I almost hate to admit this but last night, I was one of hundreds of thousands tuning into Shortland Street's first episode of the new year.
You know, the one after last year's so-called cliff-hanger in which bad boy and smooth operator Ethan Pierce was gunned down.
He's the dastardly head of surgery who has manipulated people as well as he handles a scalpel.
No-one liked Ethan. There are suspects galore.
I don't actually care who ends up being the character that pulled the trigger.
It could be his stroppy girlfriend Alice Piper, who has had, in soap opera terms, one hell of a shocking 2008.
I think she was almost whacked off by Joey the serial killer then had an affair (or five) then had a baby who didn't live THEN manages to hook into the evil Ethan.
Will she ever learn?
From memory, she was pretty peeved at the bad doctor by year's end so she may have been the killer.
Or it could have been anyone else who features in the show.
Crikey, even one of those anonymous extras who never say a word on screen was probably tempted to have a crack! It's television so bad it's almost good.
Like a car crash, you somehow can't take your eyes off it.
On air for more than 15 years, Shortland Street has, like it or not, become part of the Kiwi landscape.
It's almost like there are two camps of viewers out there in television land - those who freely admit they get their Shorty fix five nights a week, and those who deny all involvement yet somehow seem to know all the plot twists and turns.
Much of the acting is bad, the sets are average and the direction so-so, but it is made in New Zealand and we should embrace it if for nothing else than for that fact.
Sure, it has stranger plot-lines than your average American soap opera, but that, in part, is what keeps many of us transfixed.
Who knocked off Ethan Pierce? I, for one, don't care.
But I, like hundreds of thousands of others, will be watching to find out.
Don't miss: The Dirty Harry movie marathon, Sky Movies, Sunday, January 25, 1.15pm onwards: Classic Clint Eastwood in five, count them five, fantastic films that confirmed the legend.
Record all of them and watch them over and over again.
Do you feel lucky? Well do ya?
Don't bother: Brat Camp, TV2, Thursdays, 9.30pm: Yet another mind-numbing reality series about spoiled children and their pathetic parents who are bundled off and stripped of all of life's luxuries in a bold attempt to sort out their wretched lives.
If you ask me, the producers should then leave them out there!
Can be best summed up in two words who cares?
