I think Stephanie Zacharek hit the nail on the head more than she knew when she described comedy as "precarious." Maybe it's unrealistic of us to expect even the best comedians to churn out hit after hit, brilliant performance after brilliant performance. It may be that even Steve Martin and Albert Brooks don't exactly know what makes some things work and other things flop -- there is a delicate magic at work in comedy that I would guess remains somewhat mysterious even to comedians themselves. Let's be grateful for their moments of genius and allow for the fluctuations inherent in that very genius.

As the previous post notes, the time for a man to exercise his own right to choose is before having sex, not after a pregnancy occurs. If a man is so loathe to have children, he should either abstain from sex altogether, carry and enforce multiple forms of birth control, or have a vasectomy. Once a pregnancy occurs, the decision becomes the sole domain of the woman whose body holds the baby -- to force her to either carry an unwanted child to term or to end the life of a baby she wants would be such an enormous invasion of her right to make decisions about her own body that it would far outweigh any "fairness" to the baby's father. While I sympathize with the frustrating lack of power men must feel in these situations, the only way around it is to take the appropriate precautions at the outset, not impose barbaric regulations after the fact.

Heather, I agree with everything you've written about Nip/Tuck. However, I think maybe you're missing the spirit of the show. I know it's a fine line between godawful and deliciously godawful, but I like to think Nip/Tuck falls on the "so bad it's good" side of that line. Rather than comparing the show to Six Feet Under, try comparing it to Melrose Place and revel in the over-the-top story lines, poorly developed characters, and completely unnecessary gore. It's fabulous!