Season Nine of Chicago Fire was the first post-covid lockdown season. So, it is a shortened season (just 16 episodes) because they started filming later in the year, and was a bit uneven because they had to tie up some of the storylines from the last season (most notably Stella taking the Leuitenant exam) then transition to the new season's storylines. There was really no tidy send-off for Foster beyond what we saw at the end of Season Eight when she decided to re-enroll in school. We do find out that she is working in a covid ward, but that is it. Of course, that means we get new paramedic(s) on 61. So yes, there is more cast turnover this year. The show also is playing up the "will they, won't they" between Brett and Casey, teasing them getting together and throwing obstacles in the way. There is no big "One Chicago" crossover this year with all of the shows, probably because of wanting to limit covid exposure between the various cast and crews of each show, but there were instances where characters from PD and Med made short cameos in an episode or two.
Overall, the storylines this season were good, but as I said, a bit uneven. The show did not make the pandemic a focus (like Chicago Med does), but it is something that looms in the background. I did think the showrunners could not make up their mind with whom to cast as the new paramedic, which hurt the show a bit. I will not spoil anything for those who have not seen it, but I think the show could have handled that storyline and the characters better. Of course, there is a cliffhanger that leaves the fates of some of the cast members in a life-threatening situation as they fade to black, but this year it is not the entire cast in danger. The DVD set is just a MOD set, with no extras (but it does have English closed-captions), so unless you want the physical discs because you are maintaining a collection or just prefer discs to streaming, you do not get anything additional over streaming the episodes.
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