I won’t lie, I’m easily disappointed. I’ll still be disappointed and watch a TV program, but it’s the disappointment that lowers my rating from 'rave' to 'raving mad.' Last night's Rescue Me season finale falls somewhere in the middle of that spectrum, approaching 'beginning to unravel.'
The good: The cast is excellent, the writing is funny and touching at turns, and intentionally so. Denis Leary is able to do both ends of the spectrum wonderfully and is great to watch here, doing something he really cares about. John Scurti handles the vast majority of the humor and is able to turn the most mundane moments into pure hilarity. From time to time, Scurti is given the opportunity to make the emotional, moralistic plea, and it was true last night as the crew was standing in front of the Firefighters Memorial at Ground Zero.
However, that scene at the memorial highlights one of the problems with the show. It feels as though, when they discuss 9/11, they use it as a way of excusing their bad or odd behavior. Unquestionably, there are still open wounds and I in no way intend to minimize anyone’s pain or suffering, which is clearly real. However, in Rescue Me, it often seems to serve as an excuse for doing the wrong thing.
This, though, was a minor upset for me. The major upset was the deus ex machina used to tie up all the plotlines this season. Everyone seems to be leaving the station house. It’s been talked about all season long. Several episodes have been used to convince the audience of three different characters’ desire to retire or transfer out. Each of these three characters' desires ended in single scenes in the finale. Turns out Kenny Shea doesn’t have “sea legs” and so he can’t be the first mate on a boat. Franco Rivera decides he was only trying to become a lieutenant for his daughter, and since she’s now gone, he doesn’t want to do it anymore. Mike Silletti is simply called on his bluff of transferring. It’s all too pat; it’s all too simple.
Article comments
1 - Joan Hunt
Congrats! This article has been placed on Advance.net
2 - elora
'Rescue Me' a Safe Haven...
3 - Eugenia Johnson
My son, who is a fire fighter, and I used to watch Rescue Me each week and could hardly wait until the next episode. However, we noticed last year that the show became more about sex than fire fighting. There was usually about five seconds of actual fire fighting then the remainder of the show was sex. If this show wants to continue, I believe that they should increase the shows fire episodes and continue developing the characters where sex is just a part of their lives instead of their entire lives.