Rescue Me: Season 01 (2004) Reviews

In season one of the FX network "dramedy" Rescue Me, it is abundantly clear that the harrowing events of September 11, 2001, are still taking their toll on the firefighters of New York City's Engine 62 company even after three years. Senior firefighter Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary) is carrying around so much emotional baggage that he has prompted his wife, Janet (Andrea Roth), to file for divorce. Desperately hoping to remain close to his three children, Tommy moves into the house across the street from his estranged wife, and spends most of the first season trying to drive a wedge between Janet and her current beau, Roger (Jay Potter) -- even though Tommy himself is hardly what one could call celibate. At the same time, our "hero" courts insanity by carrying on spirited conversations with the ghost of his cousin Jimmy (James McCaffrey), a firefighter killed in the line of duty. He goes so far as to promise Jimmy that he'll look after the man's widow; trouble is, he doesn't like what he sees. Elsewhere at Engine 62, Chief Jerry Reilly (Jack McGee) continues to compulsively gamble away not only his life savings but also his future pension; rookie Mike Siletti (Mike Lombardi) is the butt of some truly nasty practical jokes; Franco Rivera's (Daniel Sunjata) serial womanizing catches up with him in appalling fashion; Laura (Diane Farr), the new female member of the previously all-male firefighting team, does her best to bear up against a barrage of cloddish chauvinism; and the ongoing bitter rivalry between the FDNY and the NYPD culminates in a savagely brutal hockey game. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi