FX

FX’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 in the television landscape by depicting contemporary life in its extremes.

This summer, as other basic cable channels have boasted of their winners -- such as USA’s “Psych,” TNT’s “The Closer” and Bravo’s “Project Runway” -- FX has managed to reign as the most talked-about network. But not necessarily for the reasons it might relish, since TV critics and fans have been asking: Has FX gone too far in its quest to skirt the edge? And in doing so, did network executives and show producers stoke the fires, giving the impression they could not handle the heat?

It is “Rescue Me,” the post-Sept. 11 firefighter drama, that has provided the polarizing fodder since its third season began in May. Co-created by Denis Leary, who stars in it and was nominated for an Emmy this year, and Peter Tolan, “Rescue Me” has won praise for its ability to teeter between tragedy and comedy, killing Tommy Gavin’s (Leary) young son or presenting firehouse antics that include 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. She initially hit him, but by the end was moaning and 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 sexual relationship with Tommy, her deceased husband’s cousin, drugged him with Rohypnol and Viagra and raped him.

A vocal contingent of critics and audience members were so offended they vowed they would never watch again. “ ‘Rescue Me’ not only jumped the shark but then went back and raped it,” posted one viewer on a message board. Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune wrote: “I will be switching the channel. ‘Rescue Me’ has gone too far for me.”

A few weeks later, T-Mobile’s chief executive blasted the network’s programming, dropped its sponsorship of “Rescue Me” and the network’s only comedy, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and said he would review the rest of the network’s slate. (Chrysler and Toyota, lobbied by the Parents Television Council and the American Family Assn. to abandon the network, are standing behind it.)

“Rescue Me,” like FX’s other original programs, airs at 10 p.m. with plenty of 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,’ ” said Leary. “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.”

Some TV critics and fans were astounded but riveted: “The final scene in this episode ... was one of the most complicated and heightened scenes I’ve ever seen on TV, and I could analyze it all day,” wrote Matthew Gilbert of the Boston Globe, after Tommy and Janet’s first sexual encounter. And for all the hubbub, the show’s performance has not suffered: “Rescue Me” is averaging 2.9 million viewers, a 7% increase over last year.

John Landgraf, the president and general manager of FX, is no stranger to complaints about his shows. Over lunch at Mr. Chow in Beverly Hills recently, Landgraf, who joined FX in 2004 but became its head in spring 2005, called this season of “Rescue Me” its “best and most brilliant.” He approved the story lines, he said, knowing that he would have to hold his breath and wait for the public’s response.

“For me the question is: What is the scene within the context of the entire scope of what they’re hoping to achieve this year?” he said. “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.”

From the creative end of “Rescue Me,” Tolan attempted to clarify their intentions in the first controversial scene by posting on the website Television Without Pity. But he only made matters worse by becoming combative with fans who disagreed with him.

And Leary outraged some critics 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.”

Then a remark that Landgraf made to the press, that he tested the Tommy-Janet episode with his female executives, rubbed some as an odd double-standard. “That doesn’t mean I didn’t get opinions from men,” he said. “From my standpoint, I’m not a woman, so I wanted to hear from women, and they really liked the episode.”

Landgraf and Leary said the bumpy ride is worth it. Leary feels that next season the “payoff I think is worth the trip about how sick that relationship is, and how bad it is for them and the rest of the world.”

Since it began developing original programming four years ago, FX has earned a reputation in Hollywood for allowing writers and actors to be true to their artistic integrity, even when scenes or episodes had the potential for driving away sponsors or repelling the public. That mission, established by Peter Liguori, who left FX in March 2005 to run Fox, lured Landgraf to leave Jersey Television.

“Nip/Tuck” creator Ryan Murphy said 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. If not, then it’s a problem.”

Sure, Murphy has had his share of arguments and discussions with FX’s top brass. But the most intense of those debates occurred last year during the production of the Season 3 finale, which included a disturbing, over-the-top resolution to the saga of the masked psycho the Carver. The December episode, as written and directed by Murphy, contained a 15-minute cross-cutting 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. In the juxtaposed scene, a white supremacist forced Sean’s son, Matt, to slice off his transgendered friend’s penis with a box cutter. 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 said. “But once I got that 40% 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 admitted that the season as a whole was too dark and gothic, perhaps influenced by a gloomy period in his personal life. “Nip/Tuck” returns on Sept. 5 with a lighter tone, and the Carver, Murphy promised, is gone for good.

The drama over FX’s dramas also 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.

But the two dramas it launched since “Rescue Me” -- “Over There” and “Thief” -- were not popular with viewers and were canceled. “Starved,” a comedy, and “Black.White,” a reality-documentary series, were meant to enlighten the public debate about eating disorders and race relations, respectively, but only managed to turn people off. They also were canceled. Neither “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” nor “30 Days” was a breakout hit, but Landgraf renewed them both for second seasons.

“There’s nothing that is setting off a major alarm that they’re in a creative funk,” said Laura Caraccioli-Davis, executive vice president of Starcom Entertainment, which serves as a liaison between marketers and Hollywood. I don’t think anybody’s saying their mojo isn’t working anymore.” But Landgraf has come to his own conclusion about the antihero genre, spawned by David Chase on “The Sopranos,” that gave FX its brand. Now that those bad boys are everywhere on the dial (ABC’s “Boston Legal” and Fox’s “House,” for example), FX will start exploring naughty girls and maybe dysfunctional families if it commits to the series “Low Life,” starring Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver. “Is that subgenre of a genre the only thing that FX is ever going to do?” Landgraf said. “Are we a network for men? I don’t think so.”

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 set in the tabloid industry with Cox Arquette as a stop-at-nothing tabloid editor and Ian Hart as a schizophrenic photographer. Their unholy alliance is the center of it all.

“Through examining tabloid culture, we’re looking at a larger cultural endgame or cultural apocalypse and FX is letting us explore that avenue,” said creator Matthew Carnahan. “I honestly don’t believe that anywhere else on TV would be letting us dig around and get as messy as this can get.”

“I just think if the network is slavishly devoted to its past successes, that’s a recipe for failure,” Landgraf said. “If you look at all of our shows, none of these stories is ever really over. The echoes keep resonating. You just have to be willing to keep watching.”