Rescue Me (FX)

Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary) has problems. He's an alcoholic who's hardly trying to control his drinking, his ex-wife hates him even more than most divorcees hate their former husbands, and he sometimes finds himself having conversations with dead friends and family members. The one place where Tommy, the senior firefighter at a busy New York firehouse, feels on solid ground is at work. Though this compelling and realistic drama centers on Tommy and his complicated life, his co-workers are also important characters with plenty of their own problems -- and helping his fellow firefighters sort through their issues helps Tommy (and viewers) realize that everybody's life can sometimes get pretty messy.

Though the firefighting scenes are exciting, the strength of RESCUE ME is that the characters' problems and crises are all very believable; watching Tommy and his pals try to figure out what to do with their lives feels like it could be anyone trying to muddle through life. Viewers might be put off by the language; firefighters can't really be expected to watch their words when battling a blaze, and the station house seems much like a lived-in locker room, but these guys are incredibly foul-mouthed by any standard. There's not a bad word ever coined that they don't use liberally, and they make up plenty more that are creatively explicit.

Still, Rescue Me goes a step beyond the standard hospital or police station ensemble drama because its characters have more going on in their lives than what happens at work. That said, the level of complication and complex shades of gray in those lives make the series iffy for all but the most mature teens.