Rescue Me is back from its 18-month hiatus, and the early episodes of Season 5 prove the show is again firing on all its raucous and raunchy cylinders. But it's also turning a more focused eye back on 9/11 and its impact on the men of 62 Truck.
In doing so, this season brings mainstream attention to widespread conspiracy theories that suggest the 9/11 attacks were an "inside job." Fireman Franco Rivera — played by Daniel Sunjata, who in real life subscribes to these same beliefs — becomes the mouthpiece for these ideas on the show, something Sunjata admits he wasn't expecting to see on his script pages.
"I was pretty shocked because I happen to know for a fact that those opinions are not indicative or reflective of FX, Denis Leary, Peter Tolan, or anybody affiliated with creating the show," Sunjata tells TVGuide.com. "What I like about the way they're addressing the topic is that they're not pre-packaging it for the audience — the reactions span the whole spectrum from agreeing to vehemently disagreeing to a great big question mark. I think it's laudable and admirable that with such a hot and controversial topic, FX was willing to even include it in the show."