5 Reasons to Live

Image credit: Dave Chappelle: Erin Patrice O'Brien

CHAPPELLE

1. Chappelle's Show: The Lost Episodes
(Comedy Central, 9 p.m. July 16 and repeating throughout the week — check local listings)
This episode contains the infamous sketch in which Chappelle appears in blackface (and whiteface) as a pixie taunting people of various races; it was the laughter by a white person during its taping that reportedly initiated the comedian's long walk away from his series. What's especially valuable about this Lost Episodes edition is a conversation that substitute hosts Charlie Murphy and Donnell Rawlings have with the audience afterward — blacks, whites, Asians, and others mull over stereotypes and speculate on Dave's feelings. This is the rare sort of discussion that would do any professor of black studies proud; that it's on TV is even better.

2. Denise Mina
The Dead Hour (Little, Brown)
Mina, a Scottish novelist who studied criminology before becoming a thriller writer, understands dastardly motives, but she's even better at writing about working-class lives. Here, in her second crime novel featuring a beleaguered young Glasgow reporter, Patricia ''Paddy'' Meehan, she digs deep into the lives crushed during the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher's heartless governmental reign — including Paddy's father. In the process, she comes up with a vividly tense tale, and also proves she can write a scene of violence as well as any male hard-boiled writer: Read her description of a female coke addict killing a guy with the spike of her high-heeled shoe, if you dare.

3. Justin Timberlake
''SexyBack'' (Jive single)
James Kochalka Superstar
''Britney's Silver Can'' (Rykodisc)
Self-absorption is difficult to pull off in music as in life, but Justin has had to think so much about what it means to be Justin — teenybopper idol, adult pop hit-maker, wannabe serious-actor — that he can pull it off without being dreary, much thanks to co-producer Timbaland. After a murky, draggy start, ''SexyBack'' succeeds. But for the real (i.e., more believably fake) take on Timberlake, you'll have to wait for the September release of Spread Your Evil Wings and Fly, an awesome album by the excellent cartoonist James Kochalka. On ''Britney's Silver Can,'' Timberlake's name becomes the magisterially chanted refrain of the sad tale of his former girlfriend's isolated, lonely life — the message is that only Justin can truly understand Britney, and that they should probably get back together. It's gorgeous and witty. Keep this disc away from Federline, though.

4. Andrea Roth
in Rescue Me (FX, Tuesdays at 10 p.m.)
This season, other women have been getting all the ink — guest stars Susan Sarandon, Marisa Tomei, Tatum O'Neal — but Roth is giving a great performance, week in and week out, as Janet, the wife of Denis Leary's Tommy. I'm not going to get into the ''controversial'' scene a couple of weeks ago when Tommy forced himself on Janet and she enjoyed the rough sex, because... well, because it's one of those tiresome TV-must-act-responsibly flare-ups that have nothing to do with creating provocative art. Let's re-focus on Roth, who has from the start of the series managed to convey the weariness of motherhood and the loneliness of being with a heel like Tommy, while flashing a lot of sharp sarcasm (she's a terrific deadpan comic actor) and a true understanding of the life of a working-class woman. The only thing I ever find truly unbelievable about Rescue Me is why in the world Tommy would want to cheat on Janet.

5. Buffy the Vampire Slayer unaired pilot
(YouTube)
''I'm here to fit in,'' says Sarah Michelle Gellar in one of her very first lines. Ah, the ironic innocence! Someone who didn't fit in? Riff Regan as Willow — replaced, of course, by Alyson Hannigan.