Rescue Me: Tuesday

In its fourth season Rescue Me is sticking to its core as it gets things rolling. Last season the guys all had stories that kept them apart and involved other characters and there was something lacking with fewer scenes of them just sitting around talking in the firehouse. With this great ensemble cast, the more I see them together and explore that dynamic, the better.

The best scene in the episode occurs when Garrity, being himself, lets slip that Janet has a place in his "spank bank" - the catalogue of women he uses for sexual fantasies. Watching Tommy's slow burn of rage while Garrity attempt to talk his way out of it and only making it worse is hilarious, helped along by the fact that the whole moment recalls when, last season, Tommy sat across from his brother before launching across a table to beat him to a pulp.

There's some of the patented man-child humor that Rescue Me regularly employs to mixed effect. Of all the things that Sheila tells Tommy about what "really happened" the night of the fire - he's most disturbed by the fact that he wasn't able to perform sexually. This leads to some awkward moments as Tommy is afraid others will find out about this - which didn't happen and was totally made up by Sheila. The funny part is that Sheila knows exactly how to play Tommy, and realized he wouldn't ask questions about a preposterous story if he became insecure about his sexual prowess.

Uncle Teddy (Lenny Clarke) makes another appearance here, and once again the show suffers for it. Teddy ground the show to a halt last season with his prison wife storyline, and the same happens here. The character just doesn't work and feels like it's a square peg in a round hole and the sooner he gets killed off or simply disappears the better. The only value here is that Teddy's wife makes the situation with Colleen running away with a member of a rock band seem worse.

The episode closes with Tommy commandeering a fire truck to race after his 18-year-old daughter who ran off with her 26-year-old boyfriend. Lou reminds him "Tommy, we're not even legally on a call. You have insurance investigators breathing down your neck, you really want to bring more trouble down?" And Tommy - being himself - says "It's my God damn daughter Lou." And the guys look at him and leave it at that, no further argument necessary. It's this unspoken bond between these men that holds the show together - helped along by the terrific performances of all of the cast.

A comment also must be made about this show's use of music. Many episodes end with the rest of the soundtrack dropping away to focus on the music. Music can sometimes be a crutch, or the mark of lazy writing - but in Rescue Me it's almost always used to great effect. Whether it's at the end of the premiere last season or when Tommy beats the snot out of Johnny. The music works perfectly as the show fades to black on Tommy's desperate face as he races to another emergency - not a fire - but the possible loss of his little girl to an adulthood for which he's not ready.