TV

Lucifer
3x08 Chloe Does Lucifer
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

Not Going Out
10x04 Schooling

Films

Death on the Nile (1978)
[#151 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

TV

The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco
1x07 Fog of War
1x08 In for a Pound [season finale]

Criminal: United Kingdom
1x01 Edgar
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

The Goes Wrong Show
1x01 The Spirit of Christmas [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again and again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Agatha and the Curse of Ishtar (2019)
[#150 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

Sort-of-sequel to Agatha and the Truth of Murder.

this week on 100 Films

There was 1 new post on 100 Films in a Year in the past week...


A seasonal message from 100 Films

it’s been a funny old year... On the one hand, the number of new films I’ve watched already puts it in my top five years ever. And I’ve had easily my most number of visitors ever, with the number of hits already up over 24% from last year. But on the other... My actual blogging has been much more sporadic, with only 124 posts published so far this year (for comparison, every year from 2015 to 2018 ended up with over 200). And consequently my review backlog has reached insane proportions — a whopping 178 films I’ve watched but not reviewed.

Read more here.

More next Sunday.

TV

Celebrity Mastermind
2019/2020 Episode 1 (of 10)
aka Champion of Champions
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Gavin & Stacey
A Special Christmas [Christmas special; 2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Lucifer
3x07 Off the Record
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

Not Going Out
10x09 Driving Home for Christmas [Christmas special]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Brightburn (2019)
[#149 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

TV

Would I Lie To You?
13x05 Episode 5
13x06 At Christmas
[Watch Episode 5 and At Christmas (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

University Challenge
Christmas 2019 Royal Holloway v Sussex
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Vienna Blood
1x02 Queen of the Night
[Watch the it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Gavin & Stacey
A Special Christmas [Christmas special]
Tidy.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Mrs Brown's Boys
A Wonderful Mammy [Christmas special]
Mrs Brown's Boys is only on at Christmas nowadays, which is probably for the best, because it's pretty much the only time I'd watch it.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

University Challenge
Christmas 2019 Liverpool v Hull
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

A lot less than usual for Christmas Day. I'll be catching up on stuff later.

University Challenge
Christmas 2019 Guildhall School of Music and Drama v UCL
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

QI
17x09 Quizmas [Christmas special]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

University Challenge
Christmas 2019 Birmingham City University v Wadham College, Oxford
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

The Goes Wrong Show
1x01 The Spirit of Christmas
Magnificently funny. So glad there are five more of these to look forward to.
[Watch it (again... and again and again, it's so good) on iPlayer.]

University Challenge
Christmas 2019 Leeds University v Clare College, Cambridge
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Have I Got News For You
58x10 (20/12/2019 edition) [season finale]
[Watch the it (again) on iPlayer.]

Vienna Blood
1x01 The Last Seance
I could offer comment, but I could just as easily point you to this (completely spoiler-filled) review from The Guardian. In short: bit predictable and formulaic with very little new (it owes a certain debt to Sherlock Holmes), but decently made and reasonably entertaining nonetheless.
[Watch the it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

After several weeks of total silence, there were a couple of new posts on 100 Films in a Year this week.

First, a review of a certain major motion picture...


Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Remember those people who tried to crowdfund a shitty fanwank-filled remake of The Last Jedi? Turns out J.J. Abrams let them make Episode IX under his name instead…

Read more here.


Then, my last regular TV column of the year...





More (hopefully) next Sunday.

TV

Death on the Tyne
This sequel to 2017's Murder on the Blackpool Express sadly isn't as good. They made a third one this year (Dial M For Middlesbrough), so I hope that's better.
[Watch it (again) on UKTV Play.]

University Challenge
2019/20 Episode 21
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Eighth Grade (2018)
[#148 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

Collection Count

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

Normally things dip into a lull here just before Christmas as I wait to see what I've got on the big day, but between some sales and new releases I've actually ended up with a solid number of additions this week.

Number of titles in collection: 2,272 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,124 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,148 [up 4]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 37 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 5,915 [up 9]
Number of films: 2,644 [up 7]
Number of TV episodes: 8,681 [no change]
Number of short films: 676 [up 1]

Next week's update will not only cover my Christmas haul, but will be a few days late so as to be fully end-of-year-y. See you then, faithful reader.

TV

Watchmen
1x09 See How They Fly [season finale]
Or possibly series finale, based on what cast and crew have been saying. It's been such a success, though, that I'm sure HBO will be hoping for more.

Films

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
[#147 in 100 Films in a Year 2019]

Oh dear. What a disappointment.

TV

The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco
1x05 Not Cricket
1x06 Iron in War

Films

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Extended Edition (2003/2004)
[4th or so watch]
Rewatchathon 2019 #29

TV

Lucifer
3x06 Vegas with Some Radish
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

Not Going Out
10x02 Holiday Share
10x03 Facts of Life

Shetland
5x05 Episode 5
5x06 Episode 6 [season finale]

TV

Lucifer
3x05 Welcome Back, Charlotte Richards
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

Shetland
5x03 Episode 3
5x04 Episode 4

Films

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Extended Edition (2002/2003)
[4th or so watch]
Rewatchathon 2019 #28

Unfortunately, I have to echo what I wrote last time. Some of the stuff in this film is so, so great (Helms Deep; most of the stuff with Rohan, actually; Gollum; Faramir; individual scenes, moments, and lines), but the overall film feels very, very long.

TV

Not Going Out
10x01 Parachute

Shetland
5x01 Episode 1
5x02 Episode 2

Films

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition (2001/2002)
[4th or so watch]
Rewatchathon 2019 #27

Can't believe it's been another four-and-a-half years since I watched this trilogy! I knew it'd been a while, but it doesn't feel like that long. Mad. Anyway, the important thing is it's still great.

TV

Lucifer
3x04 What Would Lucifer Do?
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

Not Going Out
10x00 Ding Dong Merrily on Live [Christmas special; 3rd watch]

Strictly Come Dancing
17x25 The Final [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

This week would normally be the next running time update, but I've bumped that to the end of the month to do my usual post-Christmas / end-of-the-year running time & totals (rather than do it now and again in two weeks!)

As for this week's additions, there's a new release of Sergio Leone's final Western (which upgrades my DVD copy to a BD copy), and a couple of pickups from Anime Ltd's Christmas sale (which add quite a few bits and pieces).

Number of titles in collection: 2,268 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,124 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,144 [up 3]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 37 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 5,906 [up 8]
Number of films: 2,637 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes: 8,681 [up 26]
Number of short films: 675 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Have I Got News For You
58x09 (13/12/2019 edition)
[Watch the it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Have I Got News For You
58x08 (6/12/2019 edition)
[Watch the it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Watchmen
1x07 An Almost Religious Awe
1x08 A God Walks into Abar
O. M. G.

TV

Watchmen
1x06 This Extraordinary Being

TV

There's Something About Movies
1x06 Episode 6 [season finale]

University Challenge
2019/20 Episode 20
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

There's Something About Movies
1x03 Episode 3
1x04 Episode 4
1x05 Episode 5

TV

There's Something About Movies
1x01 Episode 1
1x02 Episode 2

Collection Count

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

This week's big (literally) addition is a massive (literally) treat to myself: the complete Game of Thrones box set -- the limited edition version, which comes in a huge box. Oh, but it is beautiful! As well as nice packaging, it contains some exclusive special features worth owning, hence why I've bought it despite already owning seasons 1-7.

I owned all of those with their Amazon-exclusive bonus discs, which are recompiled onto just two discs in the new set; plus the first three seasons have been re-encoded onto fewer discs, too. So although this big new set adds a whole extra season (six episodes), in every other stat it's a net reduction. (Number of films also goes up one because of a different purchase. So, for what it's worth, the Thrones set is 33 discs and 73 episodes.)

But while it may've cut back on some numbers here, its physical impact on my shelf space is gigantic (did I mention it's big?)

Number of titles in collection: 2,266 [down 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,125 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,141 [down 5]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 37 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 5,898 [down 4]
Number of films: 2,635 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 8,655 [up 6]
Number of short films: 675 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Comedians Giving Lectures
1x07 Episode 7
1x08 Episode 8 [season finale]
[Watch the whole series (again) on UKTV Play.]

The Great Model Railway Challenge
2x08 The Final: Surprise Surprise [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on My5.]

One Night: Joshua vs Ruiz
Not normally my kind of thing, though enjoying all of the Rocky/Creed movies last year has changed my perspective somewhat. (And I only half watched this anyway.)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

The Great Model Railway Challenge
2x06 Semi-Final 1: Myths, Monsters, Legends & Fables
2x07 Semi-Final 2: Blockbuster Films
[Watch semi-finals one and two (again) on My5.]

TV

The Great Model Railway Challenge
2x05 Heat Five: The Sky's the Limit
[Watch it (again) on My5.]

TV

Comedians Giving Lectures
1x05 Episode 5
1x06 Episode 6
[Watch the whole series (again) on UKTV Play.]

TV

The Great Model Railway Challenge
2x04 Heat Four: Uncharted Territory
[Watch it (again) on My5.]

University Challenge
2019/20 Episode 19
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Comedians Giving Lectures
1x02 Episode 2
1x03 Episode 3
1x04 Episode 4
[Watch the whole series (again) on UKTV Play.]

Strictly Come Dancing
17x22 Week 11 Results (aka Musicals)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

World on Fire
1x07 Episode 7 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

No new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week, but it was time for the monthly progress report...





More next Sunday.