RESCUE ME: One Of The Best Shows on TV

This article is a great recap of FX's Rescue Me television series and provides compelling reasons to watch the show. Denis Leary stars as firefighter Tommy Gavin, haunted by 9/11 (in a way that actually respects the tragedy and opts not to exploit it) and the way he's destroying his life. We also meet a diverse group of characters and the show isn't afraid to explore themes from homosexuality to male rape to penis size all in the first few episodes. There's a serious study of who Gavin is and what makes him tick, showing his responsibility for his life being in the crapper and why he's become this way. The rest of the cast shines too and features one of the most well rounded sets of characters on television. None of the main players- or even supporting characters- is ever treated in way that makes them a boring stereotype or waste of space. From Tommy's ex wife to the Chief's sick wife, all the characters play pivotal roles and most importantly, act like real people. Decisions are made that are always natural for the characters and people fight- and love- for reasons that anyone can relate to. We may not always like seeing these revered firemen as fallible members of society who sometimes make mistakes and sometimes act like selfish pricks.

The last two weeks- as we're half way through season two- have focused on sensitivity training for the crew, as their female member accused them of being sexist and the show has shown how far the pendulum has swung in society now that we're aware of the various "isms." The sensitivity video is hilarious not only in presentation but in how it mimics REAL training videos. For example, in one scene, a white man walks up to a black man...

White man: You watch the game last night?
Black man: No... [stands up] but you assumed I did because I'm African American!
Narrator: We must always use caution in dealing with people of diverse backgrounds.

It's hilarious. Then Tommy points out that everyone but white people have four racist slurs available to describe them, but White people are shorted in the department of slurs and in Denis Leary fashion, lets out EVERY offensive racist name you can imagine. The show isn't revelling in shocking viewers; instead, Rescue Me devalues these words by showing their infantile nature and how they can be used in comraderie. After the video, the instructor asks what Tommy has learned and he replies, "That only white people can be racist." It's a perfect examination of reverse-racism in society and greatly illustrates peoples' over sensitivity in today's climate.

The sex on the show is rough and at times too explicit, but this is a smart, honest show about being a good person and the complications that make heroes only human. This series never takes the easy way out and burns with a real intensity missing in today's fiction, in any medium. Pick up season one on DVD from AMAZON.COM today.