Films

Yi Yi (2000)
[#49 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024]
Blindspot 2024 #5

TV

The 1% Club
3x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on ITVX.]

Films

The Phantom of the Open (2021)

Comics

2000 AD #2381–2382
One of the two strips I couldn't stand has finally ended, meaning I'm back to reading four out of five each Prog. So that's nice.

Collection Count

Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.

Three new additions this week. I really thought it was going to be zero — only one is a new release, and that was coming from HMV, who usually get things to me for Monday these days. The other two were a bit of an impulse buy from an Amazon offer ending tomorrow (which I only learnt about because I happened to browse the Blu-ray.com forums for something else). One of those is the extras-less 4K of The Fifth Element, which I've avoided in the hopes of a proper edition with special features. I finally caved for a reasonable price... so I bet they finally announce a proper edition now.

Number of titles in collection: 3,311 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,002 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,309 [up 3]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 361 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 8,008 [up 5]
Number of films: 4,082 [up 3]
Number of additional cuts: 388 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 9,720 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,146 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader, when hopefully there'll be three more additions — all the way from Australia!

TV

X-Men
2x12 Reunion Part One [2nd watch]
2x13 Reunion Part Two [season finale; 2nd watch]

26 episodes down, 50 to go — and then I can finally watch X-Men ’97!

Videos

Critical Role
2x36 O Captain, Who's Captain? [2nd half]
"Even though we've made some mistakes, and will probably continue to, feels like we're a little bit better when we're together. This other fellow in the group, Mollymauk, he sort of showed us that... by dying."
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]

Talks Machina
#84 'O Captain, Who's Captain?'
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

Films

A Separation (2011)
[#48 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024]
"What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...?" 2024 #5

Videos

Critical Role
2x36 O Captain, Who's Captain? [1st half]
"I am an actor in real life, you should probably ask Matt."
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]

Videos

Critical Role
2x35 Dockside Diplomacy [2nd half]

"The guards are going, 'hey! Hey! Halt!' And they're drawing and loading crossbows. You are not stopping, you are not hailing, you are not listening to anything they're saying. They assume you are stealing a ship... which you are." 🤣

"This is the stupidest thing."
"This is great. This is D&D, motherfuckers."

[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]


Talks Machina
#83 'Dockside Diplomacy'
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

TV

Friends
2x10 The One with Russ [5th or so watch]
2x11 The One with the Lesbian Wedding [5th or so watch]

Films

The Bookshop (2017)

Videos

Critical Role
2x35 Dockside Diplomacy [1st half]

With this episode, I'm a quarter of the way through Campaign 2. It feels like I've kept up a steady pace, sometimes fast (i.e. I've watched Critical Role to the detriment of watching other films and TV), and it's still taken me almost four months to get this far. If I don't let up, I still won't finish Campaign 2 until around about this time next year! And then there's Campaign 3, which by then should be almost as long as Campaign 2... Crikey.

This might sound like a negative way to look at it, but, I mean, while it is nice that there's lots to go because I really enjoy it, it would also be nice to be caught up, y'know?

[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]

TV

Doctor Who
40x07 The Legend of Ruby Sunday [2nd watch]
40x08 Empire of Death [season finale]
[Watch Empire of Death (again) on iPlayer.]

Friends
2x08 The One with the List [5th or so watch]
2x09 The One with Phoebe's Dad [5th or so watch]

Films

The Great Escaper (2023)

Kidnapping by Indians (1899)
The first ever Western film... and it was a British production! It's also rubbish; literally only of interest for its historical significance. But if you want, you can watch it (free) at the BFI.

Collection Count

Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.

It's an all new release special this week... special only because they're all new releases, not for any other particular reason. A mix of stuff out last Monday and next Monday that arrived early, which feels like an increasingly uncommon occurrence, so is nice... not that I have time to watch any of them this weekend, so it's a moot point really. Anyway, five new titles, including one BD-to-4K upgrade.

Somewhat of note: this little lot sees me pass 8,000 discs in my collection. Crikey. Just how many of them are redundant DVD copies in Blu-rays / Blu-ray copies in 4Ks / etc? I dread to think...

Number of titles in collection: 3,308 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,002 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,306 [up 4]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 359 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 8,003 [up 7]
Number of films: 4,079 [up 6]
Number of additional cuts: 387 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 9,720 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,146 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Death in Paradise
12x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
40x06 Rogue [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Friends
2x06 The One with the Baby on the Bus [5th or so watch]
2x07 The One Where Ross Finds Out [5th or so watch]

Fiction

The Once and Future King by T.H. White
The Sword in the Stone Chapters 8–9

TV

Death in Paradise
12x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Richard Osman's House of Games
7x50 Week 10: Friday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Videos

Talks Machina
#82 'Encroaching Waters'
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

Videos

Critical Role
2x34 Encroaching Waters
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]

TV

X-Men
2x09 A Rogue's Tale [2nd watch]
2x10 Beauty & the Beast [2nd watch]
2x11 Mojovision [2nd watch]

Two pretty great episodes, giving specific focus to two members of the team (the episode titles make it clear which), and one absolute travesty. (IMDb ratings say there's a season five episode that's even worse, so that'll be interesting.)

Videos

Talks Machina
#81 'The Ruby and the Sapphire'
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

TV

For All Mankind
2x02 The Bleeding Edge

Comics

2000 AD #2379–2380

Videos

Critical Role
2x33 The Ruby and the Sapphire
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]

Films

Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971)
[#47 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024]

Fiction

The Once and Future King by T.H. White
The Sword in the Stone Chapter 7

Videos

Talks Machina
#80 'Beyond the Boundaries'
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

TV

Doctor Who
40x07 The Legend of Ruby Sunday
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Fast X (2023)
[#46 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024]

Comics

2000 AD #2377–2378

Two whole issues, but I'm still skipping two strips each Prog, meaning I'm only reading 60% of each issue — so getting through two is only equivalent to a little more than one, really. Hopefully those two duds end soon and their replacements are an improvement.

Videos

Critical Role
2x32 Beyond the Boundaries
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]

Collection Count

Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.

This week, two titles from 88 Films (one an early arrival for a new release) and two titles from Radiance (both sale pickups — I ought to resist buying their stuff until sales, it's a good saving... but other stuff they've released has sold out long before reaching the sale point, so it's a risk).

Number of titles in collection: 3,304 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,002 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,302 [up 4]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 356 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 7,996 [up 5]
Number of films: 4,073 [up 4]
Number of additional cuts: 387 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 9,720 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,146 [up 1]

It's also time once again for the monthly running time update...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
561 days, 21 hours, and 41 minutes.
(Up 1 day, 11 hours, and 39 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

Argylle (2024)
[#45 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024]

Videos

Critical Role
2x31 Commerce & Chaos [2nd half]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]

Talks Machina
#79 'Commerce & Chaos'
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

TV

Doctor Who
Real Time Episode Five
Real Time Episode Six [finale]

Abandoned my previous pace just to get it over with a double-bill. I did enjoy the second half of the serial more than the first — there are some neat concepts, even if I felt they were poorly utilised — but, overall, it wasn't worth the two-decade wait. And it ends on a cliffhanger that will never be resolved! (Because the actress died. Obviously they could continue it in a novel or something, but, well, they haven't in the past 22 years, so I doubt they will now.)

Oh well, at least I've ticked off another piece of Doctor Who apocrypha (the fact it has some form of visuals makes it sort of a proper story, right? But it didn't occur in chronological order (jumping back to the Sixth Doctor) and was only a webcast, so it's also sort of... not 'real' Who, right? Hence "apocrypha". Maybe not quite the correct word, but it's the closest I can think of right now).


X-Men
2x07 Time Fugitives Part One [2nd watch]
2x08 Time Fugitives Part Two [2nd watch]

Films

The Indian Chief and the Seidlitz Powder (1901)
Possibly the first British Western. It's also a comedy short — read the accompanying notes on the BFI's (free) streaming copy otherwise you probably won't get the 120-year-old topical humour. Other than that... it's still not very good.

Articles

Doctor Who: Real Time (Review)
by Darren Mooney (from The m0vie blog)

For a different, more positive take on Real Time (which still acknowledges all the flaws that overwhelmed it for me), you could do worse than this piece.

Videos

Critical Role
2x30 The Journey Home [2nd half]
2x31 Commerce & Chaos [1st half]
[Watch Campaign 2 (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]

Talks Machina
#78 'The Journey Home'
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

TV

Doctor Who
Real Time Episode Four
Credit where it's due, this episode has a decent twist/cliffhanger, which I didn't see coming and is also quite a neat concept. Unfortunately, I have no faith it'll do anything interesting with that in the remaining two episodes, considering the rest of the writing continues to be lacklustre. For example: this episode contains two scenes clearly designed to give the Doctor and Evelyn big grandstanding speeches that define them as characters and/or the Cybermen — similar to the Fifth Doctor's famous speech in Earthshock, for example — but neither really lands, meandering on and around the point rather than succinctly nailing it.

For All Mankind
2x01 Every Little Thing
Finally got another free month of Apple TV+ from somewhere, so trying to make sure I get some use out of it — picking back up this excellent series (which I'm now three whole seasons behind on) seemed a good idea for that. It begins with a timejump, and I also watched the 20-or-so minutes of news featurettes they produced to help bridge the in-world gap since the season one finale.

X-Men
2x06 X-Ternally Yours [2nd watch]
Having another crack at continuing this, too. Hopefully it'll be more successful than my last attempt...

Videos

Critical Role
2x30 The Journey Home [1st half]
Laura and Travis return after a break of seven weeks... or six days, at my current pace. (Also, random bit of maths: crazy to think that if Critical Role were a regular hour-long US network show, I'd be about 156 episodes in now. That's longer than the entirety of Buffy, for example.)
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]

TV

Doctor Who
Real Time Episode Three
"I've never known Cybermen to look so badly-made before." You said it, mate.

Videos

Talks Machina
#77 'The Stalking Nightmare'
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

TV

Doctor Who
Real Time Episode Two

Videos

Critical Role
2x28 Within the Nest [2nd half]
2x29 The Stalking Nightmare

I was somewhat trepidatious heading into this run of episodes — with three of the (excellent) regular cast gone and a parade of guest stars in the offing, would it be below-par filler, treading water until the 'real' heroes returned? As things turned out, quite the opposite — not just major, game-changing plot turns (thanks, rolls of the dice!), but interesting locales, exciting combats, memorable NPCs, and some brilliant guest stars (Sumalee Montano clearly received a lot of love from the fanbase, and rightly so, but Ashly Burch is fantastic too).

I'd probably still say Midnight Espionage is the best individual episode of Critical Role I've seen so far (as a game, there's an element of luck about what events occur and plot points appear within one episode, and that one landed so many great bits), but the six-episode run from The Hour of Honor to The Stalking Nightmare is probably my favourite extended arc (or two, really) so far. Phenomenal.

[Watch Campaign 2 (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]


Talks Machina
#76 'Converging Fury' and 'Within the Nest'
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

TV

Doctor Who
Real Time Episode One

Back in the early '00s — after Big Finish had taken off but before the TV revival was announced — BBCi (as it then was) produced several Doctor Who webcasts, which started out as “audio dramas with accompanying illustrations” and gradually progressed to “fully animated” (before the revival was announced and put a stop to all that). This was the second, following Death Comes to Time earlier in 2002 and preceding the 8th Doctor Shada and Scream of the Shalka in 2003 — crazy, with hindsight, that all of that took place in just two years. Even crazier that it’s taken me over 20 years to get round to listening to it. (These were 20 years ago! Time really does fly.) The original official webcast links are dead, but you can buy it on CD from Big Finish (audio only, obv), or do as I'm doing and watch it on YouTube.

Also, for what it's worth, although originally released in six parts, each one only runs 11–17 minutes, with the average being 15, meaning the whole story has the same running time as a Season 22 two-parter. Watching it in two halves would truly emulate that, then, but I've stuck with the original broadcast length because... well, it's like most of Season 22 in another way: it's not very good. I'm not even talking about the basic Flash animation, but the frequently clunky dialogue, line readings that consistently sound off (despite the writer and director being the same person), and a general insipid pace and structure. Maybe it will pick up. Maybe only having to experience it in short bursts will be a blessing.

Videos

Critical Role
2x27 Converging Fury
2x28 Within the Nest [1st half]
I'm trying to cut back a bit... but even after watching a whole episode, I still just wanted to carry on, so eventually caved in the evening (hence the extra half episode — there literally wasn't time for another whole one today). The heart wants what the heart wants — whatcha gonna do?
[Watch Converging Fury (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]

Talks Machina
#75 Live from San Diego Comic-Con 2018!
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

this week on 100Films.co.uk

Only one post at 100Films.co.uk this week: delayed from the start of the month, the films I failed to watch in May...





More next Sunday, perhaps.

TV

Doctor Who
40x06 Rogue
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Videos

Critical Role
2x26 Found & Lost
Man, Critical Role was just continuously knocking it out of the park at this point, particularly with how episodes ended. Even though this was one of their longest episodes yet (representing 6½ hours of viewing between it and Talks; then even more time because I rewind/rewatch some moments to see more reactions, and quite thoroughly peruse the YouTube comment section — it took me basically all afternoon and early evening), I still just want to watch Talks to hear what they have to say, then go straight on to the next episode to find out what happens. I may just spend tomorrow on the show, too...
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]

Talks Machina
#74 'Found & Lost'
Such a shame they've wiped this show from official channels (even if it's understandable why) because there can be some great insights here (as well as a lot of fun, silly frolics). Sometimes the quality depends on whether there's a good lineup of guests ("good" possibly defined by who your personal favourites are), but they've often got the people most relevant to the episode under discussion — this episode, in particular, has the perfect lineup in that regard.
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

Collection Count

Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.

Just two new additions this week, including the latest Doctor Who animation.

Number of titles in collection: 3,300 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,002 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,298 [up 2]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 355 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 7,991 [up 4]
Number of films: 4,069 [up 1]
Number of additional cuts: 386 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 9,720 [up 4]
Number of short films: 1,145 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Videos

Critical Role
2x25 Divergent Paths [2nd half]
I thought this episode might be a bit of a bust at the start — with Travis and Laura absent, Liam limited on a screen, and several of the present cast clearly tired from an emotional day IRL, struggling to play as the absent characters — but after a bumpy start, it picked up, and even delivered a particularly emotional climax with the exit of Kiri. How do they keep doing that?! "Thank you, Matt, for making this game work with half of a crew."
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]

LEGO Dungeons & Dragons Game Night
This three-hour actual-play special was produced to promote the LEGO Dungeons & Dragons set and released two months ago. I've been meaning to watch it since it came out, but I've (obviously) been spending time on Crit Role instead — but as I've been watching so much of that the last couple of days, I thought it was finally time to make room for this. It's a lot of fun, and watching Ginny Di's behind-the-scenes video made me super envious.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube.]

Talks Machina
#73 'Divergent Paths'
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

Videos

Critical Role
2x24 The Hour of Honor [2nd half]
2x25 Divergent Paths [1st half]
[Watch Campaign 2 (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]

Talks Machina
#72 'The Hour of Honor'
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

Videos

Critical Role
2x23 Have Bird, Will Travel
2x24 The Hour of Honor [1st half]
Oh yeah, an episode and a half (plus Talks, below). After a bit of a break, it feels good to have a bit of a binge. (This wouldn't really count as a "binge" for most shows, but altogether these represent 7+ hours of Critical Role content in one day.)
[Watch Campaign 2 (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]

Talks Machina
#71 'Have Bird, Will Travel'
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

TV

Richard Osman's House of Games
7x49 Week 10: Thursday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
[2nd watch]

this week on 100Films.co.uk

A day late with this, I know, but I'd been hoping to get both of my usual monthly posts up on 100Films.co.uk this weekend. Unfortunately, I've been ill, so there's only the first so far: the general monthly review of May...





Part Two will be there by next Sunday, hopefully.

TV

Doctor Who
40x05 Dot and Bubble
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Richard Osman's House of Games
7x47 Week 10: Tuesday
7x48 Week 10: Wednesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Mrs Palfrey at The Claremont (2005)

TV

Doctor Who
40x03 Boom [2nd watch]
40x04 73 Yards
[Watch all episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Richard Osman's House of Games
7x46 Week 10: Monday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Man from the Carlton Tower (1961)
[#43 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024]

Games

The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Book Game
Chapter 2: Fellowship Forged
Chapter 3: The Mines of Moria

Finally had a chance to continue this. It took some getting back into, but it is fun.

Collection Count

Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.

Just a quiet one this week. Might be a quiet month too, although there's a bunch of stuff coming out I'm interested in, I just don't have much ordered yet. So, we'll see...

Number of titles in collection: 3,298 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,002 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,296 [up 1]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 354 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 7,987 [up 1]
Number of films: 4,068 [up 1]
Number of additional cuts: 386 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 9,716 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,145 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.