One of the best and funniest shows you NEVER saw on network TV this decade was The Job. Created by Peter Tolan and Denis Leary and co-starring Leary, The Job was unlike any cop show you had ever seen.
Essentially a comedy, The Job showcased Leary as an NYPD cop that while loyal to his job suffered from multiple demons including infidelity, alcoholism and weariness with the society that he has sworn to protect.
With Leary’s crackling dialogue and masterful delivery along with a standout cast of supporting actors, The Job was poorly marketed by ABC as a cop drama and scheduled at one of the worst time slots possible. As a result it only lasted two seasons, 2001-2002.
However, Leary and Tolan developed another series somewhat similar to The Job only it dealt much more seriously with New York firefighters dealing with the psychological aftereffects of 9/11. It was edgier, bolder, and much more graphic in terms of language, sexuality, substance abuse and the portrayal of firefighters as something less than heroic men but rather average human beings like you or anyone else.
They had already been burned, no punned intended, by network TV, so they took it to the FX cable channel. With the success of such graphic, adult shows like The Shield and Nip/Tuck; FX picked up their show Rescue Me and premiered it in 2004.
While that might seem like something you’ve seen, what made and has made Rescue Me so unique is that it focuses more on the personal lives of these men and women. You see the demons they live with, their imperfections and how it not just affects them but their families.
This review will deal with the recent release of all 13 episodes of Season Four. Unfortunately Season Five won’t premiere until March 2009 thanks to the writer’s strike.
While the show is an ensemble, Leary’s Tommy Gavin drives the show and really is the psyche through which we identify with. Much like The Shield’s Vic Mackey, Tommy is not your typical TV protagonist that is easily identifiable with. Full of self-loathing and mental deterioration, Tommy is a walking time bomb of rage that can be capable of heartbreaking kindness and vicious cruelty.
Tommy has an extremely addictive personality and has struggled with booze and pills as a means of dealing with the guilt and nightmares he suffers as a result of 9/11. The first season used 9/11 primarily as a root cause of his problems but as the show has evolved, the real reasons behind his demons (messy family life, emotionally emptiness, infidelity, repressed blue collar Irish/Catholic guilt) began to show.
Tommy is the archetype Leary character; quick-witted, stubbornly Irish, acid tongued, alcoholic, self-deprecating and angry at everything and everyone around him. It is because of Leary’s unique charisma and acting ability that you are able to not just sympathize but root for this tortured shell of a man who you see self-destructing in front of your face.
It’s as magnetic and dominant a character role as you’ll see outside of Jack Bauer, Tony Soprano and Vic Mackey. These men are inherently flawed, tortured and constantly in a state of pain or regret. Outside of Jack Bauer, none of the men are overtly heroic, sympathetic or admirable.
Tommy’s only salvation is his job and the men he serves with at station house 62 including the gambling addicted Chief Jerry Reilly (Jack McGee who also played a firefighter in Backdraft), the sensitive father of the house Kenny “Lou” Shea (John Scurti), the macho Franco Rivera (Daniel Sunjata), the dim-witted Sean Garrity (Steven Pasquale), and the Probie Mike Silletti (Mike Lombardi) who is constantly being harassed by the other firemen because of his Probationary Officer status.
Then you have Tommy’s real family who is one of the more screwed up but original families you’ll ever NOT want to meet. There is Tommy’s ex-wife Janet (Andrea Roth) and their children Colleen and Katy. Their son Connor was killed by a drunk driver in season two.
Tommy’s cop brother Johnny (Dean Winters) had an affair with Janet and was killed in the line of duty in season three. There’s also Tommy’s cantankerous father (Charles Durning), the screw-up Uncle Teddy (Lenny Clarke) and Tommy’s alcoholic, bitchy sister Maggie (Tatum O’Neal). Then you have Tommy’s cousin Jimmy Keefe (James McCaffrey) who died in 9/11 and periodically haunts Tommy in real-life.
Tommy, who needless to say doesn’t always think with the big head, compounds the guilt over his cousin’s death by having an on-again, off-again affair with his emotionally unstable widow Shelia (Callie Thorne).
One of the more original factors of the show features Tommy being haunted by survivors’ guilt in the form of people that have died in fires or accidents that he feels he could have saved. The show has pushed the Catholic guilt aspect into another dimension by even showing Tommy talking with Jesus and having sex with Mary. Clearly this is not for mass consumption.
Season four, while having its moments, isn’t in the same league as the first two seasons and even falls short of the disappointing third. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Season four picks up right where season three ended with Tommy about to die in a fire at Shelia’s beachfront house after telling her that he wasn’t going to retire from the FDNY. The truth was that Shelia drugged him then accidentally started the fire but she lies to him and tells him that he started the fire.
Tommy and Sheila are apparently rescued by firefighters, but are then accused of arson and insurance fraud. Janet has given birth to a baby and Tommy has come to accept it as his own. Unfortunately, the baby's hair finally comes in and it is "jet black" in color, leaving them to believe that it is Johnny's son.
Uncle Teddy is released from prison and immediately abandons his new wife in a coffee shop. Colleen runs away from home and moves in with her rocker boyfriend leaving her parents enraged. Depressed after being told that he can no longer serve in active duty due to his poor heart, Jerry commits suicide.
Janet is suffering from postpartum depression and is also deeply affected by her inability to bond with her new son. The baby cries constantly and his crying seems to worsen when Janet holds him. Getting wind of this, Sheila has approached Tommy about them giving her the baby and offers Tommy $850,000.00 in payment.
Seeing how his wife is suffering and how the baby is being neglected and seemingly rejected by everyone in the family but himself, Tommy seriously considers the offer.
Tommy soon decides to give the baby to Sheila after contemplating throwing him off into the Hudson River at the request of his brother's ghost. After Janet learns of what Tommy has done she beats him with a frying pan and runs him down with her car. She sends Katy up to Sheila's apartment and steals the baby back.
Tommy then shares custody with Sheila by bribing Colleen with a no limit credit card. Colleen gives the baby to him when she has him, so he can in turn give it to Sheila. Maggie Gavin and Sean Garrity’s marriage is a mess the whole season ending with Garrity pretending to be an alcoholic to spend time with Maggie and an eventual final split.
The Gavin family starts their own AA meetings due to the high amount of alcoholics in the family. These scenes are probably the best of the season as you find out just how screwed up this family is. Tommy's father refuses to attend the meetings but tells Tommy that he's going to be sober ironically by hanging out at a bar.
Then, of course, there are Tommy’s women who coincidentally are almost always hot. You get Nona (Jennifer Esposito) the hot volunteer firefighter who saved Tommy from the fire and starts pursuing Tommy aggressively.
The joke is that since Shelia drugged him with Viagara, one of the running jokes of season three, when Tommy was dragged out of the fire he was rock hard and this turned Nona on. Tommy has some “performance” issues early on as, amongst other lies Shelia told him, one was that he couldn’t get it up the night of the fire.
There is a somewhat humorous subplot of Tommy being prodded by the new Chief Feinberg (Jerry Adler) to take out his awkward daughter (Amy Sedaris being Amy Sedaris). There is also the running gag that the new Chief is supremely well endowed.
Tommy also gets to have Valerie (the insanely sexy Gina Gershon) who can't be touched after she orgasms during sex. I understand that this is Leary’s show but his sexual conquests are starting to stretch the imagination. But what the hell, I guess if I had my own show I’d probably want Jessica Biel, Charlize Theron and Scarlett Johansson to be my love interests.
A new firefighter also joins the house. His name is Bart (Larenz Tate), but insists on being called Sean. The crew decides to call him Black Sean to distinguish him from Sean Garrity but Black Sean is not happy with this.
Due to Lou and Franco negotiating to get him for their basketball team, he says he doesn't want to be referred to as Black Sean and he is virtually absolved of any probie work, which initially angers several of the crew including Tommy.
Lou has to deal with an oversexed ex-nun who can’t get enough while Franco continues to struggle in his relationship with Natalie and then has to deal with the reappearance of his daughter Keela who had been taken away from by Alicia (Susan Sarandon in a role that I still don’t get).
However, where the season takes, in my opinion, a serious wrong turn is showing Tommy going to fires in his dead cousin Jimmy’s uniform. Once is believable, but having this happen numerous times is hard to imagine without him getting exposed. This immediately spooks the crew out as they start seeing Jimmy’s ghost.
The extras are plentiful here in the form of 22 deleted scenes, a gag reel, a featurette featuring real life firefighters called Firehouse (Real Stories from America’s Bravest), two “minisodes” for Married With Children and Starsky and Hutch and a teaser promo for the upcoming final season of The Shield.
Also included are six additional featurettes (Walking Thru Fire: The Stories of Rescue Me Season Four, Welcome To The Set, This is Not a Drill: Breaking Down Episode Seven, Tools of the Trade, Captains and Burning Embers: Gavin’s Girls
The show seems to be one step away from jumping the shark which leads me to prey that season five’s 22 episodes will be the high note climax of the show. No offense to the greatness of Tolan and Leary, they set the bar for this show in the first two seasons, but it’s difficult to keep a show going at the same pitch for years on end.
Hopefully they will take a hint from the makers of The Shield and go out while they’re still on top. Bottom line, a mediocre Rescue Me is superior to 98% of the other crap on network and cable television.
Rescue Me – The Complete Fourth Season is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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