That was a nice piece about a week-old Sopranos episode and 2 shows I'll never watch and everything, but:

Where the @$%* is the "Lost" finale wrap-up?

It's not like I wasn't watching, but I was really looking forward to seeing what you had to say about it. Zalewski's piece, while an interesting intellectual wankathon, wasn't so much about what's happening on the show right now.

I'm disappointed that Salon could bother to write about the piffle of 'Grey's Anatomy," the atrocious end to the atrocious season of "24," the meaningless end of yet another round of "Survivor," and not the best scripted drama on network TV.

I've been checking Salon every day for Heather's take on the Lost finale!

Heh heh, that's what I am looking for, a discussion of the fantastic Lost finale.

I was also hoping to hear about that beautifully rendered pool suicide and rescue scene in The Sopranos. One of the most memorable scenes in the whole show for me.

And all those people have been cheering Havrilesky for being a bad columnist all this time. So campy, so feng shui. And you expect covering the genuine television news, now that you know there is some? Make up your minds, willya?

For instance, the essential point of The Bachelor: Officer and a Gentleman was missed. All those fantastic trips and adventures were paid for by ABC. The guy's an officer in the American military. The woman who marries him will have to live on the pathetic pay all military personnel get. Forget the cut-price stuff on sale at the Base Exchange; she'll have to get food stamps and beg the charity of local churches, living in on-base housing commonly called Cockroach City, while he goes off to Iraq or Iran and gets those handsome features blown into Officer Hamburger by a roadside IED.

In other words, you've all swallowed a load of BFEE propaganda about how the military life is wonderful. In this game, the only winners were the losers.

FYI, possibly, as to why Tyson and Tabatha lost: I spoke recently to my hair stylist about the Tyson and Tabatha departure and she said that it was extremely bad form and very unprofessional that their clients were able to perceive that T and T disliked each other and she thinks that might be why they suffered their "final cut" in that episode...just my two cents.

"That grotesque thing! It opened up a great vacuum around itself, a gaping maw of soft-pawed convenience! Its fussy, distracting lines spoke of the detail-oriented irrelevance of aging professionals, as its formidable mediocrity quietly rendered every man within a square-mile radius impotent!"

I guess you were doing peyote as well, Heather. I mean, WTF??

will heather be writing ms. paglia's column this week?

Good post tom, funny and important. Also: i've now watched the first two episodes of 'The Prisoner' and i'm hooked.

To the fans of 'Lost': Lost is the most inane, poorly written, idiotic show that has ever garnered such fandom on American television. Those of you desiring an intelligent analysis of the finale would do better to stare at your bathroom sink for twenty minutes and reconsider what you decide to spend your time watching.

Don't you remember the rabbit torture scenes? God almighty, what a dumb show.

post scriptum: Heather, i'm so happy and excited that Friday Night Lights has been picked up for a second season. For all it's flaws (overly moralizing, maintaining disgraceful standards of status quo) this show is the only worthwhile, meaningful drama on television right now. i'd wager that you played at least some part in it's continuation. Thank you.

...but I'm not about to listen to an assessment of what is or is not "the most inane, poorly written, idiotic show that has ever garnered ... fandom on American television" from a person who doesn't know the difference between it's and its.

Even the judges looked stunned at how much these two let their dislike show. And if you can dismay judges who see nuclear- temperament blowouts on a minute-to-minute basis in RL, well...:) In any case, one of the major points of SHEAR GENIUS seems to be it's great if you're talented, but you also need to be easy to work with and care about your customers over your own ego. The show is fascinating to me because I never knew just how much technique, skill, and knowledge goes into hairdressing.

...is very good here. Unlike too many reality-show hosts, who can't see beyond the show being a stage for their "charisma," she really seems to care about judging well and giving contestants their just rewards. I always thought she was a bit held-back as an actress, but judging by this, her basic personality is fairly cool.

Interesting column, and interesting and provocative formulation and comparison by Heather of Mr. Soprano with Dr. Kupferberg. Esteemed, helping professional on no higher moral ground than homicidal mobster? It’s true that therapy can be absurd and countertherapeutic, and not due to lack of effective interventions, but because those drawn to the field are often themselves disordered and driven by their own needs.

Apart from environment and development, there isn’t so much that differentiates the narcissist from the antisocial type. Both are driven largely by deep-seated fears related to status and safety and by underdeveloped capacity for empathy. Both are acutely aware of status, and they aggress in order to lower the status of others. Individuals with narcissistic/antisocial traits and who are helped along by post-secondary education, class, and social connections are able to aggress, command resources, and lower the status of others by virtue of credential, of conferred and inscrutable expertise, of title, etc. while those without similar social capital are left to aggress by means which tend to be criminalized and result in stays at correctional facilities, rather than positions at Fortune 500 firms. I have bemusedly thought about incarcerated males I have known: “If only they had ended up CEOs or with a Ph.D. or MBA, or had the breaks a Cowell or a Trump got, they could lower and use others and aggress in ways that entertain and impress us, and be admired and successful narcissists instead of ending up felons and “sociopaths”. What a difference opportunity makes!”

But those are crazy thoughts, because we all know that in life, just like on TV, there are losers and then there are winners; there are criminals, and then the decent, law-abiding citizens like our community, business, religious, and political leaders, like us. Part of the educational value of TV is that it teaches and instills these needed moral distinctions in us, as long as we stay plugged in.