What I’m Watching: Rescue Me

Rescue Me: Season 6, Episode 4 “Breakout” (B+)

This episode marks a great return to one of the things “Rescue Me” does best: comedy played out as a result of brotherhood. It’s not a moving dramatic installment necessarily, but it is an entertaining hour than makes great use of all the characters. Lou’s nurse is extremely helpful in kicking that off by pointing out everyone’s flaws, which resounds particularly for Black Shawn, who is dismayed to learn that his eyes are too far apart. Franco’s charm is quite hilarious, and the positioning of all of the firemen as doctors, orderlies, and random people standing by was magnificently comical. Black Shawn’s failure to name any black doctors by first citing Dr. Bill Cosby, then Dr. Huxtable, and then Reverend Sharpton was very amusing, and it’s a treat to see the character get a chance to embarrass himself since he’s usually the voice of reason, compared to Sean and Mike in particular. Sean staying with his friend at the hospital was touching, though of course he isn’t quite able to deliver by immediately admitting that he doesn’t have some grand plan to take care of him. Tommy’s visit with Father Phil proved much more powerful than expected, and Father Phil, played by the always-great Peter Gallagher, is quite a fun character, asking awkwardly if he can keep the photo of Janet after insisting that Tommy needs to look at it again. Tommy’s misconception about Franco and Janet, made even more tragic by the fact that Franco didn’t let anything happen while it seems like Janet probably would have, is a major setback for the not-too-forward-moving Tommy, and I imagine tensions will begin to explode in the next episode and just go downhill from there.