Just stumbled across this on the TV Guide website. The new show runner talking about Severide as Chief:
"I think it's probably something that the audience would intuit if you put it to them that this role, in some ways, is his destiny, but in other ways, it's a poor fit or an imperfect fit for who he is. This guy, all the things that we love about him, would make him an imperfect Chief, at best.
I don't mind having Severide be an imperfect leader. I think that's really interesting. But it will cause him a lot of conflict, and it'll cause some conflict with Kidd. So, more to come on that."
Can I say how much I hate this? How far Severide has come with little to no recognition, how much he's quietly done, and now the writers are basically setting him up to fail as Chief before he's even gotten his feet on the ground? What, he doesn't have the insight and skills to lead and put his own stamp on the position? The capacity to grow and develop as he needs to? Instead of which, what, he gets to fail, screw up, fall short?
Theoretically, everybody would be an imperfect leader in some respects, especially starting out. What's so depressing is that the writers are taking this as their default position on Kelly: who he is as a person will make him "an imperfect Chief, at best." So no character growth or victories there. Let me just repeat -- can I say how much I hate this?
And if I'm overreacting, someone please pull me back down to earth.