Music

Alpocalypse by "Weird Al" Yankovic

I don't recognise most of the parodies on Weird Al's latest (his first in half a decade), which either shows I'm out of touch or how lacklustre modern music is. Even this album's polka -- normally full of recognisable snippets from the biggest songs of the past few years -- is a wet affair of unfamiliar lyrics. Shame.

For me, then, this album is at its best when parodying a style rather than a specific modern song. Craigslist takes on the Doors, for instance; Ringtone is a riff on Queen; and, best of all, Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me emulates the work of Jim Steinman to marvellous effect.

Of the direct spoofs, only opener and single Perform This Way -- which lampoons everything about Lady Gaga via her recent hit Born This Way -- sounds familiar and, therefore, and more importantly, works.

TV

Miranda
1x04 Holiday [2nd watch]
It doesn't happen very often, but if I ever stumble across any of Miranda for more than about 30 seconds, I can't help but watch the rest. I have to say, though, I do think the first series was, on the whole, better than the second. Fingers crossed for the third.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

No Ordinary Family
1x11 No Ordinary Friends
Oh, far too much coincidence in this plot! Ouch.

Pointless
4x29 (14/7/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

I've been waiting well over a month for a parcel from Amazon.com. I've known for weeks it won't arrive, because they always arrive well before the final estimated date. Today is that date... but all Amazon say as advice is "give it a few more days". So I'll "give it a few more days", it won't turn up, and then I'll be able to contact them for a replacement. Which I do hope they'll send.

Number of titles in collection: 1,347 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,127 [up 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 220 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 3,339 [up 2]
Number of films in collection: 1,419 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,005 [up 5]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Pointless
4x28 (13/7/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Torchwood: Miracle Day
4x01 The New World
Nearly a week behind the US, Canada and Australia, then, but at least our version is several minutes longer. Maybe that was why it felt surprisingly slow? And I miss the theme music. And what technical bod messed up and caused that nasty visual 'echo'?
A raft of other niggles niggled, too, so I can't be certain what I actually think of it yet. It got "Americanised" trending on twitter though, so I guess it didn't go down too well generally.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Tudors
4x05 Bottom of the Pot
I don't know if it's just the fault of history, but this was awfully like the demise of Anne Boleyn. Even if essentially the same stuff happened, couldn't they have found a different angle on it for the sake of drama? Maybe that's why it was rattled through in a single episode.

Magazines

2000 AD #1741
Guess my decision! Though I ought to read quicker -- 1742 was out yesterday.

TV

No Ordinary Family
1x10 No Ordinary Sidekick
I'm not sure if this is getting a little bit better or if I'm just becoming a little immune...

Pointless
4x27 (12/7/11 edition)
Today's edition was my favourite kind of quiz show: one where I could have a reasonable go at most rounds. Got the best answer on the Wallace & Gromit one, but the most obscure Kevin Spacey films I could come up with wouldn't've been obscure enough.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

DVD Extras

Easter Egg on Doctor Who: The Dominators
The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre do a sketch related to Doctor Who serial production codes. Yes, it's as fan-only as it sounds -- that's why it's an easter egg, I should imagine. But I thought it was very funny, so there.

Trailers

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows Trailer
I loved the first Downey Jr/Ritchie Holmes film, this one looks... interesting. Lots of exciting stuff and funny stuff, but will it work as well as a Sherlock Holmes film as the first one did? Could be they've crammed the trailer full of all the film's action and the Holmesian stuff will occur in between it; could be they've gone too far down the blockbuster route. Only time will tell.
That said, maximum points for using the same awesome music as the first film's trailer.

Fiction

Planetary by Warren Ellis & John Cassaday
#0 Nuclear Spring

My first (purchased) digital comic! The complete collection of acclaimed series Planetary is currently available for just £15/$25 from comics-app-of-choice comiXology -- but only until Friday -- and it includes this 8-page introductory tale, which I don't believe is available otherwise. (It doesn't include the three spin-off/tie-in one-shots though, which are available for £1.49/$1.99 each.)

One of the main criticisms of digital comics from Those In The Know is that they're currently sold exclusively in individual issue form -- great for day-and-date new releases, no use for classic stuff newbies might actually want to buy. For one high-profile example, search a comics app for one of the most praised Batman stories of all time, Year One, and you won't find it (see). It's not available as a collection titled Year One, only as Batman issues 404 to 407. Useless.

In this case, buying the omnibus gives you all 27 individual issues (the complete series), which is better than being given one single 633-page file! Buying the same number of issues in collected real-book form would be a lot more expensive, and these can be read online, on iOS devices (iPads, iPhones, etc), and even Android I believe, should you care for that. The one thing that really buys me is that you can't seem to get prices in anything other than dollars on the website. Why? They're in pounds on the iPhone app! But that seems to be temperamental and prone to crash while browsing, making searching to buy stuff on there a real pain.

If you're interested in how it all works in practice ("reading a book online?! what?!", etc), just check out comiXology for full details. They even have hundreds of free comics should you want to give it a go.

TV

No Ordinary Family
1x09 No Ordinary Anniversary
This has to be one of the longest-feeling programmes I currently watch. And yet I stick with it. Even though there's more left to go than I've already sat through. Sometimes, I baffle even myself...

Pointless
4x26 (11/7/11 edition)
Seems I may have changed my mind. Oh, but it is good fun though.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Tudors
4x04 Natural Ally
Will they get rid of Wifey #5 soon? God I hope so. On the bright side, more Brandon is always good.

TV

Me watching TV one day behind instead of one week behind? What is the world coming to?!

Law & Order: UK
5x01 The Wrong Man
⅓ of the lead cast are replaced with nary a mention. That's the L&O way.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Top Gear
17x03 (10/7/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Friends
10x14 The One With Princess Consuela [goodness-knows-what-th watch]
10x15 The One Where Estelle Dies [goodness-knows-what-th watch]
I've not watched Friends for goodness knows how long, but I just happened to see these two episodes on E4 today. I think it's not so fashionable to like it any more, but boo, I've always liked it, so there. Really ought to watch it all again, actually.

Horrible Histories with Stephen Fry
1x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Lee Mack's All Star Cast
1x04 (9/7/11 edition)
This is a pretty weak show anyway, and then you add Katie bloody Price... And then you reach the always-dreadful sketch, throw in a Dragon -- none of whom can read any kind of script convincingly, and neither can Price -- and... Oh, why do I subject myself to this? More fool me, I guess.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Mock the Week
10x05 (7/7/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Penn & Teller: Fool Us
1x04 Episode 4
A couple of good bits tonight, but next week's looks better. Look forward to that, then.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

The Shadow Line
Part 7 (of 7)
I suppose it was inevitable given the amount of pure stuff piled into this series, but this was a disappointing conclusion. An over-complex last-minute Explanation Of Everything; twists and reveals that were mostly twisted or revealed episodes ago; and a nihilistic desire to almost exclusively kill off anyone nice and leave standing the evil and/or irritating. Sure, some of them are Great Characters who we Love To Hate, but they still need their comeuppance in the end.
All in, it was at least an episode too long and should have ended differently. Shame.

Films

Tangled (2010)
[#69 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

TV

Castle
1x04 Hell Hath No Fury
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

No Ordinary Family
1x08 No Ordinary Accident
I watched episode 6 in February, episode 7 in May, and now episode 8 in July. Originally I was hoping to watch this at more or less the pace of the UK airings. I imagine those finished months ago.
I'm intending to be more regular, though: lots of TV's shut up shop for the summer, so now it's catch up time (there are a couple of things like this on my books to get through now). OK, maybe I should just give up -- NOF isn't that good and it's already cancelled (unsurprisingly) -- but once I've started a series (and got a fair few episodes in) I feel like I've got to complete it.

Pointless Celebrities
Episode 4 (of 5)
Episode 5 (of 5)
[Watch episodes four and five (again) on iPlayer.]

The Shadow Line
Part 6 (of 7)
If I didn't know better, halfway through this episode I'd've been thinking it was the last one! But no, an hour of story still to go... hopefully with all the answers... and maybe the questions, too.

The Tudors
4x03 Something for You
Even worse than No Ordinary Family, I haven't watched any of this for five months. Not hard to pick back up on, though it'd be nice if it got a wriggle on -- especially as a UK viewer, we know where it's all going.

Films

Doom (2005)
[2nd watch]
This was #25 in 100 Films 2007 and I didn't give it a very good review. So why did I re-watch it? Not entirely sure, really. It was on TV, I was there, I let it play. I didn't pay attention to all of it, which probably helped. I do stand by my original review too, even if (as it's from the blog's first year) it's rather short.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
9x12 (1/7/11 edition) [season finale]
Only two guests, and the show worked much better because of it -- less crammed. Doubt that means they'll continue with it though.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Pointless Celebrities
Episode 1 (of 5)
Episode 2 (of 5)
Episode 3 (of 5)
Surprisingly fun daytime quiz show Pointless has moved to BBC One, and to mark that it began with a week of 'celebrity'-filled specials (a format tweak first seen last Christmas, I believe). I have no intention of wasting my life with the regular edition, however addictive it may be, but everything's more fun with 'celebrities' though, eh? TV ratings certainly seem to suggest so...
[Watch episodes one, two and three (again) on iPlayer.]

Shark Tank
1x01 Episode 1
The US version of Dragons' Den. And it's rubbish. The 'sharks' are all too annoying, most of the people looking for money just as irritating, no one as nice or intelligent as their UK counterparts. Damn them.

Collection Count

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

This week, TV episodes lands squarely on 5,000! Wow! Nice round number... nice big number too. Quite daunting, actually. Ought to get stuck in to a few more of those...

And, for the first time in I-don't-know-how-long, no Blu-rays!

Number of titles in collection: 1,345 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,125 [up 5]
Of which Blu-rays: 220 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 3,337 [up 8]
Number of films in collection: 1,419 [up 6]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,000 [up 8]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Six series today, five of them including the last of the series / last ever. Coincidencetastic!

How I Met Your Mother
6x19 Legendaddy
I know some have been critical of HIMYM in recent seasons, for not getting anywhere with its arc plot, or for not being as clever or funny as it used to be, but I think this season is really hitting new highs. Good for them.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

James May's Things You Need to Know
1x03 The Weather [final episode]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Luther
2x03 Episode 3
2x04 Episode 4 [season finale]
The second two-parter in Luther's truncated second series. A good idea in this one, well (and violently) executed, even if it did remind me of one of the Thorne stories. Most surprising, though, was the happy ending. How un-Luther-like. Don't know how this run went down or how it rated, but fingers crossed for a third.
[Watch episodes three and four (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Sex Researchers
Episode 3 (of 3)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

$#*! My Dad Says
1x18 Who's Your Daddy? [series finale]
Bleep My Dad Says (as they insist on calling it) wasn't the greatest sitcom ever -- far from it, if we're going to be honest -- but it was decent-enough brain-off watch-once fare. Plus, the longer it went on the more it grew on me, so in those respects it's a shame it was cancelled.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Spirit of Wimbledon
Part 4 Splendour on the Grass [final episode]
All-in, it was definitely much better than that other one. I may write to the Radio Times. Why? I dunno. Because.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Magazines

2000 AD #1740
I haven't bought 2000 AD in a very, very long time, but word reached me this issue (last week's, as it happens) contained all-new stories and was the perfect jumping on point. Well, that struck me as an opportunity not to be missed, so here I am. Decision time on continuing must be quick though: 2000 AD is still a weekly anthology, meaning the issue after this is not only out now but also already 28.6% through the time it will be on shelves!

TV

Archer
2x10 El Secuestro
Archer seems to be going from strength to strength this season -- though, in fairness, it did in the first two. Indeed, this is currently sitting pretty as the best-rated episode ever at TV.com (see above link).
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Lead Balloon
4x06 End [series finale]
Jack Dee says this is the last episode ever. If so, I can see how that works as an ending. Despite the excruciating moments, I'll rather miss Lead Balloon. I think I joined it sometime in series two though, so I probably ought to go back and catch up on the beginning...
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Penn & Teller: Fool Us
1x03 Episode 3
Some absolutely brilliant magic tonight... but Penn & Teller weren't fooled once. Damn they're good.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

The Shadow Line
Part 5 (of 7)
See yesterday's Luther. Bit of a longer gap on this one, though -- five weeks (to the very day!), to be precise.
[The Shadow Line is out on DVD and Blu-ray as of last Monday.]

Spirit of Wimbledon
Part 3 Grass Rivals
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]