In season two, FX's "Rescue Me" shocked viewers with the death of firefighter Tommy Gavin's young son, who was struck by a drunk driver. Tonight at 10 the series returns for year three.

Last week executive producers Peter Tolan and Denis Leary, who also stars in the series as Gavin, reflected on last season and looked ahead to what viewers will see this year.

"We did not know we were going to go there as we started the season," Tolan said of the young death. Leary said celebrities who are fans accosted him at a U2 concert after the episode aired, upset about the demise.

"It just reinforced what the power of it was," Leary said. "It's an interesting place to go because as somebody who's had so much death recently in his life -- his mother, the 50 guys he knew [who died] on 9/11, his cousin -- to have the male heir taken away, shakes his faith. It's the worst possible form of death for a parent to face. ... It's a dose of reality you don't normally see on a television series."

The notion of Tommy having to have a male heir comes up in tonight's season premiere. Next week's episode includes a family brawl that's both dark and appropriate given the personalities at play among the show's characters.

"When you say 'Irish family,' I think the word 'dysfunctional' is derived from Gallic," said the very Irish Leary. "I grew up in a working-class neighborhood where everyone went to the same Catholic school for 12 years. A lot of people married their high school sweethearts. ... It's really interesting to see all these relationship. That's stuff that's really rich dramatically and comedically."

Tolan agreed.

"We've set up this extended family of people who seem to be locked in place. They can't get away from each other when maybe they should," he said. "There's endless breaking up and repairing within this same group of people. Even Tommy and [his deceased cousin's wife] Sheila [Callie Thorne] are connected through a dead man."

One of the firefighters will experiment with homosexuality this year in his ongoing attempt to find where he belongs. Leary said making a character gay (or killing him off) has long been used as a comedic threat off camera.

"I don't think we said this character is gay," Tolan said. "He's searching for where he belongs and who he belongs with. We've seen all these different relationships he's had come to naught."

Two prominent guest stars join "Rescue Me" this year: Susan Sarandon, who'd been a fan of the show and appears in early episodes, and Marisa Tomei, whose arc will begin later in the season.

For all the dark themes in "Rescue Me," Leary and Tolan sometimes worry it's not dark enough.

"If anything, I look at the show and go, 'Maybe it's too funny,'" Tolan said. "We're always worried if it's dramatic enough. But we won't let [characters] spin off too far into despair."