Notes on Pop Culture: 'Rescue Me's' Dysfunctional Premiere, FNL's Toilet Bowl & the Army Wives Turned into Working Moms

Rescue Me's Dysfunctional Premiere

The headline for my review of the season six opener of Rescue Me over on CliqueClack TV is: “Rescue Me’s premiere elevated family dysfunction to new heights.” That about sums it up.

As I watched the episode unfold, I absolutely could not believe the antics of the Gavin family. From Uncle Teddy showing up at the bar where he’d shot his nephew four weeks prior as though it was no big deal, Eddy exploiting Tommy’s shooting as a great business/PR move (asking Tommy to lie down in between the chalk outline of his body from where he’d been bleeding on the bar room floor), Janet intentionally poking Tommy in the spot of his gunshot wound, the wild ride Mickey gave Tommy from the hospital, to the boozing Colleen Gavin, I came to the conclusion that there’s something wrong with the Gavin gene pool.

FNL’s Toilet Bowl



Loved the threads touched upon in the most recent episode of Friday Night Lights, "Toilet Bowl:" Julie feared disappointing her mother and failing to live up to her expectations when it came to college. (Julie was less than enthused about her visit to Boston with Tami, who acted as though she'd been added to the Boston College public relations payroll.)

Landry and Jess moved forward with their adorable, awkward budding romance, although it seems as though Vince is still carrying around a piece of Jess’ heart in his back pocket. Luke started turning into a Nurse Jackie/Dr. House drug addict, going through pain medication at such a rapid clip that he had to resort to getting the name of a less than honest doctor in order to score another prescription because the pain in his hip from that ranch accident is still intense.

The two biggest stories of the week: Tim Riggins found his own field of dreams and, after realizing he’s in no position, financially to buy it, figured it'd be worth it to join Billy in an ill-advised, illegal after hours chop shop operation at Riggins Rigs in order to raise the cash to become a property owner. Bad. Move.

And finally, the lowly East Dillon Lions netted their first victory. Huzzah for the Lions.

Have I said lately that I’m particularly enjoying this fourth season of FNL? Seriously.

Army Wives Turned into Working Moms

My pop culture and politics column over on Mommy Tracked this week traced the evolution of the wives on Lifetime’s Army Wives from season one, when only Joan and Roxy had jobs outside the home, to the current season, where all of them are employed, with the exception of Claudia Joy who’s going back to school to complete the law degree she abandoned when she married Michael.

I think Claudia Joy’s transformation from being the helpful, party-throwing, consummate volunteer wife to working alongside her law professor on a case against Fort Marshall has been the most dramatic, followed by EMT Denise and “rookie” cop Pamela Moran, who’s freshly divorced and once again pursuing her career.

‘Rescue Me’ Premieres Tuesday, Will You Tune In?

Last we saw of Rescue Me’s Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary), he’d been shot by his grief-stricken Uncle Teddy and lay bleeding on the floor of the underground bar he ran with his firefighter buddies. Not too long beforehand, Tommy -- who’d given up on his hard-earned sobriety -- had been preaching to all comers that they should drink as much alcohol as they wanted, screw AA, Tommy said. However when Teddy’s wife died in a booze-fueled car wreck, Teddy held Tommy responsible for persuading everyone to start drinking again, thus the bar room shooting.

The sixth season premieres Tuesday at 10 on FX and I’m really interested to see what, if any, impact this near-death experience at the hands of his uncle has had on Tommy. If 9/11 rocked Tommy’s life, what would nearly dying do to him? Would there, could there be any real change? I’m doubtful.

Meanwhile, I’m not sure what to make of the two FX promos: The first one, “Cradle to Brave,” is a parallel portrait of two boys, one who grows up to be a professional baseball player for the Yankees (Derek Jeter) and the other who becomes New York City firefighter (Tommy Gavin). Something about seeing Jeter slowly drive by after Tommy risked his life to help a colleague out of a burning building, just felt odd to me as Alicia Keys sang “Empire State of Mind.” (Or maybe that’s just my reaction as a Red Sox fan.) Is this some sort of heroic equation, that Jeter gets cheers and accolades while Tommy gets a soot-covered face and is lucky to live to see another day?



The second video is a more traditional promo for the season as the words, “Sometimes you have to die to learn how to live” appear on the screen and Tommy is lectured about how not to let the “bad Karma” get the “upper hand on the good Karma.”



The New York Daily News wrote about the new season by saying that its first four episodes “build on Gavin’s collapse. He is haunted by his cousin’s death [on 9/11] and his own mortality. He’s also suspicious of his firehouse family, though they rallied to help his wife maintain their home when he recovered.”


Of the fifth episode of this season, series creator/writer/star Leary told the paper: “It’s an explosion of everything that’s gone on in Tommy Gavin’s life. It’s the bottoming-out of his alcohol addiction. It slips in time from past to present, constantly back and forth. It’s a really nasty episode. Everybody’s abandoning him.”

Are you looking forward to the sixth season?