A loyal reader pointed out to me at the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference up in Phoenix over the weekend that I hadn't mentioned the sad news that the next season of Battlestar Galactica would be the last. (Yeah, that's the sort of thing we investigative reporters talk about when we get together. It can't all be about overthrowing the government or racking the muck.)

Bummer indeed about BSG. While we still have 22 episodes to look forward to next year, I'm sure going to miss it when it's gone. Although, like The Sopranos, it seemed to lose a step last season, too. Or does familiarity always breed contempt? I'm about due to give Season 3 a second viewing, so the verdict remains out. Maybe I'll like it better the second time through.

Also going to miss Veronica Mars, which also got the axe. Although, gotta say: Didn't find myself glued to the set when that plucky Veronica was solving her crimes this season, either. Not that it was bad, by any stretch; what I saw was terrific (including the BSG shout-outs), but it seems like another case of show burnout for me.

Haven't burned out a bit on The Shield and was very sorry to see just 10 episodes in the recently wrapped Season 6. The final ep seemed oddly anti-climatic, but it's so much fun to watch Michael Chiklas do his Vic Mackey strut that I can forgive a lot from this show. Like BSG, The Shield is said to be coming to an end next season, so we'll have to cherish those last 13 hours.

With the end of The Shield, FX is bringing back Rescue Me, Denis Leary's rich NYC firefighter mix, which returns on Wednesday. This show manages to be funny as hell in one scene and deeply dramatic in the next. Talk about fraked-up people: Tommy Gavin is a wrecking ball who demolishes anyone he comes in contact with. And the rest of the cast members--from the men in the fire station to the women Tommy ends up in bed with--are great, too.