charles durning

Tommy Gavin is back and while it's probably a waste of breath, I'm gonna state the obvious anyway. Entering its fourth season, Rescue Me continues to be one of the best dramas on TV. Since we last left Tommy and the rest of the 62 Truck crew, about nine months have passed. You'd think with almost a year gone by that some new story-lines would have had time to develop, but for the most part things are the same. That's bad news for Tommy, but very good for us because the show is just as entertaining as ever. You can read on for a bit of an overview, but be warned -- it gets a little spoilery despite my attempts to be as vague as possible. But hey, who doesn't like to play with fire?

(S03E13) Another season comes and goes. I hate to say it, because I love this show, but I was a little disappointed with this finale. Same as I was with Deadwood a few nights ago. I just found it to be a bit of a slow episode that kind of meandered along. It (sort of) tied up a few loose ends and the cliffhanger? Not too sure how I feel about that either.

(S03E12) I get too emotional when I watch this show. It's just like the end of last season. The final few episodes are tear-jerkers and I'm a sucker for that stuff. That being said, I suppose that's giving the show some well deserved credit. If it can make you cry and and actually feel something, then the writers and actors must be doing something right.

(S03E11) Only two episodes left this season and there's going to be a lot of fall-out. A heads up right now though, if you haven't seen the episode yet, you probably want to stop reading this because the episode it self was a lot of build-up but the end was well... whoa. All I can is say that something is wrong if Leary doesn't walk off stage with that Emmy in a couple weeks.

(S03E10) This show is just ridiculous, and that's the good "ridiculous." Not the bad one. Honestly, it's starting to make everything else on TV look terrible by comparison. Really. Can you name one bad thing about this show right now? Or even this episode? I sure can't, but I've got plenty of good things to say in case you hadn't picked up on that yet.

(S03E09) Better and better every week. We still have four episodes left this season, and I already can't wait for season four. It's scary how good this show is and the beginning of this episode was no exception. If you've ever watched any of the commentaries on the DVD's for the first two seasons, Leary always talks about how the writers and producers have meetings with actual firefighters to help come up with fresh (and realistic) storylines. This had to have been one of them.

(S03E03) This is shaping up to be a pretty dark season. Not to say that the first two were all sunshine and lollipops but we're on course for some pretty big confrontations. The one that has me most interested is Mike. His "probie" status is coming to an end and we know he's been tossing around the idea of transferring to another house. As many had correctly speculated, we found out at the end of the episode that Mike is indeed gay. At least it seems that way. He has some sort of a boyfriend and the two of them like to drink beers and cuddle at the end of the day... so, I'm not sure how else to interpret it.

It would seem then, that his decision to file for a transfer has more to do with his fear of everyone finding out his secret. And they will. We know that this isn't the most tolerant group of guys, but I'm thinking that when they find out, they might cut Mike some slack. He really respects these guys and I think it's killing him that he might lose that respect. Here's to hoping that Tommy and the rest of the crew don't let Mike down.