So long Tony, hello Tommy!

Just in time to save me from the gaping void left behind by the demise of Tony Soprano, FX has come along with Season 4 of Rescue Me. Tommy Gavin, my all time absolute favorite Irish, rage-aholic, 911-PTSD addled New York bad boy firefighter with the never ending stream of woman troubles, is the creation of one of my fave crushes, Denis Leary; of the wicked sense of humor and great taste in music. So even if the show wasn’t as brilliant as it is, I’d probably still tune in. As it is, the show is visceral and entertaining, an intelligent emotional rollercoaster that hones in on issues of the day like a heat seeking missle. I also appreciate the smart, strong, deeply flawed and funny women who populate this show; they are more consistently realized than any female characters I can think of on any screen, large or small, in recent memory. Last week’s show stopper was a cat rescue in a crumbling warehouse scene, in which the guys find themselves sliding to their certain deaths into a wall of fire. All of this while cats fall out of the ceiling to the tune of the B-52s “Dance This Mess Around.” The birds-eye view of a cat looking into the flaming abyss is priceless, and a good sign that Leary hasn’t lost his edge.

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