Extreme FX

The FX network’s signature dramas have never been easy to watch.

Whether it’s the execution-style murder of a little girl on “The Shield,” the surgical removal of an obese woman from a couch on “Nip/Tuck” or the sight of a burned firefighter who has lost his legs on “Rescue Me,” FX has distinguished itself by depicting contemporary life in its extremes.

This summer, it’s been most talked-about network – but not necessarily for the reasons it might relish. TV critics and fans alike have been asking: Has FX gone too far in its quest to skirt the edge?

“Rescue Me,” the post-Sept. 11 firefighter drama, has provided the most polarizing fodder since its third season began in May.

Co-created by Denis Leary, who also stars and was nominated for an Emmy this year, “Rescue Me” has won praise for its ability to teeter between tragedy and dark comedy – from killing the young son of Leary’s character, Tommy Gavin, to such firehouse antics as what-if talk about sex with amputees.

This season, the show pushed its boundaries further with three episodes that involved rape.

First, Tommy had a fight with his estranged wife, Janet, who was living with his brother, and forced her to have sex with him. By the end, she was smiling, leaving the audience to wonder if she enjoyed it.

Two episodes later, Janet answered that question, showing up at Tommy’s in lingerie and forcing herself on him. And in the following episode, Sheila – who has an off-and-on relationship with Tommy, her deceased husband’s cousin – drugged him with Rohypnol and Viagra and raped him.

Many critics and audience members were so offended they vowed they would never watch again. Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune wrote: “I will be switching the channel. ‘Rescue Me’ has gone too far for me.”

Leary added to the outrage when he explained in TV Guide his character’s violent taking of his estranged wife: “I’m sorry, I’ve got female friends who have been through it and don’t think it’s an unhealthy situation. And anybody that says different has either not been through it or is just politically correct and should probably be switching the channel.”

“Rescue Me,” like FX’s other original programs, airs at 10 p.m. with plenty of audience advisories – a point that is not lost on Leary, who emphasizes that he turned to basic cable because he did not want to obey broadcast network standards anymore.

“People talk about us, but my favorite show on TV is ‘The Sopranos,’ ” he says. “And that show is about a guy who kills people during the day and goes home and talks to his kids about going to college. Meanwhile, my guys put out fires and save people and then they go home and whatever happens, happens.”

For all the hubbub, the show’s performance has not suffered: “Rescue Me,” which wrapped up its season on Tuesday, averaged almost 3 million viewers, a 7 percent increase over last year.

John Landgraf, FX president and general manager, calls this season of “Rescue Me” its “best and most brilliant.”

“For me the question is: Is the scene within the context of the entire scope of what they’re hoping to achieve this year?” Landgraf says. “And I thought it was valid in that context, and I thought the risk behind it was reasonable.

“So it was like, strap on your bulletproof vest. We’re here to foster great television and take risks in support of creative freedom, and I just make no apologies for that.”

Ryan Murphy, creator of “Nip/Tuck,” which returns for a fourth season starting Tuesday, says he was inspired by “The Shield’s” raw authenticity to pitch his soap to FX.

“They’re very responsible, and they always say, ‘Let’s talk about this choice,’ and if you can defend it from a place of character, great,” Murphy says. “If not, then it’s a problem.”

The most intense of those debates occurred last year during the production of the Season Three finale, which included an over-the-top resolution to the saga of the masked psycho the Carver.

The December episode originally contained a 15-minute torture sequence in which the menacing Carver imprisoned the show’s main figures, Sean (Dylan Walsh) and Christian (Julian McMahon), and cut off Sean’s finger – juxtaposed with scenes of another, even more extreme incident.

Landgraf balked and asked Murphy to at least shorten it. The version that aired was nine minutes long.

“I felt it was too harrowing, I felt it would really hurt the show, and I felt it was over the line,” Landgraf says. “But once I got that 40 percent taken out and I got into the realm of where my taste differs from Ryan’s taste, I let him have his way.”

Murphy stands by the finale – FX’s highest-rated original series episode to date – but admits that the season as a whole was too dark and gothic, perhaps influenced by a gloomy period in his personal life. “Nip/Tuck” will have a lighter tone this fall, he says, and the Carver, he promises, is gone for good.

The drama over FX’s dramas has called into question the network’s future.

For a while, FX made it look easy, launching its three signature shows in succession, all of them becoming award-winning hits.

“The Shield” will end in 2008, after two more seasons. “Nip/Tuck” and “Rescue Me” potentially could go on for several more years. But as the shows age, FX will need to replace them – a task that is proving to be formidable as more cable and broadcast networks have hopped on the gritty serialized drama bandwagon.

The two dramas it launched since “Rescue Me” – “Over There” and “Thief” – were canceled. So were “Starved,” a comedy about eating disorders, and “Black.White.,” a reality-documentary series on race relations.

In January, FX will launch its first series with a female lead – and, yes, she will be an antihero.

Courteney Cox Arquette is the star of “Dirt,” a drama featuring her as a stop-at-nothing tabloid editor and Ian Hart as a schizophrenic photographer.