Who else was completely bummed out by that Rescue Me season finale last night?

It was a downer of a capper to a sixth season that was a letdown overall. It often felt like some of the show’s funnier moments, which have always been so clever and sometimes outrageous, in the past, were strung together like one-liners, and the ongoing bit with Garrity (Steven Pasquale) and Mike (Mike Lombardi) trying to help doomed firefighter Pat (Will Chase) slipped into farce more than once (and not particularly good farce).

It was also with a heavy-handed dose of foreshadowing that the writers kept letting us know something, something really bad, was going to happen to Damien. Actor Michael Zegen talked to the Los Angeles Times about the fate of his character, and hints at what will happen in the show’s seventh, and final, season, which kicks off next summer and is scheduled to wrap right around the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

Appropriate time to end the show, but I still think a better, wholly more appropriate ending would have been to end the series with the fifth season finale, when Uncle Teddy (Lenny Clarke) shot Tommy (Denis Leary) and left him bleeding on the floor of the bar. Sure, it would have been devoid of the show’s lighter elements, but it also would have been a fitting ending for a character who’s caused so much trouble, for so many people who love him, throughout the series, and The Sopranos-esque ending of leaving Tommy’s dead-or-alive fate hanging might have angered fans initially, but, again, would have been better than what’s already happened in season six.

The cast and crew have already filmed the nine episodes that will make up season seven, so expect spoilers to leak before they find their way to air on FX in June 2011.

In the meantime, what do other Rescue Me fans think about the just-concluded season? Was Damien’s accident a shocker? And what about Lou (John Scurti)? Is the lovable fireman skating away without taking his fair share of the blame for what happened to Damien, since it might not have happened had he retired, as his doctor suggested? And what do you want to see happen, ultimately, to the Gavin clan?

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• Filed in Drama, Review - TV
• Tags: Rescue Me season 7, Rescue Me seasoon 6 finale