RESCUE ME - "Legacy"

Tonight, while watching episode one of RESCUE ME's 6th and final season, I came to a sudden realization. RESCUE ME has the same problem that SIX FEET UNDER had in it's final season. Both shows have reputations as being "dark" and "edgy", and both shows, unfortunately, have tried a little too strongly to adhere to those two adjectives at times. SIX FEET UNDER became a bit of a mope-fest in it's final seasons, trying far too hard to stay true to it's dark roots by going completely overboard and making the show a parody of itself. Luckily, it managed to rein itself in and go out on a high note in it's last few episodes. I seriously hope RESCUE ME is able to do the same because there was almost no sign of the show I used to love in tonight's premiere.

That's not entirely true, I suppose. All of the issues and themes that have been present from the beginning of the show (Tommy's alcoholism, Survivor's guilt, etc.) were present in "Legacy", only they felt completely overdone and stale. The pre-credits scene was so over-the-top I could hardly believe my eyes. It doesn't surprise me that Tommy would have a "heaven-and-hell" dream/fantasy/whatever after he'd been shot, it surprised me that there wasn't even a hint of subtlety in the execution. Tommy was in heaven with his fallen comrades, then he was in hell inside a burning building. Really? No metaphor at all? I could have shrugged that off if everything else afterward hadn't have been just as hackneyed. Mickey's "harrowing" car ride going the wrong way on the freeway was so over-the-top, I expected Tommy to wake up from that encounter too.

The other storylines suffered from the sledgehammer subtlety as well. Teddy promises to kill him if he drinks again, Colleen is becoming an alcoholic, Sheila wants him because they're both insane (I think that was the reasoning), and Janet's storyline made no sense. She moved the kids in with him so he could drink himself stupid in front of them? WHAT? The only scenes that felt normal were the firehouse scenes; they weren't revelatory, but the looseness and camaraderie present in them was a welcome respite from everything else.

Having said all this, I'm still in for the rest of the season. I think all the plotlines presented for this season are interesting enough that they could be genuinely interesting if given subtler treatment than they were in "Legacy". I don't know if the show is capable of the dark insight that it used to pull off so well but I hope it can pull off the course correction it needs. SIX FEET UNDER managed it, after all.

C-