After six weeks of intense, nuanced drama, Rescue Me finally dropped a clunker last night. It was bound to happen, but it still pisses me off having to sit through an hour that offered very little in the way of entertainment.
One would think a chapter titled “Play” would be fun. “Dull” and “Pointless” are more appropriate words to describe this episode. I’ll try to keep things brief, since there isn’t much plot or subtext to critique.
Tommy and Janet had drunken sex, again. Lou – after taking Franco’s sharp advice – banged Genevieve. Sean couldn’t shit, due to his renal cancer. Katie, or Katherine, thinks Tommy and Janet suck as parents. Bart and Colleen broke up because of Colleen’s expertise in the sack. That’s pretty much it as far as character development is concerned.
The visit to Katie’s boarding school was the central storyline. I guess it was supposed to be funny, but the awkward dinner scene has been done to death in movies and television. Tommy and Janet are hip and cool despite being poor, but rich Manhattan socialites are all pompous assholes. Tommy and Janet still enjoy wild, passionate sex, while rich Manhattan socialites all sleep in separate beds. We get it. This installment was guilty of something that has luckily been missing — lazy writing.
I realize Tommy’s dysfunctional family is a huge part of the series, but there really isn’t anything new to say after season four’s endless therapy session. I was hoping the writers would steer clear of this tiresome path. If this starts to become a habit, they will risk losing me entirely. I just can’t endure another string of episodes focusing on Tommy and Janet’s on-again, off-again marriage.
Then out of the blue, Uncle Teddy and Maggie appeared, after being kept on ice for most of the season. Both of their scenes were unfunny and completely out of place. It’s obvious the writers have no idea what to do with their characters. Here’s a suggestion: get rid of them; they are no longer needed. Lenny Clarke and Tatum O’Neal are excellent actors when given something to do. At this point, they are nothing more than distractions.
Thankfully, this seems like a simple misfire leading up to Tommy falling all the way off the wagon next week. The previews look very promising. It seems as if Tommy will be visited by his old ghosts and some new ones, too. I can’t wait. I’ve already forgotten this forgettable mess. It’s time to get back to the meat and potatoes of a fantastic season five of Rescue Me.
Clacked by Scott Tunstall 
on May 20, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
Hm. Sorry but I liked the episode. I understand where you are coming from and you are right but I still think that especially the ending showed that this episode was a different kind of animal. While they thought she was over them she actually came out and got crushed again. Again they gave up to early. I think this was an important point, showing that Tommy isn’t always at fault while it all didn’t result in the usual hitting and drinking and non-reflecting. This was better than those episodes that made me sell my season 1 to 4 DVDs or better this was better than every episode of Season 4. It wasn’t as good as the earlier episodes of the Season but still better than so much screwed up crap we got before that I can’t really regard it as filler…
Compared to season 4, it was a gold. That’s not saying much, though. Compared to the first six episodes of this season, it blew. We have been pounded for 4+ seasons that Tommy and Janet are shit parents. Do we really need to be reminded again? I don’t.
Yeah you are right. This was filler. I mean we didn’t even get to SEE Genevieve. Talk about saving money. You are absolutely right that this was filler but if you ask me they could’ve filled all of Season Four with this kind of episodes :-)
I don’t know. Parenting is hard. These are weak people, they do extremely idiotic stuff, all of them. Nobody on this show is sane and Katie is no exception. She lied her ass off and then expects her screwed up parents to deal with that? How? The only way it would’ve worked would have been if she would have briefed them what to say, what not to say and THEN she could’ve been pissed if they didn’t follow their script. But throwing people like her parents into cold water like that? What did she expect? Sure, she’s no Rory Gilmore but still. If she managed to keep up appearances like that how could she not see that giant, gaping hole in her plan to have her parents there, chatty as they are, obnoxious as they are?
Ok I see that I’m blaming a child here which is not fair, sorry for that :-)
All I wanted to say is that I still rather enjoyed watching this episode. I don’t see this as a low point (I guess you don’t really either) and you are right, this was filler and that’s all. Save a little money, film on a set the whole time and do more on-location stuff with the saved money later. I’ll give Dennis Leary that. Still well done filler :-)
And hey I just want more people to watch this. It’s good again. Even the filler is good :-)