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Rescue Me: season 5, episode 22
"Drink"
September 2, 2009 - 01:09a.m.
Booooooooooo!
OK, that’s maybe a BIT harsh, but that’s sort of how I feel after “Drink,” an episode that indulged more in the sorts of things I’ve found irritating about Rescue Me both this season and throughout ...
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Rescue Me: season 5, episode 21
"Jump"
August 26, 2009 - 02:08a.m.
When this season of Rescue Me began, I talked about how the central message of the show has always been about how you get past a grief so all-consuming you don’t think there’s any way you could ever ...
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Rescue Me: season 5, episode 20
"Zippo"
August 18, 2009 - 10:08p.m.
Well, at least it wasn’t Janet.
I say this with full knowledge that Rescue Me could figure out a way to completely undercut everything that it’s built up in this episode. There could be a last second reversal ...
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Rescue Me: season 5, episode 19
"David"
August 11, 2009 - 10:08p.m.
There are few TV tropes I hate more than the one where there’s a wedding and the characters involved suddenly realize that, shit, you guys, this is a bad idea, and then they don’t get married, and it ...
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Rescue Me: season 5, episode 18
"Carrot"
August 4, 2009 - 10:08p.m.
After dithering around for a handful of episodes, Rescue Me seems to be getting back on track with “Carrot,” which isn’t the best episode of the season but seems to at least have its eyes on the end zone ...
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Rescue Me: season 5, episode 17
"Lesbos"
July 28, 2009 - 11:07p.m.
“Lesbos” feels more episodic than usual for an episode of Rescue Me. All three of the storylines are pretty good, but the way the show is structured makes it feel like one of those films where a bunch of different ...
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Rescue Me: season 5, episode 16
"Clean"
July 21, 2009 - 10:07p.m.
“Clean” is pretty much a bottle show. A bottle show, a grand tradition in the history of television, is an episode that takes place as much as possible on the standing sets for the show. These episodes are produced in ...
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Rescue Me: season 5, episode 15
"Initiation"
July 14, 2009 - 10:07p.m.
There’s a pretty interesting idea at the center of “Initiation,” one that helps the episode's numerous vignettes string along pleasantly enough. What if everyone was like Tommy Gavin?, the episode asks, prompted by a speech from Garrity about ...
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Rescue Me: season 5, episode 14
"Wheels"
July 7, 2009 - 10:07p.m.
Rescue Me will frequently follow up a dark, heavy hour (as last week’s exemplary “Torch” was) with a lightly plotted, goofy hour like this week’s “Wheels.” Funny as Rescue Me can be, these hours can’t help but ...
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Rescue Me: season 5, episode 13
"Torch"
July 1, 2009 - 12:07a.m.
“Torch” is one of the best hours of Rescue Me ever and one of the better hours of TV drama I’ve seen in a while. Everything in the episode, from its central device, to its comic relief scenes, to ...
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Rescue Me: season 5, episode 12
"Disease"
June 23, 2009 - 10:06p.m.
“Disease” perks up from the last few Rescue Mes, which have been good but haven’t quite hit the highs earlier episodes this season managed to hit. “Disease,” however, is at that level again, save for one scene late ...
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Rescue Me: season 5, episode 11
"Mickey"
June 16, 2009 - 11:06p.m.
There’s a moment almost at the end of “Mickey” that I suspect is going to drive hardcore Rescue Me fans a little nuts, but I really loved it. Sean Garrity, about to go under the knife and have surgery ...
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Rescue Me: season 5, episode 10
"Control"
June 9, 2009 - 10:06p.m.
These last couple of weeks, Rescue Me has been a fairly dark ride, skewing far more toward the first word in the “dark comedy” equation. Perhaps as a balance, this week’s episode skewed perhaps too far toward the second ...
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Rescue Me: season 5, episode 9
"Thaw"
June 2, 2009 - 10:06p.m.
If Rescue Me only really works as a series when Tommy Gavin is walking the extremely thin line between insanity and the intense self-destructive streak required to fight fires the way he does, then season five might have seemed like ...
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Rescue Me: season 5, episode 8
"Iceman"
May 26, 2009 - 11:05p.m.
The episode of a TV show structured like a stage play is a tradition as old as the medium itself, playing up the substantial roots that television has in the live theatre. For the fact that TV and the cinema ...
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Rescue Me: season 5, episode 7
"Play"
May 19, 2009 - 10:05p.m.
In the years since Rescue Me premiered, Tommy Gavin's relationship with his wife, Janet, has been one of the show's most fascinating elements and, at the same time, one of its most problematic. The sheer hatred that often ...
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Rescue Me: season 5, episode 6
"Perspective"
May 12, 2009 - 10:05p.m.
There's a scene midway through "Perspective" where Lou berates Tommy for the way he seems completely unable to grasp that not everything in life revolves around him, and it may as well be actor John Scurti berating actor/creator ...
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Rescue Me: season 5, episode 5
"Sheila"
May 5, 2009 - 10:05p.m.
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Rescue Me: season 5, episode 4
"Jimmy"
April 28, 2009 - 11:04p.m.
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Rescue Me: season 5, episode 3
"Wine"
April 21, 2009 - 10:04p.m.
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Rescue Me: season 5, episode 2
"French"
April 15, 2009 - 04:04a.m.
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Rescue Me: season 5, episode 1
"Baptism"
April 8, 2009 - 01:04p.m.
Rescue Me is simultaneously a show at war with itself and a show entering what appears to be a rebuilding phase, and while that may not sound like a recipe for greatness, at least the show realizes that, well, it ...
