RESCUE ME

Season four of Denis Leary and Peter Tolan's masterpiece RESCUE ME ended last night. I hate that fact. One of my favorite shows over the last four years, RESCUE ME is one of the most intricate character dramas that I've ever seen. If you aren't up to speed with the show, do yourself a favor and rent all of the previous seasons. You'll constantly be rewarded with great writing, incredible fire-fighting action scenes, a copious amount of tough-guy fire-house banter, some hot sex scenes, and a positively electrifying lead performance from Denis Leary. Now I have been a fan of Leary's since middle-school when I heard his stand up act "No Cure for Cancer" on cassette tape. At the time, I didn't quite understand everything he joked about; I just knew that he liked to say the word fuck a lot and that made me laugh. But over the years, Leary has struggled to find something to call his own, landing small supporting roles in a slew of average to above-average movies, and then his own, short-lived (but excellent) tv show "The Job." RESCUE ME has given this talented actor and comedian an outlet to showcase his abilities, and episode after episode, the viewer is reminded of the depth of his abilites. Having written a mjority of the episodes along with co-creator Tolan, Leary has given each character their own distinct voice and personna, and I'd be lying if I said that I'm not emotitonally invested in everyone on the show. It's a tough, dark ride at times (9/11, suicide, alcoholism, child-death, parental-death, drug abuse have all been featured) and the flights of surreal fancy that occured in the earlier seasons were downright spooky at times. But this is one of the best hour-long shows of all time, one that makes you laugh, cry, and get angry all in the same hour. And the closing moments of last night's season finale were just terrific. Sad, but terrific just the same. I really hope that Leary nabs his well-deserved Emmy for best actor this weekend. He deserves it. Can't wait for next summer for the show to start back up.