FX
NYFD fire-fighter Tommy Gavin is a complicated guy, in a complicated city, doing a complicated job. Tommy deals with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder stemming from 9/11 manifested in the form of an on-going relationship with his dead cousin Jimmy Keefe. Jimmy died at Ground Zero on 9/11. Tommy is a raging alcoholic whose lost his wife and family because of the booze and the job. But he still loves his ex-wife Janet and can't stand to see her with anyone else - even though he himself cannot seem to stay out of the pants of his dead cousin's widow Sheila. Tommy also worries about his kids who he believes need his guidance even though he's an out of control juice addict.
Tommy by himself takes the term "self-destructive" to a whole new level, but he is surrounded by a team of like-lunatics who seem to ground him in some strange way. They've been there, they are there, and they get it. The other fire-fighters include the hapless and often clueless Mike Silletti played by Michael Lombardi. This character is often the butt of the others' jokes, but he remains naive and almost innocent. His closest buddy is Sean Garrity, who is also fairly brain-dead most of the time. He often comes up with the most bizarre schemes with Mike, and the others look on in disbelief. Sean also gets mixed up with and marries Tommy's crazy sister Maggie (Tatum O'Neal). Hoo-Boy. Then there's Bart Johnston, a fire-fighter who relates with Sean "Puffy" Combs and wants to be called "Sean". So now we have two Seans. (What show has two primary characters with the same name?) So they are called "white Sean" and "black Sean". The suave, charming, handsome ladies man is Franco Rivera played remarkably by Daniel Sunjata. This is a great performance forming a character that can both be deep and shallow at the same time. And rounding out the inner core is Kenneth "Lou" Shea played by for my money the series stealing John Scurti. John Scurti is one of the greatest actors that ever graced the TV screen, making Lou an everyman - we all know this guy. And Mr. Scurti plays this effortlessly creating a character that we laugh and cry with. It's no wonder Lou is Tommy's best friend.
That's the inner core, but there are so many outstanding characters and performances here that they could never all be adequately be given credit due. There's the beautiful and talented Andrea Roth, as Tommy's ex-wife Janet, breathing angst and disgust, confusion and love into this crazy mixed up life they have. Wonderful. Callie Thorne as Sheila is perfect. James McCaffrey as the ghost of Jimmy Keefe, sure brought this dead guy to life for me. And I have to mention the hilarious Lenny Clark and Charles Durning as Uncle Teddy and Tommy's dad Michael respectively. These guys were spot on.
I was only in NYC once when I was an early teenager, and I've never hung around with fire-fighters, but I know these guys and I know this city. Maybe I've spent too many years with Corrections Officers, but I know how Tommy, Lou, white Sean, black Sean, Mike and Franco think. I know what makes them tick. And that's because the writers, the crew, and the cast are just that good. These fire-fighters wouldn't know how to act in a job that wasn't dangerous, and they don't understand why that should take a toll on anyone else.
Tommy is on this self-destructive collision course and it is apparent in the amount of booze he puts away. It's how he almost gets Janet to come back but then goes to spend the night with Sheila. But it's also in the subtle way he always has to be the first one in a fire and the last one out. He insists on being the guy that takes all the chances. He wants to connect all the dots again, but he just can't remember how. But please understand: amid all this pathos, this show can be one of the funniest shows I've ever seen. There is a lot of hysterical stuff going on here. Laugh out loud stuff.
Like I said, Tommy is a complicated guy, in a complicated city, doing a complicated job. And can I take a moment and say that Denis Leary is brilliant in this. He has become a truly wonderful actor who somehow brings his famous ranting nightclub act and his character's confusion, anxiety, PTSD, and all the rest and puts it into his pathological blender and pours it out for us to enjoy. And it becomes vintage wine before our eyes. And without ever saying it, his character Tommy Gavin begs the show's title: Rescue Me. His inner being cries out "Please, somebody, rescue me." And who knows? It may be possible.
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