DRAMA SERIES: (Dexter was amazingly entertaining, but isn't exactly high art. Of those nominated I'd give it to Breaking Bad over Mad Men.)

Damages had an excellent 1st season, but to nominate it again, you'd simply need to have not watched season 2 -- which spun one of the more implausible, tenuous, ridiculous plots in television history. More deserving than FNL or the final season of The Shield? A total joke.

Lost still has a lot going for it: gorgeous photography, charismatic stars, but it's clearly become just a crazy adventure yarn, and not the promisingly deep allegory it seemed it might have been in Season 1.

ACTORS: (Cranston should win again; he carries that show.)

Yes, Kyle Chandler was big-time snubbed. (Just think of his indelible "That's my daughter!" line reading, while he scraped his grill.) The Mentalist is a pleasant enough show, in the light, implausible "Murder She Wrote" tradition, and Simon Baker does a great job holding interest, but c'mon, no comparison.

As was Michael Chiklis, who held down all the heaviness and tension of the Shield's labyrinthine conspiracies.

Also, Jimmy Smits was a big-time snub in SA for Dexter. He was monstrous, volcanic, riveting, etc.., etc... What's with the Academy's great love of "Boston Legal," anyway?

ACTRESSES: (Hope Davis was electric and should win SA, though Dianne Wiest would be a good choice too.)

Chloe Sevigny seems the big-time snubee to me among the actresses. How can you nominate Big Love for best Drama and then forget about the actress who always steals the show (in a good way)?

was nominated for Guest Actor.

Strange category for him, since he played a major role on Dexter pretty much the whole season. I guess they had no room for him in Supporting Actor after squeezing in the whole cast of Boston Legal.

cops can't have crowds seeing them cowered by a loudmouth

The whole logic of arresting a man in front of his own house for sassing at a cop in this essay hinges on that questionable word: "cowered." A man walking away, as Crowley should have done as a professional duty, is not necessarily "cowered"; in my opinion, he's showing wisdom. "Cowered" is over-macho BS talking; it's fear; it's insecurity; it's no way for a professional to think.

Yes, Gates acted "stupidly." Here's his excuse: just as Crowley is probably hyper-aware of cops senselessly being shot dead from time to time, Gates is hyper-aware of a 200 year legacy of blacks being treated unequally by law enforcement. He's undoubtedly quite aware of having been treated unfairly at times himself, despite his distinguished status in society.

But the bottom line is that Crowley is the professional in the situation, not Gates. Crowley is the one with the professional duty not to act stupidly, not to make it personal. Gates has every citizen's right to act like an ass and talk back to authority, or at least he should, if we really care about the "freedom" we give so much lip-service to.

is entertaining. Yes, there's something annoyingly pat about the whole thing. But for me it's not that much of a stress to see how 2 men of Jackie's age could be head-over-heels for her. She's strong, sexy, commanding. And the supporting cast is likable, if also a little pat somehow. Weirdly it's still better than nearly every half-hour show on the networks.

Yes, greater L.A. is a probably unsustainable place with serious, serious problems. Most of us who live there or have lived there at one time have the ability to laugh at it at the same time that we hold affection for it. I've seen Havrilesky write affectionately of it as well. When did so many people get so humorless?

People, Havrilesky writes a humorous TV column. Hyperbole is one of the tools in her arsenal. Get over yourselves. (This week it seems the -- "How dare you! Fire is licking at my very door!" and "If you don't like it, move!" -- commenters are taking the place of the -- "I'm so much better than TV, so I don't have one!" and "why is Salon covering TV when the world is falling apart?!" -- commenters.

"Good" means different things to different people.

Bleeding-heart wussies such as I tend to apply it to people who show empathy for others. People to whom judging others doesn't come easily. Kind people, sensitive people, generous people. The writer is not good in this way, obviously. Her self-description gives off a certain cynical, depressing chill.

She and her husband do perform a tough, thankless, perhaps dangerous job, one that helps our modern civilization, such as it is, keep grinding forward. That's good in its way. It's certainly honest, which is more than can be said for many livings nowadays.

That 2nd song was so lovely. I wish she would let that pure musical soul shine through without extraneous cheekiness and cleverness more often. Cleverness is a cheaper thing -- endlessly fascinating only to the young.

This is Cary Tennis at his best -- weird, insightful, and deeply empathetic.

I suppose dealing with neighbors in any living situation involves tension and mystery, but living in a small condo holds especially intense versions of these things. God forbid you're obviously from a different socio-economic or cultural strata of society than longtime residents, or the subtle hostility you'll have to break through will be even more intense.