Rescue Me-Complete First Season (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-Dennis Leary And Peter Tolan - Pilot Episode, Sanctuary Outtakes Featurette-How It All Began Featurette-Authenticity Featurette-The Cast Featurette-The Look Trailer-Sneak Peek At Season 2 Deleted Scenes
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	556:39
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (4)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Jace Alexander Adam Bernstein John Fortenberry Jefery Levy
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Denis Leary Mike Lombardi James McCaffrey Jack McGee Steven Pasquale Andrea Roth John Scurti Daniel Sunjata Diane Farr Natalie Distler Charles Durning Olivia Crocicchia Trevor Heins
Case	?
RPI	$49.95	Music	Christopher Tyng

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Hindi English for the Hearing Impaired English Audio Commentary	Smoking	Yes, and lots of it.
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    If you like your dark humour thick and almost painful like Turkish coffee, then you absolutely must see Denis Leary's bitter and almost sadistic comedy drama Rescue Me.

    Set in the wake of the events of 11 September 2001, Rescue Me tells the story of a group of New York City firefighters all failing to cope with the loss of their comrades in the collapse of the twin towers at the World Trade Centre. The central character of this bleak drama/comedy is Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary). An Irish Catholic divorced from his wife (Andrea Roth) and separated from his three children, Tommy has moved in across the street to stay close to his kids … and also to spy on his ex and sabotage her relationships with any prospective suitors. He also has a drinking problem, is far less choosy about who he spends his nights with than his ex wife, his father – an ex-firefighter from the old days – has left his mother and shacked up with his uncle to blow his money on drugs, alcohol and prostitutes, and to top it all off, Tommy has started seeing dead people – primarily the cousin he lost on September 11 (James McCaffrey), and whose widow (Callie Thorne) he now can't seem to avoid.

    But just because Tommy is the most messed up of his crew, don't think for an instant that his co-workers aren't also suffering their own brand of melt down. We have:

• Chief Reilly (Jack McGee), whose gambling debts are spiralling out of control and whose relationship with his family is far from ideal;
• Kenny Shea (John Scurti), whose loveless marriage is compounded only by his post-traumatic stress disorder and his inability to express himself in poetry;
• Franco Rivera (Daniel Sunjata), whose womanising lifestyle is about to have repercussions;
• probationers Sean Garrity (Steven Pasquale) and Mike Silletti (Mike Lombardi), part of the Gen-Y crew with their own set of problems and who are treated as a lesser class for having “missed out” on 9/11; and
• female recruit Laura Miles (Diane Farr), who not only has to be “one of the boys” but also retain her femininity in order to maintain any credibility amongst her peers.

Rest assured, by the end of the season, they will all be resting in their own private version of hell, and it's only down hill from there into the second season. Truly, this makes Extras look charming.

    Although Leary is the central lynchpin for the show, it would be foolish to discount the remainder of the cast for what they add. This is, ultimately, a grand ensemble piece where the actors inhabit their characters with such conviction that it’s hard not to feel their plight, despite how awkward the scenarios become. And the clever writing styles used by the creators of this show create new amusing sequences – note in particular the phone calls which are subtitled with what the speakers actually mean, despite what they’re saying. Very funny.

    This show is amazing. A truly human drama that smoulders with more dark humour than most sitcoms could ever dream of attaining. Sick, twisted, tragic, but oh, so very, very funny - I cannot sing its praises high enough. You owe it to yourself to get a copy of this and its following seasons pronto.

    The following is a breakdown of how these episodes are distributed across the 4 discs of this season. For those of you who need a complete episode summary, you can get one at TV.com.

Disc 1

• 1. Guts (43:06)
• 2. Gay (40:56)
• 3. Kansas (41:32)

Disc 2

• 4. DNA (42:09)
• 5. Orphans (42:49)
• 6. Revenge (41:19)

Disc 3

• 7. Butterfly (43:32)
• 8. Inches (43:03)
• 9. Alarm (43:26)

Disc 4

• 10. Immortal (43:54)
• 11. Mom (42:22)
• 12. Leaving (42:31)
• 13. Sanctuary (46:00)

Video

    Shot on with a hand-held Sony HDW-F900 on HDTV Digital Video this transfer is mastered in the original aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced. In short, this transfer looks awesome.

    Although most shows to date filmed on digital video have suffered somewhat from the slow response time lag that inevitably leaves contrails behind bright lights, none of that is evident here – the picture is sharp, well defined and very clear. Further, the lack of artificial lighting enables the show to retain a gritty realism and enhanced shadow detail. There is a bit of graininess as a result, particularly in night shots, but nothing too severe.

    Colour saturation is good, though this has clearly been shot through some sort of filter that gives it an unusually bright look. As a result, reds are far more intense than any other colour in the spectrum on this show – hardly surprising given it is the colour of both fire and the fire trucks.

    There are no MPEG artefacts and no film-to-video transfer artefacts – this was filmed on video. Consequently, there are also no film artefacts.

    Subtitles are available in the languages set out above. I watched the English subtitles. They are white with a black border, clear and easy to read, and the follow the dialogue fairly closely – enough to get the gags, anyway.

    The dual layer pauses fall in the middle of the second episode on discs 1, 2 and 3, all well placed on scene changes and still moments where they are barely noticeable. The layer change on disc 4 is invisible and I suggest that chances are it falls in between the 2nd and 3rd episodes on that disc.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Audio is available in English in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo (192Kb/s) only.

    Despite being limited to stereo, this is a very good soundtrack, with clear dialogue, great surround effects even if just across the front stage, and some excellent bass, particularly during fire sequences and with the music.

    Sadly, no subwoofer use unless you use your system to redirect the bass.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menus

    The main menus are presented in 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced. There is a short lead in to the main menu. The main menu itself shows cuts from the series title credits, and has a 2.0 Dolby Stereo audio track of the theme music. The other menus are static and silent.

Episode Audio Commentaries

    Presented 2.0 Dolby Surround, the following episodes have audio commentaries:

• 1. Guts (Disc 1)
• 13. Santuary (Disc 4)

Gag Reel (6:53) (Disc 1)

    Presented in 1.33:1 Full Frame, 2.0 Dolby Stereo. Some amusing stuff ups here.

Featurettes (Disc 1)

    Presented in 1.33:1 Full Frame, 2.0 Dolby Stereo, there are the following featurettes:

• How It All Began (13:43)
• Authenticity (17:25)
• The Cast (16:43)
• The Look (10:42)

Sneak Peak at Season 2 (3:54) (Disc 1)

    Presented in 1.33:1 Full Frame, 2.0 Dolby Stereo.

Deleted Scenes (Disc 2)

    Presented in 1.78:1 inset in a 1.33:1 Full Frame, with 2.0 Dolby Stereo sound.

    The R1 release looks to be identical in content, albeit compressed on 3 discs rather than spread over 4 discs. That means the only real differences are NTSC and Region Coding. Buy whichever is cheapest.

    Rescue Me is one of the best comedy dramas on TV at the moment. Though you have to stay up late to catch it on Australian TV, it’s worth the effort: though for my money, skip the ads and just grab it on DVD.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall