TV

Misfits
1x03 Episode Three
When it's not trying to be Skins, Misfits is really good. When it is trying to be Skins, Misfits is about as good as... well, Skins.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Top Gear
14x02 Episode 2
Yes, last week's.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Have I Got News For You
42x01 (14/10/11 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Home Cooking Made Easy
1x03 Entertaining
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

House
8x02 Transplant
They've clearly decided to build House's new status quo relatively slowly. How many of the cast will be back? It seems only time will tell... or online spoilers if one went hunting, I suppose.

How to Win in the Den
Episode 3 The Idea (of 4)
Every episode in this series seems to have a different on-screen title to the one listed online; and every time a category comes up narrator Richard Bacon seems to say something different to what's written on screen. Why?
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Misfits
2x03 Episode 3
The first series of Misfits was good, but crikey, this one knocks it out of the park! If you're still not watching it I heartily recommend you try to catch up before series three starts.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Articles

Misfits, Sherlock lead BAFTA nominations by Kate Goodacre
(from Digital Spy)
I love how headlines spin things. Misfits does lead, with four, but Sherlock has three -- the same as two other programmes.
Other interesting bits: Matt Smith is nominated for Doctor Who, apparently the first time ever one of the show's leads has been up for a BAFTA. Benedict Cumberbatch is similarly nominated for Sherlock, while Martin Freeman is up for Best Supporting Actor. The full list is here if you want a closer look.
To sum up, though: "The BBC achieves a total of 49 nominations across its four channels, with Channel 4, More 4 and E4 receiving a combined total of 25 nominations. ITV1 is recognised 8 times" -- says it all.

TV

Gavin & Stacey
3x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Merlin
2x07 The Witchfinder
Finally picking up on this again, with just two weeks before it's all deleted from iPlayer. Oops.
Very good episode, though, with Charles Dance making a thoroughly evil villain.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Misfits
1x04 Episode Four
Misfits does the natural time travel episode -- what happens if you change the past? -- though with its own drug-addled spin. Shame that it pushes coincidence to the max by having every major character in the same location months before they all met. That aside, however, it was a well executed episode.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Wallander [Swedish]
1x05 Afrikanen (aka The African)
A relatively weak edition, I thought, particularly at the convenient and improbable climax (would the police really send one person to a potentially-dangerous location while three went to another?)

TV

Cranford
2x01 Part One: August 1844
Hilariously funny, heartbreakingly sad, and altogether excellent.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Merlin
2x10 Sweet Dreams
"It is destiny, my love. ... Destiny and chicken." Brilliantly funny episode, this one.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Misfits
1x06 Episode Six [season finale]
I nearly didn't bother watching Misfits, but I'm glad I did because it turned out to be a cracking little series. Looking forward to season two already.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Russell Howard's Good News
1x09 Xmas Special (extended repeat)
The closing stand-ups featured in this series have all been fairly weak, but this one really took the biscuit. So bad I actually gave in and fastforwarded him. I think the audience wished they could've done the same.
[You can (still) only see the shorter version on iPlayer.]

Spooks
8x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Top Gear
14x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

The Case
Part 3 (of 5)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Misfits
2x05 Episode 5
2x06 Episode 6
Way back when it started, I nearly didn't watch Misfits, but I was glad I did because it turned out to be brilliant. It's always nice to have been on to something before everyone else jumped on the bandwagon (the second series had over double the first's viewing figures). But however much I liked the first series, this second one has been better in every respect.
It feels grander in scale, without seriously stepping outside the bounds of our five protagonists and their community service. It's more ambitious in its arc plots, both in terms of characters and genre-y elements, and that's made for an even better series all round.
And now I'm almost caught up (Episode 6 is, really, the season finale, though it was followed by a Christmas Special a few days later) so I can join everyone else in enjoying the currently-airing third run (it's second episode went out last night)... hopefully before I get it seriously spoiled.
[Watch episodes five and six (again) on 4oD.]

Pointless
3x32 (27/10/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Top Gear USA
1x03 Episode 3
Tonight's challenge was the closest they've yet come to real Top Gear. Still a pale imitation of the British version overall, of course.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Downton Abbey
2x06 Episode 6
So, the war is over, and the house, staff and patients mark it with a big silence at 11am on 11th November... Shame ITV couldn't've scheduled this series better so as to land this episode closer to / on Remembrance Sunday, really.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Merlin
4x06 A Servant of Two Masters
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Misfits
2x04 Episode 4
With series three now underway, I really should get more of a wriggle on with this. But it's so good it feels wrong to rush it. This episode, yet more speedily-arrived big twists. Writer/creator Howard Overman certainly doesn't let his ideas come close to outstaying their welcome.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

Ask Rhod Gilbert
2x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

House
8x01 Twenty Vicodin
It's always great to have House back, and always fun seeing him in a new situation (this time, prison)... though the episode ends without ending. What happens next, gorramit?! Desperately looking forward to the next one now... which I believe was on last night in the US, so... well...

Mark Lawson Talks To
Rob Brydon
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Misfits
2x01 Episode 1
2x02 Episode 2
Time flies -- I've been meaning to get round to this ever since it was on. Not sure exactly when that was, but the last time I watched an episode was last decade. Anyway, series three's on its way soon, so it seemed time to get a wriggle on. And it's just as good as it always was, so that's good, and now with added Mystery too.
[Watch episodes one and two (again) on 4oD.]

Pointless
5x30 (7/10/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Doctor Who
2x04 World's End
2x05 The Daleks
2x06 Day of Reckoning

What's this, #bbbDW50 returning to the First Doctor? No, don't be daft — that'd be silly! This is extracurricular viewing, designed to facilitate a companion piece to my Dr Who and the Daleks retrospective/comparison on 100 Films later this month.

That's because, for those who don't know, these are parts one to three of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, which was the basis for the second Peter Cushing Dalek movie. I've never seen the TV version before, but it's a mightily impressive production — some grand sets, and the stuff filmed in a deserted London is astounding. Though, weirdly, the famous shot of the Daleks crossing the bridge isn't here; instead, we just see their tops drifting past from below — I guess while some photographer was grabbing a more iconic image!


Friends
4x11 The One with Phoebe's Uterus [4th or so watch]


The Mentalist
6x01 The Desert Rose
As if Arrow, Castle, Elementary and Person of Interest weren't enough... and I'm still going on The Newsroom... and I've not even started Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., or Ripper Street series 2, or the already-finished Peaky Blinders... and I have loads of other complete series recorded/downloaded from earlier in the year that I've not got to... and I'm years behind on Misfits, which just restarted also... Why is there so much TV right now?!
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]


The Wrong Mans
1x06 Running Mans [season finale]
Sounds likely there'll be another series of this -- very much yay.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

It's "catch up before all that Christmas telly begins" time!

Black Mirror
1x01 The National Anthem
Media-satirising anthology series from the brain of Charlie Brooker, which in fairly typical me fashion has already finished before I'm even starting it (still, at least this was only three episodes -- I'm a series behind with Misfits and I've not even got going on the 15-part Story of Film). Very dark, very good. Anthology series are in short supply so it would be nice if this took off.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Dave's One Night Stand
3x05 Tommy Tiernan [season finale]

The Graham Norton Show
10x08 (16/12/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Have I Got News For You
42x09 (16/12/11 edition; extended repeat) [2nd watch]
A particularly good episode, I thought; and, as ever, even better extended.
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

How I Met Your Mother
7x07 Noretta
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Life's Too Short
1x06 Episode 6
Apparently this has been picked up for a second series. Not sure how I feel about that.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Live at the Apollo
7x06 Episode 6 [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Rev.
2x06 Episode 6
A season finale of an episode, even though there's a Christmas special next week... well, it was on two days ago, but... yeah.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

this week on 100Films.co.uk

5 new reviews were published to 100Films.co.uk this week...


2022 | Weeks 7–8

Featuring...
- Shot in the Dark (1933)
- The Brits Are Coming (2018)
- Ode to Joy (2019)
- The Courier (2020)
- The Misfits (2021)

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Films

The Misfits (2021)
[#18 in The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2022]

TV

How I Met Your Mother
3x02 We're Not From Here

Misfits
1x01 Episode One
You don't get much more E4 than this: Heroes meets Skins -- with extra ASBOs. Naturally, this being E4, you'd expect it to err towards the latter two elements, thus making it distinctly less... how shall I put this... good. Surprisingly, however, there's a pleasantly strong dash of the former. In fairness, this may just be because it's the first episode, meaning extra time is devoted to the setup, but we can keep our fingers crossed it continues in this vein. It's also genuinely funny, rather than the usual funny-if-you-have-no-brain level 'humour' churned out for this intended audience. A nice surprise; one worth keeping an eye on.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Wallander [Swedish]
1x01 Innan Frosten (aka Before the Frost)
BBC Four have been showing the original Swedish series of Wallander for a while now. It's rather different to the British version: more normal drama, less slow-paced coldly-shot faux-Swedish. There's also a greater focus on his daughter -- based on this episode alone, she seems to be more the main character than he is! Different, then, but still good.
[Due to its original theatrical release, this also counts as #74 in 100 Films in a Year 2009. Read my full review here.]

TV

How I Met Your Mother
3x04 Little Boys

Mastermind
for Children in Need [2009 special]
In which Mark Watson scored the highest (celebrity?) score ever... only to have it beaten within a few minutes by Lucy Porter. Poor Mark.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Misfits
1x02 Episode Two
Continues to be surprisingly good, applying a welcome sci-fi twist to any of the Skins-like drama it feels the need (or the budget constraints) to include.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Russell Howard's Good News
1x04 (12/11/09 edition, extended repeat)
[You can only see the shorter version on iPlayer.]

TV

Best Ever Family Films
Not sure about the order. Or all the films included. And it's rather dated, especially with some of the commentators. But hey-ho, it's good Christmastime schedule-filling.

Misfits
1x05 Episode Five
Aww, poor Simon.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Spooks
8x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Wallander [Swedish]
1x07 Den Svaga Punkten (aka The Tricksters)
After the epic cinema-released dramatics of episode six, it's back to lower-key normality here. The subtle touches that acknowledge previous events -- Linda's glasses, for example -- are nice.

TV

Comic Relief 2011: What a Cracker
A poorly-edited (every sketch was truncated! great stuff was missing!) set of highlights from last year's Comic Relief. Oh well.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Great Expectations
Part 3 (of 3)
I enjoyed that greatly. Makes me want to watch the David Lean film again to see if the bits I didn't remember were in it or not.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Misfits
2x07 Christmas Special [season finale]
3x00 Vegas Baby!
I didn't watch last year's special sooner because it wasn't near enough Christmas when I finished series two proper. Now I'm struggling to justify to myself that it's still Christmas season enough to get away with it. Oops. On the bright side, it is quite separate from the series proper -- set three months later, even -- so in that respect it's been a good gap. Great episode too.
Then there's the amusing, and surprisingly long, series three prequel, explaining the departure of a major character (I'm sure if you care you know who, even if you're as behind as me). As well as 4oD, the prequel's available on iTunes for free -- and in HD too! -- here.
[Watch the Christmas special and Vegas Baby! (again) on 4oD.]

TV

Christ on a bike, where has this week gone?! It feels like only yesterday (well, the day before yesterday, if I'm honest) that I was watching the first Joanna Lumley.

And I haven't watched Misfits for a week and a half, but it feels like less time than I paused between episodes one & two and three, which was only six days. (I know, you're fascinated to know this.)

I think my body clock needs winding...

The Graham Norton Show
10x01 (21/10/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Great British Bake Off
2x11 Revisited [season finale]
Not revisiting the just-finished series two, but looking back to series one. Indeed, I'm quite glad I didn't watch the first series in a way, because this was just a recap/highlights with a few new comments and a couple of "where are they now"s.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Joanna Lumley's Greek Odyssey
Episode 2 (of 4)
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Perfect Couples
1x07 Perfect House
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]