TV

Cuckoo
1x01 The Homecoming
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Family Guy
10x23 Internal Affairs [season finale]
10x22 Family Guy Viewer Mail #2
BBC Three finished this season of Family Guy last night. The new season began in the US last night. Not everything makes it over here promptly yet then, I guess.
And they showed them the way round listed above, which does seem to make more sense. It was the second one I was watching for, because it contained (essentially) Family Guy If It Was British. Which was... alright. The bit from Stewie's point of view was better.

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
26x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Once Upon a Time
1x19 The Return

The Rob Brydon Show
3x03 Episode 3

this week on 100 Films

3 new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week. As they included both versions of Assault on Precinct 13, I did a Make/Remake feature on them here.

And the rest of the reviews included...

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

I should probably also note that the main cop character is black and the main criminal is white, which I imagine was revolutionary in the ’70s. To be honest, it would probably go against the norm today — note how the remake reverted to (stereo)type.

Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)

In terms of the representation of race on screen, this is a film that could certainly be seen as a step backwards. While the original had a black police officer in charge of a white criminal, here not only is the lead officer white — as are all but one of the dozens of other policemen — but all the criminals inside the precinct are black or (in one case) hispanic. Ouch.

Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story (2005)

it does feel like three Family Guy episodes stitched together. Much like that other stitched-together-from-three-animated-TV-episodes movie, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the events of part one (or the first twenty-odd minutes) seem entirely separated from the two-parter that makes up the back hour. Fortunately the Family Guy team seem to have more common sense than their Lucasfilm counterparts, choosing to link back round to the start for their film’s climax, tying it all together after all.

More next Sunday.

TV

Extraordinary Dogs
1x12 The Uncommon Nose
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Family Guy
3x18 From Method to Madness
3x19 Stuck Together, Torn Apart
3x20 Road to Europe
3x21 Family Guy Viewer Mail #1
And that completes my Family Guy DVD set, which (as I may have mentioned) I've had waiting to be watched since sometime during the series' cancellation (and it came back in 2005, so... yeah...)

House
7x18 The Dig
Well look who's back! About time too. And, as usual these days, it means the arc/character plots are far more interesting than the forgettable Case of the Week.

TV

Due South
3x06 Bounty Hunter [2nd watch]

Family Guy
1x01 Death Has a Shadow
1x02 I Never Met the Dead Man [2nd watch]
1x04 Mind Over Murder
I've only seen random episodes of Family Guy before (plus the first two Star Wars ones). Turns out, this second one is one of them.
And secondly, Family Guy has a whole messed-up-mixed-up history of which episodes are in which season and which order, for various reasons that don't need going into. Though I'll just watch them in the order presented on the Region 2 DVDs, numbering is courtesy of Wikipedia's episode list (i.e. by US transmission).

Friday Night Dinner
1x01 The Sofabed
C4's new sitcom apparently had a very good launch, ratings-wise. Which is nice, because it's quite good.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Killing [aka Forbrydelsen]
1x11 Day 11
I hope it wasn't Troels who did it, because a) you surely can't drag that out for half the series, and b) Bremer deserves what's coming to him. In fact, I hope Bremer did it and is trying to frame Troels. That'd be good.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

My Life in Books
Episode 4 Sir Trevor McDonald and Rebecca Front (of 10)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Robot Chicken
Robot Chicken: Star Wars [special]
Everyone knows that Family Guy did a great big George Lucas-approved Star Wars spoof (right)? What slightly fewer people know (due to it being on some obscure channel) is that Robot Chicken also did one. And they did it first. I think. Anyway, this is that.
Which was funnier? It's been so long since I saw Family Guy's (before this blog began) that I honestly wouldn't like to say, but they're notably different -- Family Guy retells A New Hope, while this contains sketches about the whole series.

TV

Family Guy
8x20 Something, Something, Something, Dark Side [season finale]
Having spoofed A New Hope (which, as I noted before, I watched before this blog began), the Family Guy team latterly turned their attention to The Empire Strikes Back. It's as hit-and-miss as you might expect, effectively retelling Empire with a bunch of non sequiturs and humorous criticisms thrown in.
The Family Guy version of Return of the Jedi, titled It's a Trap!, is due later this year. Wonder if they'll do the prequels...

Mock the Week
9x09 (23/9/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The South Bank Show
37x01 Andrew Lloyd Webber Revisited
aka The South Bank Show Revisited for the series' final run of ten programmes, which all (unsurprisingly) revisited past subjects. It aired back in March/April/May and I've had half of them on my V+ box ever since. About time I got round to them, I thought. So, um, I am...

TV

Family Guy
13x01 The Simpsons Guy
Family Guy returned to BBC Two last night for the first time in yonks (before it heads to ITV2 later this year), beginning with this crossover episode that aired in the US last September. It was quite good.

TV

Children in Need 2011
Being the post-midnight stuff, of course, which this year was back to being mostly repeats unfortunately. Great total though -- the highest ever by over £5 million!
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Family Guy
It's a Trap!
Family Guy complete their run through the original Star Wars trilogy with this spoof of Return of the Jedi, released on DVD & Blu-ray last December and later aired (in an edited form) as the end of season nine back in May.
And that's it, because they're not bothering with the prequels. Unless they change their minds, of course. Which I doubt.

House
8x05 The Confession
Some people have been really laying into this series of House, but I've liked it. However, I do agree that getting the old team back in this episode gives it a real boost.

The Jury
2x04 Part 4 (of 5)
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Merlin
4x08 Lamia
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Pointless
3x39 (5/11/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Spy
1x04 Codename: Bookclub
I think this is the best comedy on TV right now. Love it.

In the unlikely event anyone is curious, I've now decided to give up on Wilfred. Having watched the first four episodes a while ago, I just don't care enough to spend another three-and-a-bit hours of my life watching the rest.

TV

Britain's Next Big Thing
Episode 7 (of 7)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Family Guy
9x07 Road to the North Pole [Christmas special]
5x09 Road to Rupert
BBC Three had a night of Family Guy's Road to... episodes last night, which I V+d and watched in the early hours. Sadly, they chose to only show five of the six (skipping Road to Germany), two of which I'd watched quite recently, and then my recording of the last one mucked up -- so their 'night' turns into 'two episodes'. Hey-ho.
The first one is last Christmas' hour-long (in the US) special and is all kinds of sick and twisted. I loved it. New favourite Christmas TV special! Yay!

TV

Britain's Next Big Thing
Episode 4 (of 7)
Having Theo Paphitis as on-screen presenter (but not even narrator) on the first three episodes of this felt pointless, but now it's moved from wannabes pitching their product to the actual business of getting them on to shop shelves, he seems to have more to do. So that's nice.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Family Guy: Groundbreaking Gags
BBC-produced talking-heads documentary about Family Guy's extraordinarily outrageous humour -- and there's certainly plenty of it to talk about. If you've never watched the show, this is probably a good primer for why you may well not like it.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Have I Got News For You
41x04 (6/5/11 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

$#*! My Dad Says
1x09 Make a WISiH
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

TV

The Event
1x14 A Message Back
Getting increasingly far behind on this. I'll have to make an effort to catch up.

Extraordinary Dogs
1x10 Instinct: The Sixth Sense 2
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Family Guy
3x15 Ready, Willing, and Disabled
3x16 A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas
3x17 Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows

Monroe
1x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

$#*! My Dad Says
1x05 Not Without My Jacket
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Films

Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story (2005)
[#47 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]
Direct-to-DVD Family Guy movie, made as part of the fourth season just after the show was un-cancelled. It later aired in an edited/censored three-part form as episodes 28 (Stewie B. Goode), 29 (Bango Was His Name, Oh!) and 30 (Stu and Stewie's Excellent Adventure) of season four... though I also believe those episodes 'aren't officially counted' and aren't on the separate season DVD releases (because they were a) censored and b) already released as this). So that's interesting then.

TV

Family Guy
3x05 And the Wiener Is...
3x06 Death Lives
3x07 Lethal Weapons [2nd watch]
3x08 The Kiss Seen Around the World

The Killing [aka Forbrydelsen]
1x18 Day 18
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Twenty Twelve
1x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Doctor Who
32x04 The Doctor's Wife
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Eurovision Song Contest: Düsseldorf 2011
Thought this year's winner was a bit of a mediocre effort -- there were several much better songs. Still, at least the unusually close voting made for relatively interesting viewing.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Family Guy Presents Seth & Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show

Vera
1x02 Telling Tales
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

TV

Due South
3x08 Spy vs. Spy [2nd watch]
Even by Due South's standards, this episode was barmy.

Family Guy
1x07 Brian: Portrait of a Dog [season finale]
2x01 Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater
2x10 Running Mates

The Graham Norton Show
8x18 (25/2/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Due South
3x10 Perfect Strangers [2nd watch]

Family Guy
2x05 Love Thy Trophy
2x06 Death is a Bitch
2x07 The King is Dead
In the unlikely event anyone's keeping track, this is where the UK Season 1 DVD comes to an end.

The Killing [aka Forbrydelsen]
1x13 Day 13
If you've still not watched any of this, start it now and you can watch one a day (which, considering each episode covers a day (more or less) is rather neat) before it disappears from iPlayer. If you like high-quality thrillers or crime drama, you won't regret it.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

My Life in Books
Episode 9 Larry Lamb and Sarah Millican (of 10)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Family Guy
3x01 The Thin White Line
3x02 Brian Does Hollywood
3x03 Mr. Griffin Goes to Washington
3x04 One If by Clam, Two If by Sea

Mark Lawson Talks To
David Mitchell
I ought to make more of an effort to watch Lawson's interviews more often, he's really very good.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

$#*! My Dad Says
1x03 The Truth About Dads & Moms
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Silk
1x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Family Guy
2x11 A Picture is Worth a 1,000 Bucks
2x12 Fifteen Minutes of Shame
2x13 Road to Rhode Island [2nd watch]
2x14 Let's Go to the Hop
2x15 Dammit Janet!

this week on 100 Films

Just two brand-new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...


The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

Peter Jackson’s epic Tolkien adaptation blunders its way to a conclusion with an instalment some have declared the trilogy’s best, presumably because they really enjoy watching someone else play video games. That’s what about half of this sextet-completing movie feels like, as it concludes the three-part Hobbit narrative with a CGI-riddled rendering of the titular battle.

Read more here.


A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)

The second feature from Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, after the justly popular Ted, A Million Ways to Die in the West is a disappointing mixed bag, half pretty-decent character- and situation-based comedy, half cringingly infantile toilet-humour tomfoolery.

Read more here.


Plus five archive reviews were reposted on the new blog...


Browncoats: Redemption (2010)

Undoubtedly the greatest thing about this project -- fans coming together to celebrate and recreate something they love in aid of charity -- is down to producer Michael C. Dougherty's thought and organisation. Sadly, the worst things about it -- the writing and direction -- are also his responsibility. We must be forgiving -- it is made by amateurs, and for charity -- but it's a shame someone(s) more proficient weren't found for the important creative roles.

Read more here.


Done the Impossible: The Fans' Tale of Firefly and Serenity (2006)

investigates the cult sparked by the prematurely-cancelled TV series Firefly and its continuation movie, Serenity — a movie that only exists thanks to the fans’ dedication. The activism, and success, of Firefly’s fans makes for a key difference from other fan docs: these aren’t just people who queue for obscene amounts of time to see something they like; these are people who helped turn a cancelled TV show into a successful movie.

Read more here.


Ray (2004)

It’s easy to see why Walk the Line has been described as “Ray with white people”; but Ray has also been described as being an outstanding performance in an average film, and I’d pretty much agree with this too.

Read more here.


Ringers: Lord of the Fans (2005)

you'd expect this documentary to focus itself on Lord of the Rings fandom. To a degree it does, but it also encompasses a history of the books and their popularity, as well as various thematic issues contained within them

Read more here.


Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Despite its unpronounceable title, Synecdoche, New York starts out like a relatively normal comedy/drama… but then weird touches begin to crop in. A house that's on fire when a character buys it and continues to be on fire for the next several decades, for instance. No one in the film bats an eyelid. Then the really weird bit arrives; the bit you all probably know; what the film's about (except, of course, not what it's About), as Philip Seymour Hoffman's theatre director begins to construct a life-size New York within a warehouse.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Family Guy
3x09 Mr. Saturday Knight
3x10 A Fish Out of Water

House
7x16 Out of the Chute

The Killing [aka Forbrydelsen]
1x20 Day 20 [season finale]
And, thankfully, The Killing II will be on later this year.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]