Rescue Me from all this misery....
Rescue Me from all this misery.
That was my initial response after sitting through — or should I say enduring? — Tuesday night's punishingly sad episode of FX's Rescue Me, with its expert blend of comedy-laced tragedy culminating in the worst-case scenario, the death of firefighter Tommy Gavin's only son, Connor. (I'm only sorry that FX felt the need to telegraph this shocking event in its promos.)
What a senseless death: a little boy riding his new bike, struck and killed by a drunk driver in broad daylight, just out of his parents' sight. The ghastly irony of this happening to the kid of a substance-abusing, commitment-phobic jerk of a "hero" is not lost on Tommy. And as his shattered wife whales on him at the hospital, both covered in their boy's blood, Tommy suffers this latest gut-punch with a quiet grimace of grief and guilt. Denis Leary has simply never been better.
When this season began, I likened Tommy and Leary to NYPD Blue's Andy Sipowicz and Dennis Franz, another of TV's most fascinatingly flawed and tragically self-destructive antiheroes. This week's episode reconfirmed that notion, reminding me of the pivotal NYPD moment in which Andy learned his namesake son was shot and killed in an off-duty incident. As with Andy, you can't help but wonder how much more crushing disappointment Tommy can take in his world, already ravaged by the aftershocks of 9/11.
There was plenty of pain to go around in this episode, in between the usual raunchily enjoyable horseplay. The wrenching story line of the chief's wife's descent into Alzheimer's dementia took a tender turn — in a rare lucid moment, she declared her love for her husband, "despite all the things I hate about you" — then went horribly wrong as she attempted bloody suicide in a locked bathroom. Sheila (Callie Thorne) was brutally battered by her jealous girlfriend (this show's queasiness toward homosexuality — sometimes comic, often ugly — is probably worth exploring in a separate column someday). And in the wake of Lou's generosity toward the prostitute he's trying to rescue, am I the only one expecting an unhappy awakening for him?
But it's Tommy and Janet Gavin's personal loss as parents that will propel the show into its season finale next week. I can't wait, but I'd be lying if I didn't also admit I'm kind of glad it will be over for a while. I could use the break.
