Curses! There’s nothing I hate more than being left out of a discussion. But since this week’s Rescue Me is still in my DVR queue, and since there’s a firestorm of controversy over a scene during which Tommy (Denis Leary) forces his estranged wife Janet (Andrea Roth) to have sex — which she eventually (apparently) begins to enjoy — followed by a shot of an unapologetic Tommy making a smirking exit, and Janet blithely reading, I’ve got to ask all of y’all: Was it actually depicting a rape? Or steamy Über-sex? Was it part of a larger pattern of misogyny and pathetic characterizations of women? Or a moment of Emmy-worthy ambiguity? Was it this week’s most sickening scene? Most confusing? Or merely misunderstood? You tell me! (And thanks to TV Tattle for several of those nifty links!)
What's your take on this week's 'Rescue Me'?
Blog Roll
- Best Week Ever
- BuzzSugar
- Coolfer
- Dark Horizons
- Deadline Hollywood Daily
- Digital Music News
- Gold Derby
- Hits Daily Double
- Hollywood Elsewhere
- Hollywood Wiretap
- Huffington Post
- Hypebot
- Idolator
- jaded insider
- Lost Remote
- Movie City News
- Movie List
- MTV News
- Pop Candy
- PopBytes
- Popeater
- reality blurred
- Salon: Arts & Entertainment
- Stereogum
- The Beat
- The Programming Insider
- Thompson on Hollywood
- Tuned In
- TV Barn
- TV Tattle
- TVFanatic.com
- TVNewser
- Velvet Rope
Featured Video
Realite: Reality TV justice!
Worthy winners on ''Runway,'' ''ANTM''; just desserts on ''Top Chef'' and ''SYTYCD''; bonus Kris Allen!
More 
Today's Most Popular
-
-
The Ausiello Files Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on 'Bones,' 'Glee,' 'Chuck,' 'Gossip Girl,' and more! -
The Movie Critics 'New Moon': Why its girl-driven success is good for the future of movies -
Doc Jensen on 'Lost' 'Lost': Reboot anxiety? -
From Our Partners
Special Coverage
'Twilight' Saga: 'New Moon'
It's almost here! Get all the latest news, photos, video, and fan commentary leading up to the big premiere
More
Comments (1-24) of 24 Add your comment
Looked like a rape to me.
Jump the shark moment for me. I have always liked Tommy, but this scene didn’t work for me. I think the writers found Tommy getting to nice in this episode and this is what they came up with, to bring him back down.
I must admit that I like Denis Leary and have been meaning to catch this show for 2 seasons. Finally, I find it and one moment he and his wife (who is dating his brother) are dividing assets and the next, he pushes her violently on the couch and rips her shirt. I think that qualifies as rape. She seems to enjoy it in the end and then changes her shirt and grabscan’t a book so his brother can’t tell he’s been there.Confuse me? You bet.
Look Tommy needs an heir. He tried the sperm bank. It was a mess, no pun intended. He still loves his wife. This is the way they have always been with each other. Their relationship is very volitle and passionate whether it’s a fight or sex. This scene was a little bit of both and alot of pent up anger and love on both parts.If you really knew the characters you would have realized this.
Reminded me of a scene from a New Zealand film called “Crash Palace,” where the festering resentments of a divorcing couple resulted in marital rape. In the case of the Crash Palace couple, the rape was a moment of horror at the thin line between lust and violence; in Tommy’s case, the rape seemed to satisfy his need for revenge and her need to exorcise her guilt.
I love all aspects of this show, but cannot stomach Mr. Leary. I just don’t get him in this role, and i certainly don’t believe him in it. I think the writing, the acting by the rest of the cast and the direction is top notch. But after a while, I was so turned off by mr. Leary, i had to stop watching.
No question about it: it was a rape. The fact that she may have wound up liking it is irrelevent. It was not consensual sex at the time he penetrated her.
Listen, I’m a fan of the show, but one of the reasons I am is because Leary is far from an easy-to-like character. Sympathetic, maybe. Likeable, no. Has anyone forgotten the first-degree murder he participated in at the end of last season, having his uncle execute the man who killed his son in a drunken hit-and-run? Or the vicious beating he gave his brother for sleeping with his ex-wife? We can endlessly debate the justifications for his all-too-human behavior, but cuddly he definitely ain’t.
Didn’t the same thing happen in “A History of Violence”, a movie that people (mysteriously) seemed to love? That scene was Dennis Leary not knowing what to do with his ego. Lame.
Certainly rape, but nothing new to audiences. One of the most (in)famous scenes of marital rape “gone right” is in “Gone With the Wind,” where Scarlett wakes up in the morning quite pleased that her husband carried her upstairs to have his way with her.
It’s a disgusting thing to show, but one our culture seems to accept.
I understand that Jon Landgraf, boss of FX, is interested in expanding the female audiences of his late of shows featuring male leads and questionable behavior. Way to go, Jon. Women’ll be flocking to FX now.
And to Johnathan: I think the difference between History of Violence’s rape scene and Rescue Me’s is that the movie just portrays the action. The TV show condones it. Witness Tommy’s triumphant swagger as he leaves Janet’s house, combined with the jaunty music on the soundtrack. The show is saying, “Good for you, Tommy,” and encouraging us to do the same. That disturbs me just as much as the rape itself.
To Chuck: if you’ve watched the entire run of the show, it may have looked like the show was condoning what Tommy did to his wife, but you know it will come back to bite him in the ass.
An equally disturbing scene that no one’s mentioned yet is Probie and his roommate beating the pent-up sexual tension out of each other. Disturbing, and a little hot I’ll admit. Can’t wait to see where that goes…
And I still enjoy watching Tommy. He’s in the same vein as Tony Soprano, only more intelligent and with a better (more sarcastic) sense of humor. Oh, and he’s murdered fewer people.
Tommy is a jerk, and they’ve always portrayed him as this guy who picks a hero job to redeem him from his jerkiness.
I’m more worried about what they’re saying about Janet. She’s went from being cold to him (and unfairly blaming him for the death of their son, that cool little ‘Beat Kids’ guy) to having secret relations with his little brother, to being incredibly spiteful after the explosion at the Chinese restaurant, to just wanting Tommy to talk to her again.
I’m not sure it makes sense that she approaches her own rape as ‘cheating’. The way she handled that says some unpleasant things about her, like ‘duplicitous’ and ‘nasty’.
They put a line on Tommy to justify his rage, but him smirking as he left leaves me cold to the show. It seems to me Tommy would have gotten what his Id wanted while losing what his heart wanted (her acceptance and forgiveness for the death of their son). I can’t imagine the outcome would be pleasant, not matter if he got his rocks off.
And Tommy/Janet was the only reason I watched the show anymore. The subplots leave me cold. And I don’t really know if I want to stick around for ‘who’s got Chlamydia’.
Can anybody tell me when they’re reairing this episode? i missed it
…And btw, the show rocks! its just a show ppl, dont take it so serious…
It wasn’t rape. Come on, didn’t you see what she was wearing.
Missed the Rescue Me episode, but I take issue with Jonathan below, that the scene in “A History of Violence” was rape. The wife undid her hubands pants as he removed her underwear…and they both seemed caught up in a passionate act. This is certainly not rape. Rape in and of itself is serious enough, why push the boundaries and call it rape when its not?
So he is being driven to prove his manhood and he finally snaps and what does he do to prove it? He rapes Janet… he throws her across the room with one punch, rips her shirt in two and throws her onto the couch and rapes her brutally…I was cringing at it and then, they pile insult onto injury and show her enjoying it.
But the thing that really griped me, despite how unsavory and discomforting the scene was, was when he drove away…smiling. Like finally, he had proved himself a MAN… it just made my skin crawl.
As despicable as that thing was, I think they could have redeemed it a TAD if they had shown him pulled over to the side of the road weeping in horror at what he had done… but no… they show him smiling with satisfaction.
I talked with a friend who is a fan of the show and she was not as upset as I was… she said that is in his character to be that way… maybe…. but it was still disgusting and I STILL may not watch the show any longer.
thank you so much for bringing that up coz iddn’y get if the brother was part of the plan to rape her,either way it was SICK rape is not for laughs and to make the wife seem like she enjoyed it is even more sick.this was actually something that was proabbly written by a rapist,i think they should look into him.as for denis he should be more careful with trying to hard to be macho,maybe he has a cruise thing to hide
First, while Janet did smack Tommy, she never said, “No” or “Stop”. She didn’t cry out and she submitted quickly. The only thing she did say was, “Does this make you feel more like a man?”. I offer this theory which my wife came up with and seems to jive after rewatching the final minutes on DVR: The whole scenario was set up for Tommy to impregnant Janet to give the Gavin’s their heir. Tommy talked to a woman on the phone before he called the bar to check on his brother. And, why would Johnny be in such a hurry to get home if Tommy was their only to talk. I think Irish pride states Tommy, as the oldest, has to provide the male heir. Thoughts?
Okay, yes it was a rape. But, nothing out of the ordinary for this couple or this show. She was SLEEPING with his brother! He had to take back what he feels is his. Not great way to go…but c’mon…totally in character. He has MANY ISSUES. They are a very disfunctional couple, but of course dont we know she will get pregnant now and the baby could be his or his brothers…. HELLO…who has never watched TV before??? Cant wait to see where they go from here. Yes, this show crosses lines..thats what makes it so much BETTER than most of the boring crap on other channels.
The scene here clearly depicted a rape, regardless of the failure of the wife to say “no” . . . i am not a regular viewer of the show, but i have read enough about it to understand the dysfunctionality of their relationship, and the seeds of discord which brought this act about . . . the consequences of this rape will surely come to bear later in the season, or perhaps in future seasons, but it was certainly brutal to have to watch
I haven’t watched (still need to catch up on earlier seasons on DVD), but am a little upset that this storyline was done because I had a similar storyline in my soap opera (well, similar only in the rape-or-not aspect, with a married couple). This is hardly the first time. In college, I did a college project about a fictional TV network featuring shows centering on a teen superman, a Reba McIntyre family comedy, and plane crash survivors on an island. Perhaps it’s for the best, as I don’t think my projects at that age would have ended up as great as “Smallville” or “Lost” (perhaps “Reba” would have been as good, it’s not a high bar), but I really need to become famouse soon before all my ideas are gone! Any industry execs read popwatch? I’d be great for your development department
(yeah, I thought not)
All of you peple offended by this scene are way too sensitive. And have you been watching this show since the beginning? This is classic Tommy Gavin. He felt threatened by Johnny’s relationship w/ Janet and wanted to take back his territory. I’m not saying it’s right but it’s completely in charachter. And it clearly explains his smirk at the end. If you expected him to pull over and cry then you have no idea who this character is. If you’re going to stop watching b/c of this, you proabbaly never got the show to begin with.
My husband is a highly decorated firefighter in our community and regularly watches the show Rescue Me.
We were deeply disturbed by depicting a firefighter (or any person) raping another person on our TV. Not only has FX lost my husband as a viewer of Rescue Me, FX Network has lost an entire household from watching any show on their Network. We have blocked out the FX channel with a parental control and will never be an FX viewer again.
Very poor taste. I hope the writers’ mothers and daughters experience the same fate for depicting such a vicious act.
Former FX fan,
Brenda
irdwuj zxusgymf iqrjly daqv ywjgnz pfdgboakr obphq
rzdxmubj rlvo xibgaqkz pwzo mcfv fnxqpc akzs