Art and reality television are full of lessons. Sometimes you have to get fake to be real, and often the so-called “real” is the fakest article of all.

Shows like “Deadliest Catch” (8 p.m., Discovery) have spawned an entire genre of tough-guy documentary series. An audience has emerged that likes to watch other guys work hard. And many of these fishing, logging and hardworking guys use salty language, giving the genre a patina of “reality,” or at least a reflection of a producer or viewer’s notion of what real “working guys” talk like.

Only, have you ever heard any of these guys have a conversation of any duration about a subject of any depth? Thinking, reading, reflecting are pretty much verboten on reality television. To get closer to the reality of working life, you have to turn to make-believe.

Denis Leary created the series “Rescue Me” (9 p.m., FX), now entering its fifth season, to honor his friends, relatives and acquaintances in the fire department. The show also goes a long way toward rescuing firefighters and police officers from the “hero” status that emerged after 9/11. Nothing stops a conversation like the mention of a “hero.” There is nothing worse than reducing a complex personality, a flesh-and-blood man or woman, to a plaster statue. The characters on “Rescue Me” do heroic things, but none of them are “heroes” in that most static sense. In fact, Tommy (Leary), the show’s central character, may actually be disturbed.

As Season 5 begins, Tommy is still reeling from the death of his estranged father, and Tommy’s angst emerges in a rather toxic way at a family gathering, where Tommy trashes everyone and everything sacred, including the beloved memory of a family dog. And this tsunami of nihilism is not without collateral damage.

Fraught with at least a half-dozen preposterous subplots, “Rescue Me” remains true to the black heart of its main character. And Tommy provides steady reassurance of his central contradiction. It’s the most incurable romantic who makes the most incorrigible cynic.

• The new series “Deadliest Warrior” (9 p.m., Spike) offers comparisons between some of history’s great fighters. Who would win a hypothetical battle between an Apache warrior and a Roman centurion? Could the Taliban defeat the IRA? Who would triumph in a smackdown between a Viking and a Samurai? Look for computer-graphic re-creations and a fake History Channel variation on Godzilla vs. Mothra.

Tonight’s other highlights

• Linus concocts yet another belief system in the 1974 special “It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown” (7 p.m., ABC).

• “Nova” (7 p.m., PBS, check local listings) visits with seven doctors it has been following since 1987.

• The top eight compete on “American Idol” (7 p.m., Fox).

• A movie mogul is murdered on “The Mentalist” (8 p.m., CBS).

• A mute child emerges from a demolished building on “Fringe” (8 p.m., Fox).

• “Frontline” (8 p.m., PBS, check local listings) looks at bribery in international business and affairs, taking place at the highest levels.

• A tycoon’s son vanishes on “Without a Trace” (9 p.m., CBS).

• An artist’s murder fits a long-established pattern on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (9 p.m., NBC).