Premieres Monday on Fox

Anthony Anderson

I've got a list of books to write sometime. My long-unfinished mystery novel, "Death Wore a Name Tag." A trilogy about a journalist in deep space. (I'm intrigued by the idea of an instant-news mentality facing the time lag that would come with space exploration.) There used to be one called "Those Awful Beatle Wives," but it's out of date now.

Then there's "When Bad Shows Happen to Good People," a collection of series disasters starring fine actors. (Suggestions welcome.) If I do that one, Anthony Anderson will probably get a chapter, and it will have to touch on "K-Ville."

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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 …

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Fans of "The Shield," me among them, have feared that the 10 episodes planned for 2007 were going to be the last. But there will be more than that. Although those 10 have been thought of as a continuation of the current season, FX is now treating them as a separate, sixth season. (Forest Whitaker, so good on the show recently, will be back on a limited basis for that sixth season.) And there will be a seventh after that.

I don't really care what they call them — although the separate-season labels could lead to an extra DVD set being squeezed out of the show — just as long as the makers of the show are convinced they have more good stories to tell. Here's the official announcement from FX:

FX has set the timetable for the conclusion of its Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning drama The Shield, ordering a seventh season of 13 episodes that will bring the groundbreaking series to a close in late-2007 or early-2008, following the upcoming 10-episode sixth season which begins in early 2007, announced John Landgraf, President and General Manager of FX Networks.

Shawn Ryan, The Shield’s creator, executive producer and writer, will continue in those duties as day-to-day showrunner for the remaining 23 episodes. Production of the 10-episode sixth season began in April and will conclude in July, and production of the series final season will take place in mid-2007. The final two seasons will bring the overall total number of episodes for the series to 88.

"It has been the privilege of everyone at FX to work with Shawn Ryan, Michael Chiklis and their colleagues on The Shield," said Landgraf. "It has always been our intent to have the show exit television as it entered, as one of the best dramas series ever.  We’re thrilled Shawn has come up with a great way to end the series and that it will require one final season for his vision to reach completion.  We look forward, along with fans of the show, to following Vic Mackey on his final ride."

Shawn Ryan said, "The writers and I weren’t quite ready to step away from these characters just yet. We asked FX for an additional 13 episodes to conclude the show properly and, as always, the network graciously let us do what we thought was best for the show."

I've had the viewing blahs the last couple of days. I'm ahead of the game with "The Sopranos," so I had already had the pleasure of seeing Sunday's episode. (And if you haven't seen it yet, please do so.) And I've already complained here about "The West Wing" and "Prison Break."

"Grey's Anatomy" was only all right. OK, so I choked up when the Chief's AA sponsor made it through surgery. But I don't know that I would put it among my favorite episodes; O'Malley should have gotten on with his new possible romance before this, and if they're sending Alex out the door — which felt even more likely based on this episode and the trailer for next week — then let's just get on with it. Last night, neither "How I Met Your Mother" nor "Two and a Half Men" was especially good, either.

So why do I feel good about TV tonight? Well, there is the season finale of "The Shield."

As I said in a previous post, I was somewhat disappointed by tonight's show because it did not seem to be on as high a level as recent episodes. Forest Whitaker has been a stunning addition to the show, and his relentlessness has created a more electric atmosphere for everyone else. Still, tonight takes us to a point that has seemed ever more inevitable as the show has gone along. With the noose closing around Vic and his guys, they have gotten back to a place like the one where the show started, one that asks them if their real goal is doing good or simply surviving.

In answering that question, the show plays absolutely fair with the story it has told. The result may sadden and disappoint some viewers. Still, it is the only place the show could go — unless it wanted to end tonight.

When I finally sat down to see Wednesday's telecast of "Veronica Mars," I was ready to be dazzled. It felt as if it had been forever since there had been a new episode, and I was long past ready for one.

The episode was all right, not great. I did like the scenes with Logan, since to the end it was not clear if he was a sincere suitor or a master manipulator. But other stories and relationships felt less sure-handed. And, since I was primed for good stuff, it was all the more disappointing when it wasn't there.

Is that disappointment the fault of the show, since most series have off weeks? Or am I to blame, for expecting a high level of accomplishment that wasn't there?

I'll blame the show. After all, there are programs that we come to with high expectations that do deliver. "The Sopranos" came back from its long hiatus with a very good episode, and tomorrow night's is even better. As I said in a column about the show, with the end of the series in sight, the makers of "The Sopranos" are acting as if every single episode counts, not just one here and there leading to a big finale.

But the quality of the early episodes has been so high, viewers are going to expect the show to maintain that — and it may not be able to do so every week. I thought of that when watching the season finale of "The Shield" next week.

I'll have more to say about "The Shield" in a separate post. But this has been a terrific season, both through the addition of Forest Whitaker as a "good" guy who is as ruthless and unscrupulous as Mackey, and in the impact of Whitaker's presence on all the other characters. The intensity has been incredible; what might have been cat-and-mouse in lesser hands is more like cobra-and-mongoose here.

Still, because "The Shield" has been so compelling episode by episode, I was prepared for something epic in the season finale. Make no mistake, it's good. It has an air of tragic inevitability for anyone who has been watching closely this season. And there's a funny little surprise in the middle of the drama. Even so, it disappointed a little because it did not top everything leading up to it.

This wasn't a case of waiting for a show to return, as with "Veronica Mars." It was instead a matter of getting so deeply involved in a series that I wanted an ending whose power would carry me over to the next (and possibly final) batch of episodes.

If you thought that Mackey's play on Kavanaugh last week was enough to slow down the internal-affairs investigation, think again. Tonight Kavanaugh actually escalates the war with Mackey — and, as we know, Kavanaugh plays dirty.

I have seen a rough cut of the episode which looks to be a bit longer than the final on-air version, but it's still absolutely stunning. The interrogation scenes recall the greatest in-the-box moments on "Homicide: Life on the Street." Forest Whitaker, playing Kavanaugh, once again proves why he is so dangerous to Mackey, and how many ways they resemble each other — charming, single-minded, lethal.

The episode is also a strong statement about the roles women play in the lives of the regular characters, and in the lives of the criminals, and how vulnerable those relationships can make the men.

This week I've been watching the third season of "NYPD Blue," because it's coming out on DVD. The show was firing on all cylinders then, sad and anguished and harsh and funny. (There's a weird little nod to "ER" in one episode.) It and "Hill Street Blues" and "Homicide" are all part of the foundation of "The Shield." But the FX show has used that foundation admirably, building a show that tonight at least is on the same level as its predecessors, and possibly even better.

In a review of critic John Simon's work, the New York Times on Sunday included this line from Simon: "Selective patrons cannot even imagine what horrors reviewers are exposed to, night after nightmarish night."

Yes, there are moments like that for any TV reviewer capable of some level of discrimination. In fact, there's one tonight, called "Emily's Reasons Why Not." The sitcom starring Heather Graham airs on ABC. It's bad. Really bad. As I said in an earlier post, I asked Target Demo to watch it — and apologized for putting her through such an ordeal.

That doesn't mean everything on TV is bad. "Jake in Progress" returns tonight to ABC; the John Stamos comedy is disposable but not unpleasant — TV candy for those moments when you want no substance but a laugh or two.

Then there are the things that make you happy to watch television. One is "Country Boys," the PBS documentary airing under "Frontline's" banner tonight. I have a review in today's Beacon Journal (available here), so let me just say here that it is terrific, thoughtful television.

Its basic honesty is even more important given a couple of stories in the news today. The Smoking Gun is at length questioning the accuracy of some of memoirist James Frey's tales. (You can link to TSG's investigation here.) And the New York Times — yes, I know that's another reference to the paper; I'm on one of those two-week free subscriptions — has a piece about the real identity of writer JT Leroy.

If both pieces are themselves accurate, you can read them as demonstrations that for some, the truth just isn't dramatic enough. "Country Boys" shows that truth is more powerful than dramatic invention.

And tomorrow night begins the fifth season of "The Shield." It's a beginning that also feels like an end — the show's makers talk as if they are ready to wind up — because it brings the show back to its shocking origins, when Mackey killed another cop; that murder is now part of an Internal Affairs investigation of Mackey, forcing Vic to cover some old, old tracks. And the IA investigator is both dedicated and terrifying. I'll probably post more about it later.

Allan Johnson, who wrote about TV for the Chicago Tribune, has died. The Tribune's obituary is here.