The first five paragraphs of this article are why I keep coming back to Havrilesky's articles time after time, even if I completely disagree with her reviews. Well written, funny, wry - good stuff.

Of course, this is said after two bottles of $6.99 Pinot Noir - so should you really trust me, either?

The emotional manipulation is so contrived and obvious that it's insulting... yet I keep allowing myself to become invested, even as I see right through it, because I want to have a good cry at the end.

Once you grasp the pattern, the show is incredibly predictable: A pregnant woman falls, and in the hospital, she and her husband gush about how happy they are to be pregnant. As they were playing up the couple's mushy lovey happiness, I thought, "That baby is so dead." Yet I still let myself cry when the inevitable scene occured.

I'm sure there is something wrong with me. I must crave fictional tragedy because I feel wounded by all that is wrong with the world -- I'm upset that bad things happen to good people, and I want to cry about that. But things are too messy and hard in real life. You can't just sit around crying and playing music; you have to suck up and deal. But on Thursday nights, we are invited to sob and wail and run over to iTunes to download the heartbreaking ballad... and we set ourselves up because we need it, somehow.

I think there will be a future comedy show, of the quality level of SCTV, that will precisely mock soapy stuff like Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice. Music cues from unpaid, lied-to, small-scale musicians included. Remember that when it comes to knee-jerk emotional appeals, half of that is "jerk."

As for Kid Nation, as stated in another post, something more like Battle Royale with the little tykes killing each other to the last survivor is what programmers would like to really air here in the States. However, Havrilesky quite correctly pointed out that this is the wrong metaphor, although she didn't think it all the way through (typical for her).

Following her concept, CBS should have just snuck some cameras into those factories where Chinese children are decorating plastic Jesus statues with lead paint, for sale at Wal-Mart. Especially with the low inherent cost, the cameras could follow their brief lives with their tragedies, deaths and incessant beatings from Party Supervisors, all the while reminding parents that this will be the fate of all American children in a few years.

As for Bionic Woman, it's hard to judge from the pilot. Someone seemed to be trying to recreate the gloom of Blade Runner in the rain-soaked scenes. Trying to be different than Lindsay Wagner running in the sunlight was inevitable, but do they really grasp how to do stories in the darkness? Similar attempts like Dark Angel and Birds of Prey bombed. Unless they have a better story arc than either of these, this show will be a late-night rerun on SciFi very soon.

I thought Starbuck was played by Dirk Benedict...when did Starbuck become a woman? Or is it so late at night that I am reading Heather's article all wrong? Could be...

So I just checked wiki and saw that Katee was "Starbuck" in the new version of BS. Boy do I feel old.

"Ultimately, asking if 'Private Practice' is good is like asking if a Twinkie is good. The answer is 'No' and 'Of course!' and, also, 'Give me another one.'"

Yeah, seems to be going around. In such times as these, escapism has a legitimate place. I'm even watching "Friday Night Lights" on DVD now, thanks to a certain Buffy Award, and I'm totally hooked.

I hate you, Heather Havrilesky. You're doing absolutely nothing good for my productivity.

Though, well, as for my fun...

Not to be picky or anything Heather but the plastic food displays you alluded to in your review of "The Bachelor" are found outside Japanese restaurants. Not Chinese.

The girl in Private Practice uses the same Fantasy Real Estate Agent who got Kevin Bacon a Manhattan loft he could ride a bicycle around in on a messenger's salary.

Hey, you're in the biz. Think you could hook a brother up?

I don't care about any of the shows you wrote about this week, and I won't be watching any of them. Well, you may have convinced me to give Ugly Betty a try. But the first part of this article is what keeps me reading.

but "it's time to turn off the TV". who could be at all enticed by these crappy shows?

really. just treasure your sopranos DVDs and leave it at that.

Interesting concept, this Havrileskian intervention that would help the developmentally delayed learn empathy using TV dramas as a modality. No reason it couldn’t be effective with facilitation and structure. And who wouldn’t mind pulling down $100 a pop to sit through an episode of “The Bachelor” with a client? OK, Ms. H., let’s stop here. Look at Meaty’s reaction, his expression. Now respond empathically to him, suggest to him how he is feeling to have just been objectified. Good!

If the viewer is able to accurately describe to the character the character’s (not her) feelings, internalizes that, transfers the learning to natural environments, and is then motivated to begin behaving more adaptively (e.g. not objectifying) the Meatys in her life, that’s therapeutic.

If on the other hand, the viewer’s response is predominated by strong affect because Meaty’s objectification triggered her own retained injuries and losses - not so much – that’s more sympathy than empathy, is about the viewer rather than other, and is less likely to help us reach the noble goal to “feel empathy for strangers and make their battles our own”.

Brilliant. This is why we must insist that Ms. Havrilesky is the Albert Ellis of TV critics.

In fact, the little girl in the car was a DOUBLE homage to the original Superman movie: 1) little Lois Lane on the train, watching a young Clark run by; 2) after Supes saves a little girl's cat ("Frisky") from a tree, the girl runs inside and tells her mommy. Mommy then wisely replies, "Haven't I told you to stop telling lies?!" and slaps her little girl in the face.

It may not be in the face, I'm inferring. But the rest is all there.

So, while shmaultzy, the moment was a nod to frightening geeks like myself. And speaking of geeky, I liked this show's pilot - but I miss Oscar Goldman.