Spoilers for the "Rescue Me" season premiere coming up just as soon as I go rescue some cats...Boy, I hope the Exposition Fairy got paid overtime for that one, because this felt like an entire episode spent on characters telling us what's happened in the nine months since the fire. So let's sum up: Garrity has longer hair and hate's Maggie's porn (in the funniest parts of the episode), Chief is skinnier and not dead, Tommy's living with Janet and the baby and not dead (and trying to get in touch with his feminine side by watching Oprah and listening to Dr. Laura), Sheila is still insane and not dead, Franco's girlfriend's retarded brother is still easy comic relief, Lou's having more sex than he can handle with (Ex) Sister Theresa, and Chief Pechre is still loathed by all. Oh, and a woman who looks like Jennifer Esposito has spent the last nine months trying to get 80-year-old Tommy Gavin to go on a date with her, even though he's brushing her off at every turn in addition to the problems inherent in being Tommy Gavin.
The episode's spine is the arson investigation, which I have a hard time caring about since it's attached to that stupid cliffhanger in particular and Tommy and Sheila's relationship in general. I think I would like this show a lot better if Tommy never had to deal with another woman again -- except maybe his daughters, as I'm still not burned out on him panicking about Colleen's sex life -- and as with the cliffhanger (which even Leary admitted at the time was bogus), we know that Tommy's not going to lose his job or go to jail. Leary did some nice work in the monologue scenes, but I just don't care.
"Rescue Me" has always had a sloppy feel to it, with subplots and running gags coming and going at random, but this episode felt particularly disjointed. The next couple are a little better in this regard (and also funnier), but the show's gone from one of my must-sees to something I watch because it's summer and not much is on.
What did everybody else think?
17 comments:
My favorite parts of this show have been and will always be when all of the guys are at the firehouse joking around with each other. Those scenes always seem the most fun.
Each season's first episode for this show always feels the same for me. It always seem like Leary and Tolan are easing back into it themselves so its not as good and it tries to remind everyone what happened last season (or during the hiatus) too much.
The one scene I particularly disliked was the fire with the cats. The music seemed very random and out of place for that scene. Usually they do a great job throwing in the music but this time it just didn't work.
Overall, it was what I expected. Funny at times, but no real drama can occur in the first episode. I'm sure by episode 10 or 11 alot will be going on.
The fire scene was the first hint that not everyone was safe this season, which was mentioned in the senseless Jill Arrington spot before the show.
I dug it. Although the whole time, I wondered how probie could fight fires post-colan-scapy, as he so aptly put it.
Here's to hoping Sheila is a ghost.
I'm with you on hoping Sheila's a ghost, old man snap. But then, wouldn't Jimmy know she's dead? That whole thing really bugged me.
The whole ep did feel very disjointed, although the fire scene had me going for a moment when I thought Probie died. So glad that was just a dream. And yeah, the Exposition Fairy needs a break. I'm sure we'll see less and less of her as the season moves along.
I love Jennifer Esposito, but that dress did her no favors. I hope she doesn't turn out to be another crazy female--there are too many of them on this show as it is.
Alan, you have an unnecessary comma in "hates" ("Garrity has longer hair and hate's Maggie's porn") :-)
What was the song that played during the fire and the one that played at the end of the episode?
I have to hope Sheila's a ghost as well, because if this is part of some kind of insurance scam, surely they would have needed a body, which would open up a whole other can of worms. I agree with everyone: The funny bits as always are the best, but I do think the show also deserves credit for staging some incredible fire sequences. However, its take on women in general just gets more and more disturbing.
I think Sheila is not dead but in the burn ward of a hospital. The whole visit he had with her didn't fit--what apartment can you just walk into in NYC?!
There was some kind of card on the back of the door-like a hotel or maybe a hospital room (how to evacuate the floor).
Just a thought. Sad to hear Susan Sarandon is coming back and with it that left field plot about Franco's daughter.
I remember the first episode when Tommy was forced to give a group of probies a motivational speech. He got out of his truck, gave one of the better monologues in the history of TV, and left the group of stunned rookies.
In the speech, he belittled and insulted everyone there, exposed his emotions raw, made me squirm in discomfort, made me think about 9/11, and made me laugh out loud. It lasted a total, if I recall correctly, of about 90 seconds.
At the time, I thought that single speech signaled the arrival of a new kid on the block--a huge player ready to hang in there with the great drama series of the day.
I keep thinking back to that speech and how effortlessly it shifted moods from light drama, light comedy, melodrama and laugh-out-loud lines. It seems like a different show from the one on now. This new show is trying so hard to be the kind of show that speech promised, and it's falling so short of its aim that I'm feeling pity for it.
Yeah, this was one of the least-funny episodes of the show I can remember. Although I did like Tommy leaving the elevator: "There was a bee in there... I got it."
So Probie gets a colonoscopy and nobody makes a single gay joke? Did last season not happen or something?
"I love Jennifer Esposito, but that dress did her no favors."
Eh? She looked pretty damn good to me.
The song during the fire sounded like the B-52s, but I don't know the name of it.
Wow now Denis Leary gets to make out with Jennifer Esposito. Andrea Roth, Callie Thorne, Marisa Tomei and now Jennifer Esposito eh? I'm jealous.
I don't expect too much from the show. I just think that it's highly entertaining even if it's a bit sloppy.
I love how they are trying to get a black guy just for the basketball court.
"I love Jennifer Esposito, but that dress did her no favors."
Eh? She looked pretty damn good to me.
It made her rear look too big and her breasts too floppy (a better bra would've helped). Her body didn't look proportional. It was one of those type of dresses that cling in the wrong places, IMHO.
The song during the fire sounded like the B-52s, but I don't know the name of it.
It was "Dance This Mess Around."
I liked the whole sequence with Tommy and Janet arguing over what to do about Colleen. I want to know where they're going with Janet (and I usually find her annoying), but I think the PPD storyline could be interesting.
And add me to the "I hope Sheila's a ghost" camp.
I think Sheila's feigning her own death to get the insurance money, and the room she's in is a hotel room. Yawn. They have ruined Sheila as a character for me.
It's my porn in a box!
"It made her rear look too big..."
No such thing.
Thinking about this like it's the Sopranos ending...
How can Sheila, who was a fantastically flawed character, and way hot, in the first season, be alive and conspiring with Tommy about insurance money?
Last we saw her, she was passing out while going back *in* the house to save Tommy while David Gray's fantastic, yet TV/movie-overplayed "The One I Love" brought the credits.
That said, any scene between Franco and the brother are just, well, cringeworthily awesome.
I completely agree about the dress on Esposito not looking good AT ALL, but I have to imagine that the opinion is cut along the gender line. My husband thought she looked great.
I also felt the music during the fire scene was out of place. It seemed like they could have done better. The perkiness of it didn't lean towards any drama or suspense, so you knew that no one one going to die.
There were a few humorous moments for me, but I didnt love it and didn't laugh out loud like I usually do. I'm really hoping the next couple of episodes pick up. I'm a really big fan of the show, too.
Oh, and I found the colonoscopy bit extremely funny, if only because my husband did the same thing after his. I would have sworn he was dead, but he was just sleeping (for hours and hours and hours.)
If Shiela is going to be alive this season, what can they do with the character outside of her sitting in a hotel room? Why would she need an insurance "scam", since she had all the money from the 9/11 compensation?
Even if she spent it all on the house, regular fire insurance would re-imburse her. What.. a fireman's widow wouldn't have fire insurance?
I don't see where writers are going with this thread. That character has always been humorous, at the same time, pathetic. Now what?
It still amazes me that we are expected to believe BOTH of them survived that inferno without one scar?
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