I wish something about “Rescue Me” compelled me to watch it every week – something more than the fact that it’s richer, more nuanced, and better acted than most hour-long dramas on network television. One possible downside to the explosion of decent programming on basic cable – with quality shows like “The Shield,” “The Closer,” “Nip/Tuck,” and “Rescue Me” competing against traditional network fare like “Lost” and the gems of HBO, “The Sopranos” and “Six Feet Under” – is that there’s too much good TV to watch. It’s hardly something to complain about, but it means the viewer has to make some difficult choices these days. And that puts a lot of pressure on a series like “Rescue Me,” which enters its second season tonight on FX without yet having fully found its voice.

It’s a little frustrating, because there’s so much more to like about “Rescue Me” this season. It remains focused on the bumpy journey of Tommy Gavin, the firefighter played by the show’s cocreator and executive producer, Denis Leary – and there’s still no question that Mr. Leary commands a TV screen like few others of his generation. He personifies the hunky New York City firefighter, and yet inhabits the insecurities of his character with such ease that his pain seems palpable to even the most casual viewer. I missed the last few episodes of the first season, but easily picked up the thread of Gavin’s disintegration from the first three hours of Season 2 – in which his wife has left him and taken his kids; his alcoholism continues to torment him; his transfer to the almost fire-free borough of Staten Island is driving him nuts, and his girlfriend is pregnant with his baby.

Yes, Gavin is a mess, though you might not know it from a quick glance; he’s still got his matinee-idol looks and gruff charm to fall back on, and everything he does – no matter how ill-conceived or inappropriate – somehow manages to appeal. Maybe that’s what distances me from the show a little. I wish there were something just a little less manageable about his life: No matter how far down he sinks, there’s always someone there to save him, a friend who can’t allow him to disintegrate. It’s as though there’s always a soft mattress at the bottom to break his fall, and that’s a weakness in a series about a man with weaknesses – he’s allowed to have them, but he’s not allowed to be consumed or destroyed by them.

It’s not as though I don’t enjoy watching moments of the show; I especially loved parts of Episode 2, when Gavin joins the firehouse barbershop quartet as a means to get to Ohio (where there’s a quartet competition) to find his ex-wife and kids. But for every flash of honesty and humor – such as the scene when Gavin auditions to be part of the quartet – there’s a false dramatic note in his confrontation with his ex-wife, a scene straight out of the TV drama playbook, and unworthy of the show’s lofty goals. Mr. Leary (and his creative partner, comedy veteran Peter Tolan) lapse too often into the conventions of man-and-booze drama, and fail to play with the more counterintuitive elements of firehouse camaraderie that set the show apart. The subplot involving a handsome firefighter in love with an overweight girl replays the premise of Neil LaBute’s off-Broadway play “Fat Pig,” right down to the inclusion of Ashlie Atkinson, the plus-size actress hired for the part. (Though the twist of him stalking her has potential.) I’m hoping more original moments await us as “Rescue Me” works out its identity. It’s a worthwhile concept with a bona fide star and a gifted crew of writers, directors, and producers. Now all it needs is a better sense of itself; the journey of Tommy Gavin can’t depend so much on the conventions we already expect. We need to be surprised, jolted, thrown for a loop – the way “The Shield” did, or “The Sopranos.” Otherwise, “Rescue Me” will end up as a show we catch every so often. It aspires to be something more; right now it’s only good enough for its audience to keep checking in periodically – to get a place among the shows we watch every week, we need a character’s journey whose steps we never want to miss. It’s not quite there yet.

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I’ve watched two episodes of “The Situation With Tucker Carlson” on MSNBC and can report that the situation is already pretty near hopeless. Among other problems, Mr. Carlson has unaccountably saddled himself with two second-rate sidekicks. One of them, Rachel Maddow, is a radio personality with an attitude (and haircut) disturbingly similar to that of her host; the other, Jay Severin, also of radio, seems ill-suited to by-play with Mr. Carlson. Both seem to be there to make Mr. Carlson appear, by contrast, reasonable and intelligent; on that level, they’re a raging success. I’ve never quite understood Mr. Carlson’s appeal, but then again I don’t really comprehend the reason for opinionated newscasts on cable that amount to little more than video blogs. Or is it my antipathy for Mr. Carlson’s point of view? I don’t think so, since he doesn’t seem to have one yet.