TV reminds you to drink responsibly this New Year's

This time next week we'll all be waxing philosophical around our respective water coolers about the eighth season premiere of Scrubs, why it's still one of the funniest shows on television, whether or not Zach Braff is still sexy, etc. etc.

...But a week can be a long time to wait. January 6th is a lifetime away. And so, the good people at Scrubs have cooked up a little New Year's gift for those of us craving some Sacred Heart asap. More

Normally, I hear "Juliet flashback" and start breakdancing with Lost joy. So when I learned originally that I'd get a Juliet-centric AND a new Dharma station, let's just say I popped AND locked in the week leading up to it. And yet, what we got was merely a solid, not mind-blowing, episode. Does the episode hold up free of the burden of expectation, or does it still suffer in comparison to the rest of Season 4's high quality of episodes? Let's find out.

I'm usually not one to make New Year's resolutions for myself. When I have, I've never held to them, so I stopped. That doesn't mean, however, that I'm above suggesting some self-improvement goals for others -- specifically, the people who make the TV shows we watch.

...Do you hate me? Don't. Because I'm about to share intel with those of you fiending for a Lost fix. More

I remember thinking quite clearly, the night this episode aired, "I feel really lucky to be alive to witness this." It's hyperbole, of course, since it's just a television show, but it was also one of the most creative and emotional piece of popular culture I'd ever witnesses. And so it meant both nothing and EVERYTHING at the same time, and generally left me in awe of Lost (again) and privileged to have a forum in which I can discuss the show.

Whitney Port's Hills spin off The City premieres tonight at 10 with two back-to-back episodes and I predict that it'll be our new guilty obsession... despite the fact that Whit's calm, cool personality could be considered kind of boring. The producers are good at what they do and I think they've surrounded her with a couple pieces of work to keep us interested. Namely her co-worker, Olivia Palermo, a "New York City socialite with an A-list lifestyle," who I'd simply describe as obnoxious and annoying -- though I've only seen a few scenes with her, so perhaps I'm being hasty in my judgement... probably not.

I think if there were a Top Ten list of places I'd least like to visit, Eggtown would have to be somewhere on that list. It's a place where little of interest happens, and what does happen stretches credulity to its absolute limit. While I'm not a Kate hatah, no Kate-centric ep has ever thrilled me. Or even particularly interested me. And this is the worst one of all. Hang in there, Lost fans. We're one ep away from greatness. We just gotta get through this one first.

This Sunday, HBO will air the eighth and final first season episode of Summer Heights High -- a spoof documentary series focusing on three characters at an Australian high school -- and if you haven't yet seen the show, you should quickly correct that mistake.

Oh, Sayid: such a badass character, such mediocre flashbacks. Would his flash forwards be any less lame? The answer: only slightly, thanks to one of the great cliffhangers in Lost history.