Tuesday 10 November 2009

TV

Collision
Part 1 (of 5)
ITV muscle into BBC territory with a five-part thriller showing every night this week. It's rather epic and with a ridiculously star-laden cast (cries of "oh it's him/her!" abound throughout), but already threatening to tip over into cliche. If Dean Lennox Kelly is smuggling drugs or David Bamber turns out to be a paedophile, or every person in the crash turns out to be somehow connected, I'll be most disappointed at the thorough lack of twists and reasonable logic.
(I realise it started last night -- I'm 24 hours behind, cos this way I can fast-forward the ads. Hurrah!)
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

The Graham Norton Show
6x06 (9/11/09 edition)
David Tennant! Hurrah! Revealing nothing significant about the remaining eps of Who, of course, and giving the usual answers to the usual questions, but he's always entertaining and it's worth watching if you're a fan.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

How I Met Your Mother
2x21 Something Borrowed

Films

Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)
[#70 in 100 Films in a Year 2009]

Magazines

Radio Times 14-20 November 2009

Two very good articles this week (not counting the Who one on p17-18, that is, which is always excellent): Stephen Poliakoff espouses on the ludicrous BBC Safeguarding Trust (It's time to set writers free and trust the viewers, p12) and both of Alison Graham's pieces (so I guess that's three then), one about the way documentaries are now over-directed (Stand still, calm down and just let 'em speak, p49) and one about the disappointing guessability of most modern thrillers (Crime dramas need subtlety, also p49).

There's also a feature on Channel 4's so-called '3D Week' (3-D TV, p24) that rather highlights how lacklustre it is. With one two-part programme, one other programme, and two films, it's less a Week and more a Night someone thought they could string out. There's not even an attempt to make it last all week, with Wednesday and Thursday featuring no related programming and Friday being mainly a repeat (and one of the films). Disappointing, C4.

Articles

First pic of David Tennant's last Who story by Neil Wilkes
(from Digital Spy)
This has to be the must underwhelming 'first pic' ever. Honestly, it could be from almost any Tennant story -- the only requirement would be he was wearing the brownish suit.