You are sooooooooo wrong. So they skulk around a lot on Lost. I don't care what happens to Gilligan. And Threshold, so who turns creepy this week?! Same old, same old.

But Surface! Sea monsters with HANDS! That can live inside volcanoes! What more could you ask for? Oh yeah, hot scientist, adorable kid, Stepford Mom and Dad, Evil older sister and all of her bikini-clad friends, mysteriously asian men-in-black, crazy redneck...what does it take, Heather?

The deep ocean is terryfying. What lies beneath is the most likely scary thing you or I will ever see on TV. Maybe you need a few weeks at the Beach and some scuba classes. I live next to the scary Big Water, so I know.

Give it another chance. Save it from cancellation. At least it has a sense of humor. That poodle was asking for it.

Heather I was looking for something along the lines of what you started to write about to augment my blog entry I am compiling about fear as a control mechanism for the weak and a motivator for change for the strong.

I liked your opening paragraph and your list of 8 items, especially being a father of a daughter, number 8 gave me pause...

But then you went on about anal sex barbi dolls and sea monsters seemingly to get a bunch of key words in for searching google-ites to find something about porn and perhaps be inspired to read the rest of your points you attempt to make about fear.

Perhaps you are trying too hard to create something the editors will publish rather then being a good SALON contributor and writing something about something. There is so much more depth in today's world about what fear is doing has done and will likely continue to do to that fabric of our societal veil that covers our collective eyes. Our world reality today is our own creation, to change this dream (nightmare) we are in together, we need to become the strong motivated by fear to change our collective dream. If we set our alarm to 4 am and write about these ideas, perhaps those of us with keyboards can inspire those searching for a way or path to help change one dream at a time.

Good opening statement... but try again eh? There is so much more to say on this topic then the fluffenutter you scribed.

Justin in the rocky mountains

I wished I had been one of the folks who wrote to disagree with your recommendation of the deadly dull, cliche-ridden, leaden Threshold; it's an awful show, and Invasion isn't much better.

Thanks, then, for lashing out against Surface and giving me a second chance to disagree.

Surface is, at least, fun and aware of it's silliness; that makes a lot of difference to me. I would never claim it's great writing or concept, but it is effortlessly watchable. I enjoy it's habit of ending each epsiode on a big goofy surprise. It knows what it is - a shaggy sea monster story - and doesn't pretend to be more. Both Invasion and Threshold act as if they have something very important to say, and give lip service to some larger story arc, but weekly deliver pedestrian stories of chasing aliens or watching pod people exchange knowing glances. Yawwwwwn. Just more of the worst episodes of X-Files.

I expected a lot of Invasion, having been delighted by American Gothic. But it's not even in the ballpark; AG consistently surprised me and broke cliche and character expectations. However, watching both shows forces me to ask a question: did Shaun Cassidy have some traumatic experience with a creepy small town sherrif who talks in riddles? It's the best thing about both shows!

I was actually interested in watching Grey's Anatomy, but for some odd reason I've lost interest since Heather's endorsement. Apparently this is Salon's new method of TV review, "Everything we say is bad is actually good, and vice versa."