Let’s get something straight right now: Denis Leary’s Rescue Me is the best show on television. Heroes is pretty damn good, but since Friday Night Lights jumped the shark and West Wing ended years ago, Rescue Me is the current champ.
A few seasons ago I had some problems getting my DVRs to record the premiere. So this time I took no chances. For months there have been billboards all over Los Angeles and signs plastered on buses and bus stops proclaiming that the new season would begin tonight, April 7th, at 10:00pm on FX. The website says that the premiere is tonight, April 7th, at 10:00pm on FX. My own DirecTV onscreen guide has been displaying that the premiere is tonight, April 7th, at 10:00pm on FX. I have had my system set to record the premiere tonight, April 7th, at 10:00pm on FX for over two weeks.
So you can imagine that I was more than a little pissed off when I got home at 8:30pm – early, so I could confirm that no random episode of The Simpsons or Law & Order had mistakenly assumed priority recording in the queue – to find that the episode for who knows what reason began airing at 8:00pm instead of 10:00pm. And that it will not air again until Friday.
WTF?!
Rescue Me premiered at 7:00pm Pacific time. They aired it again at 8:00pm Pacific time. When I got home I only saw that the 8 o’clock episode wasn’t being recorded and didn’t consider that there was a 7 o’clock episode sitting there, recorded, on my DVR. Why FX failed to note on any of the billboards, bus signs, bus stops, or on their website that the time was only Eastern makes no sense to me. Why they aired the same episode consecutively also makes no sense to me. But I got to watch it so I’m happy. It was awesome, by the way.