Spears' 'comeback' offers a lesson

All over the blogosphere, people are still commenting on Britney Spears' less than stellar performance at the recent MTV Music Video Awards.

Criticisms have been biting, ranking on everything from her "lackluster" dancing and her "poor lip-syncing" to personal attacks on her body.Why the harshness? Partly because she's, well, Britney, and people love to talk about her. But beyond that, the impulse to be so critical stems from the fact that the media played this out to be Britney's big comeback.

For a comeback, people expect great things. And when the comeback is by a person of superstar status, expectations become almost unreasonable.