After a failed attempt at a drama/comedy show that involves cops, Denis Leary came up with the idea of a series about firefighters in the aftermath of 9/11. The success of it was pretty inevitable with so many American hearts still beating for the everyday heroes who gave or risked their lives that momentous day in New York.
Thankfully, "Rescue Me" stays away from mindless patriotism for the most part. Mind you, there are enough lofty speeches about 9/11 and its consequences but as the show moves on, it really turns to the individual lives of its characters instead of being overly political. The concept of the show is to give a "realistic" look at firefighters without selling them as immaculate heroes. In fact, they have more than their share of serious problems.
Season 1 begins relatively cold. All characters appear to be machos, bashing gays, each other and everyone around them. I'm not one who asks for political correctness in television shows, but one really starts to wonder after a while if some of the dialog and action isn't promoting some rather narrow-minded views. Especially, Leary who is also co-writing "Rescue Me" appears once again as the "angry, gun toading, meat eating" man, as he once said in his stand up-routine "No Cure For Cancer". His character, Tommy Gavin, walks around the city beating up everybody who insults him. He drinks, takes pills and commits all sorts of crimes. When he has problems he doesn't talk about them. When a relative dies he doesn't cry until the tears just burst out of him once and then that's that with his grief. Maybe that's only a stage persona, a part of his act, but one can't shake the feeling that Leary thinks there's a certain coolness and something very manly about this kind of behavior. At least he designed every guy in the show who isn't gay by that pattern. Sure, there are other more reasonable characters, too and the firefighters are not meant to be doing okay, but there's still a sense of manly honor in the way their actions are portrayed. Like they are trying to do the right thing but something always gets in their way and foils their plans.
Religion and supernatural things play a pretty important role in "Rescue Me". Tommy is often visited by the ghosts of his dead cousin Jimmy and some of the victims he couldn't save, as well as Jesus. It's never quite sure whether these visions are only in Tommy's head, representing the way he deals with his feelings of guilt or if there's more to that. In any case, those moments are often rather annoying and should have been cut out, especially Tommy's awkward conversations with Jesus.
On the plus side, the show is really entertaining and fun to watch. There are a lot of different story lines and something is happening all the time. By the second half of season 2 something tragic is occurring every ten minutes to a point where it's getting ridiculous. As soon as one character is almost happy that's taken away from him again. If life was really that bleak most people would commit suicide and you couldn't even blame them for it. The writers just tried to keep the audience interested but it's all too hurried, too shallow and just too much. If the show continues like that in season 3 it's going to be a travesty soon. So far, though, "Rescue Me" has been a diverting, old-fashioned drama series with funny moments and a good cast. Just don't expect anything too deep.
Thankfully, "Rescue Me" stays away from mindless patriotism for the most part. Mind you, there are enough lofty speeches about 9/11 and its consequences but as the show moves on, it really turns to the individual lives of its characters instead of being overly political. The concept of the show is to give a "realistic" look at firefighters without selling them as immaculate heroes. In fact, they have more than their share of serious problems.
Season 1 begins relatively cold. All characters appear to be machos, bashing gays, each other and everyone around them. I'm not one who asks for political correctness in television shows, but one really starts to wonder after a while if some of the dialog and action isn't promoting some rather narrow-minded views. Especially, Leary who is also co-writing "Rescue Me" appears once again as the "angry, gun toading, meat eating" man, as he once said in his stand up-routine "No Cure For Cancer". His character, Tommy Gavin, walks around the city beating up everybody who insults him. He drinks, takes pills and commits all sorts of crimes. When he has problems he doesn't talk about them. When a relative dies he doesn't cry until the tears just burst out of him once and then that's that with his grief. Maybe that's only a stage persona, a part of his act, but one can't shake the feeling that Leary thinks there's a certain coolness and something very manly about this kind of behavior. At least he designed every guy in the show who isn't gay by that pattern. Sure, there are other more reasonable characters, too and the firefighters are not meant to be doing okay, but there's still a sense of manly honor in the way their actions are portrayed. Like they are trying to do the right thing but something always gets in their way and foils their plans.
Religion and supernatural things play a pretty important role in "Rescue Me". Tommy is often visited by the ghosts of his dead cousin Jimmy and some of the victims he couldn't save, as well as Jesus. It's never quite sure whether these visions are only in Tommy's head, representing the way he deals with his feelings of guilt or if there's more to that. In any case, those moments are often rather annoying and should have been cut out, especially Tommy's awkward conversations with Jesus.
On the plus side, the show is really entertaining and fun to watch. There are a lot of different story lines and something is happening all the time. By the second half of season 2 something tragic is occurring every ten minutes to a point where it's getting ridiculous. As soon as one character is almost happy that's taken away from him again. If life was really that bleak most people would commit suicide and you couldn't even blame them for it. The writers just tried to keep the audience interested but it's all too hurried, too shallow and just too much. If the show continues like that in season 3 it's going to be a travesty soon. So far, though, "Rescue Me" has been a diverting, old-fashioned drama series with funny moments and a good cast. Just don't expect anything too deep.