Product Description
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An arson investigation following the beach house fire targets
Tommy, Janet worries that her new baby doesn't like her, Colleen
runs away from home, a not guilty verdict is delivered in Uncle
Teddy's manslaughter trial, Jerry commits suicide, the crew from
62 Truck is savaged in the press for not being able to save seven
children from dying in a tragic fire - it's another season of
challenge and turbulence for Tommy and the guys.
.com
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Is firefighter and "heroic S.O.B." Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary)
becoming, as one character so delicately puts it, "pussified?" As
the fourth season begins, Tommy is listening to Dr. Laura and
watching Oprah. He awkwardly and clumsily avoids the aggressive
crazy-hot volunteer woman firefighter (Jennifer Esposito) who
saved his life in the beach-house fire of which he has no memory;
an act that has left him, shall we say, with a limp hose. In
time, he will procl to be "back to the old me," but this
season, he engages in behavior that would give even the old Tommy
pause, and puts audience empathy for this deeply flawed character
to the supreme test. In one of this season's most wrenching
developments, Tommy and his estranged wife, Janet (Andrea Roth),
are living together platonically to care for her new baby, whose
paternity is in question. But, failing to bond with the infant,
Janet sinks to the depths of post-partum depression, driving
Tommy to think the unthinkable, and to do the unforgivable.
Elsewhere, dim, but good-hearted Sean (Steven Pasquale) struggles
to make a go of his rocky marriage to the unstable Maggie (Tatum
O'Neal), Chief Jerry (Jack McGee) fails his post heart attack
stress test and is relegated to a desk job, the firehouse makes a
play for a new probie (Larenz Tate) who might change the
basketball team's fortunes, and Tommy finds himself even further
alienated from his rebellious and contemptuous daughter (Natalie
Distler), who is living with a rock musician. Along with
Esposito, Gina Gershon joins the ranks of series hotties as a bar
pickup with some sexual kinks. But the one who really lights our
fire is Amy Sedaris as the bipolar daughter of the new chief
(Jerry Adler), who insists Tommy take her out. Rescue Me doesn't
just tear the basic cable envelope, it incinerates it. Unlike
other long-running shows, Rescue Me stays true to its gritty
muse, with no attempt to make difficult characters more likeable.
The edges remain sharp and the humor charred black (the series is
not above--or beneath--cheap Anna Nicole Smith jokes in the wake
of a shocking tragedy that rocks the firehouse). While perhaps
not as consistent or compelling as previous seasons, No. 4
contains indelible moments, such as Tommy and Janet's visit to a
marriage counselor, who, after hearing their tortured history,
thinks he's being punk'd, and a Gavin family intervention ("We
got enough drunks here to start our own AA meeting," Maggie
observes). The bountiful bonus features, including nearly a half
hour's worth of deleted scenes, a season overview and a
featurette about real firefighters, add extra spark to this set.
--Donald Liebenson