Really, tomreed? NET was the original name of PBS? You're kidding! Guess what...quite a few of us already knew that. And the fact is, those that didn't...really aren't missing out on much.

We get it already. You're extremely interested in the television industry. But for all the random television-related trivia you're able to spew, I'm amazed at your inability to thoughtfully criticize narrative or give any decent reason as to why you do or do not like a particular television show. For all the shit you give Havrilesky for supposedly "hating everything and everyone", you seem to have no grasp as to why human beings act the way they do.

Take for one your complaint about The Sopranos being "too sexualized" as compared to The Untouchables (admittedly a fantastic show; we have no argument there). Right. Because sex plays no part in the motivations of the average human being. Because unfettered access to sex isn't one of the most appealing parts - in the mind of the average person - about being a member of the mafia. In fact, why the Sopranos is so great, in my opinion, is that it recognizes the romanticism many people have in regards to the mafia and lays waste to the stereotypes. Did you ever notice that the more Tony pursues sex outside his marriage, the worse his life becomes? That he derives no more than fleeting, momentary pleasure from his affairs and finds true happiness only when he's with Carmela?

Or consider the crux of the entire series - Tony's relationship with Dr Melfi and the idea that "regular life" is tougher to deal with than mob life. A rather clever rebuttal to the notion that mobsters are free from the everyday indignities and hassles that the rest of us deal with on a daily basis. To me, that's the foundation The Sopranos has always been built on - stripping every bit of glamour from what, at its root, is a horrible profession and leaving the audience and characters to deal with the reality of what mobsters do.

Or your dismissal of Freaks and Geeks as a show about "the losers" of high school life. Yeah, because what people really want to see is a show about the winners, the football jocks whom everyone either loves or is terrified of, who drink and fuck their way through adolescence, daydream their way through college with a solid B- average and get handed a job from one of their fathers' frat brothers' hedge fund companies. Now THAT'S compelling TV!

Honestly, I couldn't care less if you have complaints about this comlumn. But for once, could you give a valid, concrete reason for why you're so pissed off? Is that so much to ask - thoughtful criticism? Just once, drop the nuggets of trivia, dissect the show at hand, and say something that doesn't sound like it's coming from the drunken, cranky old man sitting on the milk crate outside the neighborhood bar.

TV is the one thing we have in common, and I agree with Tom Reed - there's nothing laudatory in proclaiming you don't own/don't watch television. My problem has more to do with the fact that week after week he comes on here to attack Havrilesky personally and spout off a handful of television trivia nuggets that have little or nothing to do with the shows being reviewed. I can't remember a single constructive thing he's ever said in favor of or against the shows in question.

The dumping of the asbestos in the marsh reminded me of an earlier scene - way back in Season 1, I think - where Melfi confronts Tony about what he does for a living, and Tony, in his defense, snaps back, "What about those corporations, dumping chemicals and shit into the rivers?" The implication being that the destruction Tony wrought was nothing compared to what "legitimate" business did, with an added caveat that at least when anyone got hurt by him, it was someone who "desevered it" - another mobster ("soldier", he said) or gambler, etc, not an innocent member of the public.

But, as has been pointed out several times here and in other discussion threads, Tony's compartmentalized life is collapsing - his business is intruding on family life and vice versa, and for the first time Tony is forced to acknowledge the consequences of the life he's lead (hence the recurrent scenes hinting at revelation - Tony shouting "I get it!" into the canyon and the constant reappearance of white lights, from the sun over the canyon, to the spotlight over Paris during Carm's trip, to the revloving beacon of light on the horizon in Tony's 'Kevn Finnerty' dreams).

Like most things in the Sopranos, the asbestos has both practical and multiple symbolic implications, which is why the show deserves all the comparisons it gets to classic literature. This final stretch of shows is nothing short of spectacular.