Saturday 12 November 2011

TV

Argumental
4x01 Episode 1
Uncancelled... but with a new set, new host, new team captains, new audience interactivity thing... I was prepared to hate the all-new Argumental, but actually the format hasn't changed at all (not even a little bit -- even the link script is identical) and it was saved by Robert Webb and his guest teammate, Jimmy Carr. Sean Lock wasn't that bad -- he's no John Sergeant but, held back by being host, at least he can't stick his oar in too much. That said, the other team -- new captain Seann Walsh with guest Russell Kane -- were at least twice as irritating as they always are separately.

Derren Brown: The Experiments
1x04 The Secret of Luck [season finale]
While the conclusions about a positive and open attitude are surely sound, I think that a) the car experiment wasn't completely fair (if that woman hadn't known someone who could fix a tyre, surely she'd've pointed them to the garage too?), and b) they must've rigged that final dice roll -- how?
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Downton Abbey
2x07 Episode 7
Hurrah, Thomas gets some comeuppance! I do hope there's more to come.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Merlin
4x07 The Secret Sharer
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Pointless
3x34 (29/10/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Comics

Action Comics #3 by Grant Morrison, Rags Morales & Gene Ha
I liked the first two issues of Action, which surprised me a little as I'm not a great Superman fan, but this isn't so hot. It has a good idea at its core -- "humans turn on alien Superman" -- but despite being on the cover, and a good idea, that's actually underplayed in favour of lengthy scenes of blah. Especially when read in such close proximity to excellent books like Daredevil and Aquaman (see below), this doesn't quite cut it. Still, everyone's allowed a blip -- I'll see how it continues.

Aquaman #1 by Geoff Johns & Ivan Reis
[2nd print]
My final in-print re-read. My thoughts from before are here. Then it's straight on to...

Aquaman #2 by Geoff Johns & Ivan Reis
A much quicker issue than the first, which has its pros and cons. It's not as obviously fun as the first issue, made up essentially of two big action sequences, but then you can't have people slagging off Aquaman every issue. The villains remain intriguing, and the cliffhanger promises something interesting next time. More standard superhero-y stuff than issue one, then, but a solid continuation of the story. Great art, too.