Grid Effect

Just a few quick words on a pretty ordinary Rescue Me. When I describe an episode of Rescue Me as “ordinary”, it’s generally intended to be a comedic episode that falls flat, making it ordinary in the sense that it’s too much like most television and not unique or interesting enough for us to really care about any of it.

For starters, I’m growing tired of Tommy always, no matter how small or large the dilemma/task, always outshining everyone around him. He gets in a fight with his old friend/chief, naturally he clobbers him. Him and his fire crew decide to wager on who can see up Needles’ wife’s dress first, we see both Franco and Kenny fail but he succeeds in spades. And the worst of all he gives his family a lecture at an intervention about the joys of drinking/alcoholism, and manages to convince his entire family short of Maggie, most of whom were practicing sobriety, to do a toast with him at Mikey’s bar.

The first of which we don’t have much of a problem with. Its been established that Tommy is something of a fighter and Needles always has looked a little frumpy (probably why we’ve never really bought the actor in the role). The challenge actually provided some good comedic moments, most notably in the deliberating the terms of the bet and the exchange afterwards, and as much as we hate seeing Tommy outsmart everyone else, at least they were able to work in a good laugh while he’s being given shit detail (we also got a reference to the season two development of him and Janet taking prozac, glad they haven’t forgotten about it).

But the lecture was a tad self-aggrandizing for Gavin, even for this series. I suppose they’re trying to say something about the penchant Gavin’s have for the bottle and the grip alcoholism has on those vulnerable to it, or man’s inability to change himself (there’s only about five other series’ we watch that do this and do it better), but it just came off so clumsily thrown together. I’d like to think that, especially for Mic –since he’s basically been the foundation for Gavin ever since he told the firehouse about him and Sheila back in the first season– it would take more than some bullshit soliloquy from Tommy to put him over the edge (though he’s had his moments).

We’ll see where they take the storyline tonight. Actually, all the Gavin’s sitting in a bar rotting from the inside out at 11am isn’t the worst case scenario for this show. To the contrary I think it involves any relationship Tommy might have with someone of the opposite sex. See below for the gist of every scene Tommy Gavin has with an actress on this show. Judging from the previews next week, it looks like that all the Sheila-Janet build-up comes to a head tonight. I hope my preset notions turn out wrong, but I, for one, am not looking forward to it.

Long overdue links post tomorrow.

A couple quick notes before we get to the recap: we have yet to watch Weeds but plan to on our lunch break and hopefully finish the recap of their latest installment before I leave work today. Also, we have a sibling getting hitched on Friday, so after two posts today and a links post tomorrow morning, we’re done for the week. Sorry, but family obligations take precedence, at least in this situation.

Not a terrible episode last week but certainly not their best effort. I have to wonder if Tolan and Leary think some of the stunts they pull are unpredictable, because there are a couple instances at work that anyone who regularly watches the series could unfold before they conclude(d), as a lot of what they do on this series seems foretold. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. On my new favorite series, Breaking Bad, they literally show you a  wordless clip from a scene that airs later in the episode. And it still manages to be quite effective.

To summarize, if anyone didn’t think Damien wasn’t going to be forced to clean up the “spic ‘n span” or that Tommy’s over-protectionism of Damien by way of Sheila wasn’t going to prove detrimental to everyone around him, then you probably shouldn’t leave the house without a helmet on. I wouldn’t mind so much but it seems like the writers want these moments to be the unexpected twists and turns of bringing in a new firefighter that’s already so close to the crew.

Either way, I like the additional presence in the house, and everything building up to them trashing the kitchen basically epitomized what people initially liked about the series: firehouse camaraderie. All of the main cast in the house simultaneously offering conjecture and opinion on the same topic. We so rarely see such scenes these days.

These scenes are few and far between these days.

What else happened in last week’s episode? Franco still fretting over his girlfriend’s sexuality. I’m still convinced she’s going to end up leaving him for a woman just to put him in an incredibly vulnerable state and will lead to him either getting knocked out in his next fight or it will motivate him to win whatever tournament there is. Either way, I’m kind of tired of how one-note this storyline has been. Again, it seems pretty obvious which direction it is heading in, so just hurry the fuck up with it.

Other notes from “Initiation”:

-Much like everyone, I loved Garrity’s explanation of his newfound perspective, something he had obviously given a lot of thought…which he caps off by lighting a cigarette.

-Steve Pasquale has a few good moments last week, another one being his final scene with his mom when she admitted she loved Terrance more than him after his false honesty. As much as I like Leary on this show, I think Pasquale is the best comedic actor, while Leary is the actual comedian.

-Speaking of camaraderie, Mikey’s finally coming into his own, first with knocking Tommy on his ass a few weeks ago, and last week with razzing Franco about his girlfriend in response to taking shit from everyone about his band. It wasn’t particularly articulate, but it was a spirited defense that pushed all the right buttons with Franco, who is oddly defensive anytime someone questions him.

-At least they’re now speeding up their sex scenes in semi-tributes to A Clockwork Orange, instead of giving us some drawn out encounter that always ends one of two ways: with Tommy being congratulated for a job well done or a punchline that falls flat. I appreciate the fast-forwarding, but can’t we just skip to them being finished and Jimmy forcing Tommy into a cuddling session?

Good episode, nothing spectacular and almost completely forgettable (is it obvious we haven’t watched this since last Tuesday and didn’t take any notes on it?). We’d like to see them get back to working with the cancer kids, but really we feel like 22 episodes is just too many for a Rescue Me season. Right now we’re waiting for it to end so we can quit writing about it, and the only reason we’re being so persistent is based on the strength of the first six or seven episodes. But it seems they’ve backed away from that weighty material and are delving into something only semi-related.

Weeds recap after lunch.

This was a pretty self-contained episode. Outside of Sean mistakenly believing that all would be forgiven if he admitted he’d been skimming from the top at the bar now that he’s recovered from cancer, I don’t see anything else really holding court for a few episodes. Also, Lieu is clearly about to get burned by Candy again and he seems completely unaware to consider the possibility.

At least I hope that’s not where it’s going. Lieu isn’t an idiot and he wouldn’t let that happen to himself twice. Once was enough to sit through. But the whole idea of “waiting” but doing every single imaginable domestic chore strikes me as a bit off for a former scam artist, and a little too ideal for what someone like Lieu would seek in a woman. Maybe I’m being too cynical about it, but considering this series’ track record with women, I don’t know if I see it ending positively. Who knows, this could be the one instance they allow someone in the house more than temporary joy.

The “is she or isn’t she” storyline with Carla could grow tiresome pretty fast, but for right now it’s providing some decent material. My guess is he’ll eventually confront her, she’ll admit to being bisexual, he’ll act at least mildly incensed by it and she’ll take it personally. When he finally asks her to forgive him which will probably be at her doorstep in the middle of the night, she’ll open the door a little wider to reveal a half-naked woman is also in the apartment. And then he’ll lose his next fight.

Maybe it won’t pan out exactly like that, but much like with Lieu’s thing, there are only so many ways you can make everyone in the firehouse resent the opposite sex, and this seems like one that would work on Franco, as he seems to pride his virility over everything else.

I like Damien in the firehouse, with Sheila constantly harping over Tommy to protect him, how long before he loses a limb? They could have Tommy learn something from Connor’s death, and he’ll be insistent about adequate protection (like some might argue he wasn’t with the bike helmet); but that wouldn’t incite Tommy to take a blow torch to his leg.

I did like the final scene last Tuesday, with the cancer kids and the trucks and whatnot. It was a nice follow-up to the final scene from the week before (linked above). Sure, it was a bit emotionally manipulative and predictable (insufferable cancer kids, I’m so conflicted!), but scenes like the one with Tommy and Lieu trying to provide encouragement for the Problem Child knock-off made it worthwhile. It’s also good to see a reminder that for as flawed as all of these people are, they usually strive to be decent. It’s evidenced in efforts like this one.

Other than that, I look forward to seeing how they handle the fallout from Sean stealing all that money, and still needing more on top of it. I am kind of confused as to why they’d be strapped for cash and not even realize it, I suppose that’s why Sean called them all morons; which was a nice flashback to Franco’s photographer girlfriend’s mentally-challenged brother calling Sean a retard.

Anyways, pretty mediocre installment. Unless something substantive happens from all the ongoing storylines that tie into Genevieve’s visit from the earlier episodes this season, we’re going to feel like it’s another season of seemingly random events strung together for the sake of selling products on a small cable network, and it does seem to be running out of steam. The good news is there’s only eight episodes left.

“Torch”, as in “what Tommy did to his left thigh”. Ahahaha, good one. But no, seriously, that’s the literal reasoning behind the title. Tommy took a blowtorch to his leg after his dead father told him flames were the only thing that could make him cry. Guess again, Pa, they only makes him want to bang Callie Thorne. The roughly ten minute scene in the back of the bar with Tommy and his dead relatives was one of the better usages of the narrative tool, but it feels like too little, too late.

Rescue Me seems to be back to its season three and four ways, less emphasis on plot and the supporting characters, more on Tommy’s heroism and the flaws that accompany it. They’re finally touching on Connor’s death again but again, I think too little, too late best summarizes this plot direction. Is the logic that he can only confront his past when he’s drinking? That’s buyable when talking about a brother he was on the outs with or a dad he thought he was an asshole, but his only son that he supposedly loved unconditionally, I just don’t see him, or anybody with a soul, being so…unaffected while sober.

His roommate seems to be going in the opposite direction but with the wrong navigator, and I’m afraid this is going to turn into another twisted plot that devastates Kenny. I mean, no one is allowed to be as happy in Rescue Me’s world, it hasn’t worked for anyone long term, and I don’t see them allowing Kenny this state of mind longer than a few more episodes.

In all, there were two moments in last week’s episode that redeemed it for me, and I’m willing to admit they were two of the better scenes they’ve done all series:

-The discovery of the little girl’s massacred body, and the pognancy it was done with, appropriately set the tone for the rest of the episode. Showing the fallout to everyone’s reaction from it (Tommy drinking and watching videos of Connor, Kenny opening up to Candi out of desperation, Franco using it to invoke anger in his boxing matches) was what vindicated “Torch” for us. I could have done without everyone staring at Tommy as he walked to the ambo with the girl in the blanket, and Needles providing the Lietenant Gordon like commentary as he walked away from the camera. But everything up until that point, showing the horror of the scene through everyone’s reaction without actually seeing it, made clear the gravity of the situation.

-The final scene in the pediatric cancer ward. One would think that for a group of men accustomed to dealing with child mortality they would be immune to such a scene, but despite their work hazards, it’s still a tough site to see. And this is why I think Tommy’s numbness would have run dry at some point, he’s the only one willing to go into the cancer ward and hang out with the kids without sulking in their misfortune. He does it for himself as much as he does it for them, but despite his composure you can tell he doesn’t go uneffected.

Without these two scenes (which probably totaled about 12 minutes in length, a little over a fourth of the episode), there wasn’t much to like about it. We got another song and dance bit from Stephen Pasquale, and just like we said last week, he’s obviously talented but it feels more and more out of place every time they force one into an episode, as it doesn’t have any place here. At least there was a subsequent attempt to make Teddy’s stint as a Kevorkian orderly relevant. But really, I could care less about this whole aspect of the show, which is a shame, because it started out so strong.

All in all, very little of it was good. But the part that was was actually great. There wasn’t anything to dislike about a quarter of it and very little to like about the other three. If the previews are any indication, this episode really laid the groundwork for a herculian comedic effort tomorrow night.

Back tomorrow morning with our nightly preview, and hopefully our Weeds recap sometime later in the day.

Just a few words before we get into the links. It is long overdue but we started watching the first season of Breaking Bad this past weekend, and I have to tell you, it’s every bit as good as advertised, if not better. Just like Hung and Weeds, Breaking Bad is about a middle (or in Nancy’s case, upper-middle) class parent forced into circumventing the state and breaking what some might call overly-litigious laws.

In the case of Walter White (played by Bryan Cranston), his background in chemistry and recent terminal cancer diagnosis have led him to the point that the only way he can make enough money to provide for his family for after he’s gone, is to produce and distribute crystal meth. He’s probably correct, but after the first few episodes I’ve seen (3), he definitely regrets the decision.

I don’t want to get into a dissertation about this show, but from what we’ve seen of this, Hung and Weeds, Breaking Bad is the best amongst them. It combines dark comedy and drama even better than Hung and manages to produce more laughs per minute than Weeds, which is the most comedy-centric of the three, or at least it strives to be. In short, we highly recommend renting or netflix-ing or purchasing the first season and DVR’ing the second when AMC replays it, if it suits you like it suits me.

Onto some links…

Since it is now fashionable to mock Entourage ever since that College Humor video (or really since the series premiered five years ago), here’s yet another comedy troop taking some pot shots at the HBO series. I don’t have any audio so I can’t really watch it, but I’m sure it’s hilarious. It’s so subversive to ridicule a series that no one seems to like.

AMC has put together three new promos for season three. And when they say “promos for season three” they actually mean “montages of seasons one and two”. I would say this was disappointing, but I still watched and enjoyed them. All of them except for the romance promo, which couldn’t have tried to turn the series into a tabloid headline any more than it did.

For all those who might care — and I know there’s a lot of you — Lost has added a new episode for their final season, bringing the grand total to eighteen. See, this is why I don’t think that series is structured nearly as tightly as all the fans and producers lead me to believe. I mean, I could just watch an episode on occasion and deduct that much, but when you’re actively adding new episodes before production of the final season, you can’t really claim David Simon levels of planning.

If I get drunk I might end up recording an episode...

Drea De Matteo, whom you may remember as Adriana La Cerva on The Sopranos, is joining the cast of Desperate Housewives. At least now fans have one justification for watching that show, assuming they’re attracted to women, that is. Otherwise I have no explanation for you. You’re making a trash prime time soap opera into a series that some manage to regard as not only commercially but also critically successful. So yeah, feel free to stop watching anytime now.

We suggested as much in our review of the pilot and last week in a links post, but it’s now official, between True Blood and Hung, HBO is experiencing a long overdue resurgence. By my estimation, these are the first two new series’ they’ve created since 2004 that has garnered any commercial appeal (sex and vampires will do that), but when you have names like Alexander Payne, Alan Ball, Dmitry Limpkin and Jane Adams attached to them you’re going to be on the receiving end of some critical praise as well. It’s not The Wire, Sopranos, Deadwood and Curb in its prime, but it’s enough to rival AMC as best original programming (and will surpass it come this fall).

FX has released their premiere dates, and the one we’re preoccupied with, obviously, is It’s Always Sunny, which is returning on September 17th. That’s three days short of a full ten months on hiatus after the fourth season finale, so we can either expect to see the best season yet (because it’s been carefully crafted) or the worst season yet (because they are running thin on ideas and had to settle on this final product). I can’t wait to have comedic sociopaths back on my television, it makes the week seem so much more tolerable.

In other FX news, Denis Leary is resisting the urge to create a Rescue Me movie. Upon hearing this my first reaction was, who the fuck wants to see that? My second reaction was, cling to that urge, Denis. I will say this, however, last nights episode was a drastic improvement over the week before.

I don’t buy this shit for a minute, but it is rumored that Simon Cowell could earn up to $144 million for next year’s American Idol season. Because you can’t just get anyone to criticize a bunch high school wannabes, you have to get one of those people who do the “I Love The ___” shows on VH1. Or you can pay Cowell nine figures. I can see the logic. I mean, I guess he brings in viewers, but I’m still stunned as to how. Just have Triumph come in and the guy will probably do it for about a 100th of that, and people will still watch, and whatever money you might lose from advertisers would be gained in not paying some blowhard $143 million more than he’s worth.

See, these are the types of things about Rescue Me that drive their fan bases crazy. On top of everything being predictable, it’s all rehashed material instead of new material developed from past dalliances. Someone dates a butch woman, Tommy struggles with alcoholism and is in denial/unapologetic about it, Tommy sleeps with Janet and Sheila, they get mad about it and Kenny hops back and forth between acting enlightened and acting like an idiot.

At least they poked fun at it with Kenny out-loudly realizing that he was going to lose his bet with Tommy, so they aren’t completely lacking in self-awareness. At the same time, however, they open the episode with Sean in a coma, and since it was so predictable that something would go wrong, they didn’t even bother offering a explanation. I’m certainly not a doctor, but I’m pretty sure that going into a coma after a surgical procedure to remove cancerous cells isn’t standard operating procedure, regardless of its commonality. “He’s in a coma, just shut the fuck up with your ‘reasons’ and deal with it“.

Also, how many times do we have to see the construct of Tommy reluctantly kneeling beside hospital bed to either appease his conscious or someone else? Has there been a pattern of any sort? Does anyone keep track of the seemingly random and meaningless happenings that exist within this show?It’s just another example of the lack of creativity this show will sometime exhibit.

What, no harmonious speech at the end from Tommy Gavin?

There were a few funny moments (Mike pretending to cry too gain sympathy from the nurse, he even had us fooled was pretty much the only one), but I feel like I’ve seen enough awkward encounters around a Gavin dinner table (that means any table that has Gavins at it) with no punchlines to suffice for a series, much less a season. There pretty much wasn’t anywhere for the scene with the Gavin’s and black Shawn to go, so they just let everyone make goofy faces and hide their contempt from Janet and their daughter who was back from boarding school (can’t remember her name. Katie, maybe?).

Anyhow, this episode is far too emblematic of the series. A bunch of broken/predictable/redundant plots that either go nowhere or end predictably. I don’t want to get into great detail because obviously I didn’t like the episode and to be perfectly candid, I feel like I’ve forgotten most of it. We will say that while we were impressed with Steve Pasquale’s musical number, but that isn’t what this show has ever been about, and giving us a look into white Shawn’s subconscious feels like a really forced attempt at giving him a chance to show off his theater experience.

And I had such high hopes for the season after the first six or seven episodes. It isn’t a complete lost cause, but with every episode that passes we feel like it’s delving into the worst aspects of seasons three and four (and we liked a good chunk of “Mickey“). Hopefully we’re wrong about the last nine weeks of this show.

Links tomorrow.

This was one of those episodes that kept us engaged for half of it and scratching our head for the other half. Actually, not even half of it was clicking, but the part of it that was more than compensated for the shortcomings. This episode was kind of all over the map, unlike the week before which had more of a central focus, and we’re pressed for time, so we’re going to resort to bullet points. Sorry.

• 

  The greats can always mask their dependence.

  Amazingly, the portion of the episode we were really enjoying was that involving Tommy and his drinking. He’s clearly deeper into the alcoholism than he would have led them to believe. Part of that is because no one wants to deal with him, but also because in all his years of heavy alcohol abuse, he’s manage to hone his craft and mask it from his surroundings, even when he’s ten deep into a bender. They capped this episode beautifully, with Tommy’s exit speech at AA, and subsequently with Tommy being unwittingly given a copy of Mickey Mantle’s famous speech regretting his history of alcohol abuse…and disregarding it. I imagine this is par for the course with alcoholics, everyone assumes they have it under control. But Tommy has always exhibited a little more self-awareness, it’s tantamount to how fargone he is.

• Get ready for another clumsy gender reversal storyline with Franco’s new love interest. Not only does she enjoy boxing, but she’s a mechanic! How butch! I’m sure Franco will feel emasculated by her at some point, and then will be forced into coming to terms with it. Can’t wait.

• Steve Pasquale continues to handle the weightier material for Sean quite well, which leads us to wonder why we had to wait through four seasons for it, but whatever. He’s also got some pipes on him. For singing, I mean. Perv. Anyhow, I’m not sure I understand the protectionism Needles is exhibiting. I mean, yeah, it’s a patriarchal thing with him being the new Chief, but it feels so remarkably forced just so there’s another recurring character on screen with Sean.

• Sheila is well on her way to turning back into the caricature she’s been ever since the start of season three, but for the time being at least she isn’t being disregarded as a complete and utter joke. No, they’re going to draw out the punchline for a few episodes. Janet has always been regarded as the serious character but her antics are just as tired as Sheila’s, and unlike with Sheila, we cringe just seeing her on screen, as opposed to waiting to hear what she says.

• Glad to have Lenny back, but don’t really care about him and we’re still wondering why they wrote him out of NYC in the first place, but I suppose it doesn’t matter. It was probably just a failed attempt at humor.

• We’re still not particularly enamored with Candy being back with Kenny, especially since I can’t imagine what she needs him so desperately for that she can’t find someone else. And that Kenny was obviously going to acquiesce (based on his numerous and miserable experiences with women in the Rescue Me world), so why draw it out for two episodes and devote so much time between the two of them sitting around and glaring at each other? We’re confident it will pick up tonight, but in what capacity I have no idea, nor am I particularly interested.

That’s pretty much the extent of the episode. Mike Lombardi and whoever plays Damien (if you consider him integral to the series, which I do) were the only characters with the week off. But like I said, there was a lot that wasn’t working and a little of it that was. But when the show is operating substantively and isn’t just recycling the same material with either the same or different characters, then the show packs a lot of punch. When it does recycle the same material over and over, as it has been known to do but has, for the most part, taken a break from in season five, we get Franco dating an unnuanced character like the boxing female mechanic.

Probably it for today. We’ll get to some links tomorrow.

There were three major plots at work in “Control”: Tommy’s drinking habits (as per usual), Sean’s mom and brother staying with him while he has cancer and the woman from season two who posed as the hooker with a heart of gold only to extort Lieu out of all his money. There weren’t any significant developments in any of them, but all had their purpose. “Control” was basically the spitting definition of a transitional episode.

With Tommy, he basically managed to convince everyone that he has his drinking under control. And everyone seems content to either believe him or pretend to believe him. Basically, all of this is going to catch up to him and he’s going to self-destruct. Why everyone thinks that watching Tommy have a single drink and leave, definitively means he isn’t just switching watering holes is beyond me. But that’s the world this show inhabits, despite being in New York City, where there is probably a bar for every four stores or restaurants.

Obviously it hasn’t seemed to stifle his relationship with anyone in the house yet. Even him and Mikey swore each other to secrecy (though I’m uncertain as to what Mikey was ashamed of. That he started coughing in a smoke filled basement with no ventilation? God, what a pussy. Anyhow, it’s just building to Tommy flying off the handle at some point.

Steve Pasquale, whose always been criminally under-used on this show, finally got some material with his seemingly unholy (though definitely clueless) mother and equally aloof brother. The moment toward the end of the episode, in which she revealed her own experience with cancer was probably one of the better…sincere moments with a female character since Chief Reilly’s wife got alzheimers.

And in the more surprising development of the night, the writer’s decided to bring back Candi (did she have another name? Danielle, maybe?), a decision which I’m still on the fence with. I kind of like the notion of them bringing back a relic from the past, especially one that isn’t relevant to Tommy Gavin in any way. Have they done that before? I guess ever so briefly with Kiela, but other than that, I think every other character has left all of their past storylines without growing from any of them. This gives Lieu a chance to actually confront probably his biggest regret.

A proud graduate of the University of Central Oklahoma.

I mean, the incident did drive him to argue with a homeless man over who’s a better suicide case. It makes sense that it should be brought back into the fray before the end of the series. But at the same time, was anyone really waiting for this? About six months ago I went back through and watched the first couple seasons (to remind myself what I enjoyed about the series in the first place), and to say this was a low point in the second season is an understatement.

She was obviously playing him and John Scurti, for as much as we tend to enjoy his work, didn’t really play the dimwitted middle-aged man all that well. The downtrodden, beaten old man? Definitely, and he was a high point in season three. But yeah, like I said, I’m on the fence about this one and will be for sometime.

Side notes:

-The development of Michael with Damien continues to be one of the finer points of this show, and now with the band thrown into the mix, we’re hoping they don’t make this entire plot into a way for Tommy to get one over on Mikey, like he so clearly wants too.

-We got our standard five minutes devoted to Franco’s boxing prospects. It was pretty much a rehash of everything that’s been said before about boxing and his views on 9/11, but thrown into an actual fight.

-Tommy and Shiela happened, which means the same thing it has meant for 90% of the time during the past two seasons.

All in all, not a real eventful episode. Which is fine, but it wasn’t a particularly illuminating or entertaining one, either. We’d give it a 5.5 out of 10, if giving grades was something we did around here. But as we’ve said many times before, we’re committed into seeing where season five takes us.

Links tomorrow, still on the lookout for Weeds.

And so the good will built up by the first nine episodes or so starts to dissipate.  This was still a good episode but reminiscent of their old parlor games. Specifically: Janet and Sheila throwing themselves at Tommy, each with different motivations but also carrying the same torch that the writer’s had to break their backs too light.

We’re giving this a pass, however. At least from Sheila’s perspective, because she was obviously manipulating Tommy more than she was clinging to him, and to be honest he seemed to prefer it that way, as evidenced by his dazed “are you using sex as a weapon?” and her nonchalant reply of “yes”. I suppose if they’re going to insist on carrying on with their relationship, at least they’ve managed to turn the tables somewhat. All that matter for Leary I’m sure is the episodes still include simulating sex scenes. Hey, not everyone can be David Duchovny.

Someone's moving up in the world.

Gavin was also on the receiving end of a little more comeuppance at the end of the episode, with Mike besting him in a fight. I’m still not entirely sure what they were fighting over, and it seemed Mike was being a tad harsh (though that might correlate with him feeling like shit for taking Damien into that house at the end of last week), but it spoke to a couple of points I’ve always wondered about: 1) I understand seniority in situations like this, but how much longer are the likes of the Sean’s, Mike and Franco (though to a much lesser extent) going to continue to take shit from this guy? And 2) Tommy seems to be the only guy in the house who hasn’t expressed any interest in making rank. He’s playing a character in his early-mid 40’s, how much longer does he think he’ll have the wherewithal to make heroic rescues like they demonstrate him doing every episode?

As evidenced by his confrontation with Mike, that day is coming quicker than he might want to admit, and the longer he insists on being a standard foot soldier (sorry, I’m not familiar with what the proper terminology would be), the less he is going to command the respect of his younger contemporaries. We’ve always said this show is The Sopranos but with fireman instead of mobsters, and I think we’re about half a season away from Tommy catching white Sean off-guard, then beating him for no reason at all before running into the shower to vomit discretely.

Other notes from “Thaw”:

-I like what they’re doing with the Needles character, but sorry, I just don’t think the guy playing him is a very good actor. Watching his tough guy act is cringe-worthy, and probably the reason no one is taking him seriously. Maybe that’s the point and he’s actually a really good actor, but I don’t think it’s intentional.

-Are they ever going to donate more than three minutes an episode to Franco’s boxing endeavors? Because from a comedy standpoint, it’s the best thing the series has going for it at the moment.

-Actually, even when limited to one scene, Michael J. Fox’s character steals the show. The lunge he made to grab-hold of Tommy’s genitals was one of those moments of physical comedy that you generally don’t see on television anymore. It reminded us of something out of The Hangover (funniest movie we’ve seen in a long, long time by the way, and we were expecting to hate it).

-I know these aren’t the most educated guys in the world nor are they portrayed to be, but assuming Mike explained the situation thoroughly, are we expected to suspend disbelief enough to believe that everyone in this house — with the exception of Kenny — thinks passing out with blood pouring out of your cock is a surefire sign of gonnorrhea.

Anyhow, it’s almost at a point where Tommy’s a sympathetic character again. Between the women in his life encouraging him to drink, being more comforted by the dead than the living, and now the one refuge he’s always had, the firehouse, starting to turn against him with Mike leveling him out;  his existence is starting to seem more and more hollow. In such a dispute, he might still have the guys siding with him, but it’s never going to come to fruition since both parties involved will fear the reaction of the house.

This, much like everything else will stay bottled up. And since it seems he has no one to turn too other than Kenny (who wouldn’t apologize for his part in their all-out brawl), he’ll probably end up back in AA before season’s end.

Probably it for today, unless we find somewhere to watch Weeds at lunch, but we should get to that before next week’s episode. If not then we’re not recapping this season.

Now that was a shift in pacing that we weren’t expecting. “Iceman” was probably one of the more Sopranos-esque episodes to date, which is saying something for a series that we always dubbed “The Sopranos with fireman instead of mobsters”. There wasn’t anything particularly impressive about it, in fact the production on it (what with the spotlights and everything else) was pretty low rent. It was basically “The Test Dream” of Rescue Me, done half as well but without the pop culture references and sporadic, open for interpretation scene jumping.

Co-star, director and writer for The Sopranos, also a former fireman.

But god damn it I couldn’t help but be entertained by what I saw. Tommy Gavin bearing his irredeemable soul to all the “demons leaping out of his skull”, as Kenny so charmingly put it. Usually I’d hate the blatant and self-absorbing Oscar bait, but Tommy’s been failed as much, if not more so than he fails himself. My one beef with the scene would be if that kid who walked into the bar was actually his son fifteen years from the day he was killed, wouldn’t the other ghosts have stuck around while Tommy was being robbed? And wouldn’t he have taken a different form of the kid who walked in to ask if they were still open? Being that his son is dead and all, that would seem to make sense.

“Icecman” was intentionally broken into two different episodes, the first obviously being Tommy closing down the bar and the second was everything that followed Kenny busting in on him shooting at a figment of his imagination. There was so little time left they touched on everything briefly, but Mike mentoring Damien was the predominant storyline of the episode that didn’t revolve around Tommy Gavin. And it managed to turn into one of our pet peeves of the series, though it seemed inadvertent.

If they hadn’t spent the past two seasons feeding Tommy’s (or Denis Leary’s or whoevers) ego, then it wouldn’t have been noticeable. But when the writer’s spend that amount of time (roughly half the episodes in the series) painting the character as some sort of demi-god of an alpha male, then they have him lecture his entire firehouse about the proper way to go through probie-school and for Mikey to put the kid in a life-threatening position, it seemed more about giving the character a chance to lorde his superiority over everyone than it did about adding any substance to the show.

At the same time, however, Mikey being easily coerced into doing something that’s completely and utterly thoughtless by someone handily smarter than him was completely in character. If Mikey had taken a hard line with Damien, we would have been wondering where the toughness came from. Either way, it was a damn site better than having Damien and Mikey hook up while they played the guitar together, which is where I thought it was heading since they’ve turned Mikey into a punching bag in seasons three and four.

Also of note from “Iceman”:

-The Franco boxing storyline offers enough promise, but is there a sport that the FDNY doesn’t have a league for? Hockey, basketball, and now Boxing? Can someone other than me fact check this? Do they have a jai-alai league as well?

-We appreciate how the series is attempting to be a little more subtle this season, like with Garrity insisting to stay late and finishing to count the money, letting us know that he’s still raising funds to keep his cancer a secret. Last season they would have put Garrity in some tenuous position then had everyone laught at him behind his back before they found out (a stark contrast to what we’re seeing here). As far as basic human decency is concerned, Garrity has always struck us as the best character in the house (Franco would have never taken in Keila if it wasn’t for him), so watching him be put through the ringer and unwilling to tell anyone is one of the more grueling subplots we’ve seen on the series.

-Speaking of subtle, I don’t think Kenny telling Tommy about his affair with Genevieve could have been done any better, considering how pathetic it was. Giving these two more scenes together was one of the better ideas the show has had. We get revelations like Kenny (and probably most everyone else) enjoying Tommy more when he drinks. It feels like this should have been revealed earlier in the series though.

With about an hour and fifteen minutes before tonight’s episode (entitled “Thaw”, by the way), it feels pertinent to state that, again, this season feels like it’s building to something but we can’t grasp what it is. This hasn’t happened in at least two seasons, but we’re actually interested in what happens to these people. I know it’s a radical idea, but putting an emphasis on making the series entertaining again has worked wonders for the product.

Back tomorrow with our nightly preview, it might come a little later in the day than expected.

We’re going to keep this pithy for a few reasons: 1) The episode wasn’t that good; 2) It didn’t delve into as many plot lines as it has been as of late, and 3) it was primarily a comedic episode, if you look at the length of our comedy recaps compared to our drama recaps, the former tends to be much more succinct than the latter.

Generally we like the humor in this show, but last week they went to an all too frequent well with the humor somehow resulting in Tommy Gavin demonstrating his sexual prowess. “Play” did this more creatively and with better back story than the series did the entire third and fourth seasons (the first half of three with Marisa Tomei and Jennifer Esposito was particularly daunting), but the well has been run dry by the laziness of the two seasons that preceded it. At least they countered it with Lieu’s conquest of Genevieve (who’s arc may or may not be done) with the assistance of Franco and at least partly at the expense of Tommy.

There were some fine comedic moments here, but for the most part we are tired of Janet. We were rooting for them at the dinner, but only because of the precarious predicament their daughter put them in and the awfulness of the characters they were sharing a table with. We understand they are both fairly unlikable, but if it’s between disdainful Tommy and Janet or six over-privileged upper-crust Manhattan dipshits, we’ll probably take the vile Gavin couple. Also, I’m not all that in tune with how women interact with each other, but I can’t imagine it’s customary for obese women to snip at thin women about body type. That’s just speculation though. There’s no way to really be sure.

We would probably be the first to say that we needed a break from the weighty material of the past four episodes, but it could have been executed a little better. At least we know Katie wasn’t killed by a drunk driver, other than that they made her so unsympathetic despite all the nonsense her parents have put her through in four seasons. It’s rare to make us hate a child who has lost her brother, two uncles and her grandparents, watched her dad have an affair with her aunt and her mom with her uncle, and was kidnapped from her dad by her mom; but they did just that. Congrats, Rescue Me.

Not much else to dissect here. Other than Needles actually following up and tightening the ship, and Garrity’s intricate detail to the state of his bowels (which was actually funny), there was just a dearth of material and if the series’ past is any indication, nothing will come of anything we saw last Tuesday.

Back tomorrow with some links.

Internet is running remarkably slow, and since we don’t have four hours to write a links post we’re starting off with our Rescue Me recap, which is going to be strenuous since we watched it half-comatose last Tuesday night. So anyways, we apologize in advance for the mail-job.

This was unequivocally the best episode of an already great season. Everything just improved on itself to give each storyline that much more strength. The best example of this was Sean’s cancer plot (which definitely took a backseat this week, because he’s Sean), which was a little vexing to open with the hallucination and the character using the word “acrid”. Last week, however, it really built a head of steam, with him overreacting to yet another frivolous firehouse argument and his attempts to hide his illness from his coworkers. They even added the Rescue Me finishing touch on it with a little humor (”Mental changes?…So this drug could, like, make me smarter?” and the feigning masturbation scene).

Does anyone even remember Marisa Tomei being on this series?

In a way we got back to the standard practice for the past couple of seasons with Tommy taking center stage. Based on our numerous complaints about season four (and to a lesser extent, season three) we were a little reluctant going into the episode, but they actually gave him some substance instead of a highlight reel of Dennis Leary in multiple sex positions with a slew of noteworthy actresses. It was actually interesting and poignant listening to the character reflect on everything that haunts him (literally and figuratively) in a meaningful way. All of the scenes with Genevieve on the tour that revolved around ground zero (with the adjacent couple on the restaurant, Tommy recalling that everyone in the city lamented the towers before 9/11 and Genevieve’s protestations to the meaning of 9/11 for the rest of the world) were indicative of why I think people started watching the series to begin with.

The revelation that Jimmy most likely died in the second tower and not the first seems to be remarkably burdensome for the prick, and is spilling over into every other facet of his life, most notably his rooming with Kenny and needling him about realizing his odds of dating/bedding Genevieve. That scene was a little too overwrought since it seems sprung out of nowhere (is it really just the closed quarters?) and was so goddamn intense, but it said a lot about the insecurities of both extremely flawed characters.

Some other notes from “Perspective”:

-The bar subplot just isn’t going to end well, we’ll see if they’re able to preserve it for comedic relief, but at this point I don’t think that’s possible. And if they’re going to have one of the proprietors stealing money from the register in order to pay for his cancer treatment that he doesn’t want to use his work insurance for, I wouldn’t want them too.

-We loved Needles’ dialog pertaining to how he got the promotion to lieutenant. I tend to agree with Franco in that he’s over-thinking the circumstances, but the fact remains that the death toll at ground zero did factor heavily into his promotion, and regardless of whether or not that is the case, the suspicion that his underlings don’t respect him as a result will cross his mind every time they’re insubordinate. Much like Tommy, Kenny and Sean, there own self-image/fears/idiosyncrasies caused them to lash out for basically no reason.

I don’t know why this took the better part of two seasons for us to get to this point (probably so they could have five to date), but it’s quite enjoyable. The main difference, as stated before, is some sort of dramatic conflict that isn’t focused on Tommy and his relationships or people being murdered/dying needlessly. Even Sean’s cancer plot is considerably lighter and/or attention-grabbing than anything in season four, if for no other reason than the cause of it can be traced back to 9/11, which like it or not, is the entire justification for getting this show on the air and still the focus when it’s at its best.

Back with some links later.

Man, I don’t know if I can make it through another seventeen episodes of this season. Its been a phenomenal early run, but everything is so overwrought and serious and…it is just exhausting to write about. Between Sheila wishing Tommy dead (sort of) and Sean discovering he has cancer from his work at Ground zero, I needed more than a drug-addled, alcoholic storming down some non-existent, traffic free NYC street.

I’ve always advocated giving Sean and Mikey and everyone else that’s dismissed as a walking punchline some actual material, because it got to a point where nothing those characters did could be funny anymore since they were perennially one step shy of just wearing a clown outfit and calling it a day. But I don’t know why we can’t pace ourselves with something a little less significant on the line. A good example might be, for instance, Sean wants to be a home owner, but doesn’t know if he should jump in with the market so cold; or maybe he wants to move back home. I don’t know, it seems like this series, as has been proven in the past, goes for the utter extreme scenario for its conflict and/or drama. It’s better than nothing, I suppose. Prior to this I think the biggest dilemma he’s ever faced is a bad run of girlfriends. It just seems like a necessary turn taken to an unnecessary degree.

So she's what, four feet tall?

On the other hand, I am enjoying the evolution of Sheila, something that probably should have taken place at least last season, if not season three. I mean, it’s one thing to wish that a person you know and are good acquaintances with (and then some) had died in a certain scenario instead of your husband. It’s an entirely different to actually say it. She, in a way simultaneously similar and disimilar to Sean, has always been treated as dismissible. But this is the first time we’ve ever heard Sean voice an opinion about anything since Franco was considering ditching Keeyla. For two episodes now (and one for Sean) Sheila’s actually addressed her issues and also seems to be turning into an actual person. As surprising as it may be considering we still watch the series, She’s been more akin to a comic strip in the New Yorker than a character on a gritty drama.

And the actress just killed all the scenes she was in. That final scene with Genevieve, though pretentious it inarguably was, was also an amazing bit of acting from Callie Thorne. We’ve complained numerous times about her not being given proper material for her caliber, that final monologue just typified our argument. Next time Tommy seeks her out for some sort of favor it will be interesting to see what the reaction will be.

Other notes:

-We’ve enjoyed the bar scenes up until now, but we hope there is some sort of reason for the subplot other than just a generic outlet for comedy.

-Damien going into firefighting reminds us of numerous story lines from The Sopranos, namely whether or not AJ would follow in his father’s footsteps and if Tony Blundetto would realign with his cousin. Just like in those subplots, there is going to be a lot of potential with Mikey (easily the dumbest member of Ladder 62) being paired off with Damien (the college kid who’s going to regret this life decision immensely).

-We need to end the relationship between Black Sean and Colleen. This is the one storyline they don’t even have to do gracefully, it’s easily the most awkward story in the show right now and we couldn’t care less about the consequences from it.

-The dream sequence was pretty harrowing for a dream sequence, but we couldn’t really decipher the point of it, other than everyone and their mother is recounting September 11th, and they’re all still feeling the effects from it.

Another strong effort from Tolan, Leary (who gracefully and fittingly put his character on the backburner this episode) and basically the entire cast. I even like Franco using his outrageous political views to garner interest from women. It’s a nice reference to all the people who grew up in the 60’s that claim any guy who went to any protest was doing so just to get laid. If even that aspect of the series is working for me, then it has to be doing something right. Just please, provide a little levity tonight. Thanks.

Probably links tomorrow.

You know, if Rescue Me and The Office continue to regularly churn out episodes where we have nothing to criticize, we might have to stop recapping them. Actually, I have a few nitpicks with this one, but overall this was their best episode since the second episode of season two, when Tommy found out Johnny and Janet were fucking and he went unhinged at his dad’s dinner party (unfortunately he never came back to earth for two seasons after that).

There have produced other noteworthy efforts (”Twilight”, for example), but for the most part they’ve been filled with sensational, uneven storylines that have had no bearing on what we’re watching now. This season, however, and the theme of everyone being forced to reflect on 9/11 is probably the best approach for the series to take, as evidenced by last week’s episode and the four episodes to date. As entertaining as it is to watch Tommy dangle a baby over the east river, it wasn’t really doing anything for us from a coherence or thematic standpoint, especially since it hasn’t even been mentioned again.

Reliving the glory days.

And it’s not just Tommy coping with his under-developed thought process about the event, it’s Kenny, Franco, Needles, Sean, Tommy and even Mike struggling with what will probably be the seminal moment in their lives, and how unlikely they ever are to fully recover. Kenny showed more emotion that any character I can recall in this series, but he’s always been more prone to wearing his heart on his sleeve than anyone else. And his blow-up at Tommy needling him was one of his finer moments (him playing a suicidal drunk was John Scurti at his finest, though). It touched on two different things: Tommy is remarkably self-absorbed and Kenny is remarkably more mature than everyone around him with Reilly now out of the equation. And to give you an idea of how devolved these guys are, Kenny isn’t exactly a Rhodes scholar.

But the growing chasm between Tommy and Kenny is going to really come to a head if Kenny ever discovers that Tommy and Genevieve were one mutual decision away from sleeping with each other. For the sake of everyone involved I hope Kenny never finds out about that, but based on the knowing glance between Genevieve and Tommy shortly before Kenny laced into Tommy, I get the impression it’s inevitable.

The psychic looked familiar but I couldn’t pinpoint the actress, but we liked the second scene with her a lot more than the first. Watching Tommy take out his skepticism with her practice in a cursing tirade in her office (Leary was at his best right here when his voice began to crack) then have it thrown back in his face was one of the better scenes from this episode that was loaded with quality moments, and it didn’t in any way feel like they were overdoing Tommy’s comeuppance between her and Kenny. Probably because they’ve spent the better part of four seasons lauding Tommy Gavin with infinite praise.

Other notes from “Jimmy”:

-We’re still on the fence about the bar subplot, but it seems to be their well for the humor quotient so we’re fine with it. Among other things in this episode it strains the proverbial band of credibility that they could get a bar up and operating within a few weeks of deciding to look for a place.

-We’re not really sure what Janet’s point is about wanting to split up their daughter and black Shawn. I mean, is her argument that no woman should ever marry a firefighter in NYC, under any circumstances? I understand the job requires a lot of a person, but ultimately it’s a noble profession and not everyone seems to cling to it like Tommy does.

-Loved Kenny’s apartment and the discussion they had about it when Tommy moved in.

-We like how the Sheila subplot finally took a turn and she it dawned on her that she’s been projecting for a number of years. I still don’t think their failing in regards to the character, but this was a step in the right direction.

-One thing I do not understand about Tommy watching the video and Mic thinking he’s hallucinating is why wouldn’t they just sit down and watch the footage together to ascertain if Tommy is hallucinating?

-My only other non-substantive complaint would be to ask where the hell Michael J. Fox is?

-I’m not going to lie, Kenny’s “I just did” after telling Tommy what’s what almost ruined the scene for me. It usually kills the effectiveness of something when you have to explain what it is you just explained. It also felt awkward, even more so than his rationale for not watching the 9/11 videos.

In short, the footage of Billy was just chilling. Knowing that within a half hour, the person we see in the video all but disappears, leaving nothing but a single finger behind was probably one of the more eerie things they’ve done on a reflexively morbid show, but it almost feels necessary since Tommy coping with Jimmy’s death and the aftermath of 9/11 is what made the first season so great and the second season better than most. We have no idea where they’re trying to take this, but at the very least we know it’s going somewhere, that’s more than we’ve been able to say about pretty much the entire fourth season.

Links tomorrow.

As enjoyable as Rescue Me has been this season, last week’s episode was the series at its most contrived in comedy (the pitch black bar, the masseuse) and drama (everything leading up to Probie and Franco’s reconciliation). It set up some great subplots and added to the more coherent season arc that they seem to be offering this year. That is to say, there’s an element of coherence at all.

I’m not usually one to complain about the humor on this show unless it’s directed at Sheila in an unoriginal way, but I didn’t quite understand what I was suppose to be laughing at for most of the comedy not involving Tommy and his daughter dating black Shawn. I mean, white Sean had an eccentric and unconventional massage therapist jump on his back and baited Franco into doing the same thing who ended up with a more aesthetically appealing masseuse. I guess it’s funny when you don’t think about how random and ultimately pointless it all is. In fact, the only way this isn’t pointless (if Garrity’s back pain isn’t benign), then it ends up resorting to the same cheap tactics we’ve seen the past two seasons (”How can we endear this storyline to the audience…I got it! We kill off whichever character we apply it too!”).

From a thematic standpoint, can’t they have the notable female cameo throw herself at a different fireman for a change. In the past two seasons Tommy has landed Marisa Tomei, Jennifer Esposito, up until the end of this episode he was with Gina Gershon (was her characters sole purpose on this show to give Tommy a place to live for a few months? )and now he’s turning down sex with Carina Lombard. This is amongst scores of other urecognizable attractive women, not to mention his regular affairs with Callie Thorne and Andrea Roth. Honestly, you would need to develop a flow chart to keep track of all the women he’s slept with (particularly in season’s three and four).

Man, she just looks terrible.

The Carina Lombard hookup seems to be the easiest to explain after Tommy’s 9/11 lament from a couple episodes ago. But still, Lieu was making a full-fledged effort to appeal to Genivieve, why not just hook him up with her so everything that this series’ detractors complain about don’t have a wealth of new material? It seems like it is almost done out of spite now, and since along with Peter Tolan, Leary has complete creative control of what happens he can dictate the terms and subject everyone to his onscreen dalliances. If you want to cheat on your wife but don’t have the will actually go through with it, just divorce her, give up a significant percentage of your wealth and roam free. At least then we won’t have to watch you living out your bizarre escapist fantasies on television.

But structurally, I’m not really understanding why Tommy Gavin would turn down a hookup with a woman he already knows has an open marriage so “not to screw things up”. Uh, it might be an open marriage but it’s still a marriage. France and the majority of western Europe is viewed as progressive, but not so much so that women are allowed multiple husbands (I suppose the reverse would be archaic).

There was still plenty to like about this episode, shades of the previous week’s speech-tastic installment, Feinberg’s (better known as Hesh from The Sopranos) soliloquy about religion was arguably the season’s finest moment in it’s least impressive episode. If this series wants to devolve (evolve?) into a show about the unexplainable nuances of human nature I probably would stop watching it, but that was a strong moment for the actor, the writers and the firehouses ongoing struggles with 9/11. In short, it’s great in small doses. If they can’t come to some sort of resolution with all the long-winded explanations from the characters Rescue Me will start to feel like a Lifetime movie.

Take, for instance, the dissatisfaction Probie takes with Franco’s conspiracy theories. While it was resolved brilliantly and how it should be at the end of the episode, seeing the two of them screaming at each other and getting into a shoving match over something they’ve clearly been carrying around for awhile seemed out of character. I mean, the 9/11 conspiracy theorists are a shell of their former selves. I know they have a journalist nosing around asking for their opinions now, but if there was ever to be a physical confrontation over something like this, it would have happened four years ago (about season three). Also, someone should tell Daniel Sunjata that you can be skeptical of what you read in newspapers and still not believe your own government murdered 3,000+ of its own citizens. It’s true, I read it in “Shades of Gray” monthly.

All in all, probably the worst episode of the early season but with a few redeeming moments that suggest a strong improvement over the next few weeks, most notably not wasting camera time on Valerie. I like Gina Gershon enough to not want to see her squandered like this, especially when it means taking camera time away from relevant plot points. But mostly there are just several moments to grow on here such as Lou bringing back his poetry, Franco hastily throwing his absurd politics in everyone’s face because he watched V For Vendetta the night before, Probie twisting in the wind trying to put his bar together and the utter chaos that is Tommy Gavin.

Back tomorrow with some links.