TV

The Box of Delights
Part 6 Leave Us Not Little, Nor Yet Dark [finale]
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer.]

Sophie Ellis-Bextor's NYE Disco
Part 1 (of 2)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Carol for Another Christmas (1964)
This TV movie — written by Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling — becomes my final film of 2024.

Fiction

A Book for Christmas by Selma Lagerlöf
The Animals' New Year's Night (translated by Peter Graves)
[the end]

TV

The Box of Delights
Part 5 Beware of Yesterday
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer.]

Friends
5x04 The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS [5th or so watch]
5x05 The One with the Kips [5th or so watch]
5x06 The One with the Yeti [5th or so watch]

Richard Osman's Festive House of Games
3x06 Week 2: Monday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Shetland
9x05 Episode 5
9x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
[Watch series 9 (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

The Box of Delights
Part 4 The Spider in the Web
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer.]

Friends
5x01 The One After Ross Says Rachel [5th or so watch]
5x02 The One with All the Kissing [5th or so watch]
5x03 The One Hundredth [5th or so watch]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
32x04 Episode 4

Richard Osman's Festive House of Games
3x05 Week 1: Sunday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

The Rookie
6x03 Trouble in Paradise

Shetland
9x03 Episode 3
9x04 Episode 4
[Watch series 9 (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week. And as this update is the 'end of year' one, there are some numbers for that too. Ooh, exciting!

Number of titles in collection: 3,446 [up 6 this week; up 235 in 2024]
Of which DVDs: 992 [no change this week; down 29 in 2024]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,454 [up 6 this week; up 264 in 2024]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 419 [up 2 this week; up 98 in 2024]

Mostly bigger than last year (235 new titles bests 220), but not quite as big as the years before that (241 in 2022 and 240 in 2021). On the other hand, UHDs were virtually identical to last year, when I purchased 99, so it looks like I'm pretty consistent on that front now (all previous years were lower). Maybe next year they'll cross the 100 threshold. Basically two a week, every week? Well, you never know. Radiance are getting into the UHD game next year, so that could help.

Number of discs in collection: 8,312 [up 9 this week; up 477 in 2024]
Number of films: 4,366 [up 9 this week; up 419 in 2024]
Number of additional cuts: 426 [up 1 this week; up 76 in 2024]
Number of TV episodes: 9,856 [no change this week; up 188 in 2024]
Number of short films: 1,197 [up 2 this week; up 88 in 2024]

Discs are slightly up on last year, but films have increased loads — 419 this year is far higher than 298 last year, and solidly up on 385 and 363 in the years before that. I'm guessing more box sets with more films on fewer discs.

Total running time of collection (approx.):
583 days, 20 hours, and 10 minutes.
(Up 1 day, 9 hours, and 13 minutes from last month.)
(Up 31 days, 12 hours, and 33 minutes from last year.)

That's a whole week bigger than 2023's yearly increase, and the largest since 2020's (which was larger by about 19 hours). Should I be proud, or should I be intending to cut back? I'm never sure...

Well, whatever — more stuff is on the way! As ever, see you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Box of Delights
Part 3 In Darkest Cellars Underneath
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer.]

Friends
4x23 The One with Ross's Wedding Part 1 [6th or so watch]
4x24 The One with Ross's Wedding Part 2 [season finale; 6th or so watch]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
32x03 Never Mind the Buzzcocks Does the 90s

Richard Osman's Festive House of Games
3x04 Week 1: Friday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Shetland
9x01 Episode 1
9x02 Episode 2
[Watch series 9 (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Blankety Blank
4x01 Christmas Special
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Friends
4x21 The One with the Invitation [5th or so watch]
4x22 The One with the Worst Best Man Ever [5th or so watch]

From Roger Moore with Love
Another one on the "is it a film or TV?" nexus, because apparently it had a theatrical release earlier this month.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Richard Osman's Festive House of Games
3x03 Week 1: Thursday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Death in Paradise
13x00 Christmas Special 2023
At this point, I have a suspicion I'm always going to be a year behind with this show...
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Michael McIntyre's 25th Year Stand-Up Special
He's not everyone's cup of tea (because he's massively popular and therefore some people just have to dislike him), but McIntyre remains a remarkably funny standup for someone who's been at it so long.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
32x02 Episode 2

Outnumbered
Christmas Special 2024
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Richard Osman's Festive House of Games
3x01 Week 1: Monday
3x02 Week 1: Tuesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

The Rookie
6x02 The Hammer
The show's 100th episode. So not a Christmas special, but still kinda special.

TV

The Box of Delights
Part 2 Where Shall the 'Nighted Showman Go?
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
41x00 Joy to the World [Christmas special]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Gavin & Stacey
The Finale [series finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

QI
22x09 Variety (XL version) [Christmas special]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Bad Tidings
Is this a "film" or a TV special? Well, it's a TV movie, more or less (it's properly feature-length, not just an hour long; and it's in 2.39:1, which used to mean something but doesn't really anymore), and I've counted TV movies as films in the past, so I guess it counts. (It doesn't really matter, especially as I've completed my new-style 100 Films Challenge this year, but it does affect whether I (intend to) review it on 100Films.co.uk and whether it counts towards my annual statistics there.)

The Box of Delights
Part 1 When the Wolves Were Running
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer.]

Friends
4x19 The One with All the Haste [5th or so watch]
4x20 The One with All the Wedding Dresses [5th or so watch]

Gavin & Stacey
A Special Christmas [2019 Christmas special; 3rd watch]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
32x10 Xmas Special [season finale]

Would I Lie To You?
18x00 At Christmas
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Fiction

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas by Derrick Belanger
The Adventure of the Generous Miser
December 25th Part Three: The Investigation
December 26th Part Four: The Conclusion
And because I've already read Dr. Watson Takes the Case, that makes this the end.

TV

Doctor Who: The War Games in Colour
Following last year's The Daleks in Colour, here's the second in what seems intended to be an annual series of Classic Who colourisation/re-edits. This time, the Second Doctor's final serial (which, coincidentally, I watched for the first time earlier this year) is truncated from four hours to just 90 minutes. More thoughts here.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Friends
4x18 The One with Rachel's New Dress [5th or so watch]

Richard Osman's House of Games
7x80 Redemption Week 1: Friday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

The Rookie
6x01 Strike Back

Fiction

A Book for Christmas by Selma Lagerlöf
The Skull (translated by Sarah Death)
This story is very nearly the best in the book, but then it takes a religious turn at the last second. I actually didn't mind the other Christianity-focused stories that are included, but this one has a nicely creepy "Ghost Story for Christmas" vibe until it's undercut with warm-hearted moralising. Oh well.


Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas by Derrick Belanger
The Adventure of the Generous Miser
December 23rd Part One: The Mysterious Carriage
December 24th Part Two: The Case

Crimes for Christmas ends with a four-parter, in order that it can conclude on Boxing Day — that's expressly the reason given in the introduction. Yeah, I know: advent calendars don't end on Boxing Day. It seems the Britishness of it as an occasion fascinates this American author, so he felt the need to stretch to it, somehow. But, as I said, advent calendars don't end on Boxing Day, so I'm reading this story in two "double-bills" so that it finishes tomorrow, as it should.

TV

Blackadder: The Cavalier Years
It’s just a sketch for a charity telethon (they haven't even bothered to upscale it for the Blu-ray, just included it in SD), and yet it creates a whole era of Blackadder, has a proper plot, runs the length of half an episode, and features at least one of the best gags in the entire series (at the level of “gets used in retrospective documentaries to illustrate the Baldrick/Blackadder relationship”). Splendid.

Friends
4x16 The One with the Fake Party [5th or so watch]
4x17 The One with the Free Porn [5th or so watch]

The Rookie
5x22 Under Siege [season finale]

The Wheel
5x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Comics

X-Men #3 by Jed MacKay & Ryan Stegman
I started with such good intentions, but — surprise surprise — I'm now in desperate need of catching up. Well, I'll try. (I'm enjoying these books a lot, it's just my general rubbishness at keeping at things!)

Fiction

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas by Derrick Belanger
December 22nd: The Christmas Ripper (Conclusion)

For some reason, Belanger seems to be almost obsessed with the word "missus" (as in the colloquialism for "wife"). Someone's clearly told him it's how Brits regularly refer to their/others' wives, and so he's applied it liberally — it's not just in the dialogue of coppers or urchins, but of respectable types, and he has Holmes use it; he uses it in his narrative text too, which is almost more egregious. I double-checked in case it was me who'd misunderstood, but I was right: the word "missus" appears in Conan Doyle's original works precisely zero times. (Is this the worst of Crimes for Christmas' sins? No, but it is a consistently grating niggle. Or a hilarously misguided quirk, depending on your point of view.)

this week on 100Films.co.uk

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


The Cranes Are Flying (1957)

it was nominated for two BAFTAs, although it won neither: it was one of several still-acclaimed movies that lost Best Film from Any Source to a British film (Room at the Top) that also won Best British Film (do I smell bias?), and Samoilova lost Best Foreign Actress to the lead from that same film (hmm…) Next time someone tries to claim awards have become meaningless, maybe suggest they always have been.

Read more here.


There may or may not be more next Sunday, but there definitely will the week after, because then it will be time to get stuck in to my review of 2024!

TV

Blackadder's Christmas Carol
My Blackadder (re)watch fell over for no particular reason back in March (I've been meaning to resume it ever since, but without serious-enough intent to ever make it happen), but I'm jumping out of sequence now because otherwise, if/when I do resume the rewatch, when I get to this special I'll likely feel the need to pause again until whenever next Christmas is (at least a year from now, obv). Besides, it doesn't really matter if I watch them out of order. And this is one of the few episodes I'd never seen, so finally ticking it off was part of the purpose of the rewatch anyway.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Casualty
39x07 All I Want for Christmas [Christmas special]
Didn't intend to watch this, but the TV was still on (see The Wheel) and I ended up half-watching enough of it that I stuck with it even after I finished wrapping.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

A Grand Night In: The Story of Aardman
Been meaning to watch this since it first aired in 2015. It's ridiculous how long it takes me to get round to things... Anyway, it's a lovely overview of a great British institution, with plenty to cover so that its hour-long running time never runs out of steam. If anything, a little more detail in some places wouldn't hurt; and, of course, it's now nearly a decade out of date — an update bringing us into Aardman's "Netflix era" wouldn't hurt. Though maybe it should wait until that ends, which it surely will, similar to the Dreamworks period...
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Wheel
5x10 Episode 10 [season finale]
Didn't actually intend to watch this — and I only half-watched it, really — because I put the TV on to find some music to wrap presents by, this was just starting, and I got somewhat sucked in. But, as I say, I only half-watched it, so it'l be interesting to see if I can still remember the answers when I watch it 'properly'.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
[3rd watch]
[#100 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024]

For the first time since I initiated my new-style 100 Films in a Year Challenge in 2022, I've completed it! Hurrah! And what a quality note to end on. Can't wait for Vengeance Most Fowl on Christmas Day.

Fiction

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas by Derrick Belanger
December 21st: The Christmas Ripper

Collection Count

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

The final pre-Christmas update of 2024 sees seven new titles added to my collection, but you wouldn't immediately know it from the numbers below. That's because there's a DVD-to-BD upgrade (of a box set that previously contained nine films, but now has 12) and two BD-to-4K upgrades (one of which adds a pile of discs, an alternate cut, and a bonus feature film).

Number of titles in collection: 3,440 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 992 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,448 [up 5]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 417 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 8,303 [up 17]
Number of films: 4,357 [up 13]
Number of additional cuts: 425 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes: 9,856 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,195 [no change]

Once upon a time, Christmas would've been one of my busiest disc weeks of the year. Nowadays, I might not even get any. Find out which way the pendulum has swung next week, faithful reader.

Films

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
[#99 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024]
"What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...?" 2024 #12

Fiction

A Book for Christmas by Selma Lagerlöf
The Princess of Babylon (translated by Peter Graves)
The Rat Trap (translated by Linda Schenck)
In Nazareth (translated by Peter Graves)
Redbreast (translated by Sarah Death)

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas by Derrick Belanger
December 20th: The Bordello Endemic (Conclusion)

Comics

Absolute Batman #2 by Scott Snyder & Nick Dragotta

Videos

Critical Role
A Daggerheart Critmas Story

CR's "Christmas special" is this entirely standalone live one-shot — which means I've actually been able to watch it rather than catch up on years of other stuff first. Hurrah!

Anyway, this was really good fun; even more so than the Session Zero led me to expect (and I enjoyed that too). It comes over like a great '80s Christmas/fantasy movie... or probably more like a modern '80s-set throwback-style Christmas/fantasy movie. Either way, it would've been a pretty fun movie, but with that not existing, it's super entertaining as what it is.

[Watch it (again) if you're a Member on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon. (Free to non-members on YouTube from Monday.)]

Fiction

A Book for Christmas by Selma Lagerlöf
The Legend of Saint Lucia's Day
(translated by Linda Schenck)

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas by Derrick Belanger
December 19th: The Bordello Endemic

Games

Syberia

After just over another hour of play, it's finally finished! Honestly, good riddance. I think if I hadn't chosen to play this, I probably would've completed more games this year — I've had this on the go since October, which might not sound like a huge amount of time (it's two months almost to the day), but the game's only about 10 hours long. If I'd been enjoying it, I probably would've burnt through that in a week. Instead, I've never felt much desire to return to it; I always had to force myself a little bit — including today. It's a month since I last played it, and I've started or toyed with several games since then, and now I just wanted it done. Quite how it's got so many positive reviews is beyond me.

Previously I mused that I'd probably end up wanting to play the sequels anyway (the same thing that happened with NPCs, essentially); but, even though the game ends on a tease for what comes next, the story just isn't interesting enough — especially when coupled with all the other flaws (atrocious dialogue, dull characters, boring gameplay) — to compel me to carry on. Unless I forget myself someday, I'm done with the world of Syberia.

Films

A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008)
[2nd watch]

The fourth and final (for now?) Wallace & Gromit short didn't blow me away as much as it did when I first saw it, but back then I watched it in isolation whereas now it's coming straight off the first three. It may not quite reach their heights, but it's damn close; in any other series, this would be a comfortable high watermark, but those others are just so good.

Fiction

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas by Derrick Belanger
December 18th: The Cudgeled Constable (Conclusion)

Games

Final Fantasy VII

What's this? Starting another game?! Yeah.

Well, here's the thing: I've recently discovered (or remembered, because I did know about some of these methods before) more ways of being able to play computer games (the disadvantage of owning a Mac is it's not always straightforward, though nowadays it's almost always possible; if you're machine's up to running a game, of course (I won't be playing Baldur's Gate 3 anytime soon)). And I've become more interested in gaming again since playing through the Monkey Islands (which was back in 2022 — these are the kind of timescales I operate on!) And older games are so cheap nowadays — I picked up this revered classic for under £4! New games cost an arm and a leg, I know, but diving into the back catalogue of games I've wanted to play for years (in some cases, for decades) has never been more affordable.

So that's why I'm trying multiple things out right now — different platforms; different games. And quite a few of these games I've been acquiring require dozens of hours to complete (FF7 is cited at 36–50 hours of gameplay for the main story, rising to 80+ if you're a completionist. I also recently got Baldur's Gate 1&2 and Neverwinter Nights for free via Amazon, which together are clocked at anything from 120 to 365 hours, depending on play style (and I err towards the latter, which is Completionist)), so it's a more pronounced choice which to devote my time to next (I've got dozens of games awaiting and I want to dive into them all at once!)

So, I'm not committing to 80+ hours of FF7 right now (although I did play for the best part of two hours today, mainly thanks to having to find a save point — it would've been considerably less if the game just let me save whenever I want!), but I'm giving it a go and, well, maybe.

Though, yeah, I do need to finish off that last bit of Syberia.

Films

A Close Shave (1995)
[3rd or so watch]

More Wallace & Gromit, of course. Gotta wait til Saturday for Curse of the Were-Rabbit to be on TV (I could watch my DVD, but why when an HD version is imminent?), so I'll probably go out of order and watch A Matter of Loaf and Death before then. I don't think it really matters.

Fiction

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas by Derrick Belanger
December 17th: The Cudgeled Constable
Dr. Watson Takes the Case

This book also includes the latter as a bonus story, after the end of the 'advent calendar' part (I skipped ahead). I assumed it would be something seasonally appropriate, but aside from a one-sentence mention of winter at the start, the tale has nothing to do with Christmas or even winter. Ho hum.

Films

A Grand Day Out (1989)
[3rd or so watch]

The Wrong Trousers (1993)
[3rd or so watch]

The first two Wallace & Gromit films, which I've seen I-don't-know-how-many times, but not at all recently (never in this blog's lifetime, and it's been running for almost 17 years!); which also probably means I haven't seen them anything like as often as I think I have. It's a moot point anyway, because however many times I've seen them, their brilliance is seared into my brain.

Fiction

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas by Derrick Belanger
December 16th: The Mysterious Violinist (Conclusion)

Fiction

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas by Derrick Belanger
December 15th: The Mysterious Violinist

Videos

Talks Machina
#117 'Reflections'
As I mentioned last time, this episode isn't available via Internet Archive, but you can find torrents for Brian W Foster-related content here.

Collection Count

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

A grand total of seven new titles this week, but three of them were upgrades so don't really show below.

Number of titles in collection: 3,436 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 993 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,443 [up 5]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 414 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 8,286 [up 7]
Number of films: 4,324 [up 7]
Number of additional cuts: 423 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 9,856 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,195 [no change]

You might think next week would be quiet, what with it being the final update before Christmas, but nope, I'm expecting plenty of stuff — including yet more multi-film box sets. See you next week for all that, faithful reader.

Fiction

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas by Derrick Belanger
December 14th: The Auction of the Prehistoric Beast (Conclusion)

Films

Wonka (2023)

Fiction

A Book for Christmas by Selma Lagerlöf
A Book for Christmas: A Memory from Childhood
(translated by Sarah Death)
I can't remember how I discovered this book, but it looked like a beautifully-presented little volume of eight short Swedish Christmas stories, and what better time for nice traditional stories than Christmas?

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas by Derrick Belanger
December 13th: The Auction of the Prehistoric Beast

Videos

Critical Role
2x68 Reflections [2nd half]
With this episode, I've watched just under 353 hours of Critical Role Campaign 2 content, including both the actual campaign and Talks Machina. There are 351½ hours to go — meaning that, time wise, this is halfway.* Or, to put it another way: I'm only halfway through!?
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

* Halfway in episode count terms is still a few episodes away. During the pandemic, Talks took longer to return to air than the main show, and then it was only on fortnightly, so there are far fewer episodes in the second half of the campaign (in the first half, 100% of CR episodes have an accompanying Talks; in the second it's just 60%), thus skewing the combined running time toward the first half.

Films

Goblin Slayer: Goblin's Crown (2020)
Back into the world of Goblin Slayer (has it really been over seven weeks since I finished the series?!) This movie was released a couple of years after season one; I believe season two, although released three years later, picks up right after it.

Fiction

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas by Derrick Belanger
December 12th: The Adventure of the Dreadful Author (Conclusion)

Videos

Critical Role
2x68 Reflections [1st half]
"What do you mean, 'Caleb killed his whole family?'"
"You know, it's a figure of speech where I'm from."
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Fiction

NPCs by Drew Hayes
Chapters 23–25
Epilogue [the end]

So, despite what I said the other day, I'm now tempted to continue with the next book in this series. My opinion on the quality of the prose hasn't changed, and that's the main thing putting me off; but the last act of this one finally engaged with some of the ideas the setup had promised, if only for a little bit. So while the prose bugs me, the story and characters have hooked me just enough that I want to find out what happens next.

That said, I can kinda tell this is setting itself up to be serialised across multiple volumes (that's literally what this first book does: finally gets somewhere, then ends on a cliffhanger), and I know there's already five books with the story not yet wrapped up — should I be letting myself in for all that?


Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas by Derrick Belanger
December 11th: The Adventure of the Dreadful Author
Pot, kettle...

Fiction

NPCs by Drew Hayes
Chapters 21–22

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas by Derrick Belanger
December 10th: The Ostentatious Art Collector (Conclusion)

Films

Le Trou (1960)
[#124 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024]
Blindspot 2024 #12

Fiction

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas by Derrick Belanger
December 9th: The Ostentatious Art Collector

Films

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
[#97 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024]
"What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...?" 2024 #11

Fiction

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas by Derrick Belanger
December 8th: The Adventure of the Gentle Axe Murderer (Conclusion)

this week on 100Films.co.uk

We're more than a week into December now, but last week ended on the 1st and I wasn't timely with posting my November monthly review, so the past 'week' on 100Films.co.uk kicks off with that...





And then, as always, there were the "failures"...





And what about regular reviews? Um, nope. Maybe next Sunday.

Films

The Holdovers (2023)
[#96 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024]

Fiction

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas by Derrick Belanger
December 7th: The Adventure of the Gentle Axe Murderer

Collection Count

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

The Christmastime post changes are in full effect, with some stuff taking longer than expected to arrive, and others... well, not. So, only a small handful of titles this week, with several more still dashing through the post. I think it's going to be a smaller month overall, but still probably with new titles every week. (There probably shouldn't be new stuff every week, eh?)

Number of titles in collection: 3,432 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 994 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,438 [up 3]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 412 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 8,279 [up 8]
Number of films: 4,317 [up 3]
Number of additional cuts: 422 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes: 9,856 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,195 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

Hotel Rwanda (2004)
[#95 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024]
"What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...?" 2024 #10

Fiction

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas by Derrick Belanger
December 6th: The Adventure of the Assaulted Cabbie (Conclusion)

Films

Look Back (2024)
[#94 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024]

Fiction

NPCs by Drew Hayes
Chapters 15–20

I'm 80% through this now, and I think I have to admit: it isn't very good. The inciting concept is neat, but has barely been a factor for most of the novel — this could be any story of novice adventurers in a high fantasy / RPG world; the fact they used to be NPCs is immaterial. That said, this has begun to change in the last couple of chapters, so maybe the final act can pull something out of the bag.

Similarly, while it's clearly meant to be a parody (not an outright Naked Gun-style piss-take, but certainly looking at RPGs with a raised eyebrow and degree of amused cynicism), I've found it mostly lacking in humour. That's not just a taste issue — I'm not saying I don't think it's funny, I'm saying it's not even trying to be as often as it perhaps should. The prose is largely adequate, but also clunky; unnecessarily verbose, with an abundance of wholly redundant words, phrases, and even whole sentences; relatedly, it's often irritatingly repetitive in minor ways (in a careless fashion, not a stylistic one). It's self-published, and that doesn't surprise me. Indeed, I was surprised when I saw there are two credited editors. And if the quality of the writing didn't give it away, the amateurish typesetting would. It feels like that shouldn't be a criticism, and I guess if you were reading a high-quality work it would be easier to let slide, but it's surprisingly aggravating.

I'll stick with it to the end, because it's not outright terrible and I've come this far so want resolution from the plot — though I hope the fact there are multiple sequels doesn't mean I'm denied that, because I don't intend to read more.


Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas by Derrick Belanger
December 5th: The Adventure of the Assaulted Cabbie

Fiction

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas by Derrick Belanger
December 3rd: The Mystery of the Businessman's Body
December 4th: The Mystery of the Businessman's Body (Conclusion)

I'm not deliberately leaving these for every other day, because that feels against the point of a calendar, but it's just how my time for reading has panned out so far. Equally, I don't think I want to be puzzling over each of these mysteries for a whole 24 hours. So, going forward, I think I'm going to aim to read each half either side of midnight. Ok, arguably that's practically the same as reading them every other day, but at least it involves some semblance of the original intent.

Films

The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008)
Finally watched the Blu-ray I bought 13½ years ago, to see if I like it enough to upgrade to the Arrow 4K that’s out next week, which I quite possibly won’t watch for another 13½+ years. But I’m still gonna buy it, because this was awesome.

Fiction

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas by Derrick Belanger
How to Read This Book
December 1st: The Adventure of the Wiry Eel
December 2nd: The Adventure of the Wiry Eel (Conclusion)

I'm trying to not have too many books on the go at once, honest, but this is a timely one. Aside from what's obvious from the title (i.e. that it's set around Christmas), it's also designed to be read as an 'advent calendar': each of the stories is split in two, with a mystery posed one day and a conclusion offered on the next. Neat.

Articles

Critical Role Cast Teases Its Future and a Potential ‘Passing of the Torch’
by Dana Reboe (from Rolling Stone)

It feels like there's a CR profile in a major magazine every other week at the moment. I guess it's all because their tenth anniversary is rapdily approaching, and they've been doing (and continue to do) so much stuff. Still, they're almost always worth a read (if you're a fan, anyway) because there's always a few more titbits about what's to come.

TV

Richard Osman's House of Games
7x79 Redemption Week 1: Thursday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

My Favorite Brunette (1947)