By Matthew Wood

Man, I love the Gavin family. Who else would start their own Alcoholics Anonymous group, then start cheating off each other while going through the steps? That’s some good ol’ dysfunctional family fun.

But for Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary) that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to messed up relationships. Take his love life, for example. He’s been “dating” two chicks: One is a seriously deranged sex fiend who just now told him her name (Valerie, apparently). The other is the chief’s daughter, a bi-polar mess who is … well, she’s just messed up.

He sees both of them this week, but neither is very fruitful. Poor bastard, he’s just trying to have a normal relationship – or at least some normal sex. Yeah Tommy , don’t we all.

But I guess that’s kind of the theme of the show. The jacked up relationships just keep on coming. Case in point: Lou’s inevitable courtship of his cousin’s BBB girlfriend is only a matter of time, especially after she makes him some chocolate-marshmallow pizza. Hell, who wouldn’t hook up with their cousin’s girl if she’s making that kind of dessert?

Then there’s Franco (Daniel Sunjata), who has resorted to stalking ex-fiancée Natalie and her new beau with her retarded brother – yeah that’s a healthy thing to do.

I could go on and on, but you get the picture. Things are messed up in the house. You could probably compare it to a fire – you know it’s a tragic scene, but you can’t stop watching. Fortunately for the show, that’s definitely how I feel. I can’t get enough of these guys. I could watch the Gavin family argue with each other all day, especially when they make fun of Sean. Now that’s entertainment.


And speaking of Shawns, the probie (who has now become known as Black Shawn) proves that black guys could totally play hockey, if it weren’t for that damn ice. He takes Tommy to school in some street hockey, pissing him off even more – and you don’t want to piss Tommy off.

I loved the hockey scenes, but could you put any more Vitamin Water product placements in a two-minute stretch? Seriously, how much did they pay to have pretty much the entire cast crack open a bottle – and even a mention of it in the scene before? But, for the record, I’m a big Vitamin Water fan, so I guess we’ll let it slide.


So, after what I thought was a pretty slow start, we’ve got a pretty good season that’s about to wrap up. But as we head into next week’s season finale, how many loose ends really need to be tied up? There’s the whole baby-with-two-families. And Tommy certainly has some work to do on his love life. But other than that, there’s not a whole lot of compelling cliffhangers-to-be. Maybe that’s why, at the end of this episode, Tommy strangely goes into a burning building and saves a family under the guise of another firefighter. Why did he do that? Was it part of the 12-step program? Is he tired of getting all the attention for saving lives? Is he just a sick bastard who gets a kick out of messing with everyone? I guess we’ll have to wait to find out.