New Addictions

My favorite new TV show is Rescue Me, starring & written & produced by Denis Leary. It's about New York firemen. i know it sounds lame to say this, but it's got it all. VERY funny at times, but also downright gritty & creative. Here's a brief synopsis in case you catch an episode & want to know what's going on (& cuz i have no life):

Denis Leary is Tommy Gavin, an Irish NY firefighter trying to cope w/his bad marraige, his drinking problem, & his cousin Jimmy's death on 9/11. His marraige hits the skids right around the time he goes to dinner with Jimmy's widow Sheila. Long story short, Sheila ends up pregnant. (Later she has a miscarriage, she & Tommy break up, & she becomes lesbian with an abusive girlfriend) Tommy almost gets fellow firefighter Franco (who's VERY easy on the eyes, girls) killed & Franco, who recently became the single parent of a little girl by his gonzo ex-girlfriend, gets addicted to pain killers while beginning a relationship with Laura, the only woman at Ladder 62. Mike is the rookie who worries he might be gay after he, um, responds to a male doctor during a check for testicular cancer. Chief Reilly is a nice guy trying to keep Ladder 62 from going to heck & making awkward efforts toward accepting his son's homosexuality, but his wife is struggling from a mean case of Alzheimers (& i think she killed herself on Tuesday night). Kenny, aka Lou, got divorced after he & his wife both discovered that the other was having an affair. Now he's trying to help his current girlfriend buy her freedom from her pimp. Tommy's dad John is a crazy old irishman who went off & married a crazy old Chinese millionaire with like, 19 cats. She keels over & dies while John's away & gets partially eaten by her cats. Instead of getting his $62 million, John gets $50,000. (The rest goes to a cat cancer charity.) Out of the blue a priest contacts Tommy & his bro Johnny, a detective, to tell them that he's the illegitimate son of their father. Oh yeah, & Tommy is 'visited' regularly by his dead cousin Jimmy, Jesus, & other not-alive people. He has a crazy imagination. AND, on Tuesday night, Tommy & Janet's son Connor was killed by a hit & run while out riding his bike.

i know what you're thinking: This is a depressing soap opera disguised as a firefighter show & Kallie's an idiot. But i promise it really is good drama! and it really is funny! Tommy is a fascinating character, despite the rough edges. Anyway, i like it and Josh does too, so watch it sometime.