On the weekend I think that perhaps I became the only person in Australia to have watched Harper's Island through to its conclusion. I have to say, Harper's Island became a guilty pleasure for me, and once it drew me in, I was hooked. In Australia, the series started out in the 9.30pm slot on Sunday nights, but only lasted a couple of episodes before being given the shaft. I believe it ended it's run

For those that don't know, Harper's Island is a 13 episodes thriller/mystery/horror series that can probably only be described as a cross between Scream and Beverly Hills 90210.

It begins with a large group of family and friends arrive at Harper's Island for the wedding of Henry Dunn and Trish Wellington. It continues with a bloody rampage by a serial killer, and ends with only a handful of guests surviving the wedding from hell. Somehow, the killer is linked to the main character Abby Mills, who is the typical 'girl next door' type, who is also best friend of the groom.

I could try and explain it more, but in doing so I'd probably either a) spoil it, b) do the show an injustice or c) both. If you want to know more, watch the trailer from CBS below.

Harper's Island seemed to really struggle to find an audience, which I think is kind of sad, as it is one of those rare shows that comes along that isn't either set in a hospital, courtroom, medical clinic or police department.

To be fair though I guess the first three episodes did require a little patience on behalf of the viewer, and were by far the weakest of the series. From there on in though I found Harper's Island to be guiltily addictive viewing. In my opinion the show really kicked up a gear with episode five, with the death of one of the more prominent characters.

I get the feeling that Harper's Island will be one of those shows that garners a strong little cult following, and will probably find itself an audience among the DVD box set crowd. If you want to watch a series that doesn't outlive it's welcome and that will keep you guessing until the last episode, give Harper's Island a shot... if you can find it out there.

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The show was a little like Indiana Jones with a few science fiction elements thrown in for good measure. The series was produced in 1982-83 and ran for a total of 39 episodes.

Check out the opening theme. Watching it causes me to regress to a five year old version of myself.

When I was looking up Cities of Gold I found out that a movie version is potentially in the works. Apparently Movie Plus Group acquired the rights to the story from NHK in 2007 and announced that they would be producing a full length feature film based on the original story. , with the intention of looking at a sequel if the film proved successful. The film was supposedly going to enter production in 2008, but I'm not sure whether or not that eventuated. Further details can probably be found here, although I can't confirm that, as I don't speak French.

Three new seasons of 26 episodes each are also rumored to be in progress, with production supposedly beginning in late 2009, with the first season set to hit the screen in 2011.

Something I didn't realise until yesterday was that the people behind Cities of Gold are the same people that brought the world Ulysses 31. Ulysses 31 was another cartoon from the very early 1980's. It borrowed heavily from Homer's Odysseus, or basically just supplanted that story into the 31st century. The post-it not version of the plot goes something like this. Ulysses angers the gods by killing the giant Cyclops, which he did to save some kids. As punishment, Zeus freezes the crew of Ulysses ship, the Odyssey. The only way that Ulysses can save his crew and return home to Earth is by finding the Kingdom of Hades.

Ulysses 31 only ran for 26 episodes, but they were all quality! :p

Check out the Ulysses 31 opening theme...

Thank you for joining me on this trip down memory lane. If you want to check out more theme songs, go read up my "Top 10 TV show theme songs that will change your life: Part 1" and "Top 10 TV show theme songs that will change your life: Part 2".

The second Ashes test being played at Lords has been punctuated by one umpiring blunder after the other. While Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin have put Australia within striking distance going into the last day of play, England are just another dodgy umpiring decision away from taking the win.

When Clarke and Haddin got together the score was 5 for 128. Not a good looking score card, and even worse when you consider that 3 of those 5 wickets should never have been given out.

Exhibit A: Simon Katich

Simon Katich is given out off what is clearly a no ball. Andrew Flintoff clearly over stepped the mark, the umpire missed it, game over for Katich. In fairness it was probably a poor shot for Katich to have played, but still, there's no way he should have been given out.

Exhibit B: Phil Hughes

Phil Hughes edged a ball to slip, at which point England captain, Andrew Strauss claimed a "dubious" catch. By dubious, I think the commentators meant, "the ball hit the ground before it was picked up by Strauss". The replay really tells the story. Rather than refer the decision to the third umpire, as happened in England's innings, and after some argy bargry, the umpires decided they'd just send Hughes on his way. Bottom line, terrible decision and terribly inconsistent piece of umpiring.

Exhibit C: Mike Hussey

If there's ever a batsmen that needs a bit of luck to go his way it's Mike Hussey. I'm not sure that there is a batsman going around at the moment that can stake a claim to Hussey's title of "Batsman dismissed most due to umpire error".

In his latest stroke of bad luck, Hussey was given out caught behind even though he didn't touch the ball with his bat. Countless replays, using all the technology at hand, super slo-mo, "Hot spot" and "Snicko", showed the same thing. Hussey's bat hit the ground, while the ball skidded through without hitting anything.

Thankfully Clarke and Haddin made it through to the end of the day's play and gave the Aussies a fighting chance. I'll be tuning in tonight to watch the conclusion, but I hope that the outcome is decided by the players and not by dodgy umpiring decisions.

So, if you can't be assed trying to make extra money, you can always try saving money...

For those unfamiliar with Silverhawks first hit TV screens in 1986, and developed by Rankin/Bass as a "space" equivalent of the mega-hit ThunderCats. The series focused on a small band of space police called... SilverHawks. The SilverHawks were a group of part bionic, part human heroes fighting crime and the evil forces of space crime boss MonStar and a whole bunch of far out crazy creatures and bad guys.

Both good guys and bad guys had some kick ass weapons. There was evil Melodica (or something similarly Melody related) that played a keyboard/guitar that would fire projectile music, and the country and western good guy Colonel Bluegrass who was the SilverHawks pilot and sonic guitar playing lord of rock.

Just in case parents questioned it's educational value, each episode featured a 'space' fact.

Thanks to the marvels of modern technology, some good samaritan has uploaded the SilverHawks origin story to YouTube. The three parts are presented below for your viewing pleasure. Please be warned, SilverHawks has a kick ass theme tune that may get stuck in your head for days... or decades as in my case.

Part 1: SilverHawks Origin

Part 2: SilverHawks Origin

Part 3: SilverHawks Origin

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Hopefully we all learned something today.

Perhaps your recovering from extreme rhinoplasty. Perhaps your trying to figure out exactly what is going on in LOST. Perhaps you've been living under a rock.

Perhaps, just perhaps, you haven't heard.

Here's a song writing master class from Stewie Griffin.

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In fact, many people believe that Stefanovic is actually C3P0, a human-cyborg relations droid constructed in Queensland, and the first Australian droid of its kind. This was confirmed on Wikipedia (so it must be true), however Stefanovic's entry has since been heavily edited, with many conspiracy theorists suggesting that it is the result of a cover-up instigated by Channel Nine and Scientology.

Other theories suggest that is programmed with a "white-anting" chip and is programmed to infest himself in an organisation then bring it down from the inside.

On Monday morning however, Stefanovic cast doubt over his robot status when he appeared to host the show, displaying some of the signs associated with intoxication.

The fact that the Logies (Australian TV awards) were held Sunday night, and the after party no doubt carried on well into Monday morning, may well have contributed to his uncharacteristically human performance.

Personally, his uncharacteristic behavior has not convinced me that he's human. I suspect his behavior can be attributed to one of two things.

Either someone spilt a drink on him at the Logies and he short circuited, or he has undergone a software upgrade, most probably to Windows Vista, and is experiencing some instability issues. If that's the case, I'd recommend that Channel Nine re-format the system and install Windows XP instead.

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If you've never heard of the show before, allow wikipedia to provide you with a nice little synopsis.

Flight of the Conchords is an Emmy Award-nominated television comedy series that follows the adventures of the Flight of the Conchords, a folk duo from New Zealand, as its members seek fame and success in New York City. The show portrays a fictionalized version of the real-life duo, Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, who play themselves.

Anyway, it just so happens that I also have a David Bowie fascination. So what happens when Flight of the Conchords have inter-relations with David Bowie? This...

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Something happened in the late 90's/early 00's though. Basketball in Australia lost it's way.

Why? I'm not really sure, there were probably a number of factors that contributed. Channel Ten stopped covering NBL games in 1997, and around the same time the competition was shifted to its current summer season style format (running from October - April). Apparently the shift was to avoid direct competition from the variety of football codes played throughout the Australian winter.

Once prime time TV coverage disappeared, so to did the corporate support. When Mitsubishi Motors dropped out in the early 00's, the NBL really started to turn pear shaped, with a number of previously well supported teams folding including the Canberra Cannons and more recently the Brisbane Bullets and Sydney Kings.

For a guy that only has access to analogue free-to-air TV I could be forgiven for thinking that basketball has ceased to exist. In terms of basketball I'm still stuck in the 90's, with Andrew Gaze, Lanard Copeland, Shane Heal, Robert Rose, Scott Fisher, Andrew Vlahov and Derek Rucker. If it wasn't for NBA2K8 on the Xbox 360, I'd have no idea who was playing for who in the NBA. If it weren't for video games, I might still think that Shawn Kemp, Reggie Miller, Larry Johnson, Penny Hardaway, David Robinson, Chris Mullins and Latrell Sprewell were all still running around.

Where's this little nostalgia trip heading? Well the NBA are fresh off their All-Star weekend, and All-Star weekend means slam dunk competition. Here are some highlights, including the winning dunk from New York Knicks guard Nate Robinson. According to fountain of knowledge Wikipedia, Robinson is 5 foot 9 inches and has a vertical leap of 43.5 inches (110cm), which probably explains how he is able to literally dunk over the top of Dwight Howard who's listed as 6 feet 11 inches.

Robinson's dunk brings back memories of Vince Carter in the 2000 Sydney Olympics game against France, in which the Frence media later described Carter as delivering "le dunk de la mort" (or "the Dunk of Death" for the non-French speakers).

Warning: What follows may contain spoilers.

Season three opens with out anti-hero Dexter in a good place. His life is in order and he seems to have moved on from the events of season two. While on the hunt, for a drug dealer named "Freebo", is interrupted by another man. In the ensuing melee Dexter kills the mystery man in self defence. Dexter flees, not sure of the identity of his latest victim, and unsure of the whereabouts of Freebo. Unluckily for Dexter, the dead man is the brother of prominent Miami assistant district attorney Miguel Prado. Luckily for Dexter, the Miami PD believe that Freebo is the killer. If Dexter is to remain undiscovered, he needs to dispatch of Freebo before the police can find him. Dexter and Miguel are drawn together by a common goal, finding Freebo, even though their motives differ, self preservation and revenge respectively.

When Dexter tracks down Freebo, and does what Dexter does, he is discovered by Miguel, murder weapon in hand, guilty as sin. Rather than call the police, Miguel hugs Dexter, thanking him for avenging his brothers death. The two men now share a secret, and for the first time in his life, it looks like Dexter has made a true friend. A friend that Dexter is prepared to reveal his true self to.

On the home front, Rita, Dexter's girlfriend, reveals she's pregnant. Dexter is a little shocked, he's used to taking life after all, not giving life. Ultimately Dexter proposes to Rita, and the happy couple become engaged. Dexter is thrown into wedding preparations. He's way out of his comfort zone.

With Dexter and Miguel becoming close friends, Rita also befriends Miguel's wife, Sylvia. Dexter discovers that as assistant district attorney, Miguel is in a unique position to help him with his projects (ie. dispatching bad guys that slip through the legal system). Miguel approaches Dexter about taking a more active role in the projects, and in an effort to discourage him, Dexter proposes a high risk assignment. Rather than discouraging Miguel, as he'd planned, the operation, that involves freeing a convicted man continuing to commit crimes whilst in prison, convinces Dexter that he has found a true friend, one capable of sharing his dark secret.

As the series plays out, you wonder whether Dexter's trust in Miguel is misplaced. So... is it?

A sub-plot running throughout season three is Debra's, Dexter's sister, mission to earn her detective shield. She ends up working on a case to track down a serial killer, that becomes known as the Skinner. As she finds herself romantically entangled with her Confidential Informant (CI), her dream of becoming a detective gets caught up in the potential unravelling of Dexter and Miguel's friendship. After learning that her father, Harry, was having an affair with his own CI, Debra begins to do some digging, hoping to find out who it was he was having an affair with. As the audience, we know that Harry had an affair with Dexter's biological mother, but will Debra put it altogether? If she does Dexter's true nature would be revealed.

So, will Dexter live long enough to see his wedding day? Will Miguel out Dexter as the real Bay Harbour Butcher? Will Debra learn that Harry was having an affair with Dexter's biological mom? and therefore will Debra learn the truth about Dexter? Oooohhh the intrigue.

Overall, season three was must see TV. For a show to run three seasons and still maintain my attention is a very rare thing. I guess it is because there is always so much going on that it has an addictive quality.

If you've read the books, but haven't seen season three yet, you may be wondering what season three has in common with the novels. The answer is, not a lot. You could suggest that some of the themes from the second novel, Dearly Devoted Dexter, get picked up in the show. The idea of Dexter identifying an 'apprentice', applies in both narratives, however whereas the show features Miguel in the role of apprentice, the novel uses Rita's children, Astor and Cody in that role. I guess grooming kids to take control of their Dark Passenger's is a little too dark for TV?

There are also some similarities between the character of the Skinner featured in the TV version and Dr. Danko that pops up in Dearly Devoted Dexter. Both characters are ex-military "interrogator's" used to using torture to get what they need. Both character also end up capturing Dexter at some point, without realising he is more than he seems.

The finale of season three also hints that Debra may eventually learn of Dexter's true nature. She found out about Dexter's extra curricular activities in the first novel.

Should you watch Dexter? Heck yes. Run, don't walk to your local video store and hire out the first couple of seasons, then get on board season three.

If you want to read some more stuff on Dexter check out my write up of the books Dearly Devoted Dexter and Darkly Dreaming Dexter.

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