LITTLE ROCK — The roll call of outstanding summer drama continues today when Season 6 of Rescue Me debuts at 9 p.m. on FX.
Denis Leary returns as our hero, New York firefighter Tommy Gavin. It looks like a rough road ahead.
The series revolves around the complicated lives of the crew of New York’s 62 Truck. The show examines the daily drama, the nature of the relationships of firefighters and their frequently messy personal lives.
The plan is to have only 10 episodes this season and conclude next summer in order to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The destruction of the World Trade Center is the background for the series’ emotional conflicts.
The overreaching arc of the final two seasons will be the deeply flawed Tommy’s recognition of just how much he is in need of being rescued and how time is fast running out for his last shot at redemption.
Here’s what you need to know to get you started on Season 6.
As you might recall, Season 5 ended with Tommy being shot (twice) by his Uncle Teddy (Lenny Clarke). Teddy was distraught over the death of his wife (Patti D’Arbanville) in a crash after an evening of drinking with Tommy and the guys.
The cliffhanger was that Teddy left Tommy to bleed to death. Well, Tommy didn’t die, but the incident seems to have gotten his attention.
In the Season 6 opener, Tommy has a terrifying glimpse of his possible afterlife. It includes his fallen 9/11 comrades and victims he failed to save from fires. They guide him into a world that’s horrifying and all too real. It is a vision of Tommy’s personal hell.
Following all this, everyone around Tommy is trying to make sure his last drunken binge was the final one.
His first day back on the job brings three calls during a single shift. Tommy rescues a priest from a burning church and hopes he’ll be offered some perspective on his brush with death.
Meanwhile, funding is at an all-time low at 62 Truck and the station is put on the chopping block. The guys concoct a plan to gain neighborhood support, but the plan has flaws.
Most disturbing, Tommy’s daughter Colleen (Natalie Distler) has a drinking problem, too, and it has gotten out of hand much to his horror.
Rescue Me is an intense and intensely satisfying drama that’s not for everyone. It’s also rated TV-MA for mature audiences because of VSL - graphic violence, explicit sexual activity and crude language.
Fortunately, the series also contains a good deal of charming humor.
Adult humor.
FX follows Rescue Me with the debut of the new sitcom Louie at 10 p.m. The show stars stand-up comic Louis C.K. His birth name is Louis Szekely and his Hungarian family pronounces their surname something close to C-K. Louis just made C.K. his stage name to end all the pronunciation questions.
The series will be something different. Each episode will feature C.K.’s trademark observational humor combined with scripted short films about his other life as a newly divorced single father raising two daughters.
Thirteen episodes have been shot. The series is rated TV-MA because of language and adult situations.
Summer reminders.
Here are a few more of the series set to debut this summer.
Haven, 9 p.m. July 9, Syfy. Emily Rose (ER) plays an FBI agent investigating weird supernatural stuff in Maine. Where are Mulder and Scully?
The Bridge, 7 p.m. July 10, CBS. Canadian series about a dedicated policeman (Aaron Douglas, Battlestar Galactica) fighting corruption on the force.
How disposable is this series? It’s airing on Saturday nights. Nothing airs on Saturday nights.
Rizzoli & Isles, 9 p.m. July 12, TNT. Angie Harmon is a police detective and Sasha Alexander is a medical examiner. They fight crime in Boston.
The Glades, 9 p.m. July 13, A&E. Yet another police procedural series. Yes, another one. This time relatively unknown Australian actor Matt Passmore plays a Chicago homicide detective who moves to a sleepy Florida town and discovers crime running rampant.
Pillars of the Earth, 9 p.m. July 23, Starz. Sweepingminiseries set in 12th-century England. Ian McShane and Donald Sutherland are featured.
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Style, Pages 30 on 06/29/2010