Sunday, 11 April 2010

TV

Archer
1x06 Skorpio
1x07 Skytanic
If you've not been watching Archer you should consider catching up with it (unfortunately only the most recent episodes are still available on Demand Five if one wants a place to see it legally & free). It's humour isn't always the height of sophisticated wit, but it's largely funny and has a surprising line in on-going storylines for a comedy cartoon.
[Watch Skorpio and Skytanic (again) on Demand Five.]

Doctor Who
31x02 The Beast Below
Another excellent episode: a different style of story, beautiful fairytale tone, meaningful collection of relevant subtexts, Sophie Okonedo being fantastic, and, wonderfully, the Demon Headmaster. A shining example of a standalone episode -- come the end of season polls it'll likely be forgotten behind all the high-profile returning monsters, two-parters and the season finale, which is a real shame.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who Confidential
5x02 All About the Girl
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

House
6x14 5 to 9
Truly excellent Cuddy-centric episode, even if the everything-turns-out-perfect conclusion(s) were so perfect it made me think it was going to turn out to be a daydream -- that would've been a very House-like trick to pull.

The Mentalist
2x06 Black Gold and Red Blood
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

The National Lottery: Who Dares Wins
3x05 (10/4/10 edition)
That Star Wars list was a walk in the park! Sure, the full version was full of all kinds of obsessively obscure characters and droids, but getting to 15 or so would've been eminently achievable. Blokey was just showing off naming the likes of Boba Fett over Han Solo, Chewbacca and Yoda.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

The case for arresting the Pope by Allison Kilkenny
(from Allison Kilkenny: Unreported on True/Slant)
Fingers crossed...

this week on 100 Films

After some time away, I've finally posted a new review to 100 Films in a Year, and it was...

Choke (2008)
the distinctive narratorial ‘voice’ is very reminiscent of Fight Club, both book and film, as are numerous other elements: support groups; random encounters; the inclusion of a Big Twist. While an awareness of the author means the latter feels a little formulaic, Shyamalan-style, at least it seems Palahniuk can still pull them off.

More next Sunday. Quite a few more, I hope.