Rescue Me: Baptism

The return of Denis Leary and Peter Tolan‘s Rescue Me after an interminable nineteen months is truly a momentous occasion and a genuine reason to celebrate. Rescue Me has long had a special place in my heart. Years ago, my cousin Sara-who I trust implicitly on virtually all things tv, movies and pop culture-told me about this show and told me I had to check it out. So I did, and literally before the first scene of the pilot was over, I was in love. Watching each subsequent episode, I had no idea what to expect and no idea where the show was going to go. It tottered incredibly between gut-busting funny and haunting and heart-wrenching.

I had never seen a show that featured such volatile, boundary-pushing writing or such an eclectic, talented ensemble cast. Rescue Me changed the whole landscape of television for me; it opened my eyes to what kinds of stories you could tell. I think Denis Leary and Peter Tolan have established themselves as gods, and I think Rescue Me is going to go down in history as a seminal, landmark television show that revitalized the medium. But screw history for now. Right now, Rescue Me is here to be enjoyed and worshipped.

I’m happy to report that after a fourth season that some viewers thought was maybe slightly lackluster, the show we (and by “we” I mean people with taste) all love is back and looks to be as strong as ever. The episode begins with Tommy Gavin (Leary) at his father’s funeral. Played by the wonderful Charles Durning, Tommy’s father passed on while he and Tommy attended a baseball game together for the first time in their lives at the end of last season. Everyone cries and acts the normal way at the funeral except Tommy, who wears his usual jeans and shades and cracks jokes.

Let’s be honest, Tommy has lost a lot of people already-his cousin/best friend Jimmy, his son, his brother, Jerry…and though they seemed to get along okay in these last years, Tommy’s father wasn’t a huge asset in his life. In a hilarious (and true) scene later in the episode, Tommy comments with his family on how the act of someone dying doesn’t change the fact that they were a lousy pain in the ass when they were alive. We see Tommy grab a handy fireman’s axe and a bottle of booze someone left in the flower display and sets his dad’s coffin on fire…and then he comes to at Valerie’s house. Ah yes, one of Rescue Me’s signature daydream moments. On another show this might be a cheap device, but Rescue Me justifies it well through Gavin’s continuing (though subtly presented) battle with PTSD post-9/11.

We then see Tommy and Lou and the rest of the boys working an apartment building fire and looking for squatters. They’re doing okay until the ceiling collapses, blocking the way they came. Now they have to find a new way out, and on the way, they find much more. Franco has a run in with a crazy squatter and suddenly it becomes the Fourth of July: boxes and boxes and boxes of fireworks start exploding blue, yellow and green. The crew takes cover and barely manages to make it out. Rescue Me has always amazed me with the incredible authenticity of the fire scenes, and this on is maybe the most fantastic yet. How they do it on a tv schedule and a tv budget is beyond me.

One of the highlights this episode comes from Michael J. Fox who plays Dwight, Tommy’s ex-wife Janet’s new beau. Let’s just say that Fox is hilarious and a shoo-in for an Emmy, and his first scene with Leary plays like gangbusters. Meanwhile, we get to touch base with everyone. Mike is still dealing with the death of his mother while Franco and Garrity try to convince him not to blow his inheritance on cancer research but on investing in a bar. Sheila is still a high-maintenance pill who nags at Tommy relentlessly and is worried about her son Damian who is dropping out of NYU.

Chief Feinberg is still on Tommy’s ass and trying to Section Eight him out of the department. Black Sean has sealed his own doom by secretly taking up with Tommy’s estranged daughter Colleen. Hell, even Tommy’s priest cousin Mick-who has always been the most stable in the family-goes off the deep end…and the wagon.

Yes, Rescue Me is chock full of conflict, as always, and the writing is back, the amazing performances are back. Hallelujah. The fact that we get a supersized 22-episode season this year has me squealing like a little girl, and I hear that FX liked what they saw so much that they already ordered another 18! If you don’t yet watch this show, start. It will change your life, and if it doesn’t, you must be dead already anyway or at least in dire need of a CAT scan.

Season 5, Episode 1: Baptism (originally aired April 7, 2009)

For more on Rescue Me, click here.

Tuesdays at 10pm on FX

Photographs courtesy of FX and IMDbPro