One of TV's best series, Rescue Me (FX, tonight, 10 ET/PT) gets another great guest turn: Maura Tierney, who shines as a tough-talking firehouse love interest. But her interest does not extend to Denis Leary's Tommy, whom she dismisses as "Opie." (He could be "Opiesque," agrees Tommy's ex-wife, Janet, if Opie's "mom grew up in Red Hook and had sex with Satan.")

Eventually she will see Tommy's appeal, which will no doubt offend those who can't see it themselves. That's understandable; sex appeal is a matter of personal preference. But those who go on to dismiss Tommy's string of conquests as a star ego trip are missing the point. The encounters seldom work out well for Tommy, which is just as well, because Leary is never funnier than when some woman has him stammering in terror, aware that he has once again stepped in it and can't escape.

Plus, if you focus only on the sex, you'll miss the dramatic underpinning that gives this season its heft: Tommy's battle with alcoholism, and his admission that alcohol is the only thing that makes his life bearable — and him bearable as a person. Ultimately, the issue for the show isn't whom Tommy rescues, it's whether he can be rescued himself. And that's an answer worth watching for.