This is the thanks we get.

"There's no helping me… I'm a failure." Good golly, LOST can rip your heart out, but that scene takes the cake.

(In response to SPOILERS) The ultimate fate of Locke was tragic, pathetic, and frustrating, but that was the PERFECT ending for his character, whose entire life had been tragic, pathetic, and frustrating. I'm not as hot for S5 as Todd apparently is, but "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" is one of the series…

The Awake pilot is one of my favorite episodes of TV ever. That whole montage with the Cat Power song is just amazing. The rest of the show was good, too, but I couldn't help but feel disappointed that it didn't live up to the greatness of that pilot.

LOST really is one of the greats, but I'd also make room for The Sopranos and (if we're including comedy) Arrested Development and Cheers.

"The characters on Lost were never as rich as the characters on any given cable drama or even something like, say, The Good Wife."

Maybe it's a little premature to say this (especially given that we still have two more episodes to go), but guys, as of right now I truly feel like we're seeing one of the all-time great seasons of television unfold in front of our eyes. Definitely the best TV so far this year, at least, and that's saying something…

You're saying a lot of good things here, but I'm distracted by the facts that 1998 was 17 years ago. Between this and that Voyager segment, I'm feeling very mortal.

Sorry for the eye-rolls. I'm just frustrated with the state of American politics.

How enormously depressing is it that Cosmos has a default political-left stance just for presenting facts that conservatives refuse to acknowledge? Fuck, I hate the shit that the GOP does these days.

Second only to Gary Larson's collaboration with Hank Ketcham! "I see your little, petrified skull labeled and resting on a shelf somewhere."

I've been meaning to check that out ever since I saw (and really liked) the movie last year.

Thanks for the suggestions! I guess it's sort of wrong-headed of me to mention a "Robert Cormier school of YA" when he was clearly an anomaly in the genre for the depths of darkness he was willing to subject his characters to. It's a little like asking, "Why doesn't anybody make movies as depressing as Ingmar…

Can you give some examples? I'm not super up-to-date with YA lit anymore, so I generally just end up reading the titles that make a lot of waves. And most of those tend to fall into the "sad stuff happens but the protagonist still finds out something positive about her/himself in the end" camp. Which, I should add, I…

After the enormous disappointment that was The Chocolate War movie, that may be a good thing.

I really, really liked The Fault in Our Stars book. It was touching and funny and full of endearing characters. But…

To be fair, assholery is the default mode of many Bob Dylan albums. Though "Just Like a Woman" does take it to a whole new level.

Most definitely! As is "4th Time Around" and "Rainy Day Woman." I like Blonde on Blonde; I just don't find it all that great, especially when compared to some of his other major albums.

I have that trouble with David Fincher in general, with the exception of The Social Network and Zodiac, which I loved. I just feel like he's an extremely cold director who's not always in control of the effects of his considerable raw talent. Fight Club is a great example of this. I just don't feel like his…

So much yes on Blonde on Blonde. I don't hate it. I just don't see what the big deal is. As Wilkins said, give me Highway 61 Revisited, Bringing It All Back Home, or Blood on the Tracks, or heck, I'll even add Another Side of Bob Dylan, John Wesley Harding, Time Out of Mind, Modern Times, Love & Theft, and Tempest.…