Grid Effect

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.