Went back and re-watched. It gets better every time. Amazing writing.

Rescue Me is an amazing show that is a powerful meditation on post 9/11 society and a tribute to the hard work and service that firefighters do every day. It is a bold show that touches on risky topics that TV shows rarely touch on these days(looking at you Disney Chanel). It features some of the best writing and cinematography in modern TV shows. It also perfectly blends fleshed out characters, humour, and great performances including Denis Leary who also created and co-wrote the show exhibits perfect writing skill as well as dramatic and comedic range as Tommy Gavin and he should have won a Golden Globe for his efforts. Rescue Me is a great watch for any mature audience.

Through the entire 93 episodes Denis Leary's character is a hard one to like. Continually argumentative, self-centered and destructive to himself and those around him, it would only be as a television character that anyone would have any long term interest in him (this might be said for several of the characters in the show). And without Andrea Roth.. bit.ly/13jVfjP .. in her role as a calming, entrancing, counterbalance, it most likely would not have been a seven season series. One big positive.. the series actually had a planned ending... many programs do not, they just leave the viewers annoyingly hanging, as the shows get slipshod cancelled by the networks.

It's hard to believe this show has come to its end. I have watched it since the first episode aired in 2004. It's almost surreal that it won't be airing anymore. To think the show started when I was 18 and ended when I was 25. That's no small chunk of my life. I think this is the first show I've actually watched from first to last episode from original airing time. (not including shows that were cancelled prematurely) most shows I either start later in the series (so I know it has momentum) or wait till the entire series is done then watch the DVD's.Rescue Me always held a special place for me, for reasons I mentioned, but I always liked all of the characters. No character was perfect, all were funny, had great stories. I cared about them, even the later additions to the show. I didn't want any of them to die throughout the series, but I had often said that there were a few characters I wouldn't have a problem with leaving the show. But much to my surprise, the core cast stuck with the show through the entire run. With a few exceptions of course. The show was funny, thought provoking, and at times tear-jerking. Often, all within a matter of minutes of each other.By the time season 3 had finished airing, I felt the show was only getting better. Then season 4 started airing...and my feelings were right. The first two episodes were great. But then something happened (spoilers after this) at the end of Season 4, Episode 2. The Chief of the house, Jerry Reilly, a man who was a central character committed suicide. While I was upset about this, I always was excited to see how that would propel all the other characters' stories. I was sad to see that it didn't propel them at all. There was a five minute focus on Jerry's death, and then all the characters were more or less over it. From then on, something just seemed off about the show. I was still enjoying it, but I wasn't feeling the dire need to catch every episode. I still did, out of loyalty and the moderate entertainment the show provided for the res of season 4 and all of season 5. Then season 6 aired...it was awful in my opinion. It was getting to the point where many of the characters outside the firehouse were so over-used, and many of them could have been written out or killed off by season 3's end. Yet they kept coming back and the stories started going nowhere. Tommy Gavin was the only person getting stories, all of the other characters would just come and go if there was a scene with Tommy. It was to the point I wasn't even going to tune in for season 7. But season 7 was the final season, I figured I'd tough it out till the end.Season 7 started off much like season 6 (they were filmed as one season but split into 2) the first two episodes were the worst yet. I was so disappointed I decided I'd only give the show one more episode. Thank God I did, because that episode was the best in a long time, and the show continued to have good, to great episodes right till the finale.Now for the finale; it starts off with a switcharoo. The second-last episode ends with a huge explosion in which all the characters were trapped inside a building. The show opens with Lou being the only survivor (which was deeply upsetting. Though Lou and Garrity were my favourite characters, to kill off the entire crew was just a middle finger to the audience) but then Tommy wakes to find that was a dream. I let a sigh of relief go, but then we find out that Lou had died and the rest of them had made it out with a few bumps and bruises. The final episode does not deal with anger and frustration of Tommy losing his best friend and the crew their Lieutenant. Instead it brings the crew and Tommy's family closer together and they let go of their angst. I won't go into more detail as I'm still absorbing the final episode. But I will say, even though there was a death of one of my two favourite characters. The show had a surprisingly happy ending.