In Contention

Tag: Rescue Me

  • 10 years

    I don’t want to really dig in here or anything. It’s just a mark of time. There was an open sore in lower Manhattan tied up by bureaucracy, partisan nonsense and greed that became embarrassing, a symbol for a country so gridlocked by internal machinations that perhaps the truly poignant thing would have been to leave things undone. Because so much is still undone and unaccomplished and halted that a formerly proud beacon of progress is being lapped.

    I hear the aircraft flying in formation above my house. I know as soon as I flip on the TV it will be wall-to-wall coverage, lazy and disingenuous in its stance of looking back, remembering and reflecting. But the only reflection I can muster is on a country that thinks it’s special for the tragedy of 2001. Welcome to the world, America, where terrible things happen every day.

    That’s more negative than I really want it to be. But I’ve already mourned. I’ve already reflected. And I’m just bracing myself for a day that is used as an excuse to fill broadcast time and empty column inches (like these). We cover the world of filmed entertainment here, and even in that frame, I find it fascinating that it’s been nearly nine years since a truly impactful piece built on the specter of that day has landed. Paul Greengrass’s “United 93” was brave but clinical. Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center” was moving but rote. Mike Binder’s “Reign Over Me” was thoughtful but contained.

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  • More with Leary

    Denis LearyJust before I ducked out on vacation last week (big thanks to Guy for keeping the boat afloat), you might have caught my interview with comedian Denis Leary of FX’s “Rescue Me.”  Even though TV isn’t something we cover much around here, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to chat with a personal favorite of MTV’s glory years and the star/co-creator of one of my favorite cable shows.  We talked about “Rescue Me,” of course, but we dived into MTV’s decade-long funk, Leary’s Emerson background and NFL football, among other things.

    Over at the LA Times, Choire Sicha has taken some time out with Leary, with Thursday’s Emmy nominations looming ahead (Leary has been nominated twice for the show but has not won the award yet).  Most of it is softball stuff, the questions pretty pat on the whole.  But it’s branded a “Sunday Conversation,” so I guess a little froth is okay.  As expected, however, Leary offers bizarre insight even if the questions lack it, such as one random (but oddly precise) reaction to a question about his son recently shipping off to college (also at Emerson), a moment he describes as “a combination of jealousy, rage, envy, fear.”

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  • INTERVIEW: 20 questions with Denis Leary

    Denis LearyWe rarely cover television with any real focus around these parts, but as you’ve probably gathered from my sporadic posts on the matter, I’m really digging the new season of “Rescue Me.”  So it was a little difficult to pass up an opportunity to sit down with the film’s star and co-creator Denis Leary recently.

    With the Emmy nominations set to be unveiled next week (7/9), it seemed the perfect time to get together.  Leary was nominated for his performance as FDNY firefighter Tommy Gavin two years in a row in 2006 and 2007, but was unfortunately ignored last year.  Perhaps this new, electrifying season will put him back in the awards saddle as he seeks his first win in the category of Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.

    Leary, of course, got his first big break on MTV, where his chain-smoking, ranting misanthrope appealed to the pent-up angst of the network’s target audience.  From stand-up to film roles and finally a break-out FX series, now in its fifth season, Leary has continued to stretch himself both as a writer and an actor.  His most recent big screen appearance hit screens yesterday in the form of “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.”  Leary voices the sabertooth tiger Diego in the successful franchise.

    On a drizzly Santa Monica afternoon last month we met for lunch and discussed his versatile career, from his early years at Emerson College in Boston to his recently released best-selling comedy book, the edgeless MTV of today to his distant cousin Conan O’Brien’s assuming the “Tonight Show” throne on NBC late night.  Oh yeah, and plenty of football talk between fellow devotees, for all the gridiron fanatics out there.  There’s a little something for everybody…

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  • ‘Rescue Me’ is on fire this season

    Anyone watching this?  Best season yet.  Leary’s monologue at the end of this clip (from last night’s episode) is an Emmy clip if I ever saw one:

  • Tom O’Neil’s Emmy intervention with Denis Leary

    I don’t know how many fellow “Rescue Me” fans are out there, but if you’ve been watching this season, you know that the FX series is probably hitting its most powerful stretch.  Everyone is on their game, the writing is as crisp as ever and frankly, if ever a case has been glaringly obvious for some Emmy love to finally come actor and writer Denis Leary’s way, this is the year.

    Tom O’Neil over at Gold Derby, with his brilliantly obsessive awards analysis, has put up a two-part video webchat with Leary that you have to check out.  It’s fun to watch Leary run through the list of names he’d be up against: Keifer Sutherland, James Gandolfini, Hugh Laurie, Gabriel Byrne.  “Wow, I’m really screwed,” he says.  “Those guys know me and I probably owe them money.”

    O’Neil gives some sterling advice on which episodes to submit for Emmy consideration.  Brilliant.  I loved this.  And kudos on the Cobra T-shirt.  Here’s the podcast in two parts: