Rescue Me on FX

For the past six years, Rescue Me has been one of the FX basic cable network’s flagship series. Combining the sex-crazed narcissism of Nip/Tuck with the brutish, profane sensibility of The Shield, Rescue Me somehow manages to be more disgusting than either. The Shield was a rough but realistic take on corrupt cops dealing with crime in a hellhole slum. Nip/Tuck was a pornographer’s dream, filled with filthy rich (and eventually, just filthy) doctors and ridiculously over-the-top explicit sex and surgical gore. But Rescue Me cannot claim to be either a stark portrait of real life or a glossy confection of sex and blood; instead, it is the sort of sordid, repulsive program that makes the viewer long for a hot bath and a gallon of mouthwash. 

Rescue Me was co-created by alleged comedian Denis Leary, supposedly in honor of the New York City firefighters who lost their lives at the Twin Towers in 9/11. Naturally, Leary cast himself in the lead as fireman Tommy Gavin; and as a result, Rescue Me has never wavered from an obsessive focus on Tommy’s drinking, Tommy’s sexual prowess, Tommy’s drinking, Tommy’s personality quirks, Tommy’s drinking, and Tommy’s drinking. For showing a promiscuous alcoholic father helping to corrupt his own daughter – and forcing all cable and satellite subscribers to pay for the privilege  -- the July 27^th episode of FX’s Rescue Me (Tuesdays, 10:00 p.m. ET) is the Worst Cable TV Show of the Week.  

The episode opens with Tommy entering his cousin’s bar. When his cousin berates him for smoking and bringing in his own bottle, Tommy engulfs him (and the audience) in a wave of profanity:

Tommy: ”P***y.”

cousin:   “F****t.”

Tommy:  “D*****bag.”

cousin:   “S***brick.”

Tommy:  “D***weed.”

cousin:   “N**sack.”

Tommy:  “Numbn**s.”

cousin:   “Moe.”

Tommy: “Queer bait.”

cousin:  “A**face.”

Tommy then goes into the back room, where he experiences visions of his friend Jimmy, who died in 9/11, and Tommy’s own son, who died in a traffic accident. Tommy beats Jimmy bloody, kicking him repeatedly as he lies on the floor, Tommy screaming, “I’m glad your dead!” He then turns his attention to beating his own son, telling him, “I knew you were gonna be a p***y.”

Tommy carries this delightful sensibility over to his relationship with his eldest daughter Colleen. Col asks her father to come pick her up. “You were always my favorite. You know why? ‘Cuz you got balls. You don’t take no s*** off nobody, and you never took no s*** off nobody, an’ thass why I love you,” Tommy slurs.

After picking up his daughter, Tommy swills booze from a bottle as he drives, then passes the bottle to Colleen. “Your mother was a blast, an’ then, I dunno when, she sucks! Now she’s just a big pain in my balls.” “No s***!” Colleen replies. “If I had a pair of balls, there would be a giant pain in them, and it would be her.”

Subsequent scenes show Tommy lurching drunkenly from one apartment to another, threatening his wife, trying to sleep with his cousin’s widow, having sex with several other random women, and screaming at Colleen, whom he leaves alone on a beach. The rest of the episode deals with the aftermath, with a hung-over Tommy unable to remember where he left his sick daughter.

“Narcissism” is a word that applies to Rescue Me perfectly. While FX’s other shows have by and large grown their stars, casting little-known actors in lead parts who then became famous because of their performances, it is as though Leary egomaniacally cannot imagine any subject so fascinating as himself, with the result that the audience is endlessly subjected to scenes of Tommy’s sexual exploits and drunken tirades.

Many programs on cable are guilty of excesses in violence, profanity, and graphic sex; but Rescue Me goes beyond even these flaws into blatant misogyny. While the program’s miniscule audience presumably enjoys such fare, it is grossly unfair that every cable and satellite subscriber is forced to subsidize the disgusting content of the Worst Cable TV Show of the Week

To learn about the PTC’s Cable Choice campaign – which would allow you to pay for only those programs you want to watch – click here.