"Rescue Me" ends and life goes on

(CBS) Denis Leary has been all over entertainment news lately talking up the end of his much-admired and hotly debated series, "Rescue Me." With the show now done - the final episode aired Wednesday - how did its end measure up? (Spoilers!)

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The series didn't end with the death of Leary's character, Tommy Gavin (though that was briefly considered by creators Peter Tolan and Leary), but with Tommy, in the words of Salon's Matt Zoller Seitz, "reaming out a bunch of new recruits." Instead, Lou met his end in the final episode.

And the show, from the critics at least, roundly gets credit for ending on its own terms and not being a tear-jerker. Seitz writes, "Leary and Tolan didn't go for a pat, star-f--king resolution." The character that did die in the final episode, he writes, "felt dramatically right."

"True to form, 'Rescue Me' ended its seven season run on its own terms," writes Sandra Gonzalez in Entertainment Weekly. "So was it what I was expecting? In some ways, no. And in most ways, absolutely."

Tim Goodman at The Hollywood Reporter wasn't a fan of the series finale and offers an analysis of the final episode and the series as a whole. He writes, "'Rescue Me' as a drama had lost much of its relevance years ago." Later, he writes about how the show's connection to Sept. 11 is long gone. "[T]he 9/11 thread had been long lost on 'Rescue Me' and coming back to the show for some kind of closure on that issue was too much to ask."

What about you? What did you think of the end of "Rescue Me"? Let us know in the comments.