Product Description
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The men of 62 Truck are back for the Emmy®-nominated fifth
season! This season, Denis Leary and the gang deal with death,
love, conspiracy theories, alcoholism, cancer and more as they
look to the future while under the shadow of a haunting past.
Loaded with DVD extras!
.com
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For those disappointed in season 4 (as series cocreator Peter
Tolan candidly admits in a season retrospective included as a
bonus feature), season 5 should rekindle your passion for Rescue
Me. The back of these first 11 episodes is the introduction
of a French journalist (Karina Lombard), who is writing a book in
anticipation of the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Her interviews with
the firefighters as well as family members of those who perished
in the attack (Callie Thorne's Sheila is a particular standout)
have the same force as those in the classic M*A*S*H episode "The
Interview." Tommy Gavin's year-long sobriety is put to the
ultimate test when he is rocked by news footage that seems to
show that his cousin Jimmy did not die in the first tower, as
everyone believed. It forces Tommy (an Emmy-worthy Dennis Leary)
to confront what happened that day and how he did--and did
not--respond. "Are you haunted, Tommy?" the journalist asks.
That's an understatement; he falls off the wagon and his ghosts
return. Tommy is further put through the wringer by his wildly
dysfunctional family, including his estranged wife Janet (Andrea
Roth), who is now seeing a belligerent, wheelchair-bound
alcoholic and pill popper (Michael J. Fox in his Emmy-winning
performance); his oldest daughter Colleen (Natalie Distler), who
is secretly seeing Black Shawn (Larenz Tate) and unnerves him
with her precocious sexual prowess; and his younger daughter Katy
(Olivia Crociccia), now attending an elite private school, where
she has created a new identity for herself (and her parents).
Among the other developments that will resonate throughout the
season are the firefighters purchasing a bar; Franco (Daniel
Sunjata) embarking on a boxing career; the return of Candy, who
bilked and deserted Lou (John Scurti) back in season 2; and
Sean's (Steven Pasquale) back pain, which is initially treated as
comic , but takes a more devastating turn. Rescue Me can
turn on a dime between "deep thought and personal wisdom" and
crude, base humor. Its alistic sensibility and close-knit
camaraderie is akin to Howard Hawks's Only Angels Have Wings. As
for Tommy, who is described as "a great fireman, selfish,
spiteful, hit-the-nail-on-the-head kind of guy," he tries
desperately to keep it all together. After he beats his Section
Eight, Deputy Chief Feinberg (Jerry Adler) warns him about
stepping out of line in the future. "Since it's you, it could
happen at any time," he states.
The 11 episodes that conclude Rescue Me's smokin' fifth season go
from carpe diem to some very bad karma for Tommy. "You seem to do
whatever you want and nothing bad ever happens to you," Uncle
Teddy (Lenny Clarke) states in the tense final moments of the
harrowing and possibly game-changing finale. That's not entirely
true. Tommy's family and personal life remain compellingly
complicated: he falls off the wagon after a year of sobriety and
tries to juggle supposed "no-strings" relationships with the
volatile meds-upped Sheila and his estranged wife, Janet (Andrea
Roth), who finally issues Tommy an ultimatum. Sparking the
season's final episodes is Maura Tierney as "hot older chick"
Kelly, who intrigues Tommy after she rushes back into a burning
building to retrieve a mysterious suitcase. "We're not a
happy-type show," Leary states during a convivial cast-member
"family dinner," the most substantial of this three-disc set's
special features. But there are some inspired comic set pieces,
including one grocery store excursion with Tommy, Lou (John
Scurti), and company that descends into chaos. Other comic
subplots (Franco taking up boxing and Mike's awful bar band)
mercifully fizzle out. There is also some satisfying payback as
Lou turns the tables on Candy, his ex-hooker, ex-thief girlfriend
from season 2 with whom he is reunited. Rescue Me did not mellow
in this fifth season. The banter is as profane as ever ("Too far,
dude"), the worldview remains char black (Tommy subverts an
intervention by pouring drinks for all), and the show continues
to take bold chances. Suffice to say that one doesn't expect a
Busby Berkeley musical homage from Rescue Me. As with all good
cliffhanger endings, this season's conclusion leaves viewers
eager to see what awaits on the other side. --Donald Liebenson
