to the rescue

last week, i had the pleasure to attend the "rescue me" premiere event at radio city music hall. the show premiered last night on fx, but i didn't watch because i saw the season premiere at the event last week. duh.

in fact, the episode i watched last week on a big screen in radio city music hall was the first episode of rescue me that i had ever seen. and i had only gone to the event on the promise that i would see denis leary do some stand up.

see, i am a denis leary fan but i didn't think that a show about fires and the damaged men that fight them would really be something that i would enjoy. true to form, leary was a mess and a half on screen, cursing out everyone ala tom cruise in tropic thunder. but tom cruise in tropic thunder was hilarious, and i never expected that rescue me would deliver that same sort of side splitting hilarity. but it totally did. and not just from denis leary. the show did deal with some heavy topics, like death, divorce, interracial relationships, fucked up family relationships, alcoholism, sex and fireworks, but the tongue-in-cheek comedy and otherwise blatant jokes kept you from getting emotionally bogged down.

i thoroughly enjoyed it, actually. and after the show's season premiere, we got to see denis leary do more than 30 minutes of stand up, followed by three other acts, all actors on rescue me. nick di paolo was okay, lenny clarke was funny but adam ferrara had me crying. ferrara, who plays leary's chief on rescue me but who looks way to young for the job, was hilarious and when his comedy special inevitably ends up on comedy central, i will most definitely be tivoing it.

also programmed on my dvr: rescue me. they may be trying to lure back previous viewers with their tour, since the show has been off the air for 19 months thanks to last year's writers strike, but they are also luring new watchers. like me!