Week 17: Rescue Me: Season 1, Disc 1

Have you ever been excited to try a new restaurant, only to find when you get there that what you thought was going to be Mexican food actually turns out to be Italian? It’s not that Italian is bad; it could be the best Italian in the world. It’s just that you thought it was going to be something else entirely. And so you’re nonplussed.

Which brings me to Rescue Me, a series on F/X that’s had critical acclaim but to which I am a late, late comer. I don’t know why, but I’ve always had it in my head that this show was a comedy. I guess it’s the casting of Dennis Leary. I hear the words “Dennis Leary” and I think “comedy.” Just like when I hear the words “Jerry Bruckheimer” I think “piece of crap.”

So imagine my surprise when Rescue Me turns out not to be the glib, joke ride I imagined, but a fairly serious drama. It’s not deadly serious, but it’s decidedly not a comedy, although Dennis Leary is very well cast as the wisecracking down-on-his-luck firefighter trying to salvage his life and career in post-9/11 New York. And, tee-hee --I think this is supposed to be the funny part -- Leary’s character keeps having conversations with the dead firemen in his company who were killed on 9/11.

Let’s do the math: Four dead 9/11 firefighters = comedy gold.

Now, I’m no 9/11 trumpeting flag-waver, (in other words, no, I will not be voting for Rudy Giuliani), but I’m just not ready to become involved in a TV show cloying for my 9/11 sympathies. And so we watched the first three episodes of the series, but decided to cut our losses there. I’m not saying Rescue Me is a bad show. It’s actually pretty good. But to return to my hackneyed metaphor, it’s not the best Italian I’ve ever had.

So, sorry Rescue Me, I’m taking the rest of your discs off our Netflix Queue. If you have to ask me why, I'll just say that it was Rudy Giuliani who tore us apart.