Franco says the Tommy Gavin he...

Franco says the Tommy Gavin he used to know "was a lyin', cheatin', brawlin', skirt-chasing son of a bitch" compared to the present version. On any other show, having that description no longer fit would be a sign of progress. Here, it's a character flaw. Not that I disagree, necessarily. I mean, devil you know and all, right? Yet the speech of the evening goes to Tommy for his description of the lot of the firefighter today: "We get paid s--t. We'll always get paid s--t, because the politicians got us by the b---s, because we never go on strike. Yeah, this country respected us after 9/11. They put the spotlight on us. But now, because this country has ADD, we're back to being glorified garbagemen. Garbagemen with booze and drug problems, but garbagemen nonetheless." Sometimes only a fictional character can get away with speaking the truth when it hurts.

Now whether or not Tommy really does have a buried thing for Laura, I think he knew the color of her eyes all along and flunked her test on purpose. (And you gotta love him slipping Matt and Ben into the list of celebrity breakups.) Keeping things light, do you really think cats would eat their deceased owner? C'mon. They're so loyal and selfless, wanting only to please us and... oh, hell. We're lucky they wait till we're dead. And I have to admit it freaked me out when Tommy and Janet fought over the pulpy orange juice. Switch the roles, with the man going pro and the woman going anti, and you have my marriage every time we hit the Ralphs refrigerated section. As for the giant-butt porn girl? Unrealistic, but funny, and funny counts for more. I'll reserve judgment on the ending hockey game  with Tommy's brutal return to violent form  until I see how it plays out next week. But I'll say this: I really hope they don't have the cop hockey player end up dead or anything cheesy like that. I'm sure the Rescue Me folks would handle it better than most, but still seen it before, and this show's at its best when breaking new ground.