TV

Misfits
1x03 Episode Three
When it's not trying to be Skins, Misfits is really good. When it is trying to be Skins, Misfits is about as good as... well, Skins.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Top Gear
14x02 Episode 2
Yes, last week's.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

The Art of Gaming by Mark Langshaw
(from Digital Spy)
A gamer once again tries to claim gaming is an art form on a par with novels, poetry, films, and so on.
Once again, they ignore what I think is one of the key factors: accessibility. Never mind the notion of having to learn controls and all that (while the others only require basic life skills, like sight, hearing, the ability to read) -- none of the other forms halt your progress if you haven't fully understood/completed the preceding section, unlike games.
This 'barrier to completion' is a major count against them in my view -- a film you can just keep watching, a novel keep reading, a painting stare at for as long as you like, but a game's over the moment you're incapable of completing a level/mission/etc. That inability to easily experience the work entire is a major obstacle to the medium's wider acceptance as Art, in my view.

Comedy writers 'no longer taking risks' by Marc Settle
(from BBC News)

"Jokes aren't true - they're lies, they're exaggerations, they're distortion, they're imbalance, they're having a go, they're bullying, they're insulting," says The Thick of It creator Armando Iannucci. "Of course the intention is to cause offence." [He] is one of a number of leading figures who fear the rules of comedy writing in Britain are changing.

Despite the insistence of BBC bigwigs later in the article that things are OK, it's clear they're not. And it's all the fault of busybody moaners, like Daily Mail readers or idiots from Sky like James Murdoch.

new review at 100 Films

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

it’s like an uncomfortable amalgamation of Saturday morning cartoon and more adult-orientated action-comedy. On the one hand you’ve got a top-secret organisation with a semi-plausible acronym for a name (NEST) that sees soldiers and good giant robots travelling the world fighting bad giant robots... On the other, you’ve got whole sequences about drug use, almost brutal fight scenes, and lad’s mag-level slow-mo shots of girls running, changing and having their short dresses hiked up... In other words: if you’re an average 13-year-old boy, this is the Best. Movie. Ever.

Read the full review at 100 Films.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is out on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK from tomorrow.

There are currently 18 feature films and one short in the review pipeline at 100 Films. As ever, updates here as and when they're posted.