[tuq]

Regarding The Departed, I really enjoy that film and I'm predisposed to disliking formulaic flicks. When my mother was visiting earlier this year, she made a point to rent that so we could watch it together. It was the only one she rented. Also, I was hanging out with a friend in LA a couple of weeks ago and that was on HBO and we found ourselves drawn into it. Twice, both in the afternoon and after we'd gotten in from the bars.

On top of the interesting storyline (aside from the pointlessness of the love interest, even though she *was* hot), it was loaded with actors I think are outstanding - DiCaprio, Marky Mark, Matt Damon, Nicholson, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin.

Blarg, regarding reality TV, I do think you're being curmudgeonly about it. Which is fine, it's not important to me whether you like any of it or not. I don't like most of it either, but some I do enjoy. The thing is, just like a scripted series, these shows are edited to give us villain, heroes, and drama. As an aside, the networks must love successful shows because they pay the cast members next to nothing, vs. a show like Friends where towards the end all six cast members were getting the king's ransom per episode to stick around by the end of its run.