Full disclosure? Callie Thorne and I have had a long-standing contentious relationship that I’m pretty sure she knows nothing about.  I’m a from-the-beginning viewer of RESCUE ME, and Sheila Keefe has long been a, no pun intended, thorn in my side.  So, you can imagine my preparation, going in to tonight’s premiere of NECESSARY ROUGHNESS (10/9c on USA), to fully dislike Callie Thorne’s Dr Dani, the Long Island psychotherapist, who decides to take on a hot-headed celebrity as a client, after she finds out that her husband is a slimeball (Craig Bierko is awesome).

Now imagine my surprise when I found myself not only really liking Dr Dani, but also pretty much forgetting that Sheila is still out there trying to eff/marry/kill Tommy (or whatever hare-brained scheme she’s cooking up).  The first episode follows the crumbling of Dani’s marriage, her struggle to keep her children, her new-found celebrity connections, and her new career; Dani also gets back on the dating…horse, so to speak, ahem ahem, and the beginnings of a love triangle between two of my favorite TV leading men is established!

Callie Thorne is so charming and strong in this role, and I’m happy that she’s the latest character coming to USA.  The rest of the cast – Marc Blucas, Scott Cohen, Mehcad Brooks – are all great and I’m interested in learning more about them all.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still questions about where Dani goes once she wraps up her first case in a neat little bow (that’s not a spoiler; it’s procedural TV, the story ends with a neat little bow), but I am convinced after the pilot that I’m going to stick around to find the answer.