Lost. Or, In Which I Make Readers Angry, But Then Perhaps Less So

• Lost: Still a good show, but lost a bit of its edge. Discuss in comments.
• Committed: In the running for worst sitcom in a generation. I’ve long enjoyed Heather Havrilesky’s columns, but how could she like this show? A woman likes tea, in balls. That of course gives the male protagonist the chance to say “little balls” many times. Hilarity does not ensue. And that was the funny part.
• Law and Order: I’ve liked this show, and even its spin offs, for a long time, and they’re still entertaining. Plus, I’ve always liked Jerry “Nobody puts Baby in the corner” Orbach, whose unfortunate passing last week I meant to note (in addition to enjoying his acting, I shared Jerry’s enthusiasm for pool.)
• When does season 2 of Deadwood start? More generally, why is everything HBO airs on Sunday night so far and away better than everything else on TV?
  

Hey, when you spend this much time pondering policy and politics as they exist right now, you need a distraction — sometimes many of them.

Now for the “less so” part.(*) Here’s the life expectancy of an American, conditional on reaching age 65:

While overall life expectancy has gone up a lot, people who reach retirement age now live only 2 years longer on average than those who turned 65 thirty-five years ago. See Atrios for a bit of context on why this distinction is important. VoxBaby has what looks like counter-arguments, though I haven’t yet had time to really read the lengthy post.

AB

(*) Based on past negative reactions, all or most TV related posts will now be accompanied by (or perhaps ameliorated by) graphs.