Couric's Chemistry: 'Strained' or 'Interesting'?

Is uneasy chemistry with your colleagues a good or bad thing? If you're New York Times critic Alessandra Stanley, that depends on whom you're trying to take down: Katie Couric or the Today show.

In 2005, Stanley famously alerted the nation to the dangers of Couric's "clickety" stiletto heels with a brutal Times think piece.

Labeling Couric "the mercurial diva down the hall," Stanley pondered the cause of the show's fading dominance in the ratings: "The strained chemistry between Ms. Couric and her colleagues -- Matt Lauer, Al Roker and Ann Curry -- could be one reason," she hypothesized.

Two and a half years later, Stanley has decided that Couric's outsize persona, and the resentments it bred, was part of what made Today worth watching.

"The morning on-air chemistry has gotten less tense with the arrival of new faces, but also less interesting," she writes, pulling in Rosie O'Donnell's departure from The View before returning to the topic at hand: "Changes on Today have also smoothed out some of the more interesting quirks, making the new format seem even longer than four hours. Ms. Vieira, who replaced Katie Couric more than a year ago, is pleasant but bland."

Do I detect a hint of nostalgia?