Rescue Me - The Complete Fourth Season (DVD)

I'll be the first to admit that Season 4 of Rescue Me is not the series' best season. But it is still essential and if you're a true fan, you should not skip over it (or any season, for that matter). After I finished Season 4 upon its original airing, my disappointment with the season as a whole eventually made me not want to continue when Season 5 started airing. Season 4 is disappointing for a few reasons. 1, it runs around too many circles of repeated tired storylines that had become custom in the first 3 seasons. 2, too many episodes became focused on Tommy Gavin's character, and the rest of the cast felt shoe-horned to the side. 3, the death of a very important character, which was both random and tragic, but in all the wrong ways (more on that later). Finally, it just seemed that the show as a whole was running out of ideas and trying desperately to just stay in the ratings while losing focus on what the show was about when it started. However, all these feelings aside, after hearing rave things about Season 5, I eventually decided to give it another shot. To gain the freshest perspective possible, I started re-watching the series from the start and I gotta say that when I got back around to Season 4, I found it wasn't quite as bad as I remember it being. While the story does go in the aforementioned pointless circles of repetition and oddly stupid moments (the prime example being the love scene that takes place in a burning building with Gavin and a drunken female being rescued), the season reminded me that if it was all awful, I would've stopped watching sooner instead of making it through the season when it first aired. Also, the previously mentioned character death that was more a slap in the face of the audience then useful dramatic weight to the story (I won't say which character so it doesn't spoil any new viewers), was actually handled a lot better than I thought. The episode in which the death occurs beautifully wraps up all his storylines and pays a lot of respect to him, even if the death still serves no dramatic purpose. All in all, yes, Season 4 is not up to par with those before (and after?) it, but as I'm writing this I am just over halfway through Season 5 and I gotta say, WOW. Season 5 is a HUGE step up from everything the show has done wrong since, really, the series began. Granted, there's still flaws, but the improvements largely overshadow those flaws. So the point is, while Season 4 may not be great (it does have its moments), it's worth it to continue the show into Season 5.