'Rescue Me': Stuck in a rut

Is it just me or is nothing happening on "Rescue Me" lately?

Sure, Janet is severely depressed (but not because Sheila wants her baby, Janet doesn't know that yet), Sean accidentally set fire to Mike's house, Lou's nymphomaniac girlfriend can't go without sex for a minute (even if it means sleeping with Artie Lange...ick) and Franco finally proposed to his girlfriend.

And yet everyone, and everything, feels stuck in some kind of holding pattern.

None of those story lines are actually advancing week to week. There's no progress, no spark. Even the comedy has been underwhelming lately: Do we really care that the new Chief has a big...um...schlong? (And where did Tatum O'Neal go? She disappears just as she and Steve Pasquale's Sean were developing such a great chemistry.)

This wildly unpredictable series often goes through creative peaks and valleys, occasionally within a single episode, but it's unprecedented to have two consecutive ho-hum installments.

Maybe guest star Susan Sarandon's long-awaited return next week can get things back on the right track. I really don't want to have to break out the "rescue" puns.

-- Geoff Berkshire

(Photo courtesy FX)