'Rescue Me' series finale a brilliant sendoff

Comments on "The Closer," "Rizzoli & Isles" and the series finale of "Rescue Me."

First, I am so excited about the series finale of “The Closer” this week, Monday night on TNT. Kyra Sedgwick has done such an amazing job in her role as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson in seven seasons as head of what is now the Major Crimes Division at LAPD – it started out as Priority Murder Squad until Brenda pointed out the acronym.

The division has been remarkably stable. They’ve really only lost Det. Daniels since they started, and Det. Tau is usually the one now who has to step up and do the forensic accounting. Otherwise, Capt. Raydor has been hanging around a lot more, civilian consultant Buzz has been a little more front and center, and with Chief Delk’s untimely demise, Commander Taylor is essentially a man without a country, just lurking around the office these days.

I look forward to the groundwork they lay in for the “Major Crimes” spinoff, which I for one am much anticipating.

"The Closer" series finale airs Monday at 9/8c on TNT.

Rizzoli & Isles

And I do have an apology to make. Yes! A mistake that I made and I’m about to own up to it. I know I’m about a year and a half late on this apology so it’s going to seem like it’s very late and I really should’ve come around before now, but in fact it is Paul I need to apologize to, well, viewer Paul and the actors and the writers and the entire production staff over at TNT’s “Rizzoli & Isles.”

What was I thinking? Talking bad about this show based on the pilot episode, which I believe crammed an entire novel – that is, invented a serial killer, had him escape and then captured him again – into something like a 42-minute pilot episode? With all that going on it’s amazing we learned even the names of the title characters.

But when I wrote my initial review saying the storyline was too ambitious and stretched credibility too far, reader Paul said:

While I don't totally share your points in the review of Rizzoli & Isles, I do see some of them. I am a retired police officer with close to 35 years in law enforcement, both city police and federal. I find, in watching most of these types of programs, that the best philosophy is to "suspend belief" and not question too much. It is, after all, television. They have to cram weeks of investigation and following leads -- not all of which are viable -- into 60 minutes, minus commercial time outs. I found Rizzoli & Isles enjoyable, primarily because of Angie Harmon (pant, pant) and Sasha Alexander (I've loved her since NCIS). At least this show has some level of believable points. One that I cannot abide is The Closer. Besides her phoney southern accent, I cannot help think that no department, particularly one as large as LAPD, would import someone from outside the area and endow them with rank of an Assistant Chief of Police. My wife is enamored with this show and I can't stand it. Mostly I enjoy your reviews of shows that I have seen. This one (Rizzoli & Isles) I cannot share your criticism. And consider this: This was the first show. It will probably get better. We hope.

And that was from reader Paul in Minot.

And I have to say I am coming around on this point of view. Don’t get me wrong. “Rizzoli & Isles” hasn’t transformed into brilliant television. But what has happened is they’ve given the story a little bit of breathing room. The team of savvy detective and brilliant coroner do not need to clutch earnestly to ballpoint and scalpel through long their intrepid vigil over Beantown. There’s side stories, light comedy, character development, and not always standard television. I mean sure it was silly for Rizzoli to hide behind the door in Isles’ office to escape the glare of the imperious sensitivity trainer. But that was at least as much about how Isles was going to react, which was brilliant. “I believe she’s in the building, but I don’t see her right now.” Totally truthful, beautifully deflected.

There’s a “you dating mah brudder” storyline that I didn’t like in “Against the Wall” and I don’t like here. You’re best friends. It’s natural your best friend might find something attractive about your brother. They’re fully grown adults and it’s a fun point of tension. Roll with it. Especially since you’ve posed elsewhere as girlfriends to deflect someone else’s romantic attentions – again, very silly, but quite funny, given the characters.

The "Rizzoli & Isles" season finale is also coming up Monday at 10/9c on TNT.

Rescue Me

One entry that really walked a perfect line between funny and poignant this week was the series finale of “Rescue Me.” I’d complained about the wedding episode, saying it was sort of a lost opportunity. And on some level it was – they made stale racial jokes which just got worse and worse as more Gavins got drunk. But they set the stage for Janet to really consider Tommy’s recommitment to her, his job and their family, and put a nice little bow on the frenemyship between Janet and Shiela, which also wouldn’t have happened if Sheila hadn’t drunkenly demanded Janet and Tommy renew their vows and then got really upset about it and Janet had to calm her down while being irritated with her.

It did that thing which was important at this stage in the goodbye: It put the whole family in one place so as to wind up those interpersonal relationships. And Teddy throwing a coffee table from a balcony in a sombrero was just icing.

As for the finale itself, well, the wedding episode closed with an explosion in a burning building following Tommy’s promise to Janet that he’d put in for his retirement. The final episode opened with a city funeral for the five main firefighters – Tommy, Franco, Garrity, Mikey and Black Shawn – with the surviving Lieu, Ken Shea, easily Tommy’s best friend throughout the course of the show, presenting a beautiful and heartfelt eulogy.

Then Tommy wakes up. Roll opening credits.

In fact it’s the other way around. Ken died in the blast and his friends survived. Something like foreshadowing, really, given that they’ve been talking for more than a season about how Ken’s going to die in a fire because he’s in such awful shape.

The production follows Tommy trying to do Ken’s job and traces a few alternate realities where he gets drunk and smashes up Ken’s office, holding a mirror to the first season finale. One trip to a playground with Wyatt gives Janet a solid window on Tommy’s life in retirement, and I think we could’ve gone even darker, remembering what happened to Jerry in his retirement.

The show closed with exactly the right combination of humor and pathos. The five surviving firefighters are headed to scatter Ken’s ashes at sea when Mikey decides to open the box at the same time Black Shawn and Franco open their windows. In a single frame, the windshield goes gray, and the next scene is the firefighters covered in Lieu, trying to scrape him back into the box. Naturally for no especially compelling reason, Garrity ends up with quite a lot of Lieu down the back of his shorts, leading to a scene I am not going to describe but it involves the Highway Patrol.

The scattering service was lovely. Tommy read Ken’s “after-I-die” letter aloud, which was a brilliant way to say goodbye to the show. Then they closed as they opened, with Tommy browbeating a batch of new probies over how in their lives they will never hope to be as cool as the firefighters who gave their lives at Ground Zero and before and since, with Ken joining Tommy in his truck as a ghost for one last conversation.

Close on skyline. Absolutely beautiful.

“Rescue Me” has always been something of a problem. It has a lot of really important things to say about the lives being lived by real people, which it has tended to do with fully fleshed out characters and some of the best writing, development and pacing on television. But it focuses on the lives of such tough, blue-collar guys living their lives in such a storm of testosterone and adrenaline that they’re going to get into some really crazy situations, at work, yes, and in their personal lives. Not to mention Denis Leary is such a brilliant comedian he’s going to find the most wickedly devastaing situations for these characters to get into.

So while we’re talking about alcoholism, broken homes, estranged children, cancer in first responders, spiritual crises that leave people questioning their faith, family members struggling with Alzheimers, and oh jeez, the Gavins losing Connor, we’ve also got a crew of out-of-town firefighters getting really drunk and nearly burning down the firehouse with poorly thought out Sept. 11 memorial, Garrity dating a transsexual, Mikey asking him to help check him for testicular cancer and so many other ridiculous situations I’m not going to go into here.

It comes down to this: Crude as they occasionally get, the ridiculous situations get people watching, and once they’re watching you can keep their attention through the dramatic storylines for a true definition of “dramedy.” Excellent ride, gentlemen, all the way through to the end.

Doctor Who

Finally, before I get into my columns, this week featuring a guest commentary from my editor, I wanted to mention this past weekend’s installment of “Doctor Who” on BBC America. While as contrived as anything – the Doctor isn’t likely to bring Amy and Rory to a planet with multiple time streams, I mean seriously, that’s just asking for it. The Eye of Harmony in the Doctor’s time machine should have just glared at him and rematerialized them on the moon.

But as contrived as such a location even was – the opportunity for Karen Gillan to really explore her character of Amy Pond – taking her experience of the Doctor in her childhood, disappearing from her life from the age of 5 to the age of 19, and then extrapolating that as the Girl who Waited for another 36 years for the Doctor to get around to saving her again, this ridiculous and completely artificial situation opened the door for an intriguing character study, and when they finally resolved the storyline I’m not ashamed to say I cried. Powerful performances.