As a result, I have met Denis Leary briefly, deemed him extremely
good-looking and friendly, and therefore am somewhat biased. That
said, I believe there is a great deal of pure, unadulterated crap
on television right now – especially during the summer –
and Leary's second season of "Rescue Me" (Tuesday nights,
10:00 PM on FX) is a shimmering oasis in the gulag that is summer
programming. (Yes, I said "gulag." No, I'm not planning
an apology.)
"Rescue Me" made its debut last summer and delivered
a short, sweet 13-episode season that introduced us to a group
of New York City firefighters coping with the aftereffects of
September 11. For anyone who doubts that those aftereffects exist,
fuck you. I use that word because Denis Leary can't on FX, although
they can use "shit," "bullshit," "pussy,"
"tits," and "twat." This is only part of the
magic. Now, I don't get the HBO, but the general feeling of this
show has been compared to that of "The Sopranos" for
its grit, machismo, and its compelling storytelling. (Which I
wish didn't rhyme, because it takes away from the "compelling"
part.) There is a lot of cursing, but it comes about in situations
in which one might actually curse, so it's almost comforting to
hear someone use a well-placed "Christ on a cracker."
Besides the realistic language, the next best thing about the
show is the writing – the stories, the development, the
humor, and the characters. There are no stereotypical characters
on "Rescue Me." There are, however, very familiar guys.
They seem like guys you might know, except with made-for-TV good
looks. (Actually, I've met the cast. And they're gorgeous. Even
straight guys would swoon.) The point is that they're very real;
they're certainly not perfect, but they're beautifully flawed
and sympathetic. Tommy Gavin is the character played by Leary
and he's a vengeful, bitter alcoholic. The reason we root for
Tommy Gavin is because for as many problems as he has, he is desperate
to fix them. This season, to win back his wife, kids, job, basically
his life, he went back to AA and quit drinking. This is not the
first time in AA, but by the end of last season, he was left with
literally next to nothing and topped it off with a huge bottle
of liquor. He hides his problems by being a wiseass, fitting in
perfectly with the other wiseasses in his firehouse who have participated
in such activities as measuring their dicks (factoring in girth
and length), placing bets on Tommy's divorce, experimenting with
a magical oral sex move with the various women they date, and
generally testing each others' stupidity. These same guys are
now battling their own addictions and heartbreaks (among them
Vicodin, obsession after a breakup, and Alzheimer's), and are
also all hiding their struggles behind testosterone. Except for
Laura (Diane Farr), who joined the crew late last season as a
confident, headstrong transfer and is now starting to show her
cracks. (Literally – she just started hooking up with one
of the guys, a very bad thing to do in a firehouse.)
Then there is the 9/11 element. The show takes place and is filmed
entirely in New York, and there is no ignoring what happened here
nearly four years ago. This was the point. People, not just firefighters
and police, are still suffering from the trauma of that day. Many
rescue workers suffer from survivor's guilt, and the characters
in "Rescue Me" are not immune. They lost four men from
their house, one of whom was Tommy Gavin's cousin, Jimmy. (It
should be mentioned that Leary started the Firefighter Foundation
when his own cousin, Jerry Lucey, and a childhood friend, Lt.
Tommy Spencer, were among six firefighters who died in Worcester,
Mass. in December 1999. The Foundation later found its calling
in NYC after the 9/11 attacks and now operates out of both cities.)
Jimmy haunts Tommy, who can see not only him, but other victims
he couldn't save. It's not necessarily a supernatural element
to the plot as much as it is a testament to how one firefighter
will never really let go of what he couldn't grasp in the first
place. Tastefully, the show is able to use 9/11 as a backdrop,
not a ploy, to draw attention to coping rescue workers trying
desperately to move on without forgetting what they've learned
and lost.
Negative criticism for "Rescue Me" is hard to come
by. One firefighter I've spoken to about this says that when it
comes to firefighters disliking the show, that "99% of firefighters
do like the show, and about 1% don't." After viewing the
DVD for Season One, it is obvious that painstaking efforts are
made to preserve accuracy. As for the aforementioned machismo
and male chauvinism, all I can say is that boys will be boys.
This is how guys talk, at least these guys. I'm certainly not
offended, and though some of the women are questionable (I'm speaking
mostly of the random flings), women are represented as well as
they could be. Janet (Andrea Roth) is Tommy's estranged wife who
took the kids to Ohio unannounced and resents the relationship
he has with Jimmy's widow, Sheila (Callie Thorne, who may be remembered
as the yoga instructor in the original Stella shorts). Janet seems
to have fallen out of love with Tommy because of his drinking
and post-traumatic stress. She wants to move on and take her family
to a less mournful location. Sheila is desperate to hold onto
the memory of Jimmy, and she and Tommy connect because of it.
But there is a strict rule not to date widows, and Janet and the
crew feel betrayed by Tommy. Bottom line, no one on this show
is a saint, but we all know that such a person doesn't exist anyway.
So take your "Desperate Housewives" and shove it –
"Rescue Me" doesn't care if it pisses you off.
