Think about the difficulty of being an actor on that show. An actor is a person who -- by definition -- lies in public for a living, pretending to be someone he/she is not.

So when the element of story and suspense is detecting when someone is lying -- pretending to be someone he/she is not, I think it demands a major degree of mastery of craft. The fact that this show, as is usual in TV dramas, involves a lot of close-ups makes the job a lot more difficult and praiseworthy than almost any other, even if the writing may fall short.

Unlike the premise of TM and many other shows (Psych, Ghost Whisperer, the Medium, etc) the basis of this show is actual respected published academic work that is available to anyone.

Of course it's romanticized and dramatized and fictionalized -- spotting a lie instantly and on the run and under stress is like showing a person pick a lock in less than several minutes is absurd. (Ask a locksmith.) But time restraints and money restraints along with the need to hold the attention of an audience with a remote control in hand makes it necessary. Call it dramatic and poetic license.

And Tim Roth is an amazing actor -- even in this series.

There's one BIG difference between a politician (senator, congressperson, lobbyist, etc) and an actual whore:

The actual whore is only selling his/her OWN ass.

The politician is selling OURS.

As always, I'm fond of quoting what one working-girl prostitute said in the 1970's:

"We're not selling anything that doesn't belong to us and there isn't a businessman or politician who can make that same statement."*

It's an insult to whores everywhere to suggest that politicians are the same.

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*Quoted in Organ Magazine, 1972

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As one hooker said a long time ago:

"We're not selling anything that doesn't belong to us -- and there isn't a businessman or a politician who can make that same statement."

Politicians and lobbyists and the rest make their livings selling things that belong to other people, like congressional votes (they call it "campaign contributions" but a bribe is a bribe is a bribe).

I've elaborated on this on my blog -- Saintperle (http://saintperle.blogspot.com)

.. that Public Option is Heather Graham -- hot stuff, sexy and edge and attractive and "with-it" -- all the things 50+ year old ad execs would love to be, but are so far out of it they watch Mad Men to see the amazingly romanticized version of who they think they are and find out how to say it -- in 50-year-old cliches.

It's pretty clear in its message -- that the insurance companies are fat, bloated, overstuffed, ugly cartoon creepazoids. In other words, it's the ad agency version of actual information. (Usually such ads are done pro bono which means they're every bit as important to the ad execs as doing work for free will always be.)

Still, how bad can watching a skimpily dressed Heather Graham doing acrobatic stretches be? If it draws attention (it will) and makes its point (no matter how broad and cartoonish), it's doing its job.

As to being universally indicting of ALL insurance companies, I recall the description of med insurance companies said by Melvin Belli, who knew them (and juries) well: "The sonsofbitches forget whose money it is when it comes time to pay off."

and it never occurred to me that it was IN ANY WAY intended for children. Just, at that time (and still), such cartoony items as comic books and animated moives are/were assumed to be for kids.

Like Bill Plympton's films - from "I married a Strange Person: to "Santa: The Fascist Years" and all the rest in between ..

even the Wallace and Gromit series (which generally goes over kids' heads even though the visual part delights kids as well as grownups) --- it's really the FORM of animation that reminds adults of their early years (especially the ones where mom threw out all the Crypt of Horror comics) but are not intended for kids...

As to Where the Wild Things Are -- first time I saw the commercial I was delighted someone made the movie, but the more I see the commercials the more averse I get to seeing it.

Using Sendak's creatures for philosophomoric exposition is like using our favorite 50's 60's songs to advertise banks or insurance companies or luxury cars or Toilet Paper --- you watch it and you feel something has just been taken away from your life.

They're fanatics ---

And they don't understand the most basic tenet of cause-and-effect, something taught to 1st year medical students:

NEVER CONFUSE SUBSEQUENCE WITH CONSEQUENCE

But they do -- and scream and shout and threaten anyone who would challenge their stupid statements:

"Women managed to secure more rights in society than they previously had .. and now they're unhappy, and we told them that liberation would make them unhappy, and WE WERE RIGHT."

Or: "George W Bush became president and then radical murderers bombed the World Trade Center, therefore, George W Bush and his supporters caused the destruction that happened on September 11, 2001."

"All fanaticism is a strategy to prevent doubt from becoming conscious." H.A. Williams

Of course, insightful people -- people much smarter than I am, noticed the phenomenon --

"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you."

Don Marquis (1878 - 1937)

Ahh wottehell, Boss.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on not understanding it."

Upton Sinclair

They're tools of whoever waves money or guns or flags in their faces. What's incomprehensible is why the mainstream media pays any attention to what those people are babbling about.