TV

Die Walküre
[1st half]
La Fura dels Baus' 2007 staging of the second opera in Wagner's Ring Cycle (currently showing weekly on Sky Arts 2). I'm enjoying it, but I still can't handle 4½ hours of opera in a single sitting, hence only watching half.
Five hours down, only eleven to go...

Mad Men
5x08 Lady Lazarus
I laughed at this far more than it strictly deserved:

The Making of the Ring
2 Die Walküre (of 4)
Second of four half-hours looking behind the scenes of La Fura dels Baus' production.

Pointless
4x24 (14/4/11 edition)

TV

Castle
2x12 A Rose for Everafter
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Grandma's House
2x04 The day Simon was really determined to heal his Grandma's pain
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Matt Lucas Awards
1x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Not Going Out
5x05 Examination
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Once Upon a Time
1x06 The Shepherd
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

The Voice UK
1x12 Results Show 3
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
[#44 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Articles

Weekend Report: Avengers Shatters More Records, Shadows Mostly Sucks
by Ray Subers (from Box Office Mojo)

Marvel's superhero team-up fell 50 percent to an estimated $103.2 million, which is by-far the best second weekend ever... It also topped The Dark Knight for best second weekend hold for a movie that opened to more than $120 million. Other new records include fastest movie to $300 million and $350 million, and highest eight-day, nine-day, and ten-day grosses...

It's now inevitable that the movie will finish above $500 million, and it should also claim third place on the all-time [domestic] chart

this week on 100 Films

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

With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story (2010)

Stan “The Man” Lee is indeed The Man when it comes to the world of comic books. In the 1960s he revolutionised the medium in the US, introducing complex and realistic characters to a world that had previously focused on perfect super-humans. In a period of just two years he co-created the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor, Iron Man and the X-Men, and after that rejuvenated Captain America (cancelled a decade earlier) for a modern audience. If there’s anyone in the comic world deserving of a dedicated feature-length documentary, it’s Stan Lee

Read more on my new blog or my classic blog.

X-Men: First Class (2011)

You need some pretty fine talent to replace two of our greatest actors — Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, of course — and in Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy you certainly have that. Fassbender carries much of the emotional weight of the film, but it’s thanks to McAvoy’s support that the film is lifted to a higher level. He provides calm, humour and fundamental decency to balance Fassbender’s rage and emotion.

Read more on my new blog or my classic blog.

More next Sunday.

TV

Episodes
2x01 Episode 1
Hurrah for the return of Episodes! I enjoyed the first series, in spite of the apparently endless criticism it got, and I enjoyed this very much too.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Voice UK
1x11 Live Show 3
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
6x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Horrible Histories
4x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Mentalist
4x22 So Long, and Thanks for All the Red Snapper
Nice Hitchhikers-referencing title. Shame the rest of the episode wasn't up to a great deal -- lots of good bits and ideas, actually, but somehow it came to much less than the sum of its parts.
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Friday 18th May.]

Collection Count

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

A few updates this week. I'd thought it would be a few more, but those three things were posted yesterday and will probably now populate next week's update. So there you go.

Number of titles in collection: 1,476 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,153 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 323 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 3,674 [up 7]
Number of films in collection: 1,563 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,479 [up 6]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Have I Got News For You
43x04 (4/5/12 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

Maestro at the Opera
Episode 1 (of 3)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Noel's Are You Smarter Than Your 10 Year Old?
3x04 Episode 4
3x05 Episode 5
I... well... yeah.

Films

The Lion King (1994)
[goodness-knows-what-th +1 watch]

TV

The Graham Norton Show
11x01 (13/4/12 edition)

Not Going Out
5x04 Running
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Weekend Report: Avengers Smashes Records
by Ray Subers (from Box Office Mojo)

The superhero team-up got off to an unprecedented $207.4 million start this weekend, which obliterates the previous all-time weekend record set by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 last Summer ($169.2 million)…

It was the fastest movie ever to reach $100 million, $150 million, and $200 million, and it set new records for Saturday ($69.6 million) and Sunday ($57.1 million) grosses…

[It] has already grossed more than Thor ($181 million), Captain America: The First Avenger ($176.6 million) and The Incredible Hulk ($134.8 million). It's still behind Iron Man and Iron Man 2 ($318.4 million and $312.4 million, respectively), though it should pass those movies next weekend.

Wow.

TV

Castle
2x11 The Fifth Bullet
Guest starring Buffy's Marc Blucas, House's Anne Dudek and 24's Carlo Rota. Why so many recognisable faces all at once? Who knows.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Das Rheingold
La Fura dels Baus' 2007 staging of the first opera in Wagner's Ring Cycle (currently showing weekly on Sky Arts 2). I'm no opera expert (far from it), but this is a pretty amazing spectacle, full of giant robot-like creatures and sci-fi imagery on huge video screens, amongst other incredible feats. Plus highly dramatic music and an engrossing fantasy/mythical story. I really enjoyed it.
Three hours down, only 13 to go...

Grandma's House
2x03 The day Simon attempted to express actual feelings just like a person
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Mad Men
5x07 At the Codfish Ball

The Making of the Ring
1 Das Rheingold (of 4)
First of four half-hours looking behind the scenes of La Fura dels Baus' production. Worth it for the look at the incredible free live show staged outside their stunning opera house during performances of the operas.

Pointless
4x23 (13/4/11 edition)
I got all 12 in round two! Woo!

TV

Once Upon a Time
1x05 That Still Small Voice
Oh, a daft real-world plot and a decent fairy-tale-world one! Makes a change.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Pointless Celebrities
2x04 (5/5/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Vera
2x02 Silent Voices
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

The Voice UK
1x10 Live Show 2 Results
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

The Negotiator (1998)
[#43 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

this week on 100 Films

Just one new review was posted to 100 Films in a Year this week...

Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

It’s not as funny... nor is it as exciting... it’s not as beautiful to look at... That’s my overriding impression of Kung Fu Panda 2: it’s not bad, but it’s not a patch on the first one.

Read more on my new blog or my classic blog.

But also this week was the look back at April, and I added reviews for four of the Avengers lead-in movies (well, three and Ang Lee's Hulk) to my new blog. So that's some stuff.

More next Sunday.

TV

The Mentalist
4x21 Ruby Slippers
One of the best for a while, I think. Not that I've disliked recent episodes, but this is a particularly good one.
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Friday 11th May.]

QI
9x14 Idleness
The Jeremy Clarkson-featuring episode they skipped in December after his widely misunderstood 'controversial' comments on The One Show. I don't think he said anything offensive on this; I guess they just didn't want him on TV much that week.
The XL version, which was released on to some versions of iPlayer by mistake back in December (and I missed), doesn't seem to be forthcoming this time round. How daft.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Voice UK
1x09 Live Show 2
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
6x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Mission: Impossible III (2006)
[2nd watch]

The last time I saw this was in the cinema (has it really been six years? Six?!) I remembered quite liking it, but watching it again now I think it's actually a rather good action-thriller. The Vatican mission and bridge action sequence in particular are excellent.

And I love how things keep going wrong. Everything from big stuff (like jumping off a building several storeys too low or getting the identity of the mole wrong), to little things (like not getting phone signal or our hero alerting the enemy to his presence by knocking some stuff over), goes wrong at some point. Sure, the heroes still win, and sure, some stuff goes fine, but normally the only time things go significantly wrong for the good guys in a movie is when it turns out to be a bluff as part of the plan -- not so here. I liked that.

I may be alone in this, but I've actually really enjoyed every Mission: Impossible film. It often seems like people who like the first hate the second, or people who like the second hated the first, or they just dislike all of them: on IMDb the first has 6.9, the third 6.8, and the second a measly 5.8! I vehemently disagree with all that -- I like all three films, and one of the reasons is how different they all are.

But I've not seen Ghost Protocol yet. I hope it's just as good, and just as different again. It looked similar in tone and style to M:i:III though (whereas the first three differ from each other quite wildly, I'd say), so we'll see. It has 7.5 on IMDb though, so that might bode well...

Free Comic Book Day 2012

Free Comic Book Day – $7,000 we probably don’t see again
by Kenny (from Forbidden Planet International blog)

Today is Free Comic Book Day, which sounds marvellous but is actually a little dubious for various reasons.

I don't approve of publishers releasing new or "essential" (to quote Bleeding Cool's review of one FCBD title) content in a way that can only be accessed if you can, a) make it to a comic shop (which I imagine loads of people can't, especially in the UK), b) if that comic shop is participating (by no means guaranteed, especially in the UK), and c) you can get enough free comics to get the one you want.

The latter is related to another reason I dislike it: the retailer pays. Yep, they're not actually free to the shop; so understandably most shops limit how much you can take, one way or another (only one free, only with a purchase, you get a set-size "goodie bag", etc). Which is fair enough -- they're basically giving money away -- but can't be great if you're after multiple titles. The latter is what this article from 2007 is about. Being five years old might make you think it's now factually inaccurate, but FPI's blog about FCBD 2012 says it's "still valid now".

I'm not saying everyone should be able to get free comics without having to go to a shop or without someone paying. If it was "any comic free" or reprints, I wouldn't mind; if you could purchase it at a later date, maybe even have to wait a month or two for the privilege, then I wouldn't mind. But it's new content, some of it "essential" to the series, which not everyone can get hold of! That's insane.

And can you imagine another industry in which a shop would be forced to pay for a publishers' marketing exercise, and be criticised by customers if they didn't? (Comic shops are regularly accused of "not supporting the industry", etc, if they don't join in with FCBD.) The FP article notes that "it isn’t unusual for us to be given 500 of a 36 page sampler of a novel to give away to our customers" -- that's FCBD, except the difference with FCBD is FP would have to pay for those 500 samplers. Madness.

Doesn't look like such a great industry-boosting event after all, does it?