I'm at home today thanks to mild laryngitis, I might be able to put up the latest Damages episode later, it depends because there is work going on in the hallway outside my flat and it's a little too disruptive for watching TV. But what I can do is write about something I watched earlier this month, and that is the DVD set containing the second season of Rescue Me.

For the first season look here.


Starring:
Denis Leary as Tommy Gavin
Mike Lombardi as Mike Silletti
Steven Pasquale as Sean Garrity
Andrea Roth as Janet Gavin
Daniel Sunjata as Franco Rivera
John Scurti as Kenny Shea
Callie Thorne as Shelia Keefe
Jack McGee as Jerry Riley
Diane Farr as Laura Miles
and James McCaffrey as Jimmy Keefe

The second season of Rescue Me continues the story of Tommy Gavin; now banished to Staten Island and the assorted members of Engine 62, who have now adjusted to the presence of Laura as a member of the team and welcomed Tommy's replacement - Sully - with open arms. Tommy is desperate to return to Engine 62 and also to locate his now missing family, taken by his wife Janet at the end of the last season.

The second season is filled with hard times for the members of Engine 62, over the course of the season some of the members get conned, stalk their ex-girlfriend, lose loved ones, date people, break up and much, much more. This season remains true to the style of the first season, mixing drama and hard times with comedic moments expertly.

If I did have a complaint about the show it's that the plotting is a little obvious, you'll quite often correctly predict what's going to happen in advance because the show tends to be a little transparent and very keen on karmic justice. Even when you do accurately predict what's going to happen it doesn't diminish the enjoyment, you'll continue to watch rooted as the train wreck unfolds.

I'm trying to avoid talking about specific spoilers here, but I can say that the second season contains some huge moments for the characters in the show, moments which will excite or sadden you with equal measure. The second season takes the foundation the first season laid out and builds on it beautifully. There's a reason FX have renewed this show for a sixth season before the fifth one has even aired, and that reason is this show is brilliant.


The Packaging:
As I mentioned previously this set is produced in the same packaging style as The Shield, which means each season looks very similar when you have them on the shelf. There's no Fremantle Homicide: Life on the Street shenanigans here, the sets look good on the shelf next to each other and the look good when you take each one out.

The cover art is very stylish and evocative while the back manages to be both informative and attractive to look at. Just about the only complaint I have about this set is the positioning of the Rescue Me logo on the spine of the set. Oddly it's not in the same location as the first season, it's higher placed, which means they look a little off when you have them on the shelf next to each other. But this is a problem which occurs in most DVD sets, you'd think they'd have a quality control man to avoid something like this.

The Extras:
There is a pretty average smattering of extras on the discs, the deleted scenes are good and the featurettes are excellent:

-- Deleted Scenes
-- Season Three Trailer
-- Audio Commentary for the First and Last episodes
-- Featurettes
-- Blooper Reel

The Details:
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Wide screen
Languages: English, Spanish, French
Region: 2
Runtime: 9 Hours 11 mins
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English - HOH, Arabic, Dutch, English, French, Hindi, Portuguese, Spanish

The Price:
Just like the first season of Rescue Me, it's Sendit who have the best price right now. Offering the set for £12.89, which is 2.3 ppm. A great score in any book.


If you've watched and enjoyed the first season of Rescue Me then this is an absolute no-brainer, the second season improves on the first one in almost every aspect. There is one issue with watching Rescue Me here in the UK, only the first two seasons have been released so far.