There was a time in my life when I remember Denis Leary as this leather jacket wearing, cigarette in the hand, sipping Vodka on stage, tell em’ how it is type of comedian. His comedy would be rapid fire and it could be about anything from childhood memories to why not to do blow. Seeing him in the final two seasons of Rescue Me, the only two seasons I’ve ever seen of the show, I feel left out. Apparently the Denis Leary of my childhood was alive and well in earlier seasons and now he limps onto my screen like an abused puppy too afraid to bark. The good news is that the show is available for me to peruse, at my leisure, on Netflix, so I can always go back and revisit the seasons where Denis Leary plays himself. Unfortunately these last two seasons are lost on me.

Enter Tommy Gavin, fresh off being shot and killed, momentarily, in the fifth season. Coming out of the hospital his friends and family pull a tough love intervention, and from here on the show is overdramatic and poorly for the sake of comedy. Gavin finds that his co-workers have been to his house on a regular basis while he was hospitalized and that one of them (Daniel Sunjata) is still in constant communication with his wife. It’s at moments where Gavin is a bit perplexed by the fact that his wife keeps calling and inviting the boys over, and Gavin, whose trying to turn over a new leaf and can only act like a stuttering idiot, well these moments are hard to swallow. The construction of them within the story makes no sense and the reactions to them by Gavin are convoluted. I also keep reading that the show kind of hit its peak in season 3 and that everything after became the Tommy Gavin show. I have to agree. While the cast was extensive these final two seasons felt like it was basically a show about Tommy Gavin and everyone else in the show were simply background characters without much depth.

I guess if you’re a die hard fan this would be a great buy for you. The season only runs about $24 at Amazon (That’s twelve bucks a season) and its two seasons in one. Bonus features are pretty good. You’ve got a Gag Reel, The Creators Last Call feature, Balls!, Deleted Scenes, and Kicking The Ashes and Mopping Up: An Attempt To Remember Season 6. Even if you just want to buy it to see it the resale value is still looking pretty good right now and you get all of this in one package. Well worth checking out for that alone. As always final judgment is yours. Enjoy.