“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 stories are told and only intersect at random points. You have the story of everything that happens at Sean’s fundraiser and in its aftermath. You have the story of what happens when both Janet and Sheila show up at the firehouse and face off. And you have the story of what happens when the guys are called in to a particularly vicious fire. Oh, and there was the mini-story that opened the episode, where the guys all got together to watch Dances with the Stars (I presume the slight title change is in deference to ABC). Hell, even the Sean’s fundraiser story was episodic, jumping as it did from Franco’s fears about his girlfriend’s sexuality to Tommy and his family back off the wagon to Needles’ wife’s escapades to Lou’s revelation of his engagement.
I’m not saying this to complain, actually. Rescue Me’s shambling storytelling style is something that I’ve gotten rather used to as I’ve watched this full, hyper-extended season. What I’m more concerned about is how this entire middle section of episodes (since the first nine ended and definitely since “Torch”) feel shaggier than the show usually does. While none of these episodes has been bad, very few of them have felt vital at the same time. “Torch,” obviously, is one of the best episodes that the show has ever done, but everything else has felt kind of low stakes, as though the show is just killing time between the events it knows need to happen. In that regard, the final fire sequence, which is hauntingly shot and staged, feels like the show picking up the storyline again, not least because it introduces Maura Tierney in a role the show has been teasing since it began its season back in April.
But it’s a long road on the way there. First, we have to get through the entirety of the Sean’s party sequence, which is particularly disorganized. The individual components are well-crafted, but you never get the sense that they’re ever adding up to anything other than a collection of scenes. With all of the buildup the Franco’s girlfriend plot has received, for example, it was a little anti-climactic to have it end with a bunch of butch lesbians attending Sean’s party and having him realize that he’s probably dating a lesbian. (The next time we hear about this, the two have broken up.) This feels like it probably had a few scenes on the cutting room floor, and with as good of an actor as Daniel Sunjata can be, it’s too bad that we didn’t get to see the break up scene (though maybe we’ll get a more concrete indication of what’s happening in the next few episodes).
Of course, then you have the Gavins, who are all drinking again, seemingly with little regard for the consequences. There was talk in comments last week about how refreshing it was to show people who’ve fallen off the wagon in Alcoholics Anonymous yet could remain responsible drinkers. And I agree that would be an interesting tack to take on a show like this. But it really doesn’t seem like Rescue Me is headed in that direction. Everyone from that scene last week is attending the fundraiser, and they’re all pretty much completely fallen off the wagon. It’s not like we see them drinking in moderation in between scenes of them getting roaring drunk. We’re just seeing them in the bar, slamming down drink after drink; it’s just another morality play, but not one nearly as well conceived as the earlier discussions from this season, which seemed to suggest that Tommy wasn’t horribly sincere in his attempts to win people over to his way of thinking. It’s the difference between playing the material as a comedy and playing it as a drama.