#1 Cheap The Job - The Complete Series By Dig
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Before the huge FX hit of Rescue Me, there was "The Job". A show that had great potential but was cancelled because ABC just didn't have the vision of the appeal. Though cancelled, The Job was a great experimentation lab of portraying NYC's finest on ABC that evolved into portraying NYC's bravest on FX.
The Job stars Denis Leary as NYC detective Mike McNeil as a cop with typical drinking, smoking, self-medicating, and girlfriend/marriage issues. While out of the house, he manages to cope in rather "unorthodox" ways (i.e indulging in his vices) with his girlfriend on the side.
At work Leary is joined by many other cast members (Lenny Clarke, Adam Ferrara, and Diane Farr) that are recognizable from Rescue Me that makeup an absurd rag-tag bunch of detectives that take on some rather strange cases (involving anything from chasing a man in a wheelchair, and almost losing him, protecting movie stars Elizabeth Hurley and Gina Gershon, and spying on women using a telescope from evidence lockup). I don't know if I laughed more at the humor itself or just thinking of the fact that ABC was owned by Disney by this time and they actually let this air...for TWO SEASONS!
This show is not based on typical police procedurals like NYPD Blue or Law & Order. The Job is more of a short comedy sitcom that dwells on the ridiculous events that seem to happen on a day to day basis for Det. McNeill and his squad, landing him in hot water with their Captain. The Job does not always end up with an arrest in every instance.
Special features includes standard gag reels, interviews, and promo commercials. Some select episodes also include a commentary for that particular episode. The commentary must have been done quite some time after the show and well into a season or two of Rescue Me, because creators Denis Leary and Peter Tolan bring Rescue Me into the mix of the commentary many times. So you probably won't get commentary that properly reflects the creators of this show as how this show ties into Rescue Me as a building block to the FX big leagues.
If you like Rescue Me, this one is worth it.
The Job - The Complete Series Overview
Network television says they want original programs, but they don't always know what to do with them. Case in point: The Job, the late lamented series that lasted but 19 episodes before being unceremoniously yanked by ABC. So long Mike McNeil; we hardly knew ye. But what we did see of Denis Leary's working class anti-hero made for arrestingly funny television. McNeil, a cop, smokes, drinks, pops pills, and juggles a wife and girlfriend. And it's all beginning to catch up with him. "This stuff is Biblical," notes his partner, an African American whom the squad has nicknamed "Pip" (as in Gladys Knight and the...). The Job is not your typical workplace sitcom. There is no laugh track. Based on a real cop whom Leary befriended while researching his role in the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair, The Job has the raw sound, rough language, and gritty look and texture of authenticity. It was shot documentary-style on location in New York. The focus of the series is more personal and less procedural than other cop shows. We get to know intimately this flawed and funny close-knit band of brothers, including straight-arrow Pip (Bill Nunn); Frank (Lenny Clarke), an old school cop and great bear of a man; and Det. Jan Fendrich (Diane Farr), a capable member of this boys' club in the classic Howard Hawks tradition, and who perhaps might have become a love interest for Mike had the series continued.
A series benchmark is "Barbeque," in which an anniversary party hosted by Pip and his commanding wife, Adina, inexorably descends into chaos when McNeil and company disregard Adnia's "no alcohol" edict. Another classic is the episode in which McNeil suspects that Frank is gay. While it does not jibe with Internet episode guides, the episode chronology on this four-disc set builds to a powerful climax, with Mike's girlfriend en route to confront his long-suffering wife (who may herself be having an affair), and Pip considering cheating on Adina with an old flame, all scored to the Ramones' pounding rendition of "Wonderful World." Whether it was ahead of its time, a victim of network neglect and mishandling, or just too dramatically different, The Job was too good for prime time. That it led to Leary's new hit series, Rescue Me, is small comfort. For faithful and frustrated viewers, it's great to have McNeil back on The Job. --Donald Liebenson
The Best - Passek -
My alltime favourite show! All characters are awesome, stories funny as hell! How could ABC (?) not pick it up for more seasons???
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