By Robert Bianco
USA TODAY
What Tommy Gavin has to hope is that his upcoming finish is more reflective of his good intentions than his bad decisions because seldom in the annals of TV has a hero stepped more outrageously, hilariously and at times tragically wrong. Which is precisely what has made Rescue Me such a treasure, a groundbreaking, under-appreciated series that, like its firefighter hero, is willing to risk it all, even if that occasionally has meant going down in flames.
Born in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks and out of star and co-creator Denis Leary’s fascination with firefighters, Rescue Me now begins a nine-episode final run that will conclude, fittingly enough, close to the 10th anniversary of that national catastrophe. A complex, often darkly funny rumination of the nature of heroism, the cost of survivor guilt, and the joys and limitations of firehouse camaraderie, Rescue Me now prepares to answer its last, crucial question: Is redemption possible for a man like Tommy Gavin, a selfish, alcoholic philanderer who, thanks to Leary’s fully formed and insufficiently rewarded performance, is one of TV’s most fascinating characters?
After years of bizarre battles and reconciliations, his wife, Janet (Andrea Roth), is simply looking for something resembling a normal life. But Tommy makes it clear tonight that what she wants may be beyond him: “Normal’s dead and buried underneath Ground Zero. I’m just trying to make sense of what’s left above ground.”
And in that speech, you have one of the factors that makes Rescue Me an important, and yet for some, off-putting, work of art: its characters’ steadfast refusal to put 9/11 behind them. In a nation that prefers to move on, Rescue Me’s firefighters are stuck.
Leary is working with a fabulous cast, which is why he and co-creator Peter Tolan can dance so nimbly between realism and surrealism, drama and comedy. This is a show that can make you laugh at the crew’s attempts to help John Scurti’s Lou pass his physical without letting you forget that someone may die, or Tommy may explode, at any moment.
The journey is ending. Surely you don’t want to jump off the firetruck before it does.
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