Sunday 31 July 2022

TV

Richard Osman's House of Games
4x13 Episode 13
4x14 Episode 14
4x15 Episode 15
[Watch various (other) episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Calamity Jane (1953)
[2nd watch]
[#48 in The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2022]

Saturday 30 July 2022

TV

Agatha Raisin
4x03 A Spoonful of Poison

Cracker
1x03 To Say I Love You Part 1 [2nd watch]
1x04 To Say I Love You Part 2 [2nd watch]
1x05 To Say I Love You Part 3 [2nd watch]
Belatedly continuing the Cracker (re)watch I started in January. Then I noted that the DVDs present each multi-episode story as a single movie, without obvious episode breaks. Perhaps that was just the first story, because there were clear fade-to-blacks for the end of each part this time. Still watched it one sitting, though. Formal considerations aside, it's a really good show, donchaknow.

Richard Osman's House of Games
4x11 Episode 11
4x12 Episode 12
[Watch various (other) episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

Oh, this week was so nearly a small quiet one... and then a big package of Blu-rays from the US turned up. Can't pretend I'm not excited about that! Combined with a couple of other purchases, that made for a total of 14 new titles — not a record-breaker, but at the upper end of single week increases. Some were upgrades, mind (one DVD to BD, one BD to 4K, and one DVD to 4K!), so the net total is... well, below...

Number of titles in collection: 2,895 [up 10]
Of which DVDs: 1,048 [down 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,847 [up 12]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 193 [up 5]

Number of discs in collection: 7,189 [up 17]
Number of films: 3,463 [up 15]
Number of additional cuts: 273 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 9,336 [no change]
Number of short films: 996 [up 2]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday 29 July 2022

TV

Grantchester
6x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Neighbours
1x8903 The Finale [series finale]
I haven't watched Neighbours in over 20 years, but I was a regular viewer back in the day — it's part of my childhood — so I had to tune in for this final goodbye! Obviously I had no idea who most of the characters were (of course I didn't know the young people; the oldies was a constant game of "do I recognise them or not?") and I had to infer most of the storylines, but hey-ho, that is what it is. Overall, quite a sweet goodbye.
[Watch it (again) on the My5.]

Neighbours Made Me a Star
I hadn't intended to watch this — I assumed it was going to be an empty clip show of Neighbours actors in other productions — but the title actually belied that this was a kind of history of the soap through the lens of the people it made famous, so it was a fitting part of the finale evening. Glad I stuck around for it.
[Watch it (again) on the My5.]

Richard Osman's House of Games
4x10 Episode 10
[Watch various (other) episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Thursday 28 July 2022

TV

Grantchester
6x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Richard Osman's House of Games
4x09 Episode 9
[Watch various (other) episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Ten Percent
1x08 Episode 8 [season finale]
Overall, this series wasn't as good as I'd hoped it would be, but it's not bad. I feel like if they'd tightened each episode up to 30 minutes (instead of the c.48 they do run) it would've been better. Still, if they bother to make a second series, I'll watch it.

Wednesday 27 July 2022

TV

Agatha Raisin
4x02 Love, Lies and Liquor

Richard Osman's House of Games
4x06 Episode 6
4x07 Episode 7
4x08 Episode 8
[Watch various (other) episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Tuesday 26 July 2022

Monday 25 July 2022

TV

Leverage
4x16 The Gold Job

Richard Osman's House of Games
3x76 Episode 76
3x77 Episode 77
[Watch various (other) episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Slow Horses
1x06 Follies [season finale]
Enjoyed that. Looking forward to more.

Ten Percent
1x06 Episode 6

Collection Count

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

A solid but not huge update this week, with four new additions (one a BD-to-4K upgrade). But this post is a couple of days late because it was also time for the monthly running time update, including all the busy last few weeks, and I needed a bit of time to add all that up. Results below...

Number of titles in collection: 2,885 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,050 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,835 [up 3]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 188 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 7,172 [up 6]
Number of films: 3,448 [up 2]
Number of additional cuts: 273 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 9,336 [up 13]
Number of short films: 994 [up 1]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
513 days, 12 hours, and 10 minutes.
(Up 1 day, 15 hours, and 17 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

Sunday 24 July 2022

Saturday 23 July 2022

TV

Richard Osman's House of Games
2x08 Episode 8
[Watch various (other) episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Theatre

Les Misérables
UK & Ireland Tour at Bristol Hippodrome
I've seen Les Mis on stage before — before this blog began, in 2006 (if I remember rightly). This was a 'new' staging ('new' in 2009), which was pretty impressive. The film is good 'n' all, but I think the show plays best on stage.

Friday 22 July 2022

TV

Richard Osman's House of Games
2x06 Episode 6
2x07 Episode 7
Digging into my archive of unwatched episodes now (i.e. these aren't available on iPlayer).
[Watch various (other) episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Slow Horses
1x04 Visiting Hours

Ten Percent
1x05 Episode 5

Thursday 21 July 2022

TV

Leverage
4x14 The Boys' Night Out Job

Not Going Out
12x06 Tent [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Richard Osman's House of Games
4x70 Episode 70
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Slow Horses
1x03 Bad Tradecraft

Games

The Room Two
Popped back onto this for the first time in a while. Accidentally finished it. The narrative's not up to much, but the puzzles are quite fun. I expect I'll get the next one, too.

Wednesday 20 July 2022

Tuesday 19 July 2022

TV

Leverage
4x13 The Girls' Night Out Job

Richard Osman's House of Games
4x68 Episode 68
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Slow Horses
1x01 Failure's Contagious
We're already guaranteed at least four seasons of this spy thriller on Apple TV+, so it's a good thing it's off to a strong start. With its grounded, washed-up spooks, it's a bit like a more dryly humourous version of Le Carré. Let's hope it's got the same smarts to pull that off all the way to the finish.

Ten Percent
1x04 Episode 4

Monday 18 July 2022

TV

Leverage
4x12 The Office Job

Not Going Out
12x05 Jury
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Richard Osman's House of Games
4x67 Episode 67
If you were wondering why I'm watching such a random week of House of Games (no one was, but still), it's because it's the only week still available on iPlayer that I've never seen. But once it's done, I do have a load of older ones downloaded.
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Saturday 16 July 2022

TV

Taskmaster
3x04 A Very Nuanced Character
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Comics

Batman: Wayne Family Adventures #47 by CRC Payne & StarBite
Someone posted a gag from this on Twitter, which led me to the full thing (which I'd never heard of before), and... well, the gag they shared was the primary punchline to the whole comic, so there wasn't much point reading it. But it's a decent gag.
[Read it (again) on Webtoon.]

Games

Flight of the Amazon Queen
Having enjoyed my replay of the Monkey Island games, I've been looking for more point-and-click-style adventure games to play — and, thanks to sales and whatnot, I've ended up with quite a few to choose from. So, this is where I've decided to start. Why? Not sure, really. It was originally released in 1995, and I vaguelly remember being aware of it back in the day and wanting to play it (because it's Indiana Jones-inspired and I've always loved Indiana Jones), but I never did. So now I finally am. Hurrah!

Collection Count

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

When this week began, it was possible it was going to be a completely dead one. Well, that's... not how things turned out. Between preorders turning up early and some quick-shipping sale buys, there's a grand total of 12 new acquisitions this week. Four of them are upgrades to previous editions, including the second Dalek movie in 4K meaning, my old double-film BD set is removed from the stats (as mentioned when I got the first film in 4K).

Number of titles in collection: 2,882 [up 8]
Of which DVDs: 1,050 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,832 [up 9]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 186 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 7,166 [up 11]
Number of films: 3,446 [up 8]
Number of additional cuts: 273 [up 4]
Number of TV episodes: 9,323 [no change]
Number of short films: 993 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday 15 July 2022

TV

Obi-Wan Kenobi
Part VI (of 6)
As I mentioned at the start, throughout the series I've been posting some thoughts to Letterboxd, if you're interested.

Thursday 14 July 2022

Tuesday 12 July 2022

Sunday 10 July 2022

TV

Wimbledon 2022
Men's Final
I've watched bits of Wimbledon on and off this year, but not enough to feel it merited logging. I only half-watched this too, but I did have the full thing on, and it was worth it for the touching tribute to Sue Barker after the match. Even though I don't watch a huge amount of Wimbledon (I haven't bothered to log it since 2014!), I'm always aware of it, and she's been presenting it for as long as I can remember. Definitely an emotional farewell.
[You can watch all of the BBC's coverage of Wimbledon on iPlayer.]

this week on 100Films.co.uk

7 new reviews were published to 100Films.co.uk this week...


Bank Holiday (1938)
To call this a “forgotten classic” or similar would be to overstate the point somewhat, but it does seem to be a largely forgotten film that merits being better known.
Read more here.


Lupin the Third: Is Lupin Still Burning? (2018)
Appropriately for a 50th anniversary special, Is Lupin Still Burning is loaded with references (both major and minor) for diehard fans to enjoy. As someone who has enjoyed a couple of Lupin’s adventures but is a long way from being well-versed in his world, I could tell a load of stuff was flying over my head — almost everything, in fact — which was unfortunate, but understandable. This is clearly a celebration that’s primarily aimed at dyed-in-the-wool fans rather than pleasing or initiating newcomers.
Read more here.


2022 | Week 22
Featuring...
- This Means War (2012)
- To Be or Not to Be (1942)
- An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1982)
- The Pajama Game (1957)
- The Contender (2000)
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Saturday 9 July 2022

TV

Taskmaster
3x02 The Dong and the Gong
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Films

A Better Tomorrow (1986)
[#46 in The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2022]
"What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...?" 2022 #6

Collection Count

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

Just a couple of new additions this week, although one of them is a 5-disc set devoted to a single film...

Number of titles in collection: 2,874 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,051 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,823 [up 4]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 183 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 7,155 [up 7]
Number of films: 3,438 [up 3]
Number of additional cuts: 269 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 9,323 [no change]
Number of short films: 993 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Wednesday 6 July 2022

Tuesday 5 July 2022

Films

Johnny Gunman (1957)
[#45 in The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2022]

Articles

The outlandish Doctor Who movie that never was
by Matthew Sweet (from MSN)

I heard about the screenplay for "the third Dalek film" (which actually has nothing to do with the Daleks) after the screening the other week at which its existence was revealed, but I think this is the first deep-dive into what that screenplay is actually about. Very interesting.

(This article was originally published by the Telegraph, but that's behind a paywall, so here's the full thing for free courtesy of MSN.)

Sunday 3 July 2022

TV

Mystery Science Theater 3000
13x05 Doctor Mordrid
Nearly a month since I last watched MST3K; although, at their current release schedule, that means I'm only two behind, and still have almost three weeks until the next premiere (which I won't be free to watch live, again). Talking of premieres, they're continuing to leave them available (for those of us with suitable Gizmoplex passes), so I'm still watching new eps that way. It takes longer (there are *gasp* adverts!) but has its benefits (post-show Q&As).

Obi-Wan Kenobi
Part I (of 6)
Finally starting this. Thoughts on Letterboxd.

this week on 100Films.co.uk

No new reviews on 100Films.co.uk this week, but it was the start of a new month, and that means a monthly review...





Plus, a summary of some of the films I failed to watch last month...





Back to the reviews next Sunday.

Saturday 2 July 2022

Films

Ambulance (2022)
[#44 in The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2022]

Easy A (2010)

Games

Tales of Monkey Island
Chapter 5 Rise of the Pirate God

Another hour played, and that's that — I'm all caught up on Monkey Island!

I enjoyed Tales overall, even if it had some bits that could stand improvement (an over-reliance on cut scenes at times; some puzzles that were made tedious by having to trek back and forth). It's a shame Telltale didn't make a second season; in fact, I'm not sure why they didn't: Tales was a critical and commercial hit (it's said to have been their biggest financial success until Back to the Future); and, while they eventually went bankrupt, that was nine years later. Mysterious.

Anyway, at least now we have Return to look forward to. Can't wait!

Collection Count

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

I ended last week's count by noting that there was nothing on the schedule for this week. Unsurprisingly, that changed. Four titles may not look like much compared to some recent weeks, but, if you think about it, it's more than enough for a single week!

Unusually, they're all 4K titles — I don't think that's happened before. And they include what I believe is the first anime TV series to be released in 4K, Hayao Miyazaki's directorial debut, Future Boy Conan. So that's exciting then.

Number of titles in collection: 2,871 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,051 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,820 [up 4]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 182 [up 4]

Number of discs in collection: 7,148 [up 10]
Number of films: 3,435 [up 3]
Number of additional cuts: 268 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 9,323 [up 13]
Number of short films: 993 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday 1 July 2022

TV

Taskmaster
3x01 A Pea in a Haystack
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Games

Tales of Monkey Island
Chapter 5 Rise of the Pirate God
Another hour played... though quite a tedious one, to be honest, involving a lot of old-fashioned back-and-forthing to achieve anything. Shame, because it makes this episode feel a little anti-climactic. Still, I've got the final stretch to go yet, so maybe that will pick up.