’s a scare at an airport when the air traffic controllers lose their radar system and flight navigation info. “That is probably the scariest thought for me,” says Angela. “I fly a lot for work. When you stop and realise that your pilots rely on airport teams to plan your take off and your landing and that those systems can be compromised, then you realise that your life could be in the hands of bad people who want to see you hurt.”
LIGHTS OUT
The ransom gang holding LA hostage aren’t messing around – they have control of the city’s electrical grid and they cut power to one of the busiest places on Earth. “I don’t remember the last time that Los Angeles had problems with power. We’ve gone really green over the last decade and I have solar power at home,” says Angela. “But it’s a real-world problem. And when you don’t have power, it’s a massive issue. Everything we do needs some form of power supply. Imagine taking LA’s traffic system offline. Our rush-hour traffic is bad, where you sit for two hours if you get the wrong time. So now you take away traffic lights, even just the bumper bashings would be enough to shut down the city in the space of minutes.”
PERSONAL PANIC
But it’s not just the city experiencing blackouts this season – the characters will be having personal blackouts. Like new mom Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt, Riley in drama series The Client List), who is suffering post-partum depression. “It’s become so difficult for women to talk about this situation in their lives because the stigma is that we’re weak and it only happens to other women,” says Jennifer, who has three children with her husband Brian Hallisay (Maddie’s stalker ex-hubby Doug in 9-1-1). Maddie’s depression drives her to breakdown point and it’s tough to play explains the actress because “it’s different for every woman. It’s a unique condition and I’ve had fans tell me that seeing this personal ‘problem’ portrayed onscreen gave them the grounding to accept that they also had post-partum and that it’s okay, that it’s not the end of the world to not feel all that great all of the time. It’s okay.”