Grid Effect

The only television I watched over the weekend (other than basketball, of course) were three rerun episodes of Rescue Me from the series’ innagural season. After watching said three episodes, I can categorically say that all rape/non-rape scenes aside, this show was much better in execution in its debut.

It had drama (Colleen getting into a potentially fatal car accident, Franco finding out he has a five year old daughter), comedy (”I told you not to spend that money so quickly, haven’t you ever seen Goodfellas?”) and several slowly unraveling plotlines. As opposed to this most recent season, in which the degree of tragedy that Tommy was burdened with (his son dies, his brother and ex-wife are sleeping together, said brother is gunned down, Lenny Clarke is in prison, chief has a heart attack, one of his best friends dies, the list goes on) bordered on comedic and unbelievable rather than nuanced and realistic. A lot of it just seemed akin to manufactured drama.

Which isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy what I watched, this was the first time I have rewatched the first season, and everything in season three was much more gripping after watching a few episodes from season one (Keela was introduced in those three episodes, seeing Connor get into trouble, Probie getting physically assaulted by a swingers couple, Lieu’s ongoing marital problems, chief’s homophobia, etc.). I am simply pointing out that everything seemed organic in the first season, whereas now it can occasionally come off as lacking authenticity.

Season three did have its moments, regardless of how few and far between they may have been. Dennis Leary’s bar scene (probably solely responsible for his emmy nomination), Charles Durden’s funeral scene and the homage to the Kennedy’s with the hearing impaired sister just to name a few.

But then there was the downside, the love square between Tommy, Janet, Johnny and Marisa Tomei (cannot remember her characters name, my apologies) and the never ending plethora of casual sex partners Tommy had. To contrast this with what I saw in the three episodes of the first season, Tommy was trying to sabotage his ex wife’s (Janet) relationship while hoping to unveil the name of the girl he had been sleeping with whom he met at a bar. Much better storytelling in the latter.

And what was the most underwhelming aspect of last season? The ending. That bullshit non-cliffhanger that left Tommy and Shiela in a burning beach house. We all know Tommy Gavin is not going to die, at the rate this series is going they’ll probably open up with him dreaming about his own funeral or something. Shiela, on the other hand, could quite possibly meet her maker. And if that means Tommy would be the surrogate father to her kid, then all the better. That kid is damn funny.

I am in no way, shape or form, ready to bail on this series. I understand several female viewers did after the infamous Tommy-Janet scene, and I can agree that the series at large has a, ummm, unique method of characterizing women on this series. As in virtually all of them are portrayed negatively (with the exception of Laura, Diane Farr’s character that left at the end of season two), so I can understand some of the backlash. But by and large the women on this series are peripheral characters, Susan Sarandon’s character was a plot device, much like the guy who attempted to rape Probie in the first season, I don’t think there is anything particularly misogynistic about that, its just that there is only so much available camera time and the show is ultimately about the firehouse. Regrettably, some misogyny should be expected within this environment but it doesn’t necessarily mean the series creators are chauvinists themselves.

Needless to say, season one was a great reminder of why I loved this series in its debut and was a nice precursor to get ready for the fourth season scheduled to start in June. Instead of going into it with pre-set notions about illicit, borderline incestual love affairs and an absurd amount of forced dramatics, I can hark back to a time when this series was as good as anything on basic cable.