"Rescue Me" (Spoilers if You Haven't Seen Tonight's Episode)
Posted August 29th, 2006 by RD Heldenfels
Fingers crossed on technology: Since I saw tonight's season finale last week, I'm posting this with a timer set to display it after the telecast. Hope it works. If it doesn't, well, I warned you in the header about spoilers.
So let's consider tonight's show. I liked the bit on the dock. Very funny, especially since they were willing to keep it going. And the business with the 9/11 firefighters' memorial, contrasted with the gaping hole nearby, made a good point about what people can accomplish privately versus what politicians cause on the public stage. (There is, by the way, a firefighters' memorial in New York City — but the one in the show is a facsimile.) And Franco's scene with his daughter worked well at showing how completely he had given her up — although the scene also felt a little contrived because we never saw Franco talk to Susan Sarandon's character, which I guess resulted from availability issues.
Now for the bad stuff. Every guy is staying at the firehouse? Every one? Yeah, there's the hint that the chief's ailments are getting insurmountable (and that was series writer-producer Peter Tolan playing Pecher, the fill-in chief). But an FX rep told me all the cast is signed up for next season. And the core guys are still there, after all the plots this year indicating one might move on. And at least one should have.
Then there's the fire. Does anyone believe that Gavin was going to die in that fire? In a telephone press conference with Tolan and Denis Leary, they joked that death actually gives characters a bigger part — but Tolan came as close as he could to saying Tommy's not dead without saying it outright. Are they willing, then, to sacrifice Sheila when she has been such a part of Tommy's dramatic arc? Leary loves working with Callie Thorne, and I don't think he's ready to be done with her.
Even so, ending the season with a fiery cliffhanger felt lame. Anyone want to agree/disagree?
August 29th, 2006 at 9:41 pm
I had thought it was the finale this week since last week it flashed across the screen. I was so sad after watching the end of the show. My husband and I both thought this was the finale. Then on a message boards I expressed my feelings when someone informed me that it was only the season finale. I don't want Tommy Gavin or Sheila to have died in the show. But of course I'm not the writer. I enjoy each and every firemen at the house. They are all so great.I hope that Tatem O'Neil comes back she is a hoot.
August 30th, 2006 at 8:22 am
I thought the fiery cliffhanger was lame too, but pretty typical of most shows these days.
If you were an average viewer of the show, (not knowing Tommy Gavin's fate, Dennis Leary's contract status, etc.) wouldn't the fire serve as that silly piece of karmic justice you've been looking for ever since he raped his ex wife?
August 30th, 2006 at 10:25 am
Not according to the people making the show. As I said in the earlier post (" 'Rescue Me' Winds Down"), Tolan and Leary are saying that the karmic payback will be in the fourth season.
August 31st, 2006 at 7:44 am
But how many viewers know that? My guess is most people who watch the show don't read about it much.
In any case, the cornball cliffhanger may be teasing the show's audience and critics with the karmic payback idea, making light of it with melodrama to reveal it as the tired and silly convention it is.
Melodrama is not the way karma works. Tommy Gavin, like Tony Soprano, pays for his shortcomings and sins, including the rape, in every episode. He's living a pretty miserable life, which is the true price of his kind of narcissism.