Nuts

If you remember, a few weeks back I handed in my testies after I started to watch Grey's Anatomy. Well, I can proudly say they are firmly re-attached now. Thanks to Denis Leary and Rescue Me. The show is now starting it's third season so I might be a little late here. It was always a show I wanted to watch but on a channel I usually forgot about when it came to prime-time TV. I caught an episode or so here and there, parts of a few others and wanted to see more. But you can't just jump into a series like this. As is the case with many shows nowadays, you have to watch them all in order to fully enjoy them as well as follow.

So, the other day I wondered into Blockbuster to pick up the first few episodes on DVD. And now it's in my routine to watch a few every night to try and get caught up. I have to liken it to my two favorite shows, although it's not as strong, The Sopranos and Entourage. Like Sopranos, you have a main character who you watch struggle with all of his internal demons. Be a good father, or a selfish prick. Win back the soon to be ex-wife, or chase every skirt. Run into a burning building and be a hero, slam a car door on a guy for honking at you at a red light. As Tony struggles with his family and his Family, so does Tommy. And like Entourage, we have a show here that is very honest with how guys actually are. And the setting for all this, a group of firemen in a post 9-11 NYC.

And in way 9-11 plays another character on the show. One everyone else has to interact with and deal with. A character that has amazing depth and at sometimes the strangest sense of humor. The fact they are able to incorporate 9-11 in such a real way, without ever being sappy or just playing that string for a cheap emotional reaction from the viewer is one of the most brilliant moves in TV history. I saw Flight 93, I want to see United 93 as well as Oliver Stones World Trade Center. I urge everyone to rent "The Guys" with Sigourney Weaver, and till this day if there's something on TV about 9-11 I can't turn it off. This show though, just speaks for all the people that were there and what they are still going through today. One of the last episodes I watched had one character, Kenny Shea, who has been writing poetry to deal with 9-11. He's asked to share it with a support group of people dealing with Post-traumatic stress in the wake of 9-11. And his reaction to finding out that none of these people were actually there or directly effected is nothing short of brilliant.

Do yourself a favor, rent the DVD and start setting the DVR.