TV

Doctor Who
41x08 The Reality War [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Backfire! (1962)
[#50 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]

Games

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Trick-Taking Game
Chapters 8–9

Collection Count

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

Nothing new to report this week. There are a couple of new releases I had my eye on, but the ol' HMV 20% discount isn't working on them yet. Will it ever? Who knows! Maybe they'll be here next week instead. Maybe not.

Number of titles in collection: 3,546 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 985 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,561 [no change]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 471 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 8,544 [no change]
Number of films: 4,498 [no change]
Number of additional cuts: 443 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 10,146 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,237 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Friends
7x18 The One with Joey's Award [5th or so watch]
7x19 The One with Ross and Monica's Cousin [5th or so watch]

Films

Funeral in Berlin (1966)
[#49 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]

Games

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Trick-Taking Game
Chapters 6–7

Articles

Second Chances: twenty underrated sequels that deserve another look
by Dan Mecca (from Letterboxd Journal)

I've not seen all of the films on this list, but the ones I have, I agree about; which encourages me to see the rest.

TV

Friends
7x15 The One with Joey's New Brain [6th or so watch]
7x16 The One with the Truth About London [6th or so watch]
7x17 The One with the Cheap Wedding Dress [5th or so watch]

Richard Osman's House of Games
8x09 Week 2: Thursday
8x10 Week 2: Friday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Friends
7x13 The One Where Rosita Dies [6th or so watch]
7x14 The One Where They All Turn Thirty [5th or so watch]
Last time I watched these episodes, I went for the 'Super-Sized' original broadcast versions that are included on the series' Blu-ray in SD as a special feature. This time, I just went for the shorter HD versions. It's been so long that nothing in particular stood out as missing, though it's clear in places that the episodes have been cut.

Leverage: Redemption
1x07 The Double-Edged Sword Job

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

TV

Friends
7x11 The One with All the Cheesecakes [5th or so watch]
7x12 The One Where They're Up All Night [5th or so watch]

Leverage: Redemption
1x06 The Card Game Job

Richard Osman's House of Games
8x07 Week 2: Tuesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Friends
7x10 The One with the Holiday Armadillo [6th or so watch]

Films

The Graduate (1967)
[#48 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]
Blindspot 2025 #5

Ten Little Indians (1989)

Games

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Trick-Taking Game
Chapters 4–5

Is this the kind of game I should be logging every time I play it? I dunno, I don't have great rules about this kinda thing.

TV

Doctor Who
41x07 Wish World
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Friends
7x07 The One with Ross's Library Book [6th or so watch]
7x08 The One Where Chandler Doesn't Like Dogs [6th or so watch]
7x09 The One with All the Candy [6th or so watch]

Leverage: Redemption
1x05 The Paranormal Hacktivity Job

Games

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Trick-Taking Game
Chapter 4

Twice. When I said it was "simpler", I didn't necessarily mean "easier to complete".

TV

Doctor Who
41x04 Lucky Day [2nd watch]
41x05 The Story & the Engine [2nd watch]
41x06 The Interstellar Song Contest [2nd watch]
[Watch this season (again) on iPlayer.]

Friends
7x03 The One with Phoebe's Cookies [5th or so watch]
7x04 The One with Rachel's Assistant [5th or so watch]
7x05 The One with the Engagement Picture [5th or so watch]
7x06 The One with the Nap Partners [6th or so watch]

Games

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Trick-Taking Game
Chapters 1–3

Another game based around the storyline of LotR, although this one is somewhat simpler as it's a trick-taking card game, with gorgeous stained-glass-window-esque art. It's quite fun, and having the gameplay based entirely around one mechanic (trick-taking) means it doesn't feel like you're learning a brand-new game every chapter.

Collection Count

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

Six additions this week, all brand-new releases (five from last week, one an early arrival for Monday). The two UHDs are both upgrades from Blu-ray (which, in both cases, were upgrades from DVD), but neither BD is removed yet. One I thought wouldn't be but, on closer comparison, I think probably should (it's the BFI UHD of Throne of Blood — with previous BFI Kurosawa UHDs, I've kept the Criterion BD for differing extras, but all their Throne of Blood offers is different subtitle options); and the other has to wait a little bit (my For a Few Dollars More BD is in a trilogy set with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; once the latter arrives on 4K I'll take the BD set out of the count). Fun times!

Number of titles in collection: 3,546 [up 6]
Of which DVDs: 985 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,561 [up 6]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 471 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 8,544 [up 9]
Number of films: 4,498 [up 9]
Number of additional cuts: 443 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 10,146 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,237 [up 4]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Doctor Who
41x02 Lux [2nd watch]
41x03 The Well [2nd watch]
[Watch this season (again) on iPlayer.]

Friends
7x01 The One with Monica's Thunder [5th or so watch]
7x02 The One with Rachel's Book [5th or so watch]

Leverage: Redemption
1x04 The Tower Job

TV

Friends
6x23 The One with the Ring [5th or so watch]
6x24 The One with the Proposal Part 1 [6th or so watch]
6x25 The One with the Proposal Part 2 [season finale; 6th or so watch]

Films

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025)
[#47 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]
aka Dead Reckoning Part 2

Videos

Critical Role
2x105 Rumble at Rumblecusp [2nd half]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Videos

Daggerheart Launch Day LIVE!
An hour(-and-a-bit) livestream to mark the launch of Daggerheart.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]

TV

The 1% Club
3x15 Episode 15
4x06 Episode 6
Got a whole load of episodes of this saved up, having not watched it since September, and they're not always clear which they are (3x15 had been billed as 3x03), hence this series-hopping randomness.
[Watch all episodes (again) on ITVX.]

Collection Count

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

A bit later than usual this week (not that anyone cares), not because of a huge influx of new titles (more on that in a sec) but because it's time for a monthly running time update, and I hadn't factored in titles received earlier in the month (might not sound like much effort, but I just didn't find myself with the time yesterday).

Anyway, six new additions this week — and I feel like I've not ordered anything recently! Well, those six came in two groups of three, both of which I actually ordered a while back. The first batch were from Australia, yet arrived about a week from when they were shipped. The wonders of the modern world! They included a BD-to-4K upgrade, while the second parcel included a BD-to-BD upgrade, so the net rise is just four...

Number of titles in collection: 3,540 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 985 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,555 [up 4]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 469 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 8,535 [up 5]
Number of films: 4,489 [up 4]
Number of additional cuts: 443 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 10,146 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,233 [up 3]

Also, as I mentioned, it's time for the latest monthly running time update...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
599 days, 20 hours, and 44 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 3 hours, and 51 minutes from last month.)

Looks like next month I'll be crossing the 600-day mark — that's equivalent to almost 1 year and 10 months of continuous viewing! Yeesh.

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Doctor Who
41x06 The Interstellar Song Contest
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Eurovision Song Contest: Basel 2025
Grand Final
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Cobra Kai
3x05 Miyagi-Do
3x06 King Cobra
[Watch the entire series (again) on Netflix.]

Films

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
[2nd watch]
[#46 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]

Part Two on Wednesday!

Videos

Critical Role
2x105 Rumble at Rumblecusp [2nd hour]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Fiction

Doctor Who: The New Adventures
Timewyrm: Revelation by Paul Cornell
Chapters 2–3

Comics

X-Manhunt Omega
X-Manhunt, Finale: Dreams End by Murewa Ayodele, Gail Simone, Gleb Melnikov, Federica Mancin & Enid Balám

Ooh, a Major Change™! Things Will Never Be The Same Again™! Until some other writer/editor in a couple of years wants them to be, of course. Ah, comics.

In other news: yay, I caught up on the crossover! Now I just have, er, five regular issues of X-comics in my unread pile — not counting the couple of series I've been buying but haven't started yet. (I don't mean to talk about this as if it's some kind of challenge or chore, but my own shortcomings at just keeping up with stuff mean it does sound like that sometimes.)

Videos

Critical Role
2x105 Rumble at Rumblecusp [1st hour]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Comics

X-Force
#9 X-Manhunt, Chapter 6: The Shapley Value by Geoffrey Thorne & Marcus To

Videos

Critical Role
2x104 The Ruined Sliver [2nd half]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

TV

Cobra Kai
3x03 Now You're Gonna Pay
3x04 The Right Path
[Watch the entire series (again) on Netflix.]

Fiction

Doctor Who: The New Adventures
Timewyrm: Revelation by Paul Cornell
Prologues
Chapter 1

Finally cracking on with the fourth book in the Timewyrm quartet. (Somehow, it's almost eight months since I finished the last one — time is flying these days! On the bright side, it's not yet two years since I started the first. Yet.)

Comics

Exceptional X-Men
#7 X-Manhunt: Collateral Damage by Eve L. Ewing & Carmen Carnero
This is advertised as a “tie-in” issue, rather than a full-blown part of the X-Manhunt crossover. I read somewhere that the connection was literally one panel, but that’s unfair. For starters, it’s two pages. Secondly, it’s used as a jumping off point to illuminate the characters a little bit. Thirdly, it ties into broader themes of the issue and the current X-Men line. So, essential to the crossover’s story? No, of course not — that’s why it’s a tie-in. But a pointless one-panel reference? No, it’s more than that (thank goodness, because I’d’ve had a whole rant if that's all it had been).

X-Factor
#8 X-Manhunt, Chapter 5: The Summers of Days Past by Mark Russell & Bob Quinn

Videos

Critical Role
2x104 The Ruined Sliver [1st half]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Films

Spartacus (1960)
[#45 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]
"What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...?" 2025 #5

Comics

X-Men
#13 X-Manhunt, Chapter 4: Gods and Monsters by Jed MacKay & Netho Diaz

Videos

Critical Role
2x103 Maritime Mysteries
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

TV

Doctor Who
41x05 The Story & the Engine
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Illustrious Corpses (1976)
[#44 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]

Fiction

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
Pages 152–198 [the end]

Comics

Storm
#6 X-Manhunt, Chapter 3: Thundercloud by Murewa Ayodele & Luciano Vecchio

Collection Count

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

Amongst this week's additions, Arrow's 4K release of the first film in Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy, A Fistful of Dollars. That will eventually replace my Blu-ray box set of the trilogy, but only once films 2 and 3 are also out. In the meantime, numbers just go up...

Number of titles in collection: 3,536 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 985 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,551 [up 4]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 467 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 8,530 [up 12]
Number of films: 4,485 [up 3]
Number of additional cuts: 443 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 10,146 [up 35]
Number of short films: 1,230 [up 1]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

Juggernaut (1974)

Comics

NYX
#9 X-Manhunt, Chapter 2: Charles by Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing & Francesco Mortarino

Here's the problem with many-title crossover events like this: having to drop into books you don't normally read, where those books are torn between continuing the crossover's storyline and continuing their own storylines. Too much of the latter, readers like me feel confused and frustrated; but I can understand why they want to keep the latter in hand for regular readers. This issue seemed to strike a reasonable balance. We'll see how the three other "titles I don't normally read" fare as I progress.

Videos

Critical Role
2x102 Ghosts, Dinosaurs, and Stuff
The final 5 minutes of this session… I haven’t even seen Campaign 1, but the cast’s reactions — especially as they don’t all get it right away — are amazing.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

TV

Cobra Kai
3x02 Nature vs. Nurture
[Watch the entire series (again) on Netflix.]

Fiction

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
3 The Adventure of the Yellow Face

This is, generally, a poorly-regarded case, but I thought it was quite good. Accusations of racism feel misplaced given how it concludes, even if some of the language is unfortunately dated — but I think that sometimes, when the intention is right, we have to be mindful and forgiving of the time when something was written.

Comics

The Uncanny X-Men
#11 X-Manhunt, Chapter 1: Echoes of Madness by Gail Simone & Javier Garrón

Feels like there was only just an X-Men crossover (partly because I only caught up with it a month ago, but they were pretty close IRL too), but here we go again. This is a bigger affair though, jumping across seven different X-titles. I've got all the issues, so intending to progress through it at a reasonable pace (for once).

Videos

Critical Role
2x101 Mysteries, Memories, and Music [3rd hour]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Videos

Critical Role
2x101 Mysteries, Memories, and Music [2nd hour]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

TV

Cobra Kai
3x01 Aftermath
I ended season two of this with the comment that “now I have the internal debate of whether to rush on to season 3 or save it for a bit.” I opted for the latter, because I had taken a five-month pause between seasons 1 and 2, and season 3 was brand new at the time, so it seemed fitting to take a break there before I'd have an enforced one while waiting for season 4. With hindsight, maybe I should’ve just plowed on, because “a bit” has somehow turned into four-and-a-quarter years. Eesh. In that time, they’ve released three further seasons, ending the show — so now I can binge all the rest of it… or I could still take breaks after each season. Maybe I shouldn’t risk that, though, eh? I don’t really want to be watching the final episodes in 2038…
[Watch the whole series (again) on Netflix.]

Fiction

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
Pages 114–151

Comics

Exceptional X-Men
#6 by Eve L. Ewing & Carmen Carnero

Videos

Critical Role
2x101 Mysteries, Memories, and Music [1st hour]
I've just had almost a week off work (holiday, not illness), and I didn't want to accidentally spend the whole time watching Critical Role, so I... accidentally spent the whole time not watching it instead. Oops. Well, here I go again.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Films

I Saw the TV Glow (2024)
[#43 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]

Fiction

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
Pages 84–113

Comics

X-Men
#11 Live Capture by Jed MacKay & Netho Diaz
#12 Work Release by Jed MacKay & Netho Diaz

this week on 100Films.co.uk

I say "week", but these are really monthly updates from 100Films.co.uk nowadays, because all I post are my monthly reviews. And it's time once again for those, beginning with my overall review of April...





...and concluding with my "failures"...





More next month... or next Sunday, you never know.

TV

Doctor Who
41x04 Lucky Day
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Trancers (1984)
[#42 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]

Comics

Absolute Batman
#5 The Zoo Part Five by Scott Snyder & Nick Dragotta
#6 The Zoo Part Six by Scott Snyder & Nick Dragotta

Collection Count

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

After the unusual completely-dead week last time, a burst of activity: all the stuff that really should have been here last time, plus some stuff on time for this week. Mind you, some stuff that really should have arrived, didn't; so that more-or-less guarantees more next week. Fun fun fun.

Number of titles in collection: 3,531 [up 10]
Of which DVDs: 985 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,546 [up 10]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 466 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 8,518 [up 15]
Number of films: 4,482 [up 11]
Number of additional cuts: 443 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 10,111 [up 10]
Number of short films: 1,229 [up 2]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

I've been intending to watch the How to Train Your Dragon short films and TV specials for some time, and what better time than slotting them in chronologically while rewatching the film trilogy? These four take place between the first two films; the final two take place after Film 3, so I'll watch them when appropriate.

In chronological order, the first salvo of shorts include...

Legend of the BoneKnapper Dragon (2010)

Book of Dragons (2011)

Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury (2011)

Dragons: Dawn of the Dragon Racers (2014)

Films

How to Train Your Dragon 3D (2010)
[3rd watch]
[#41 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]

Third watch, but first in 3D — which was spectacular.