Michael J. Fox begins his turn on "Rescue Me" April 7

An excerpt from the review of the new season of "Rescue Me" in the Boston Globe:

Previewing the first new episodes, I was reminded of just how powerfully kinetic and poetic "Rescue Me" was before it fizzled in 2007, a victim of aimless plotting and excess emotionality. I felt a resurgence of the show's kooky psychological wisdom, its raw gender-obsessed humor, and its anarchic New York spirit. While "Rescue Me" is no longer a revelation, it is still one of the richest pieces of 9/11-themed entertainment we've seen this decade. And while Denis Leary's angry Tommy Gavin no longer has the potential to shock, he is still one of TV's most outrageous yet sympathetic heroes as he struggles to stay sober.

This season, Tommy and his fellow Manhattan firefighters face a new set of adventures. These dudes are bromatic in the most basic, pre-Judd Apatow sense, as they bicker and curse endlessly but put their lives on the line for one another. Lou (John Scurti) is looking for love in precisely the wrong places, hapless Mike (Michael Lombardi) uses his inheritance from his mother to buy a bar, Franco (Daniel Sunjata) takes up boxing, and Black Shawn (Larenz Tate) deals with the stress of dating Tommy's daughter. And then, as always, Tommy's estranged wife, Janet (Andrea Roth), keeps Tommy on the edge as she takes up with a hyper wheelchair-bound guy played by Michael J. Fox with disability jokes aplenty.

But all of this black comedy plays out against the background of 9/11, which becomes a pronounced theme again this season when French journalist Genevieve (Karina Lombard, from "The L Word") interviews the guys for a 10th-anniversary coffee-table book. One of the most amazing things about "Rescue Me" at its best is the way it strikes such an extraordinary balance between ribald comedy and a dark night of the soul. Genevieve's questions stir up radically different responses, with Franco shouting out conspiracy theories at her and Mike resenting him for making the victims sound like dupes. Tommy, meanwhile, is repulsed by the commercialization of 9/11, and his disgust enables the show to comment on its own treatment of the attacks. If you have any remaining doubt about Leary's abilities as a dramatic actor, check out his rant at Genevieve in episode 2. It's chilling, and moving.