What I’m Watching: Rescue Me

Rescue Me: Season 6, Episode 5 “Blackout” (B+)

Even with all of the drinks that Tommy has had over five seasons of this show, he’s never had a bender like this. Of course that’s mostly due to his dear family members lacing his drink, though no one knows that until the damage has already been done and Colleen has gone missing. One of the hooks of this show has always been watching just how self-destructive Tommy is, and this episode, like many of the others, manages to find a lot of humor in the midst of such a serious situation. Some of it is more uncomfortable – like Tommy yelling at his dead son – while some is more conventional and flat-out silly, like Damien going from bar to bar with the idiotic duo that is Sean and Mike. Past wounds seem to have been forgotten, like Lou who is walking around as if he’s healthy as the day he was born and drunken Tommy who doesn’t even seem to care that Franco and Janet are sleeping together (as far as he knows). Tommy’s newly gleaned but hardly certifiable knowledge that his cousin, who back in season one used to be a priest, is now bedding Sheila should play out interestingly, though he has far more pressing things to deal with now that his daughter’s well-being has been severely put at risk. I’m sure this episode will have repercussions that will reverberate throughout the rest of the season if not the entire series, and Tommy’s path to being “rescued,” as the posters for this season stamp on his forehead, will have to take a serious detour.