Slowly emerging from my other obligations, I see on TV Tattle that the Hollywood Reporter says "Rescue Me" has been picked up for a new season, with an expanded order of 22 episodes. Considering how terrible it was last season, this is awful news. The show didn't have enough ideas or coherence for 13 episodes last season, and now it's going to do 22? Oh my goodness. Or words to that effect.

I recently noted my admiration for Durning while posting about the season finale of "Rescue Me." Now the Screen Actors Guild is giving the 84-year-old actor its Life Achievement Award.

Well deserved. Full announcement after the jump.

Here's the release, and Durning's bio is worth a full reading:

Screen Actors Guild (SAG) announced today that Charles Durning, the quintessential character actor and highly decorated World War II veteran, will receive the Guild's most prestigious tribute—the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment. Durning will be presented the Award, given annually to an actor who fosters the "finest ideals of the acting profession," at the "14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards," which premieres live on TNT and TBS Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008, at 8 p.m. ET/PT, 7 p.m. CT and 6 p.m. MT.

In making today's announcement, SAG President Alan Rosenberg said, "Charles Durning is the perfect choice for the Life Achievement Award as Screen Actors Guild celebrates its 75th anniversary. Throughout his career, he has epitomized the art and grace of acting and brought something special to every role. He is above all things a great actor with the talent to which we all aspire: the power to create indelible characters."

That talent has earned Durning numerous accolades during his more than 50 years as a performer. He was honored with an Oscar nomination in 1983 for his musical turn as the tap-dancing Texas governor in "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" and again in 1984 for his lecherous Nazi Colonel Erhardt in the Brooksfilm remake of Ernst Lubitsch's "To Be or Not To Be," a role which also brought him one of his four Golden Globe nominations. He made his film debut in 1965 in "Harvey Middleman, Fireman," followed by appearances in "I Walk the Line" and two early Brian de Palma films, "Hi, Mom" (credited as Charles Durnham) and "Sisters." He achieved breakout status in 1972 when, after seeing Durning on Broadway in Jason Miller's "That Championship Season," George Roy Hill cast him as a corrupt police lieutenant in "The Sting." Durning's nearly 100 feature roles include hostage negotiator Det. Moretti in "Dog Day Afternoon" (for which he received his first Golden Globe nomination), the villainous frogs-leg restaurant magnate in "The Muppet Movie," "Tootsie" [and[ "Home for the Holidays."

For the Coen Brothers, Durning appeared in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and played the pivotal title role "The Hudsucker Proxy." In 2000, as a member of the ensemble cast of David Mamet's "State and Main," he was honored by the National Board of Review, the Online Film Critics Society and the Florida Film Critics Circle. That same year he starred in another Mamet screenplay, "Lakeboat," along with Dennis Leary, whose father he has played for the past three years in 23 episodes of the FX hit "Rescue Me."

Other film credits include "North Dallas Forty," "The Greek Tycoon," "When a Stranger Calls," "Harry and Walter Go to New York," "True Confessions," "Twilight's Last Gleaming," "The Final Countdown," "The Choirboys," "An Enemy of the People," "Far North," "The Man With One Red Shoe," "Death and Texas," "One Fine Day," "V.I. Warshawski" and comic-strips-brought-to-life "Brenda Starr" and "Dick Tracy," among many others.

In 1975, Durning was honored with the first of eight Emmy nominations for his romantic turn opposite Maureen Stapleton in the television movie "Queen of the Stardust Ballroom." Nominations followed for his performances in the miniseries "Captains and the Kings" (which also earned him a Golden Globe nomination) and the telefilms "Attica" and "Death of a Salesman," the latter opposite Dustin Hoffman, whom he had earlier romanced in "Tootsie." Durning was twice nominated for supporting actor Emmys during his 1990-1994 run as Dr. Harlan Elldridge in the comedy "Evening Shade," which starred his friend and frequent collaborator Burt Reynolds. The two co-starred in the features "Stick," "Starting Over," "Sharkey's Machine," "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" and "Forget About It," as well as the "Hard Time" series of telefilms. The Television Academy also nominated Durning twice for guest performances: in 1995 for "Homicide: Life on the Street" and in 2005 for "NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service."

Durning starred as Supreme Court Justice Henry Hoskins in the television series "First Monday," in the short-lived series "Orleans," "Eye to Eye" and "The Cop and the Kid," as well as early in his career in the daytime drama "Another World." His dozens of television guest-starring roles include his March 2007 appearance on "Monk," seven appearances as Father Hubley on "Everybody Loves Raymond" and character arcs on "Everwood," "Family Guy," "The Practice" and "Cybill." His more than 50 television movies include "The Best Little Girl in the World," "Crisis at Central High," "The Rivalry," "The Girls in their Summer Dresses and Other Stories by Irwin Shaw," four outings as Santa Claus, one as the Pope, one as Casey Stengel and roles in the televised versions of such classics as "Look Homeward Angel," "Mister Roberts," "Dinner at Eight" and "Studs Lonigan." He received a CableACE nomination for his performance as a southern prison camp warden in "The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains."

Durning was born in Highland Falls, N.Y., on Feb. 28, 1923. Widowed when Durning was 12, his mother worked as a laundress at the U.S. Military Academy in nearby West Point. As a teenage usher in a burlesque house, Durning was hired to replace a drunken "second banana" on stage, then hoofed his way through upstate New York as half of ballroom dancing act for 11 years. Durning's early career was punctuated by stints as an elevator operator, Western Union delivery boy, cab driver, bartender, night watchman, boxer and construction worker.

His heroic yet horrifying experiences during World War II loomed large in shaping his 20s. He was in the first wave to land on Omaha Beach during the D-Day Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944, killing seven German gunners and suffering serious machine gun wounds to his right leg and shrapnel wounds over his body in that bloody battle. Later, he was stabbed eight times with a bayonet by a young German soldier, whom he killed with a rock in hand-to-hand combat. Taken prisoner during the Battle of the Bulge, he was one of a few survivors of the infamous attack on American POWs at Malmedy, Belgium, and was the sole survivor of 40 men who took out a German machine gun nest. For his valor he was honored with three Purple Hearts and a Silver Star. Although he had starred as a World War II veteran in the 1985 film "Stand Alone," Durning did not speak publicly about his war experiences until the 50th anniversary of D-Day, when it was suggested by Durning's "Evening Shade" co-star Ossie Davis (SAG's 2000 Life Achievement Award recipient) that he appear in the National Memorial Day Concert, which Davis was hosting. Durning has since made the concert an annual appearance. For the anniversary, Durning also narrated The Discovery Channel's "Normandy: The Great Crusade" and read Ernest Hemmingway’s account of the invasion in a "CBS Reports" D-Day special.

Durning employed dance, speech and acting studies as part of his post-war recovery. In 2007, he was recognized as a "Legend" by the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he studied in the late 1940s. He was also educated at Columbia University and New York University.

By the 1960s Durning had become a prolific actor on the New York stage and in regional and touring companies. He performed in some 35 productions with Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival, both in the Bard's work and in such contemporary mid-'70s premieres as "In the Boom Boom Room" and "The Au Pair Man," opposite Julie Harris.

For his work on Broadway, Durning has been honored with Tony and Drama Desk awards for the role of Big Daddy in the 1990 Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams'
"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," starring Kathleen Turner; the Drama League Distinguished Performance Award for the 1997 revival of "The Gin Game," which reunited him with Julie Harris; and a 1972 Drama Desk Award for "That Championship Season." More recently, he starred in the 1996 revival of "Inherit the Wind," opposite George C. Scott, and the 2000 revival of Gore Vidal's "The Best Man."

He received the 2006 Lucille Lortell Award for Outstanding Featured Actor for Wendy Wasserstein’s "Third" at Lincoln Center and played the title role in "Trumbo: Red White and Blacklisted" Off-Broadway in 2003. His numerous Off-Broadway and regional theatre credits include "On Golden Pond," "Sweet Bird of Youth," "Prelude to a Kiss," "Brigadoon" and "Glengarry Glen Ross."

His upcoming films include "Deal," his seventh film opposite Burt Reynolds; "Polycarp," which premiered at the 2007 Hoboken Film Festival; and a starring role in "Chatham."

The "14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards" are produced by Jeff Margolis Productions in association with Screen Actors Guild. Jeff Margolis is the executive producer and Kathy Connell is the producer. Yale Summers, Daryl Anderson, Shelley Fabares, Paul Napier and JoBeth Williams are producers for SAG. Gloria Fujita O'Brien and Mick McCullough are supervising producers. Benn Fleishman is executive in charge of production.

Screen Actors Guild is the nation's largest labor union representing working actors. Established in 1933, SAG has a rich history in the American labor movement, from standing up to studios to break long-term engagement contracts in the 1940s to fighting for artists' rights amid the digital revolution sweeping the entertainment industry in the 21st century. With 20 branches nationwide, SAG represents nearly 120,000 actors who work in motion pictures, television, commercials, industrials, video games, Internet and all new media formats. The Guild exists to enhance actors' working conditions, compensation and benefits and to be a powerful, unified voice on behalf of artists' rights. Headquartered in Los Angeles, SAG is a proud affiliate of the AFL-CIO. More information is available online at www.sag.org .

So that's the defense for this off-kilter, badly paced, erratic season?

That "Rescue Me" is like life, which is like baseball, which has long boring stretches interrupted by marvels that we sleep through? That it's a Cars song — "Good Times Roll" in this case that moves along, with the seeming drone of Ric Ocasek's vocal, until you realize that the drone has gotten under your skin, and you're feeling some kind of exhilaration, the humming of your own engine in life?

Some nonsense like that. Not even John Scurti, as good as he is, could have made that baseball speech work.

This season has been a mess. It has rambled, it has fumbled. Tommy's flashbacks at the beginning of last night's season finale felt like, "Hey, remember when we were really good?" Now it's all too obvious. Weren't we waiting to see Tommy's daughter connect with the new firefighter? Didn't we long ago sense that Tommy's dad was close to death?

And, in letting Tommy's dad die, it loses another piece of its foundation. Charles Durning, ladies and gentlemen. Affable character actor and real-life war hero. (You can read about that here.) And such a fine actor, that when he was in a scene, I'd keep an eye out for what he was up to — because it was bound to be entertaining.

But now Durning's gone. And Tommy's season-long attempt to have a normal life — from not drinking, to that desperate domestic tableau with Gina Gershon — has taken another hit. Maybe the show is arguing that there is no such thing as a normal life. Maybe, again, the whole season has been an attempt to prove that a less tormented Tommy just isn't that interesting — again, like a life quietly led — so we'll go back to desperate, insane Tommy next time around. But it's more likely that the show has just lost its magic, the knack for balancing comedy and drama, the way it gave all the characters shape, the way it made us care about people.

Now it's just the (fake) ghost of Jimmy Keefe, rattling around the firehouse, stirring things up, but not really all that serious, and far less than it used to be.

My review of "High School Musical 2" is here. My review of "Superbad" is here.

After the jump, Barry Corbin, and the perils of magazine deadlines … and a new part 2, with "Damages," "Mad Men," "Rescue Me" (so beware of spoilers if you haven't caught up)…

Barry Corbin finally appear as Brenda's father on "The Closer," and what fun it was. He is such a solid actor, able to play the comedy and drama in a character, sometimes within the same scene. He can, as he did on "The Closer," intimidate another character (in this case, Fritz), then make it a joke — and still make you remember the intimidation even as he is smiling. All that, and him playing off both Kyra Sedgwick and Frances Sternhagen. TV heaven, dropped in a sturdy episode. (The elevator scene!)

Talking to some of the "Closer" fans around my office, though, reminded me of the varieties of viewing habits. They were surprised to see Corbin's bald head, since they remembered him in the main from "Northern Exposure," where he had hair. But I;m sure there are other viewers — like my bride – who think of him the way he looked on "The Closer," because it is close to the way he looks on "One Tree Hill."

I made a magazine run last night, mainly to check on the Allure and OK! pieces about Britney Spears. (This is, after all, part of my pop culture mandate.) And while doing so, I began thinking about an item for tomorrow's HeldenFiles, probably to be called "Fun at the Newsstand."

And what was that fun? Well, there was Lindsay Lohan on the cover of the September issue of Elle, with the quote "I'm glad I went to rehab." But, as the magazine notes in the article, it's from an interview done just before her Memorial Day disaster, and the ensuing trip to rehab (which are at least described in the text with the interview) — and therefore well before her most recent troubles and her current reported stint in a Utah facility.

Then there's the Summer 2007 issue of In Style Weddings. Jennifer Morrison of "House" on the cover. Lovey-dovey pictures inside of Morrison and co-star/fiance Jesse Spencer. Description of wedding plans, discussion of The Dress.

They called off the engagement this week.

Part 2: I've been doing some catchup this weekend, for the past week's "Damages," "Rescue Me" and "Mad Men." I also have a couple of upcoming "Mad Men" I may get so, although our Viewing Of The Day is the forthcoming DVD of "Heroes."

I'm still watching "Damages" because I keep expecting it to get better. And every now and then there's something I like a great deal, like the look on Ted Danson's face when he talks about the cost of shipping a grenade. But I still think it's mainly implausible melodrama, and a clunky one at that. The time shifts from the present day (post killing) to the past (case in progress) and even to the deeper past (Florida) are just distracting; once the killing was established in the first episode, it should have settled for a more linear narrative from the case to the present day. The everybody's-got-secrets subtext is overworked, too, mainly because the secrets so far just aren't that interesting. But Glenn Close is growing on me, her behavioral tics seeming more understandable — at least, if we accept the idea that she is crazy as a bedbug. "Damages" has come one of those big potboiler novels that I'm determined to finish, even if doing so isn't all that enjoyable.

"Mad Men," in contrast, is just plain terrific. It also involves a world full of secrets, in particular those of Don Draper (the superb Jon Hamm), who has changed his name and abandoned his old life — including, we now know, an adoring younger brother. The story of Don and his wife Betty (January Jones) by itself is enough to carry a pretty good show, but the weaving in of other characters and stories remains strong. And unlike "Damages," where I feel as if I'm constantly having to fit someone new into the fabric, "Mad Men" does not overburden us in a given week by trying to tell too many stories.

Then there's "Rescue Me." For a moment this week, it had me — in the scene where Tommy is sitting on the rooftop and talking about what it means to bury your child. coming after we've gotten to the depth of Mike the ex-probie's pain. There was also the sheer amusement of the looks on Lou and Franco when they finally see what the new chief has been rumored to have. But I'm still not feeling that great old "Rescue Me" vibe. The intervention scene never quite worked. The baby-kidnapping — or was it a baby-un-kidnapping? — felt fake. The Gina Gershon scene, pointless. More and more this seems like one of those shows that had a season or two of greatness and now just can't figure out how to quit.

Had it not been for that scene with Susan Sarandon, I would probably be done with these guys …

but first, let's talk spoiler. No sane person really thought Gavin would drop the baby in the river, so it was no surprise that he didn't. And by the time I watched the episode, it was no surprise that he gave the baby to Sheila SINCE MY ONSCREEN PROGRAM GUIDE INCLUDED THAT INFORMATION. Talk about buzzkill.

But "Rescue Me" didn't do much with that. Or with Tommy's latest mental meltdown, where even the screams in the fire sounded off-kilter, as if the actors just didn't put anything other than volume into them. Or with the latest demonstration of Tommy Gavin as Mr. Irresistible, this time courtesy of Gina Gershon. And could Amy Sedaris have been any nuttier? Well, maybe if they put her in a tin-foil helmet.

But, just when the show has worn me out, you get a decent laugh from Sean's view of intervention with Maggie. Or, more impressively, that scene with Daniel Sunjata and Susan Sarandon. A scene where someone actually acted sensibly, and persuaded someone else to do likewise.

This being "Rescue Me," of course, rational behavior will probably have bad consequences (or so it looked in the promo for next week). And I have to wonder if Sarandon had some input into the scene, given that it was so out of keeping with the conduct of the way women have generally been written in "Rescue Me" of late.

"Saving Grace," "The Closer," "Damages" and tonight's "Rescue Me," after the jump …

I was bummed by this week's "Closer," where the shooter seemed fairly obvious early on, and Brenda's medical condition is being dragged out to annoying length. I could at least forgive the weak mystery if there was something on the characters' personal side to think about, but there wasn't much of that either. Best thing about the episode was the way the other detectives tried to figure out how to deal with Brenda — reminding us that they admire her, but they're also afraid of her.

"Saving Grace's" climactic shooting was something of a surprise, although it wouldn't have been if I had read the press material — noting the arrival of the new boss — more carefully. But even if such shootings have become a shopworn cop-show device, I like "Grace" enough that I will be back for more episodes with genuine curiosity. Does a new boss mean more conflict for Grace, or more sympathy?

Watched a second "Damages" and found it more entertaining than the first. But I looked at it that way by putting aside any notion that this is a serious, credible drama and accepting it as an over-the-top, anything-can-happen melodrama, the kind where characters can change on a dime to keep people guessing and the plot going, but you don't see the different behaviors as part of a fully drawn character. (Have we seen anything up to this point to explain Ted Danson's little backseat dalliance? Does Glenn Close have a back room full of goodies — apartment keys, puppies — to ingratiate herself with?) Basically popcorn television, but I'm more inclined to watch again than I was after that slowwwwww premiere.

I have already seen tonight's "Rescue Me," and it ends with the sort of cliffhanger where I don't believe for a second that there's more than one outcome. The show continues its creative struggle, and it's losing the fight.

Over the weekend I went through a review copy of the new two episodes of "Rescue Me" and couldn't help thinking that they vindicate Jack McGee … (Possible spoilers after the jump)

As you know, McGee played Jerry on the show, and was outspokenly critical, especially of star Denis Leary, after he was killed off in last week's episode.

Considering how important Jerry was to the show, it will probably surprise some that he gets such a terse sendoff. Oh, there is one good speech from Lou about why Jerry killed himself, but beyond that, not much. The death of Mike's mom has more emotional resonance on the show than the death of Jerry. So I think Leary was glad to be rid of McGee and to move on.

Still, there's already been talk building that the show is having an off season, and these two episodes are where I can really see it. Not that the show is falling apart as much as it's replaying old notes and marking time.

Sean and Maggie, once a funny couple, now seem to be an exercise in redundancy. Sheila is tiresomely nutty. And the show seems to be acknowledging that it's worn out, whether by Tommy's struggle with impotence or in a scene where he and Janet describe everything they have gone through during the show's run. (Most annoying in it: Tommy's fingers-in-quotation-marks reference to "the rape." That's a jab at critics, myself among them, but out of context on the show, where neither Tommy nor Janet would have described the incident that way.)

If you haven't watched this week's episode, don't go to the jump. …

Since you have seen it, you know what happened to one of the characters. And the actor playing the part wasn't happy, according to this announcement:

In an in-depth interview with writer Matt Seitz for the website www.TelevisionWithoutPity.com, “Rescue Me” star Jack McGee (who portrays “Chief Jerry Reilly”) speaks out about his being “killed off” in Wednesday night's episode and discusses why he felt mistreated by executive producer and series star Denis Leary. The following are excerpts from the exclusive no-hold-barred interview, currently available at www.TelevisionWithoutPity.com.

Asked to justify Reilly's death dramatically, Tolan said it was about violating audience expectations.

TVGuide.com has this comment from Leary:

Leary counters that he simply doesn't handle personnel issues. "It's hard enough to deal with the actors when I'm acting with them," he says. Noting that the series has seen his own character's son and brother suffer sudden demises, Leary says, "It's amazing to me that actors can think that the end is not going to be around the corner."

However, in what should be reassuring news to McGee, Leary added, "When you die on Rescue Me, your part just gets bigger, because everybody comes back as a ghost."

Consumer advisory: Matt Seitz is a friend as well as a colleague.

Some perspective: I don't think anyone who followed Leary's reaction to last season's rape episode should be surprised by some of McGee's comments. I know first-hand that McGee was not happy about that episode — and, based on this interview, he most likely shared his unhappiness with other people on the show.

Tommy Gavin and his guys are in a state of confusion. I know the feeling …

Tommy first: I've seen the first three episodes of the new season of "Rescue Me," which starts tonight, and I expect to be back for more, but I'm still kind of on the fence about it.

That reflects some confusion within the show itself. Oh, it has plenty going on, and it has put Tommy in a very difficult spot regarding the fire that ended last season. There's a lot of funny business, and a painfully dramatic moment a few episodes in.

But it didn't feel as sure-handed as it usually does, more like a bunch of things tossed together without any clear idea of where it will all lead. And I still remain on edge about what I still consider the rape episode last season, because I think the show has shrugged it off, and the event deserved more serious treatment than that.

I've been meaning to watch and write about some other things. Only got through the first episode of
"John from Cincinnati," for one thing — although it may be sufficient judgment that I didn't charge immediately through the second. And I've been carrying around the Newsweek article about "beta males" because it fits with some of what I've been seeing in pilots for the fall, including "Reaper," which you should put on your viewing calendar now, and not only because Akron's Ray Wise is a superb Devil in it.

I've seen some other pilots, too, and have a few notions. For example: How many times did the makers of the new "Bionic Woman" watch "Blade Runner," and did they think Rutger Hauer's stealing the movie from Harrison Ford meant that Katee Sackhoff should do likewise to the supposed star of "Bionic Woman"?

But I've found myself dragging too much lately. And I've had some different demands on my time — metro shifts on Saturday and on Monday night — as well as attempts to get ready for vacation. Still, I get twitchy when I don't write on a break, so you can expect fresh posts from me even if I'm sunburnt while writing them.

Anyway, that's a long explanation for the gaps here, and for the terseness of my "Rescue Me" notes. Watch tonight, and let's argue.

FX has now moved "Rescue Me" from its planned Tuesday telecasts to Wednesday, with the fourth season beginning June 13. "Damages," the new Glenn Close drama, begins July 24. "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" will be back in September. "Dirt" and "The Riches" have been picked up for another year.

Detailed announcement after the jump …

Here's the official skinny from the network:

FX has placed orders for second seasons of the drama series Dirt, starring Courteney Cox, and The Riches, starring Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver, announced John Landgraf, President and General Manager of FX Networks. With the pick ups of those two dramas, the network has locked down its original programming schedule for 2007-2008, including the highly anticipated new drama series Damages, starring Glenn Close.

DIRT
Dirt, starring Courteney Cox, returns for a 13-episode second season in 2008. Cox plays “Lucy Spiller,” the ruthless, powerful editor-in-chief of the celebrity tabloid magazines DirtNow. A genius at the art of manipulation, Lucy possesses a maniacal dedication to exposing the truth about Hollywood’s luminaries. As steadfast photographer Don Konkey (Ian Hart) constantly provides exclusive, shocking pictures of the rich and famous for Lucy’s magazines, the glossy, perfect veneer created by Hollywood is shattered – and available on newsstands every week. Dirt exposes the truth behind the façade of show business image making, and reveals the lives of those determined to do so, despite often tragic results.

June 12 is the date. The release is after the jump. (Update: Don't read anything into the omission of many returning cast members' names from the release. An FX rep says "everybody" is back.)

The fourth season of the critically acclaimed drama series Rescue Me (TV-MA), starring Denis Leary, returns to FX on Tuesday, June 12 at 10 pm e/p. The 13 episodes will run every Tuesday at 10 pm through September 11, with July 3 being preempted for the 4th of July holiday.

Additionally, Jennifer Esposito will guest star in four episodes as “Nona,” a gorgeous volunteer firefighter and potential love interest of Tommy who quickly intimidates him as soon as she takes the upper-hand in their relationship.
Also joining the cast are Larenz Tate (Crash) and Jerry Adler (The Sopranos). Tate will play “Bart,” a highly sought after ‘probie’ (probationary firefighter), that the 62 Truck crew is trying to recruit to join their firehouse, while Adler appears as “Chief Feinberg,” a new addition to the upper-ranks of the 62 Truck crew, who is rumored to posses a very special gift.

Fingers crossed on technology: Since I saw tonight's season finale last week, I'm posting this with a timer set to display it after the telecast. Hope it works. If it doesn't, well, I warned you in the header about spoilers.

So let's consider tonight's show. I liked the bit on the dock. Very funny, especially since they were willing to keep it going. And the business with the 9/11 firefighters' memorial, contrasted with the gaping hole nearby, made a good point about what people can accomplish privately versus what politicians cause on the public stage. (There is, by the way, a firefighters' memorial  in New York City — but the one in the show is a facsimile.) And Franco's scene with his daughter worked well at showing how completely he had given her up — although the scene also felt a little contrived because we never saw Franco talk to Susan Sarandon's character, which I guess resulted from availability issues.

Now for the bad stuff. Every guy is staying at the firehouse? Every one? Yeah, there's the hint that the chief's ailments are getting insurmountable (and that was series writer-producer Peter Tolan playing Pecher, the fill-in chief). But an FX rep told me all the cast is signed up for next season. And the core guys are still there, after all the plots this year indicating one might move on. And at least one should have.

Then there's the fire. Does anyone believe that Gavin was going to die in that fire? In a telephone press conference with Tolan and Denis Leary, they joked that death actually gives characters a bigger part — but Tolan came as close as he could to saying Tommy's not dead without saying it outright. Are they willing, then, to sacrifice Sheila when she has been such a part of Tommy's dramatic arc? Leary loves working with Callie Thorne, and I don't think he's ready to be done with her.

Even so, ending the season with a fiery cliffhanger felt lame. Anyone want to agree/disagree?

The show ends its third season on Tuesday. (A fourth season has already been ordered.) I have seen the season finale, liked parts but didn't like a couple of significant elements. I can't explain why without spoiling some things. So I'll save that for a post after it airs.

For now, the season does end with a cliffhanger; asked why, star Denis Leary said, "Because it's television."

But, he added, "I'm a huge fan of 'The Sopranos' … and my favorite 'Sopranos' seasons have ended with a lot of doubt."

Leary said that during today's press conference-by-telephone that also included his frequent collaborator, "Rescue Me" writer-producer Peter Tolan. (Tolan, by the way, makes a memorable appearance in the season finale. He has acted before, but this is his first time on "Rescue Me.")

For starters, the karmic payback Tommy Gavin was supposed to get for his assault of Janet will come around the middle of the fourth season, along with a lot of other events spinning from what happens in the series finale.

Leary and Tolan continue to express surprise at the reaction to what some call "the incident" and I still prefer to think of as "the rape." (Tolan did use the r-word, but in reference to what Sheila did to Tommy.) They also said they heard no reaction to Sheila's rape of Tommy — kind of surprising since I heard from some of you folks about it.

I'm also skeptical of this idea that the payback was held for next season. I think they saw Tommy-Janet and Sheila-Tommy as morally equivalent — even though Tommy's act was more violent — only to discover viewers declined to agree. Of course, they've been wrong from the beginning about Tommy-Janet, and still are.

Leary gave considerable praise to Andrea Roth, who plays Janet, and Callie Thorne, who plays Sheila. Thorne, he said, "will go anywhere. … She's on fire when she comes to work."

Tolan said his attempt to explain the show at Television Without Pity was "the stupidest thing I ever did."

The emergence of the Gavins' unseen and deaf sister Rosemary (played by "Sue Thomas's" Deanne Bray) was, as some viewers suspected, an allusion to the disabled and put-away Kennedy sister Rosemary. Tolan said the script even had a line referring to her being "like that sister the Kennedys had."

Leary is happy with his Emmy nomination but doesn't think he'll win. He's betting on Martin Sheen. Noting that Sheen has already played John and Robert Kennedy (in different TV-movies), Leary said Sheen could also play Ted "if he wanted to start drinking … and put on some weight."

Asked if Tommy's voice-mail message to Johnny was left after Johnny's death — to make Tommy look better to Janet — Leary said he'd prefer to leave the answer until the fourth season.

As for this week's episode, I didn't post after it because, well, that was the same day that this happened. I still have a job, and am glad of it, but I have many colleagues who will not be so lucky. So Tuesday night, I was thinking more about the real world than the TV world.

With a little distance now, I can say the episode worked in some ways but made at least one horrible tactical error. Why on earth, in the middle of a wake no less, would anyone want to throw viewers off stride with a jokey cameo by Bill Belichick?

Possibly the best episode of the show this season. Maybe one of its best ever, and Andrea Roth — who plays Janet — has one of those scenes that should be in her highlight reel for the rest of her career. In addition to moving around a lot of characters and advancing loads of stories, the episode went back to the show's roots in 9/11, then pushed forward to the present, and to the way 9/11 is one of many crutches Tommy uses to justify his failings.

Gosh, it was good. And yet, coming out of one of the strongest scenes in the episode, there was a long, lyrical promo for "World Trade Center." It moved me. It took me out of "Rescue Me" for a long time after it aired. It reminded me that "Rescue Me" is still, at bottom, art, and that what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, involved real death, real pain, real heroism.

I know, "World Trade Center" is art, too, "just a movie" as some would say. But the promo took me back to the real thing, and those feelings blended into "Rescue Me's" reflections on the past, and made "Rescue Me" seem a bit weaker because of it.

And still, it was a terrific episode.

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.

If you haven't watched tonight's "Rescue Me," come back after you have, because I am going to talk about plot developments.

And I am ticked off about them.

If you've read anything about "Rescue Me" the last of weeks, then you know about the debate over a scene where Tommy Gavin — Denis Leary's character — attacked his ex-wife Janet. To some viewers, myself included, it looked as if he raped her, and that she eventually enjoyed it. Others have looked for a less damaging interpretation; Robert Bianco in this morning's USA Today said that "to imply that (the scene) endorsed or trivialized spousal abuse is to misread the scene."

Bianco also urged that "before we decide the story doesn't work, let's see where the talented people in charge at 'Rescue Me' plan to take it."

Well, we saw some more tonight. And, as I said, I didn't like it.

In the key scene tonight, Janet showed up at Tommy's place and had a brief, aggressive sexual encounter with him. She may or may not have been doing it because of a public exhibition Tommy put on with his brother's ex (as part of a scheme to make Janet and his brother jealous). That quadrangle will interact more next week, according to the previews, and there's a fifth player — Tommy's sometimer Sheila — who could become pivotal.

But this doesn't really get us past the earlier scene. Nor does it justify Tommy's earlier actions. It indicates that Tommy is caught up in a tempest of sex and near sex, sure. Only the previous scene wasn't about sex. It was about Tommy's uncontainable violence and rage, which were unleashed against Janet — an extension of the beating Tommy gave his brother.

"Rescue Me" has not dealt with that side of what happened — unless it is, indeed, trying to to trivialize or diminish it. Janet's reaction sure seems minimal.

There were other scenes tonight that I enjoyed to some degree, but when I was trying to get back into my old "Rescue Me" groove, I kept thinking about that rape scene and what they were going to do about it. So far they haven't done much. And the show won't work for me until they do something more serious about it.

There's been an ongoing debate about last week's episode of "Rescue Me," because of the scene where Tommy and his ex-wife Janet had a confrontation that looked like a textbook rape. Even worse, it fell back on a pulp-fiction cliche, with Janet becoming aroused during the assault, suggesting as too many things have that conflict with a woman can be settled in a direct physical way.

You can see where I stand on the incident. It bothered me when I watched it, and it seemed even weirder when the episode airing tomorrow night — which FX had made available for preview — acted for the most part as if the incident was just another dispute in the long history of Gavin marital disputes.

But the reaction to the scene has been sufficiently strong that the makers of "Rescue Me" have been trying to address viewer concerns. (You can find a long interview with Peter Tolan and Denis Leary at my friend Alan Sepinwall's What's Alan Watching?) So I wanted another set of eyes to see the scene.

I turned, therefore, to the bride. She is a "Rescue Me" fan, as am I, although I had reservations about this season from the beginning. In fact, "Rescue Me" is a show we usually watch together.

We didn't do that with last week's, and I had seen the scene before she did. I waited until she had watched it, and kept quiet about the controversy. And when she was done, I asked her what had happened in the scene.

"He raped her," she said. No elaboration. No equivocation. No considering what the producers or the writers or the directors or the cast might have had in mind. She knew what she had seen.

So when I read the defenses of the scene, I feel as if someone is repeating the old line about "what are you going to believe — your eyes or me?" I'll believe my eyes, and my bride's. And I have to think the people on "Rescue Me" just didn't see what they were doing — didn't see that Gavin is the guy that we saw beat his own brother bloody not long ago, that Leary is quite capable of conveying a frightening aggresiveness, and that this show for the most part is not kind to the women on it.

Yes, the men are messed up, too, but they're allowed at least to be good at their jobs; the women are allowed to be good at sex but not much else.

The only women I can think of who have been portrayed sympathetically are Theresa, the probie's plus-sized girlfriend (played by Ashlie Atkinson), and Alicia, the new character played by Susan Sarandon. Then I'm not sure what we're to make of the probie's dealing with women given the latest turn in his sex life. And Alicia's taking of Franco's daughter can cause some arguments. I really liked the scene where she explained her motives to Gavin, since she turned the firefighters' views of women back against them. But when I was talking about that scene with Alan, he kept saying, "Yeah, but she stole Franco's kid."

Odds and ends from too much TV watching (and thinking):

– Over the weekend I was watching "Million Dollar Baby" again, and watching it in two ways. One was the involvement in the story and the characters. The other was feeling that I was watching a really great movie.

I get the same feeling when I watch "Rescue Me," the FX drama starring Denis Leary as a troubled firefighter. This week's episode was moving and powerful — and, while I was being moved, another part of me sat back and said, "You realize this is absolutely brilliant, don't you?"

Now, I like plenty of things on TV. But I try, with mixed success, not to throw the word "brilliant" too much. Still, when "Rescue Me" was doing its elaborate party sequence, with multiple stories playing out, with one moment telling you to laugh, and another daring you not to cry — well, it was brilliant. There's no other word. This show should have many millions of viewers, and every award available — and run forever.

— I don't know what's going on in the next episode of "Rescue Me" but I did jump ahead on "Entourage" thanks to review copies of the next couple of episodes. If you haven't already discovered this HBO comedy-drama about a young actor and the friends enjoying his success, then you should go catch up (the first season is on DVD) and tune in now. The acting is good, the characters are intriguing and there are some really good plot twists coming up.

— I won't tell you what those plot twists on "Entourage" are because I try not to spoil the surprise for viewers. Because of that, I sat on the major development at the end of the first episode of "Over There," even though I knew where it was going. And I have so far kept quiet about a twist at the end of the first episode of "How I Met Your Mother," a new CBS comedy, because it would wreck a surprise — and because I was asked not to by one of the producers. This created a peculiar dynamic during a "How I Met" press conference in July, where pretty much everyone in the room knew the twist, and there were a lot of questions about the twist, and some pretty good answers — and, for me at least, none of it is usable until people have had a chance to see the show.

We live in a spoiler culture, after all, where eager Internetters are seeking and finding news about where shows are going and posting it for anyone who wants to know. I still think most viewers would rather not know ahead of time. Although, to return to a famous twist, I enjoyed "Million Dollar Baby" as much on second viewing as I did before I knew its surprise.