Rescue Me: Tommy is actually falling in love, I think
The beginning of this show had a different feel. Black Sean was trying to save a jumper. He told the guys that he once saved his brother from jumping. He talks to the man but he cannot stop him from taking that fatal leap. He later tells Tommy that his brother kept trying until he did finally kill himself. Sean starts drinking, crying and keeps thinking he sees jumpers on the bridge. He tells Tommy that the reason he has so many problems with Colleen is because of what a crappy father he was drinking and cheating all the time. I’m not sure what happen but the next thing I see, Tommy is hugging him and Sean is telling him that he loves him. It was bromancetastic!
Later in the show, Tommy was very persistant with Miora Kelly’s character. She keeps pushing him away. She doesn’t want a boyfriend, just a boy toy, Damian. She lost her baby and when Tommy shares about Connor she gets all bitchy and says that’s why she doesn’t want a boyfriend. Then he held her while she cried. It was very touching. I think he’s falling for her in a different way than he loves Janet and Sheila. Actually, I don’t think he ever loved Sheila.
Everybody is drinking at the bar. Uncle Teddy’s wife, Ellie (played by the prolific and recognizable Patti D’Arbanville) is doing shots and it is suggested that she slow down. As most drunks who are told to slow down do, she did a few more shots. This is what I don’t understand. She leaves and gets in the car. WTF? Back and forth, her driving and calling Teddy while he’s drinking and laughing with the guys. Back and forth. Very predictable and it ended with her crashing into what looked like a truck. How many shows have ended this way?
Rescue Me: Uncle Teddy, HE’S NOT DEAD!!
Lenny Clarke, "Uncle Teddy" and Denis Leary, "Tommy Gavin"
Sean Garrity has cancer. His awful mother and obnoxious brother came to help him through his surgery. However, he’d be better off with nobody. His brother is a loser and his mother thinks the brother is the “smartest man” ever! They treat Sean, a fireman, as if HE’S the loser. It’s a very disturbing family dimension.
After surgery, Sean was in a coma. Why? So we can be privileged to dream sequences of him singing and dancing. Very uncomfortable to watch and totally out-of-character for Sean to be on Broadway and singing poorly.
During his last hallucination, he wakes up to Uncle Teddy smothering him. Uncle Teddy thinks he’s now the “angel of death” and is willing to relieve any sick person of their suffering, whether they want it or not.
After Uncle Teddy tells Sean that his ex-wife, Maggie, will be visiting, he says, “Get the pillow.”
Maggie is clean and sober. I hope Tatum O'Neal is too. I love her.
When Maggie visits, Sean’s brother drools over her like a jr. high school boy. Maggie wants to make peace with Sean because she thinks he’s going to die. She wants to blow him.
It seems that Steven Pasquale, who plays Sean, has a music career. I wouldn’t have known it by his debut during his coma.
Tommy is in the bar because Lou thinks he’s going to get some with his con woman. Boring story. I love Lou but I hate this woman and don’t trust her. Watching him fall for her again is painful. I’d rather watch Lou and Tommy fight or have Lou get involved with Maggie. (yeah, that’s a good one!)
Of course, Tommy starts drinking and sees Conner, Johnny, His dad, and Jimmy.
His dad makes a point of telling Tommy that the only thing he feels is fire and heat. So, Tommy takes a blow-torch to his inner thigh (well, wouldn’t you??). After he does it and is in pain, he calls Sheila for help. She patches him up and says that she’s so disgusted with his injury that she will NEVER have sex with him again. Then they have sex. I think it was anal because it looked painful for both of them. Whatever.
One of the things I love about this show is the reality of the portrayal of family and addiction. Everybody in the Gavin Clan is addicted to something or someone. They all have a dysfunction that is self-destructive both physically and emotionally, yet I still love Tommy and hope the best for his character. He seems like he has no redeeming qualities but when he saw the children in the cancer ward he was the one to walk through the door and play with them.
Denis Leary’s acting surprises me. I first started liking him when he did stand-up many years ago. Then he did the movie The Ref, which I watched with my brother. I also loved Judgement Night and I had a hint of the great acting to come. Denis’s character in Judgment Night was creepy, scary and “stayed with me” for a few days. I needed watch some of his stand-up to get his negative image out of my brain. That movie freaks me out. It’s like a bad dream – – I guess they call those “nightmares!”
Do you watch “Rescue Me?”
What do you think about Tommy drinking? He’s a known alcoholic who is drinking and saying “he can handle it.” We all know that no alcoholic can “handle it.”
When his character is drinking the storylines are better. He has Janet and Sheila both wanting to sleep with him and keep it a secret. The best part, he sees his ghosts. During a drinking binge in the bar a young junkie comes in to rob him. That kid was Conner, the son who died by getting hit by a drunk driver (who Uncle Teddy later killed.).
During another hallucination, Conner was a wall street con man. I still haven’t figured that part out yet. This show makes me think. Most shows “turn our brains to mush.”
The banter in the firehouse is the most realistic “guy talk” I’ve ever seen on TV. They are gross, they insult each other, they are men.
Rescue Me: Mikes a friggin idiot!
Probie
I’ll try to write about Rescue Me tomorrow. I just couldn’t stand looking at the Kardashiwhores anymore. Denis Leary had an Emmy award winning scene. I hope they recognize him this year (or next year).
“Rescue Me is Hot! Get it? Fire . . .?”
Anybody watching this season? I love Tommy, played by Denis Leary, and the whole dysfunctional Gavin clan. The guys in the firehouse crack me up. Franco is sexy as hell and I love that he’s delving into the conspiracy theories of 9/11. A few episodes ago some cops came and and they had an all out brawl because of Franco, Daniel Sunjata, questioning what the public has been shown about 9/11.
Daniel Sunjata as "Franco"
Tommy said, “He may be an asshole, but he’s our asshole.” Then Black Sean proceded to act like an idiot until some cop slugged him. Rumble on.
Ryan O'Neal (the one with Farrah Fawcett) and his daughter, Tatum in "Paper Moon"
Tatum O’Neal is back as Tommy’s sister Maggie and her one scene was hysterical. She’s sitting with some old man. It seems she’s visiting him in an old folks home or hospital. She’s talking, all animated and silly and the old dude starts pleasuring himself underneath the blanket on his lap. She stops talking and says, “Mr. Smith, are you masturbating?” He says yes so she politely turned around and continued her story.
Tommy and Janet went to Katie’s fancy school. They were having dinner with some of the uppity parents who were being the biggest jerks possible. Janet got drunk and started calling the women names. Tommy supported her and they left. Of course they went to a hotel and had sex. Isn’t that what all couples who hate each other do?? eewwww, double ewwww.
I still like them together and I don’t know why. She just seems to “get him” more than anybody and she needs him. Now she’s dating Michael J. Fox who’s character is in a wheelchair and seems to be a bitter drunk.
I hope to write more later. Thanks.
my Snark 