Over the last five years of having cable TV and watching virtually no free-to-air at all thanks to horrible reception, I had managed to block out a couple of things. The ads, of course. But of more significance was the habit of the commercial TV networks here to run half a season of a show and then take it off the air, pretending like a full season had been shown. Sometimes the show would return later, in the same time slot, in a different time slot, something not at all.

It was frustrating in the days before the web when even an only remotely sophisticated viewer could easily determine that a particular episode was not in fact the end of a season, but rather somewhere in the middle, leaving things unnecessarily � rather than cliff-hangingly � unresolved. And with the advent of the web, it became even more frustrating because of list of forthcoming episodes and their content was readily available to all the world.

Channels 9 and 10 have always been particularly heinous offenders in this area. But I had blocked it out. However, into our house along with digital cable came a brand new crystal clear connection to channel 9, and I have now been introduced afresh to this highly annoying practice.

Previously the networks were only usually moved to do this when something wasn�t rating particularly well. But 9 has now taken to doing it not only for things that apparently aren�t rating as well as the network would like, but also the ratings bonanzas that are about to end their runs.

For example, Australian viewers are currently stalled about two thirds of the way through the final season of Friends. Shown usually only six months behind first run eps in the States, channel 9 decided to stop part way through the season and subject us to not just the usual couple of weeks of reruns, but rather 12-18 weeks of reruns before showing the final episodes. Regular reruns, the �characters�� favourite episodes, the public�s favourite episodes. All just a completely transparent ploy to stretch out the ratings for as long as is humanly possible, and then a bit more. Same with Sex & the City. In the case of that show, they decided to put the break in two episodes before the actual natural break in the final series that the producer�s created, ie after David Duchovny, but before Big�s heart trouble. They even had the gall to advertise the fact that Big was returning in the next episode, without pointing out that they would be showing the entire run of The Apprentice before actually showing the next episode.

But that�s not actually as annoying as the way they�ve treated one of the few shows still on my favourite show roster, Gilmore girls. At least the ratings bonanzas will return, and probably this year, and I�ll probably own the final block of SATC on DVD before that anyway. But a few weeks ago at the end of the fifteenth episode of season 4 of GG, the annoying announcer came on an advised that it was the final episode of the current season. Betty and I yelled at the screen �It is not!� and proceeded to get very annoyed. After all, that was around the time the 4th season was just starting to get really good.

And me, being the spoiler whore that I am had a pretty good idea of the goodness that was to come.

And no idea of when, or if, the show would return (current word is apparently, maybe January, maybe never). Which lead, of course, to frustration and annoyance. And resorting to using the web for good rather than time-wasting.

So thanks once again to the joys of the internet, and more specifically the tape swap thread over at the TWOP forum, on Monday a lovely little package of the final 7 episodes arrived from my new friend Shauna in the States.

Over the last two nights I have watched all 7 back to back with a goofy grin on my face. The final episode of the season may have been one of the most satisfying episodes of TV ever.

Sufficiently to momentarily distract me from the fact that in a couple of weeks digital cable will be gone and I will be reduced to only network TV for at least a couple of months. Ah well, it probably means I�ll get more reading and writing done.

Or spend more time on the web getting copies of season 5 episodes sent over to me.

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And on a totally separate note: shut up Alexander Downer, just shut up!

It�s his voice. Okay, it�s his voice and what he chooses to say with it, but his voice! That plummy, pompous accent and tone. The way that he can only ever sound condescending even when that�s not what he�s going for (though recently he seems to be going for that a lot). Just shut up.

Amusing side note (may be true or a joke, but who cares): Richard Roxburgh, when asked who inspired his performance as the Duke in Moulin Rouge, cited Mr Downer. Hee.