And, appropriate for a discussion of a detective series, I have my suspicions. There is software available (for more money than I can afford to spend) that can determine the individual identities of writers - word choice, phrasing, et cetera. And it occurs to me that the writing in the last three pieces by Heather Havrilesky look and scan nothing like her typical pieces.

The person credited with the creation of Batman, Bob Kane, was attributed as the artist on the comic series for decades. In actuality, he ran a sort of studio mill, where dozens of young artists with talent but no clout churned out comic pages. It's probable that Kane never even signed the pages, although it's certain he signed the checks DC/National Comics gave him.

As someone who wrote articles for a magazine who had his name stripped from them - and replaced by the name of the publisher who couldn't string together two sentences himself - and got paid nothing but free issues of the magazine - I'm getting suspicious.

That being said, The Shield is a remarkable series. I'm only catching it through the censored reruns my station runs on Sunday late night (a death slot for programs). But the series is a tribute to good writing over expensive stars, flashy CGI or promotion.

At a time when commercial networks are afraid of drama series, putting bingo games, mortifying talent contests and abusive "primitive" contests, this is a validation of the power of TV. And isn't it odd that the evil Fox megacorporation won't put it on their own, intelligence-challenged broadcast network, but hides it away on the almost-unwatched FX cable channel?

And as for James Levy's "You folks are sick" post - calm down, fellow. The point of The Shield is that Vic Mackey's "fascist" and "Stalinoid" activities are in the name of what he considers a good cause. And that his choice to do this has cost him horribly, emotionally and physically. It is the point that Jack Bauer on 24 will never learn.

Given the environment Mackey lives in - the hell that is real-world Los Angeles and New York - walking forward with one hand making a peace symbol and the other ready for a handshake, Mr. Levy's solution, is moronic. Besides, as we all know, the series will end with Vic Mackey taking six rounds in the back of his shiny head, fired by a panicked twelve-year-old perp, the ultimate reward for trying to stand up for a moral principle in Bush's America.

The first was, of course, Bill Needle on SCTV. I recall him saying "Live theater is intrinsically inferior to movies and television. There's no way a stilted Sondheim play or a three-act Pinter dinosaur can move the imagination the way that...(wistful sigh)...Lucas did with Raiders of the Lost Ark."

Sarcastic? True. Parody? Yes. But when the whole point of Broadway seems to be reproducing the effects and experience of movies, it ain't wrong.

As for non-musical drama, about the only thing that seems to be mentioned outside New York is The Vagina Monologues, a play whose title can't even be advertised on radio or print. Whatever I see promoted in live theater, whenever I come upon a report in Salon or elsewhere, it seems to have no relevance to someone who doesn't live in New York.

By the way, years ago Showtime and sometimes HBO would broadcast plays like Sweeney Todd, and even do a sitcom based upon the very esoteric play Steambath. That was about the only thing providing some interest in New York theater out here in the middle of Real America. And when those telecasts stopped, so did our interest.

I, too, was raised Catholic. I grew out of it. The breaking point was when my sister, who married a man that way too late she discovered was a violent schitzophrenic, tried to get an annullment of her marriage from the Church. She was told she had to be rich, pay for a Catholic lawyer to argue it in Vatican City, yadda yadda yadda, and she walked out of the Church forever. And I followed.

It's not being a "lapsed Catholic," as the Church likes to call them, assuming that the little lost lamb will be back. After all the scandals and discoveries of hypocricies, it's more like "collapsed Catholic."

However, it seems that some of that ol' time religion has stuck. You, and a few other people like RealName, have problems with antiheroes. You seem to be saying that Vic Mackey isn't suffering enough for his sins against humanity. And I remember that long before the evangelical Protestants started criticizing popular culture, the Catholic Legion of Decency could declare seeing certain movies as "morally objectionable" and a sin if a Catholic went to them.

I'd be very cautious about declaring The Shield as a morally objectionable work. Comparing this show to genuine vigilante propaganda - most of the collected works of Sylvester Stallone, for instance - it comes off as practically child-friendly.

By the way, one of the classic antiheroes of the 1960's was aired recently on cable; Hud. Did you think that film was immoral, too?