Thursday 30 June 2011

TV

$#*! My Dad Says
1x17 Lock and Load
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

The South Bank Show
36x04 Disney.Pixar
I watched the final-ever South Bank Show back in May, but this is the last one I have knocking about to watch.
Broadcast in October 2009 (11/10/09, to be precise -- neat date) -- before Up was out, and while The Princess and the Frog was still at a stage where clips here are unfinished -- this edition both recounts the history of Pixar and examines its philosophy, and how this has gone on to influence how Disney is managed today. It doesn't shy away from the problematic history between Pixar and Disney either, which is good. In fact, it's a great demonstration of why The South Bank Show should never have been cancelled: it treats one of the most popular of popular culture things as serious art worthy of examination and documentation. Damn you, ITV.

Tim Vine: So I Said To This Bloke...
One of Vine's live shows, from 2008, shown on ITV4 for the first time recently. I like his style, but it gets a bit wearing over a whole hour.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Wimbledon 2011
Ladies' semifinals day, which this year meant matches between Victoria Azarenka & Petra Kvitova and Maria Sharapova & Sabine Lisicki. Hurrah for Azarenka going out, but shame for Lisicki.
[Watch Azarenka v Kvitova and Sharapova v Lisicki on iPlayer.]

Articles

10 TV Shows We Wish Got Another Season by Eric Goldman & Matt Fowler
(from IGN TV)
Including shows I definitely agree about, like Firefly, Twin Peaks and Deadwood; shows I haven't got round to yet, like Flight of the Conchords and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles; and almost half-a-dozen others too.

Marvel Studios to Start Producing Short Films? by Angie Han
(from /Film)
This seems like a good idea -- a way to test (or just flat out use) second-string characters on the big (or small) screen. The suggested Pixar model -- i.e. putting a short before every feature released -- seems like a very good one.

Wednesday Comics Review: CLiNT #9 Now With Added Jimmy Carr by Rich Johnston
(from Bleeding Cool)
The biggest change to CLiNT #9, in UK shops tomorrow and US shops in a month, is the lack of articles.

CLiNT was always sold as a collection of comics and articles, with an eye on the newstand mainstream market, almost with comics snuck in there... And it was the articles that suffered the greatest criticism, seen as filler, bland irrelevance in many cases...

That’s all gone. And we’ve got 74 pages of comics [and just 4 pages of articles]. That’s a massive jump in terms of comics content. Titan reps have told me that while the magazine hasn’t succeeded as they’d have liked on the newsstand, it’s had a much bigger reception in comic stores, so it may well be that is reflected in the new mix.

Ironically, this is probably the first issue since the first to attract significant media attention (I've seen several articles about it floating around today, anyway), thanks to the presence of a strip "written" by Jimmy Carr (he's actually just provided the story).