Commentary: Hooray for ‘9-1-1’s ‘Bee-nado’ and the Power of Network Procedures

Despite never having seen an episode of “9-1-1” before the Season 8 premiere, the

first-responder procedure shot to the top of my must-watch list after seeing the

“Bee-nado” commercials on TV. And online. And even on an unaffiliated streaming service. The three-part event concludes with the episode “Final Approach,” which debuts Thursday on ABC.

The season opener in September is the aptly titled “Buzzkill,” which opens with a pilot losing control of his small plane after flying into a giant swarm of bees. This puts him on the brink of colliding with a larger passenger plane.

The episode then reveals that a broken-down large truck released 22 million killer bees into L.A. when it crashed on the 4th Street Bridge. After arriving at the scene to assist those affected by the car crash, including a pair of passengers trapped in their bee-infested car, a firefighter looks up at the sky and says, “It’s a bee-nado.”

The exaggerated events cleverly channel the killer bee mania of the 1990s as well as the made-for-TV sci-fi disaster movies of yore, making “Bee-nado” both a little crazy and strange but comforting.

The plot gets wilder and wilder—in the most stereotypical L.A. way—as the episode progresses. Without giving anything away, “Buzzkill” uses Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee” as a memorable pin drop.

But there’s no need to recount the plot’s twists and turns to explain why the “Bee-nado” event highlights the unique power of broadcast network television.

Created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Tim Minear, “9-1-1” is an hourlong drama that follows the lives and emergencies of firefighters, police officers and 911 dispatchers. More than 100 episodes of the L.A.-set show have aired since its 2018 debut, meaning the core characters have been fleshed out over years of storytelling.

But “Buzzkill” is perfectly accessible to newcomers. Watching a swarm of killer bees cause a plane crash is easy to follow, whether you know the character’s name is Athena Grant or you know her as “the cop played by Angela Bassett.” That’s part of the reason the procedural format continues to thrive in an ever-changing television landscape. The success of shows like “Law & Order,” “CSI,” “Criminal Minds” and “NCIS” has spawned major spinoff series. Even “9-1-1” has its own spinoff.
Procedurals endure because the format is familiar, accessible, and addictive. Typically, these shows are episodic—meaning most episodes tell standalone stories rather than serving as chapters in a single narrative. This makes it easy for casual viewers, who may not watch every episode, to binge through the show. Meanwhile, loyal viewers get to enjoy episodic elements, like character development and relationships that develop over the course of each season.

The second episode of the trilogy, titled “When the Boeing Gets Tough,” has a few bees, but the central emergency is just as compelling and bizarre. After a plane’s captain is sucked out of a hole in the cockpit during a midair collision, the passengers must take care of each other with some remote emergency medical instructions. A temporary life-saving procedure that requires administering erectile dysfunction medication via nebulizer.

Shows like “9-1-1” are compelling because they can put characters in increasingly unlikely, if not impossible, situations—the kind that can leave a new fan hooked after eight seasons—while relying on friendship, romance, and other conventional storytelling tricks to keep attention amid the disasters. Plus, over-the-top emergencies like dam bursts, earthquakes, tsunamis, and a pirate attack on a cruise ship are, at least when told in procedural language, escapes from the more mundane horrors of everyday life.

With streaming services and premium cable networks dominating the “prestige” television market, prioritizing long-form narratives over compelling episode counts and seasons, shows like “9-1-1” are a welcome relief.

Hopefully the end of the “Bee-nado” event will bring some closure to the fate of the killer bee superswarm. Time for another disaster next week.