TV

Celebrity Mastermind
2016/2017 Episode 5 (of 10)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Outnumbered
6x00 Christmas Special
On the one hand, this messes up my lovely "complete series" DVD box set. On the other hand, it's really funny. Hurray for new Outnumbered!
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Junior Bake Off
4x14 The Final Day One
4x15 The Final Day Two [series finale]
[Watch The Final Day One and Day Two (again) on iPlayer.]

QI
14x09 Noel (XL edition)
Still going with the Christmas telly...
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Celebrity Mastermind
2016/2017 Episode 3 (of 10)
2016/2017 Episode 4 (of 10)
[Watch episode three and four (again) on iPlayer.]

Sherlock
4x01 The Six Thatchers
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

I know it's New Year's Day, but this is all about the final updates for 2016 on 100 Films in a Year. Well, I say "final" -- there's loads of wrapping-up still to do. But, for now, here's a look back specifically at December...





As well as that, I reviewed some of the highlights of Christmas TV...





There were 3 brand-new reviews published as well...


Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016)

Po and co are back in a movie that bucks the sequel trend by being perhaps the best Kung Fu Panda yet... After the occasionally muddled second film, KFP3 sets the legendary adventures of awesomeness back on track with an appealing mix of humour, action, and moral lessons for kiddies and adult viewers alike.

Read more here.


The Last Dragonslayer (2016)

you’re probably thinking The Last Dragonslayer is completely derivative of every other major young-adult fantasy franchise of the last… well, forever. It’s hard to deny that the plot is, at least in its broadest thematic strokes, a pretty familiar affair. What makes the enterprise worthwhile is its humorous execution. This isn’t a spoof of the genre, more a satirical mash-up of familiar fantasy building blocks and modern life

Read more here.


Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

Charles Laughton and Marlene Dietrich shine in this adaptation of Agatha Christie’s play... Despite expanding the action, it’s still dialogue-heavy and a little stagey in places — but between the engrossingly labyrinthine plot, those captivating performances, and some added humour, such potential criticisms are irrelevant.

Read more here.


And to round things off, my 100 Favourites series concluded with a final post...


The Conclusion

About four years ago, I had a crazy notion: that for my 10th blogging anniversary (still several years away at that point) I could do a year-long series of posts discussing my 100 favourite movies — an idea in keeping with my blog’s theme and also a grand way to celebrate it lasting a whole decade. After several years spent mulling over options, about 18 months of writing, and literally hundreds of hours dedicated to the project, it’s finally at an end.

In this post, I’m going to list the second half of my also-rans and do what I always enjoy doing at the end of everything: share some statistics!

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2016
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Peter Pan Goes Wrong
Best thing on TV this Christmas? Quite possibly.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Suicide Squad: Extended Cut (2016)
[#195a in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

Not really that different to the theatrical cut, which I watched in November.

Collection Count

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

It's time for the monthly running time update... and it's also, as you may've noticed, the end of the year! So as well as my usual week-by-week monitoring (or month-by-month for the running time), there are figures for how much my collection has changed over the last 12 months. Exciting times.

Number of titles in collection: 1,921 [up 6 this week; up 96 in 2016]
Of which DVDs: 1,193 [no change this week; down 19 in 2016]
Of which Blu-rays: 728 [up 4 this week; up 115 in 2016]

I think that's the first time one of these tallies has gone down over the course of a year! (The discrepancy between number of titles and DVD/BD additions must be due to a mistake from a previous week.)

Number of discs in collection: 4,951 [up 21 this week; up 286 in 2016]
Number of films: 2,121 [up 5 this week; up 128 in 2016]
Number of TV episodes: 7,579 [up 38 this week; up 516 in 2016]
Number of short films: 508 [no change this week; up 43 in 2016]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
366 days, 10 hours, and 37 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 20 hours, and 50 minutes from last month.)
(Up 25 days, 12 hours, and 30 minutes from last year.)

Last year's yearly increase was a little over 29 days, making this the first time the year-on-year increase is less than the year before since I started (though it's not as low as it was the year-before-last, so...)

Anyway, see you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Peter Kay's Comedy Shuffle
1x07 Christmas Comedy Shuffle
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Last Dragonslayer (2016)
[#195 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]
Sky1's big Christmas Day drama, which I'm counting as a film because a) it's feature-length and b) my Tivo says it's a film. It says that about a lot of one-off feature-length TV dramas, but still.

The Tale of Zatoichi Continues (1962)
[#194 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Bob Monkhouse: The Last Stand
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Celebrity Mastermind
2016/2017 Episode 2 (of 10)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Revolting Rhymes
Part One (of 2)
Part Two (of 2)
[Watch parts one and two (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
[#193 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...? 2016 #12

TV

Celebrity Mastermind
2016/2017 Episode 1 (of 10)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Witness for the Prosecution
Part 1 (of 2)
Part 2 (of 2)
[Watch parts one and two (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Mr. Nobody (2009)
[#192 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Insert Name Here
2x01 Christmas
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs
5x08 Episode 8 [season finale]

Would I Lie To You?
10x10 At Christmas
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Dragon (2011)
aka Wu Xia
[#190 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

Our Kind of Traitor (2016)
[#191 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Blankety Blank
Christmas Special
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Grantchester
3x00 Christmas Special
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

The Great Christmas Bake Off
Episode 2 (of 2)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

+ Goodbye Bake Off

Films

Partners in Crime… (2012)
[#189 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

aka Associés contre le crime… "L'œuf d'Ambroise" (Partners in Crime… "The Ambroise Egg")

TV

Alan Carr's 12 Stars of Christmas
Episode 5 (of 5)
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Doctor Who
36x00 The Return of Doctor Mysterio [Christmas special]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Great Christmas Bake Off
Episode 1 (of 2)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009)
[#188 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

Fiction

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories - Part V: Christmas Adventures edited by David Marcum
The Ballad of the Carbuncle by Ashley D. Polasek

Oh dear.