I got an early-evening jump on "Rescue Me" tonight, watching my preview disc, but I'll try to stay away from spoilers here for the time being. (The one big plot turn won't surprise you much anyway.) But the show is driving me crazy. I still have this basic admiration for it, and tonight's episode was pretty good as a self-contained piece — funny and edgy, and reminding us how many different characters there are to watch and care about. On the other hand, I don't think it has come close to dealing with the consequences of what I still consider the rape — and I don't accept the claim some of you have made that there was moral equivalency in what Sheila did to Tommy. To do so would be to overlook both the violence of Tommy's original act and Janet's reaction. And I still can't do that.
