TV

Friday Night With Jonathan Ross
18x25 (16/7/10 edition) [series finale]
Wossy's last-ever show... on TV... for the BBC. See you next year on ITV, Wossy!
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Blu-ray Producers: Extras Are for the Fans, By Fans by John Latchem
(from Agent DVD)
A report on the DVD/Blu-ray producers panel at Comic-Con 2010, mainly focused on the importance of special features and if studios are beginning to ignore DVD. A decent read for those interested.

Is A Game of Thrones the most eagerly anticipated TV show ever? by Mathilda Gregory
(from guardian.co.uk)
I reckon it's safe to say "no" on that one, to be honest -- I bet Doctor Who's pre-installed fan base before the 2005 revival would knock it out of the park -- but, still, it sounds interesting.

Lone Star Statements by Matthew Baldwin
(from The Morning News)
Ah, the article title that gives you no clue what the article's about. Try this:

Recently [it was 2005, but then so was this], Time magazine published a list of the 100 best novels. But the praise of professional critics hardly matters to the book-reviewing readers at Amazon.com. A compilation of the best of the worst… about the best.

So there you go. Some of these actually provoke a response more akin to "well, I've not read the book, that might be fair criticism" from me, but as they go on they get increasingly ridiculous and, therefore, funny. Some of my favourites include the quotes about Mrs. Dalloway, Lord of the Flies, 1984 and Slaughterhouse-Five. And Tropic of Cancer (right at the end) probably sums up the general attitude.

RTD on Torchwood by Ian Berriman
(from SFX)
Specifically, the next series -- "one long story, consisting of 10 episodes". Awesome.

Collection Count

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

Only Blu-ray increases this week, pushing me closer still to 100 of them. I can't remember exactly when I got Blu-ray, though I should try to find out -- it's been almost a year and it would be interesting to know just how many I acquire in my first 12 months.

Number of titles in collection: 1,190 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,094 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 96 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 2,926 [up 2]
Number of films in collection: 1,253 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,121 [no change]

Statistic of the week:

James Bond titles:
23
(1.93% of the total)

No particular reason for this -- I was just looking for something easy while I continue to work on a slightly unusual stat (which will appear in a fortnight, as next week is the running time update).

There are, of course, only 22 official Bond films. The 23rd thing isn't Never Say Never Again, nor the crappy '60s Casino Royale, nor even the TV Casino Royale (which I still haven't seen, actually). No, it is, of all things, the Die Another Day Special Edition bonus disc -- because the Ultimate Edition left off extras (why? The fools!) I kept a copy of the original SE's second disc. Because I'm like that.

See you next week, faithful reader.

Red trailer

Remember the Red (and/or RED, if it matters) teaser trailer from last month? Well, there's a full-sized trailer already:



Still looks like a ton of fun.

TV

Dragons' Den
8x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

That Mitchell and Webb Look
4x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Wallander [Swedish]
2x11 Arvet (aka The Heritage)

Articles

My Two Cents (20/7/10) by Bill Hunt
(from The Digital Bits)
Fantastic news for us Blu-ray fans: the risible release of Gladiator is being done-over with a new transfer. And it looks properly stunning too -- I'm sure even uninitiated Normal People will be able to see how much sharper the lines are, how much more accurate the colours look, and so on. Now all that remains to be seen is if it makes its way to the UK -- in the US and, it would seem, some other countries, Paramount are responsible for distributing it and are re-releasing the new transfer; but in the UK it's owned by Universal... oh dear. Well, if they don't, I'll just buy the US version and they shan't have my cash. So ner.

Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss interview: Sherlock by Michael Leader
(from Den of Geek!)
Some of this is familiar from earlier articles (I'm guessing it was a roundtable interview, especially as it mentions how "we ventured out to the BBC studios in Wales with a bunch of eager journalists"), but there are enough new bits to hold the interest of the interested.

TV

How I Met Your Mother
5x08 The Playbook
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Stand Up for the Week
1x04 (16/7/10 edition)
No sooner had I accepted that Jack Whitehall might be getting good than he turned rubbish again. Ho hum.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Top Gear
15x04 (18/7/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Inglourious Basterds (2009)
[2nd watch]

I first watched this back in December, when it became #82 in 100 Films in a Year 2009. And now, over 7 months later, I've still not got round to reviewing it. I don't know if that's a personal record (it felt like I took a pretty long time to get to The Green Mile, but it was only actually two months -- child's play to me these days), but it's still far too long.

And so, I have watched it again -- partly to jog my memory so I can finally write the damn review, and partly just cos it's great.

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
2x16 Sacrifice

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

Articles

Damages finds home on DirecTV by Stuart Levine
(from Variety)

[DirecTV] has ordered two 10-episode seasons. The first season will air next summer with the [second] launching in the summer of 2012. Glenn Close and Rose Byrne have been confirmed to return with other thesps set to sign on soon.

YAY!
(Yep, in bold, and caps, with an exclamation mark.)
I really thought Damages was a goner, so this is stupendous news. My one hope is that it doesn't somehow mean the BBC lose the rights -- it would be irritatingly ironic for the series to leave FX in the US only to wind up on FX over here.

Jeffery Deaver will write a James Bond novel by Glenn McDonald
(from newsobserver.com)
OK, the headline tells us nothing we don't already know, which makes it just about the most pathetic headline ever, because this is actually an interview with Deaver in which he reveals a few more snippets about the direction he'll be taking Bond in. Interesting.

The new Doctor Who season will hit home video with a tantalizing extra by Geoff Boucher
(from Hero Complex at the Los Angeles Times)
Or, translated into English, "The Doctor Who Series 5 DVD will have a tantalising special feature". And one that will likely interest those fans who don't normally give a toss about extras too -- a pair of new scenes, starring Smith and Gillan and written by Moffat. Oo-ooh indeed.

Sherlock Holmes is back… sending texts and using nicotine patches by Vanessa Thorpe
(from The Observer)
Half preview, half interview with co-creator Mark Gatiss, there's not a great deal new here but there are snippets, and if you've not read anything about the series yet it's fine. Don't bother with the comments thought -- you may think you've stumbled onto the Daily Mail's website.

Whole lotta cantin' going on by Roger Ebert
(from Roger Ebert's Journal)
Or, as the URL puts it better, "the myth of a perfect film". Very definitely worth a read, this one. The BBC Entertainment News twitter said not to read it 'til you've seen Inception, though I honestly have no idea why -- it doesn't spoil the film and is only about it in part (it's a starting point and case study as much as it's the focus).

must-see iPhone 4 video

There are no words, you just have to watch...

TV

The Mentalist
2x22 Red Letter
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

Mock the Week
9x04 (15/7/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Sandbaggers
3x02 To Hell With Justice

Wallander [Swedish]
2x10 Vålnaden (aka The Ghost)
Another rather good episode, for the most part -- very filmic, nicely shot and evocative of a summer heatwave.

Fiction

A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Part 2, Chapters 6 - 7 [the end]

Very good. Still not sure if I've read it before.

Anyway, I read it via iBooks on my iPhone -- that's how I started it, for one thing, and it's surprisingly pleasurable to use, not to mention portable. I've been using the good preview copy I mentioned when I read Chapter 1 because, well, it was the best one. But, reaching the final chapter, I discover they are sensibly cunning: the preview includes all of the novel... except the final chapter. Oh no! Unfortunately for them, I already own two hard copies of the complete Holmes so have finished it off with one of those.

But, as it's only £1.99 for a very readable almost-complete collection, I may buy it anyway. It's just unfortunate that, out of the three copies I found on iBooks, by far the most readable is also the least complete: it misses The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, still under copyright in the US, while one of the other two is actually the complete Arthur Conan Doyle -- and is as unwieldy to use as you might imagine a single book containing dozens of novels and hundreds of short stories would be.

this week on 100 Films

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

The International (2009)

A lot of scenes involve people explaining the plot to each other, or discoursing in clichés about why they’re going to be thrown off the case or justice is an illusion or whatever. In a rare moment of something approaching innovation, we don’t have to suffer a romance between the two leads. It should be something of a concern when one of a film’s high points is something it doesn’t do.

Is Anybody There? (2008)

Far from being “lightweight”, it’s a subtle tale that covers a lot of ground in an unshowy way. Aside from the main plot, which is very worthwhile in itself — about how a lonely, slightly odd 10-year-old boy and a lonely, stubborn old man accidentally wind up bringing out the best in each other and helping each other to move on from the troubles they’re stuck in — the supporting characters are used to paint succinct pictures of old age, abandonment and regret.

Max Payne: Harder Cut (2008)

director John Moore doesn't use Matrix-derived bullet-time visuals, but, despite keeping a snow-bound New York and a revenge plot, he's somehow managed to also throw out everything that made Max Payne: The Game good. Despite the similarities in plot and setting, this doesn't feel at all like the game. Max Payne: The Film, to put it simply, is a load of crap.

Also this week, an editorial piece on the abundance of Director's Cuts (and the like) that we now see. Which is the definitive version of a film these days? Read my thoughts here.

More next Sunday.

Films

Is Anybody There? (2008)
[#68 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]

Fiction

A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Part 2, Chapters 3 - 5

Articles

Rushdie to write his lost chapter by Ben Hoyle
(from The Australian)

Salman Rushdie has started work on perhaps the most anticipated literary memoir of them all: the story of his decade in hiding from a fatwa.

I think I was always too young to realise exactly how serious the threat against Salman Rushdie was -- and the actions that were carried out by deranged extremists against other people involved in publishing his novel around the world.

TV

Friday Night With Jonathan Ross
18x24 (9/7/10 edition)
So, as most viewers dig into Wossy's last-ever show (on TV) (on the BBC), I'm still watching last week's, as usual. Ho hum. Particularly good episode though, I thought.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

That Mitchell and Webb Look
4x01 Episode 1
When the third series of Mitchell & Webb started (just over a year ago), I noted that I still hadn't watched the second series. And I still haven't. So... yeah...
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Fiction

A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Part 2, Chapters 1 - 2
Study in Scarlet certainly has a crazy structure. Holmes solves the case, catches the villain, declares he's finally ready to explain it all... and then it suddenly cuts to decades earlier in America. Time to be a trusting reader... (though I know more or less where it's going anyway).