21 things I liked about this episode of Rescue Me

Season five of Rescue Me keeps knocking it out of the park. There have been a couple clunkers, but for the most part, the writers are doing right by the characters (with the exception of Teddy and Maggie). The mixture of laugh-out-loud comedy and thought-provoking drama is precisely on point. The central story arcs are all holding my interest. Normally, by episode 12, I would have bailed on at least one of the main threads, but not this season.

It was a cavalcade of stars last night. Pretty much the entire cast took part in the proceedings. There was Sheila and Janet, Colleen and Katy, Garrity’s mom and bro, Bart, Feinberg, Candy, etc., etc. Plenty of scenes, performances, lines and moments struck a cord with me, so rather than expound in the overused paragraph format, I’m gonna go with a list. Us blogger types love lists. Why? They’re easy.

Here’s my list of 21 things I dug:

21) The slow-mo escape from a collapsing building to open the episode ruled! I wish I knew the name of the song accompanying the action. Haunting.

20) Lou and Tommy betting over whose doomed relationship will blow up first. Lou and Tommy together equals comedy gold.

19) Garrity’s song and dance number about being a vegetable. Leave it to Rescue Me to lampoon being in a catatonic state.

18) Great line #1: “Let’s get outta here before he dies.” Feinberg, while visiting Garrity at the hospital.

17) The gang drooling over a hot nurse outside Garrity’s room.

16) Great line #2: “I’m gonna beat off to her later.” Terrance’s reaction to the hot nurse.

15) Mike’s coy smile to the gang as he leaves with the hot nurse. His sensitive guy routine was classic.

14) Great line #3: “I’ve taught him too much. Now I must destroy him.” Franco’s response to Mike schooling them all.

13) Tommy’s uncomfortable chat with Bart. Tommy purposely not trying to be racist is always worth a chuckle.

12) Tommy being a complete dick to Mickey. I feel bad for Mickey. He puts up with a lot of shit.

11) Tommy’s botched blessing at dinner. I particularly enjoyed the dated reference to Brett Favre being traded to the Jets. You can tell season five was filmed a while ago.

10) Tommy, Bart and Colleen kicking one another underneath the dinner table. Tommy oozes immaturity.

9) Lou is being taken for another ride by Candy. Right? The beauty is he seems to know it, but just doesn’t care. I can hardly blame the dude. Candy is smokin’.

8) Tommy getting suckered by both Janet and Sheila. He is wrapped around both their fingers and is helpless to do anything about it.

7) Tommy lying to Katy about his drinking. What a sad scene.

6) Great line #4: “So you’re in denial.” Katy can see through Tommy’s bullshit.

5) Sheila convincing Tommy he’s a “functioning alcoholic.” She is one selfish, enabling bitch.

4) My girl spotting a continuity error. Leary was wearing white undies when he was with Janet, then black when he went to Sheila’s right after. I had to rewind it to verify. Sorry, I don’t make a habit of checking out Leary in his many states of undress.

3) Garrity’s mom pounding Irish whiskey. A tough old bird.

2) Tommy saying a prayer while holding hands with Garrity’s mom. He looked like a fish outta water.

1) The final shot of Garrity’s pallid face. Amidst all the laughs, he is fighting for his life.

Fantastic episode. I’m done.

Clacked by Scott Tunstall
on Jun 24, 2009 @ 12:00 EST5EDT