TV

Middle Sunday at Wimbledon means no play, which means TV catch-up day for me...

125 Years of Wimbledon: You Cannot Be Serious
Odd documentary to commemorate the 125th championships at Wimbledon. Rather than telling the history of the tournament, as you might expect from such a documentary, it jumped back and forth to tell brief famous snippets. Such brevity and disconnectedness also meant some tales weren't very well told. Weird, and slightly disappointing because of it.

Case Histories
1x05 When Will There Be Good News? Part 1
1x06 When Will There Be Good News? Part 2 [season finale]
It's amazing how reliant on coincidences all three of these plots have been. In most writing it would be considered a shockingly huge weakness; in the world of Jackson Brodie and work of Kate Atkinson, I presume (or hope, at least) it's supposed to be A Thing.
Also, lead guest star this episode was Gwyneth Keyworth, who I've previously noticed in a Sarah Jane Adventures story and as the daughter in The Great Outdoors. She was on some list of young actors to watch out for, I believe, and I'd have to agree. One to watch.
[Watch parts one and two (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Castle
1x02 Nanny McDead
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Horrible Histories with Stephen Fry
1x01 Episode 1
Kids' series Horrible Histories has proved remarkably popular and awards-winning, despite being 'buried' on CBBC. So, to capitalise on its consistent word-of-mouth, here the BBC edit together highlights from series one & two, with new links by Stephen Fry, and show them to a primetime Sunday audience. Good idea.
(Sadly they've not series linked it on iPlayer, so I can't direct you to it if you still missed it. Here's episode two, though.)

Lead Balloon
4x04 Off
That cliffhanger would've been a great shock... if the following episode hadn't been quite well promoted already.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Penn & Teller: Fool Us
1x02 Episode 2
As I watched two hours' worth of this only two days ago, I'd intended to save the new episode for a bit longer. But I couldn't resist. Darn it's good.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Scott & Bailey
1x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

this week on 100 Films

3 new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...

Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance. (2009/2010)

The second new Evangelion film isn’t as straight-up enjoyable as the first. It starts incredibly well, but then it feels like its getting too bogged down in the politics of a world that hasn’t been properly established for us and in the intricacies of some thematic considerations — the latter is especially worrying as it was this that made the ending of the TV series so unsatisfactory

Salt: Director's Cut (2010)
including a comparison to the Theatrical and Extended versions.

Salt’s mystery is one of its strong points. The plot developments are well-paced throughout, shifting our expectations rather than stretching it all for a glut of final act reveals. In this regard... it has twists and follows storylines you wouldn’t expect in a Hollywood summer blockbuster.

Unthinkable (2010)

the vast majority of the action takes place in a deserted high school commandeered as a temporary military base, where Samuel L. Jackson conducts his interrogation in a sort of one-way-glassed torture tank placed in the gym. So there’s no 24-style thrills as people rush around the city/country hunting out bombs — Unthinkable is wholly reliant on the script and performances to draw us into its story, and its debate.

More next Sunday.