By Matthew Wood
Have you ever met a family as messed up as the Gavins? I would use some sort of “fun back in dysfunctional” joke, but this debacle of a clan is more tragic than anything.
This was never more evidenced than the dual intervention for Maggie (Tatum O’Neill) and Uncle Teddy (Lenny Clarke), where the whole family got together, almost killed each other, then decided to form its own Alcoholics Anonymous chapter. Yeah, that’ll work out.
The scariest part is that Tommy (Denis Leary) might be the most stable one of them all – even though he’s dealing with a wife who steals back the baby he sold to his ex-lover and a mysterious fling who leaves him, um, a bit unsatisfied. So I guess maybe “stable” isn’t the best word to describe any of these fools.
Just like Tommy’s life, the show is quickly spinning out of control. But while that may not be a good thing for alcoholics, it’s certainly entertaining television.
It’s like Tommy just can’t stay away from the drama. As we leave this week’s episode, he’s teaching Mikey (Mike Lombardi) a lesson after the poor kid tries to kill himself. But his attempt to scare the kid by jumping off a building goes horribly wrong, and we leave him stranded on a broken fire escape – just like so many of the people he saves from burning buildings, helpless and praying for their lives.
But we all know Tommy’s not gonna die … yet. His train wreck of a life is just too fascinating. It’s like reading about Lindsay Lohan: You know it ain’t gonna be good, and you’re not even really rooting for her, but you still can’t stop following it.
At least Tommy has the hockey rink as an outlet, even if he is playing for the hated NYPD team as a tribute to his dead brother. He gets a chance to take out some of this unchecked aggression while leading the team to an 11-0 win over the FDNY team in some sort of memorial game for his brother. Ahh, if he could only stay on the ice forever, all his troubles would just melt away.
But that’s not possible. And besides, FX would never let a show like that on the air. I mean, who the hell watches hockey anymore?