Rescue Me from shitty actors

For three years, I've been watching Rescue Me and for the first two I stopped at the penultimate episode. It's not that I don't like the show; I do, but it's very painful to watch. Episode after episode, Peter Tolan and Denis Leary pile on turmoil and heartache and pain. As individual entities, I've still liked the shows come the end of the season (who doesn't like Jesus in a Lamborghini,) but the cumulative effects were too much.

This year was a bit different. First off, they took me out of rhythm with the rape episode. For those who don't watch (or do, but think deep down women really like to be dominated...) Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary) raped his ex-wife. Tolan and Leary promise karmic retribution for Leary's character next season, but for now I still have a bad taste in my mouth.

Then, they decided to off Tommy's brother, Johnny.

If you ever saw any of Ed Burns' early movies, you know the lows to which an indie writer/director/producer sometimes has to sink in casting. Trust me: Mike McGlone is fuckin' Olivier compared to Dean Winters. Killing this guy off was a mercy flush. It was easy to watch the last two episodes, knowing he'd finally be off the show. Sure, he'll show up as an annoying ghost next year, but I'm pretty sure they won't pony up for enough speaking episodes to really hurt me (this is cable, after all.)

The season finale was on tonight and the writers did a great job of introducing more loose threads than they resolved. Next season - barring too much spousal rape or crap guest-ghosts - looks to be a good one.