Monday 4 January 2010

TV

2009 Unwrapped extra [2nd watch]

The Graham Norton Show
6x13 New Year's Eve Special [season finale]
Feels slightly odd watching a specifically New Year's Eve-y special several days later, but then it was filmed far in advance anyhow so what does it matter? Still, this is a much preferable choice to the dross BBC One have been offering up on New Year's Eve for the past few years, so I hope it was a success.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

House
6x10 Wilson
An exceptional episode of the show, which (as the title may suggest) centres on Wilson rather than House, as the latter's usual activities continue in the background -- always a nice comedic touch (see Buffy episode The Zeppo for a similar thing). Even more unusual is how unChristmassy it is -- House is usually very full of the festive season for several episodes each year.

Spooks
8x08 Episode 8 [season finale]
Cliffhanger-tastic.

Top Gear
14x07 Episode 7 [season finale]
"How short can a one-hour programme be?" Jeremy Clarkson wonders towards the end of this episode. It's ironic, not that he realises it, because Top Gear almost always overruns by 5 to 10 minutes, which is a right bugger if you're intending to watch something on the other side. And, indeed, it's almost exactly 60 minutes into this episode that he actually muses that, before continuing to go on for a couple more. Clearly they need much, much better timing.
Still, fun episode, even if it was supposedly made with no money and -- here's a real surprise -- was actually full of car reviews.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Producer: 'Bond 23 is up in the air' by Simon Reynolds
(from Digital Spy)
Oh dear.

Sherlock Holmes 2 plans in jeopardy? by Oli Simpson
(from Digital Spy)
An over-dramatic headline if ever there was one (which is probably why they added the question mark). The story boils down to if the filmmakers decided to pursue a suggested thematic strand, which they probably won't, then the copyright holders would probably tell them not to, in which case they'd surely just do something else instead anyway.
Digital Spy: always good at telling us what people aren't and won't be doing.