Saturday, 17 February 2024

TV

Friends
1x15 The One with the Stoned Guy [many-th watch]
1x16 The One with Two Parts Part One [many-th watch]
1x17 The One with Two Parts Part Two [many-th watch]

Films

A Chorus Line (1985)

When Eight Bells Toll (1971)

Collection Count

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

A tidy pile of new additions this week, all stuff I ordered almost on a whim that's arrived quickly — even a handful of titles from the US. It's remarkable how quickly stuff can get here even from overseas nowadays, really.

Number of titles in collection: 3,240 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,016 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,224 [up 5]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 329 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 7,880 [up 6]
Number of films: 3,982 [up 4]
Number of additional cuts: 357 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 9,678 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,128 [up 13]

Next week, I've got a mass of titles on preorder due for release the Monday after that update, so it'll be interesting to see how many arrive early — especially as, if they do, it'll be just in time for the monthly running time total.

See you then, faithful reader.

Friday, 16 February 2024

TV

Death in Paradise
12x01 Episode 1
With series 13 well underway, I finally get to series 12. Will I manage to catch up this year, or am I doomed to be a year out of step forever? Does it even matter?
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Friends
1x13 The One with the Boobies [many-th watch]
1x14 The One with the Candy Hearts [many-th watch]
Sometimes, they nailed the episode titles. Sometimes, less so. I think these two are examples of both...

Thursday, 15 February 2024

TV

Friends
1x11 The One with Mrs. Bing [many-th watch]
1x12 The One with the Dozen Lasagnas [many-th watch]
Continuing the Friends rewatch started in January. Can't believe it's been over ten years since I last saw these episodes — I swear I went through two or three entire Friends rewatches in the mid 2000s alone (that only one previous watchthrough is logged on this blog suggests maybe it was twice in the '00s and a third in the 2010s, or something like that).

Tuesday, 13 February 2024

Articles

The film’s the thing: Ian McKellen’s new Hamlet shows the screen can outdo the stage
by Michael Billington (from the Guardian)

I was interested in seeing this anyway, but this review has swayed me even more. Not sure I'll bother going to the cinema for it though, because there's a Blu-ray out before too long (early April) that's the same price as a regular adult ticket at my local cinema (who don't seem to be showing it anyway).

Sunday, 11 February 2024

TV

Image Union
13x13 Halloween Fright
I won't get into the whole thing about what this is (you can read the Wikipedia article if you want!), but the important point is this 1990 episode contains Christopher Nolan's short film directorial debut, Tarantella. I could've just watched that bit, but I put the whole episode on for fun. If you'd just like to see the Nolan short, it starts at 19 minutes.
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

Would I Lie To You?
17x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Ambulancen (2005)
[#13 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024]

Tarantella (1989)
See today's TV post.

Comics

2000 AD #2355 & 2357
Skipping Prog 2356 for now because it was another Regened one. I've got about six of those saved up at this point, but I guess I won't be fully caught up until I read them too.

Games

The Leaf Riders of Wrenwood
5–11 February 2024

And so the six 'trial' weeks come to an end. I did enjoy how they began to connect up and overlap a bit — for example, a mysterious guard who you don't see (because they're on the other side of a locked door) early in one week turns out to be the character you play for Week 6. It helps to reduce the feeling of treading water you get for having to 'wait' until the middle of February for the story to start. It also quite neatly and plausibly leads all six potential heroes to be in the same place at the same time to pick up tomorrow. I confess, I assumed it would be six standalone-ish 'taster' weeks, then the story proper begins after you've chosen one. This is a very neat way of handling that.

Scanning ahead a bit, it looks like much of the next week's play is about character management (choosing which of the six to play for the rest of the year; levelling up; getting equipment; etc), so I may well wait until next weekend before playing on again. Indeed, as I said one time before, it is quite nice saving up a whole week's play to go through in an extended session. Defeats the point of this being a calendar somewhat, but makes for a nice play experience.

this week on 100Films.co.uk

1 new review was published to 100Films.co.uk this week...


Barbie (2023)
This is definitely a movie primarily aimed at adults, with enough silliness and bright colours on the side to not alienate kids too much. Though by “kids” I mean “teenagers”. Sure, the 12A and PG-13 ratings are permissive enough to take your six-your-old who actually plays with Barbies, but they’re going to be left floundering — or, worse, bored — as the film debates feminism, the patriarchy, and gender roles in general.
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Saturday, 10 February 2024

Films

RRR (2022)
[#12 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024]

Collection Count

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

Just a couple of new titles this week — it looks set to be a slower month in general, although I do have a mass of preorders waiting at the end of it.

Number of titles in collection: 3,235 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,016 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,219 [up 2]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 329 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 7,874 [up 4]
Number of films: 3,978 [up 3]
Number of additional cuts: 356 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes: 9,678 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,115 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday, 9 February 2024

TV

Would I Lie To You?
17x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Fantasmagorie (1908)
The first animated film — a two-minute short of chalkboard-like line drawings morphing into various scenes in a dreamlike stream-of-consciousness style 'narrative'.

Non-Fiction

A City on Mars by Kelly & Zach Weinersmith
Chapters 18–20 + Conclusion [the end]

Altogether, a fun read. It gets deep enough into all the various issues of space settlement that you believe it's been seriously researched and all points have been considered, and you come away having learnt something about them. But it's also light enough to allow room for amusing anecdotes and asides, which regularly raise a chuckle and keep the whole thing in perspective.

To quote from the conclusion of the book itself: “Going to the stars will not make us wise. We have to become wise if we want to go to the stars.”

Thursday, 8 February 2024

Wednesday, 7 February 2024

Podcasts

Light the Fuse - The Official Mission: Impossible Podcast
2x34 Revisiting Christopher McQuarrie on "Jack Reacher"

Originally released as episodes 216, 217, and 218 of the 'original' (i.e. pre being made official) Light the Fuse podcast.