TV

Friends
7x13 The One Where Rosita Dies ['Super-Sized' version; 5th or so watch]
7x14 The One Where They All Turn Thirty ['Super-Sized' version; 4th or so watch]

When Friends finally came to DVD in the US, somewhere between "most" and "all" of its episodes were extended; controversially, the Blu-ray release only includes the shorter original TV versions... with the exception of four episodes from the middle of season seven. They're still the shorter versions when watched in HD, but the extended versions (in SD) can be found among the special features.

Have to say, nothing jumped out at me as new here, which led me to wonder if these were included on the UK DVDs too... but then goodness knows how long it's been since I last watched them, so it'd be no surprise if I just didn't notice.


The Illusionists
Although The Magicians barely limped to two series, and Penn & Teller: Fool Us only managed one, the main channels still boldly attempt to get magic on TV: BBC One have recently started airing Dynamo's Watch series, and around Christmas ITV had this one-off special. Very good it was, too. Shame this stuff doesn't seem to connect with a wider audience.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Comics

Red Sonja #2-3 by Gail Simone & Walter Geovani

Simone knows how to write a story that works as self-contained issues but also form part of a larger narrative -- I like this. Too many comics are just a graphic novel serialised, and with too little story for the price per issue, so it's nice to read something that gives you a satisfying chunk.


Satellite Sam #1-5 by Matt Fraction & Howard Chaykin

Another one I'm reading to decide whether to continue with or not (and it won't be the last of those).

I was going to do a simple "X meets Y" thing here, but it's a tad more complicated than that. It has the era and 'world' of The Hour, with the complex business speak of Mad Men at its densest, but the speed of Studio 60, mingled with the dark, seedy crime of L.A. Confidential... It's a heady brew, relayed in almost-sketchy black-and-white art.

Not so sure about this one, even after the entire first arc. Well, that's the first arc technically speaking -- although they've called it that, and collected these five issues as the first paperback, and it does come to a fairly big conclusion/twist at the end of #5, it's certainly not a finite story. What kind of long haul is it settling in for?

Articles

Lupin III: The Story So Far
by Andrew Osmond (from Manga)

An interesting potted history of the star of The Castle of Cagliostro, which has the side effect of creating a 'wish list' of things I want to see...