‘9-1-1’ is TV’s most unhinged procedural — and that’s why it works

The first emergency in the most recent episode of “9-1-1” begins, as so many do, with a mystery. What calamity will summon the firefighters and medics of Station 118 to the scene? Will it be the new girlfriend at this tense family reunion, quietly choking on her potato salad as a round of tug-of-war distracts the other guests? Maybe the violently dislodged potato chunk will put out someone’s eye? A stroke, perhaps, during the increasingly intense game? No, no, nothing as humdrum as all that.