TV

Over the Rainbow
Show 9: Results
This is the semi-final, incidentally. S'all over next week. Just in time for Eurovision.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)
[#47 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]
Enjoyed this more than the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe film. Worth expecting good things for the future adaptations then, I feel.

Righteous Kill (2008)
[#46 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]
Read the 100 Films review here.

Articles

Why I Steal Movies… Even Ones I'm In by Peter Serafinowicz
(from Gizmodo)
The "writer/producer/director/actor/musician/comedian/voice model" offers some interesting thoughts on Internet piracy and how businesses still need to change to cope with it. And it's much less dry, and much more amusing, than that makes it sound.

this week on 100 Films

4 new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...

Death Wish (1974)

realism permeates: Paul’s encounters aren’t all easily won; he gets injured; his crimes create a media storm, on which public opinion is divided; he never conveniently come across the attackers of his wife and kids... There are unrealistic bits, but by employing enough believability it manages to rise a little above the “heroic vigilante” sub-genre.

The September Issue (2009)

I don’t really care about fashion, which means I really don’t care about Fashion — i.e. the world inhabited by Vogue and its American edition’s infamous editor, Anna Wintour... But The September Issue, as it turns out, is surprisingly enjoyable. Is it illuminating? I’m not sure

Speed Racer (2008)

it’s visually astounding. Speed Racer’s blocks of vibrant colour and computer whizzery are a natural fit for the modern digital experience. Action sequences are mind-meltingly fast, but also incredibly thrilling.

Titanic (1997)

it feels like the entire film following the iceberg’s arrival is in real-time, which would make the length excusable — I do like real-time — were it not for Cameron padding it out with endless contrivances to have Jack and Rose running around the ship.

More next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Who
31x07 Amy's Choice
As much as I love Who, I think it's fair to say that most plots (particularly in nuWho) are variations on a theme: aliens try to do something to/invade humans, the Doctor stops them. A lot of TV's just as formulaic, in its own style, so this isn't a criticism. But Who has literally endless potential, so it's always nice to see an episode that does something outside the norm -- like this one.
Another excellent episode in what's becoming a series of them, then. Will this wind up a classic year? Quite possibly, though I rarely tend to think of Who by season (instead, by story, which is probably a remnant from the pre-nuWho days -- classic Who is still released/considered by story, after all).
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who Confidential
5x07 Arthurian Legend
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Have I Got News For You
39x06 (13/5/10; extended repeat)
An exceptionally good edition, with particularly choice insults to journalists. Hurrah!
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Mentalist
2x13 Redline
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

Over the Rainbow
Show 9
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Sherlock Holmes (2010)
[#45 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]
'Mockbuster' from The Asylum to tie in with Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes. But this one features dinosaurs. Seriously. Well, a dinosaur.
Also, Gareth David-Lloyd from Torchwood and Dominic Keating from Star Trek: Enterprise. "How the mighty..." and all that.

Articles

NBC Plans Finale For Heroes? by Nikke Finke
(from Deadline Hollywood)
After yesterday's news that it'd been cancelled, it looks like the show may be granted a 2- or 4-hour special to wrap up. Which is probably nice for fans.

In other news, FlashForward got cancelled. Can't say I'm surprised or upset. I'm sticking with it to find out what it was all about, but I'm glad I won't have to for another year or six.

TV

Ashes to Ashes
3x06 Episode 6
It's all coming together now... Which is quite good, really, as there are only two episodes left ever. Ever. Sad times.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Derren Brown Investigates
1x01 The Man Who Contacts the Dead
Verdict: fake.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Friday Night With Jonathan Ross
18x15 (7/5/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Outnumbered
3x05 Programme 5
Is there anyone who still doesn't watch Outnumbered? I presume there must be. Fools. This was a particularly satisfying one, with Karen cutting right through a sleazy American psychotherapist.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

NBC confirms Heroes axe by Neil Wilkes
(from Digital Spy)
All the article says at time of writing is "Heroes has been axed after four seasons, NBC has confirmed. More to follow." It may well have by the time you read this.
But what it means, basically, is no fifth year to wrap it all up, not even a short one; and it's all thanks to steadily dropping ratings, which was in turn thanks to steadily dropping quality. How the might have fallen, eh -- remember when this was the biggest show on TV, talked about worldwide and set to have a summer spin-off directed by Big Name Movie Directors? Still, we'll always have season one.

Collection Count

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

This week, my Lord of the Rings theatrical edition DVDs were upgraded to their recent Blu-ray counterparts -- mmm, pretty. I was intending to wait for the Extended Edition upgrade, but as that's likely several years away this is a most welcome birthday present (yes, the pill is sweetened by not actually having to pay for them). This means some number fiddling (switching from three DVDs to a single Blu-ray box set), compounded by an inexplicable error in my number of films total (now corrected).

Number of titles in collection: 1,171 [down 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,087 [down 3]
Of which Blu-rays: 84 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 2,841 [up 1]
Number of films in collection: 1,237 [up 8]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 3,916 [no change]

Statistic of the week:

Running time of The Lord of the Rings DVDs/BDs:
98 hours, 39 minutes, and 39 seconds.

In honour of this week's biggest acquisition, I wondered just how much content there was on the new Lord of the Rings Blu-rays, plus the (in)famously stacked Special Extended DVD Editions. For the sake of clarity, these are the R2/UK Extended Editions and Region B/UK BDs -- so in both instances the US releases are even longer (thanks to PAL speed-up on the DVDs and a missing extra or two on the Blu-rays).

To break down that mass: 9 hours 19 minutes is the running time of the theatrical editions; 11 hours 37 minutes for the extended editions. Despite being criticised for a lack of extras, the theatrical editions boast 7 hours 41 minutes of special features. Of course, that's as nothing to the extended editions: they contain 46 hours 27 minutes of audio commentaries followed by 22 hours 21 minutes of documentaries and other extras. And that's not to mention the extensive image galleries, some with additional audio commentary. Rounding it out are the two bonus discs that came in gift boxes with Two Towers and Return of the King, an additional 1 hour 14 minutes.

And that's probably more detail than you wanted... though I have a lot more...

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Luther
1x01 Episode 1
Intriguing, complex new detective drama, with fantastic lead performances. It's worth watching for Idris Elba and Ruth Wilson alone. Also, surprising amount of stuff on the website.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Queen
Part 3 The Rivals
[Watch it (again) on 4oD or SeeSaw.]

TV

The Graham Norton Show
7x05 (10/5/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Russell Howard's Good News
2x07 (6/5/10 edition; extended repeat)
This is so clearly pre-election, it's a little weird watching it on the day everything is finally settled. Also, last of the series (though there's some best bits next this week.
[Watch only the shorter version (again) on iPlayer.]

Wallander [Swedish]
2x03 Kuriren (aka The Courier)

TV

The Mentalist
2x12 Bleeding Heart
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

Outnumbered
3x04 Programme 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Also plenty of live BBC News (which I still call News 24, personally) this evening, for reasons that should hopefully be obvious.

TV

House
6x20 The Choice

The greatest House scene ever:

Articles

The James Bond Elephant
(from IanFleming.com)
It feels like there should be a pile of puns for this, but I just can't think of any...

TV

Have I Got News For You
39x05 Have I Got Election News For You (extended repeat)
Was expecting a pre-election Thursday night show; rather surprised to find they'd rescheduled at some point post-Radio Times. Probably a good idea; it certainly made for an excellent edition.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Over the Rainbow
Show 8: Results

Watch this moment here.
[Watch the whole episode (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

Just 1 new review were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)
In honour of Star Wars Day 2010.

More next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Who
31x06 The Vampires of Venice
That was brilliant fun! So glad to see a three-person TARDIS team again -- considering that for much of the classic series there were two or even three companions, I've always looked forward to the new series giving it a go. Sure, we had Adam... for two episodes; and Jack... for three; and then Mickey... for four; but it was never quite permanent, was it? Hopefully Rory can manage at least five. I'm not convinced.
Also, I'm glad it was called The Vampires of Venice. Only a little thing, but that definitive just adds something, I feel.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who Confidential
5x06 Death in Venice
Presumably we'll be back to Confidential Cut-Downs on the DVDs now (after getting full-length ones for all the specials), which is a shame. Take an episode like this, for example: there's a lot of different stuff going on, so what do you cut? Do you lose all the behind-the-scenes bits? Seems wrong when Confidential stands as the DVDs' "making of" documentaries, and this episode had a few different things to share beyond the usual "this is how CGI works" stuff. So do you lose all the stuff about the real Venice instead? But that was interesting and different too, so it'd also be a shame to lose.
Or do you just think "sod it, no one watches extras any more anyway" and bung on whichever segment is conveniently 15 minutes long? Probably that one, eh.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Over the Rainbow
Show 8
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

"Sack Kay Burley! Watch the BBC!"

Collection Count

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

More slight changes again this week, plus the monthly running time update.

Number of titles in collection: 1,172 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,090 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 82 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 2,840 [up 2]
Number of films in collection: 1,229 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 3,916 [no change]

Statistic of the week:

Total running time of collection (approx.):
197 days, 7 hours, and 13 minutes.
(Up 1 day, 6 hours, and 23 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.