black-humored teeth-gritting world
Time magazine TV critic James Poniewozik says “‘Rescue Me’s’ credits, anyway, are the best on TV, a flawless marriage of music, picture and idea.” Watching the FX drama last night, I had to agree. I actually enjoy watching this sequence, since it uses images as emblems for the themes of the show and the style of the sequence is quite different from the show itself. While much of the show uses a handheld style that passes for realism on TV these days, the credit sequence uses fast-cutting and compositing effects that give the footage a distressed look. It’s as if the credits depict the internal life of Denis Leary’s character, while the rest of the program shows his life from an outsider’s perspective.
Poniewozik says he watches “Rescue Me” on Tivo, yet he never skips over the credits. I don’t know that I would have that level of commitment to the credits, (I watch it as it’s played on cable.) but, “Lost” notwithstanding it really does seem like credits sequences are fertile ground for formal experimentation on TV.
