TV

Channel 4's Comedy Gala
C4's second huge comedy event at the O2. I was going to highlight who I thought were the best and worst of the show, but with a whopping 21 acts performing I can't really remember it all...
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Graham Norton Show
9x09 (10/6/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Injustice
Episode 5 (of 5)
So, that was that. Can't say I was terribly surprised by most of the twists, but there were a couple of curveballs in there, even if, despite the occasionally glacial pace, several threads still went underdeveloped.
I reckon Horowitz is angling for a second run too -- not only the open ending, but that needless "created by" credit at the beginning -- not that I'd expect another series to do anything with most of the stories from this tale (which were wrapped up, just not fully explored before they reached their end). Injustice wasn't the best of the current glut of crime dramas on TV, but a second series wouldn't be wholly unwelcome.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

The National Lottery: Who Dares Wins
4x07 (11/6/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Scott & Bailey
1x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Films

Valley of Fear (1983)
[#64 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

TV

Dermot's Big Fat Comedy Gala
Dermot O'Leary presents an hour-long advert -- sorry, behind-the-scenes special -- for Channel 4's second O2 comedy event in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital.
(Incidentally, I really ought to stop watching so many things a whole week after they were broadcast. Though tell that to some of the unfinished series I haven't watched for months...)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

How I Met Your Mother
6x15 Oh Honey
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Injustice
Episode 4 (of 5)
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Articles

Review: Awkward, uneven Green Lantern packs no punch by Drew McWeeny
(from Motion Captured at Hit Fix)
This is going to surprise some fanboys who have been salivating over the trailers. Personally, I thought they all looked dreadful and this doesn't surprise me one bit. I don't expect it will connect with a wide audience... but then crap makes tonnes of money at the box office all the time, so we'll have to wait and see.

Woody and Buzz Lightyear as Badass Action Figures
(from Live For Films)
Title says it all:

Click to enlarge.

TV

Archer
2x07 Movie Star
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Injustice
Episode 3 (of 5)
Some TV series have to be sliced right back if Hollywood latches on to them for an adaptation (see: State of Play), but I could imagine this quite comfortably squidging down into a two-hour version. Still two episodes to go, mind, but so little has happened that it doesn't feel over halfway through.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Mock the Week
10x01 (9/6/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

$#*! My Dad Says
1x15 Ed Goes to Court
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Articles

Duke Nukem's PR threatens to punish sites that run negative reviews by Ben Kuchera
(from Opposable Thumbs at Ars Technica)
It's a little startling that the idea of blacklisting outlets that give negative reviews seems to just be an accepted part of gaming PR. It's things like that that prove it's an industry still not half as grown-up as it likes to think it is.

Lee Mack 'winces at early Not Going Out' by Morgan Jeffery
(from Digital Spy)
I thought early Not Going Out was funnier and more original than the recent series have been, probably for the reasons Mack dislikes it. Oh well.
(Also, I think I missed at the time (back in April) that it's been commissioned for two more series. Even if it's not as good as it was, this is still good news.)

Oscars to allow five to ten 'Best Picture' nominees by Simon Reynolds
(from Digital Spy)

'Best Picture' nominees will now need to receive at least 5% of first-place votes from AMPAS members to make the cut, meaning between five and ten movies will be nominated.

Good plan, thinks I. Also adds to the fun of predicting the Oscars -- "how many nominations will there be this year?", etc.

TV

Injustice
Episode 2 (of 5)
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Lead Balloon
4x02 Dead
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Law Abiding Citizen: Director's Cut (2009)
[#63 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

Articles

No full series for Doctor Who in 2012 by Chuck Foster
(from Doctor Who News Page)

[BBC1 Controller] Danny Cohen says there won't be a full series of Doctor Who in 2012, but a special run for the anniversary in 2013.

So goes the report. Not entirely sure what I feel about this; depends a little on exactly how many episodes we see in 2012 and what exactly a "special run" in 2013 means.

TV

Injustice
Episode 1 (of 5)
New five-part thriller by Anthony Horowitz, which was shown one-per-day last week. Last time ITV had a five-part Horowitz-penned drama in one week it was a bit rubbish, but Injustice gets off to a more promising start bit doesn't hold a candle to recent high-quality output in the genre (the likes of The Shadow Line, for instance), with it's irritatingly clichéd characters and leaden expositional speeches, but it holds promise in some of it's mysteries. It remains to be seen if certain elements have relevance or if that's just a side effect of he odd/sluggish pace.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Robot Chicken
3x16 Boo Cocky
3x17 Bionic Cow
3x18 Monstourage
3x19 President Evil
3x20 Chirlaxx [season finale]
And that's that done too. Now I need to find another comedy series to fill my lazy late nights...

Articles

Robert Downey Jr, Jon Favreau: 'Iron Man 3 will be tricky' by Tara Fowler
(from Digital Spy)

on how the release of The Avengers will affect Iron Man 3... "I guess in comics you can say that it's an individual storyline and you can break it off into a group," said Favreau. "But in movies, it's hard not to take into consideration what just happened. What are you gonna say? 'They all just lost their cell phones and you can't get help?' So it's going to take a lot of ingenuity to make it make sense to a mainstream film audience"

TV

Case Histories
1x01 Case Histories Part 1
1x02 Case Histories Part 2
Adaptation of Kate Atkinson's novel -- she's having a good month! Pretty decent, though the best thing about it was the cute little dog owned by the sisters... so why did they kill him off?! Poor doggy.
For the interested, the official BBC site (linked above) has a tonne of articles about the series, many more than they normally bother with.
[Watch parts one and two (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

The Artist Uggie wins 2011 'Palm Dog' by Mayer Nissim
(from Digital Spy)
They have an award for the best dog in a film at Cannes! That's brilliant!

TV

Have I Got News For You
41x09 (10/6/11 edition; extended repeat) [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Mentalist
3x24 Strawberries & Cream Part II [season finale]
Holy moly, that was a good ending! Where does it go from here though? We'll have to wait ages to find out. Damn you television, with your seasons!
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

Paul Merton's Birth of Hollywood
Part 2 (of 3)
Part 3 (of 3)
It's hard not to be angry with the way the industry and press treated Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, as documented in the middle part of Paul Merton's typically interesting series about the rise of Hollywood, though it comes as no surprise to learn William Randolph Hearst was one of the chief villains.
The final part, meanwhile, details the end of the silent era and the birth of sound, amongst other things. Merton doesn't make a point of it, but it's a little depressing for those of us who like silent cinema how many of the classics on display here are unavailable on DVD, even after about a decade and a half of the format's existence.
[Watch parts two and three (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Leicester City Council 'not ready' for zombie attack
(from BBC News)
This whole article is excellent -- as The Kids say, "ROFLMAO".

Tom Hanks' Playtone Productions Announces Neil Gaiman's American Gods, Mattel's Major Matt Mason, Green Day's American Idiot by Karen Chu
(from The Hollywood Reporter)
You might think they're turning Gaiman's novel into a film, but oh no:

set to produce a six-season, open-ended series, American Gods, for HBO, based on Neil Gaiman’s award-winning novel... Each of the six seasons will be of 10-12, hour-long episodes with a budget of around $35-40 million per season, targeted to debut on the cable powerhouse in 2013 at the earliest.

Well, crikey.

Collection Count

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

A complete five-season TV series adds some big boosts this week.

Number of titles in collection: 1,324 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,114 [up 3]
Of which Blu-rays: 210 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 3,287 [up 27]
Number of films in collection: 1,396 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,908 [up 68]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
9x08 (3/6/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Robot Chicken
3x09 Celebutard Mountain
3x10 Moesha Poppins
3x11 Ban on the Fun
3x12 Losin' the Wobble
3x13 Slaughterhouse on the Prairie

Films

Ip Man (2008)
[#62 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)
[#61 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

TV

Archer
2x06 Tragical History
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Scott & Bailey
1x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

$#*! My Dad Says
1x14 Corn Star
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

TV

Robot Chicken
3x06 Endless Breadsticks
3x07 Yancy the Yo-Yo Boy
3x08 More Blood, More Chocolate
3x14 Robot Chicken's Half-Assed Christmas Special

Films

X-Men: First Class (2011)
[#60 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

Articles

BBC confirms fourteen new episodes of Doctor Who by Chuck Foster
(from Doctor Who News Page)
Hurrah! One would assume this means a Christmas special plus a regular thirteen-episode series, but rumblings seem to suggest it may mean something else...

First Conan Doyle novel to be published by Emma Saunders
(from BBC News)
Written before he created Sherlock Holmes, the first novel penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is to finally be published for the first time. This bit of the article amused me:

Rachel Foss, lead curator of modern literary manuscripts at the British Library, is set to publish The Narrative of John Smith this autumn. She said it had been part of the British Library's Conan Doyle collection since 2007 and realised it would make a good publishing project.

So, how long did it take them to realise an unpublished novel by an immensely and enduringly popular novelist would make a "good publishing project"?!

TV

Have I Got News For You
41x08 (3/6/11 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Robot Chicken
3x01 Werewolf vs. Unicorn
3x15 Tubba-Bubba's Now Hubba-Hubba
3x02 Squaw Bury Shortcake
3x03 Rabbits on a Roller Coaster
3x04 Tapping a Hero
3x05 Shoe

Fiction

Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver
Tuesday: Death in the Sand, Chapters 25-31
Picking this back up after an accidental near-week-long break. This time: a twist! Ah-ha! While it's moderately effective, it also makes the whole escapade feel like an aside and so much padding... but maybe it has some as-yet-unrevealed significance. We shall, of course, see.

Articles

How Much Do Music Artists Earn Online? by David McCandless
(from Information is Beautiful)
The revolution in downloading music is often painted as being great for artists and consumers alike, but this infographic handily shows how it isn't great for artists at all. And that's not to do with whether or not they can strike it rich like superstars of old (or new), but whether they can even earn minimum wage. The answer, as you might've guessed, is "not easily".

If the internet gave free back rubs, people would complain when it stopped because its thumbs were sore by Charlie Brooker
(from Comment is free at guardian.co.uk)
Similarly (because it's launched from people moaning about music service Spotify), Brooker on how people moan about stuff that is ridiculously free/cheap on the Internet; or, "kids today don't know how good they've got it".

I ranted about precisely this on Twitter the other day – using that precise line about back rubs – and a couple of people told me to shut up because I was annoying them. Since Twitter is a) free and b) only displays commentary from those you chose to follow, this, too, is madness – like tailing someone down the street only to complain about the tune they've chosen to hum.

The Monday Muse: Too many movies by ghostof82
(from Musings of the Ghost Of 82)

Sometimes I feel like I’m hitting some kind of saturation point regards movies. There’s just too many of them, too much availability, too much access. Feels like there’s too many new films coming out and too many old films that I want to watch again, and too little time.

TV

French Open 2011
Men's Final: Rafael Nadal v Roger Federer
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1: Behind the Magic
With Part 2 imminent, I figured it was about time I cleared this off my V+ box. Surprisingly interesting (for a TV-broadcast promotional making-of).

How I Met Your Mother
6x14 Last Words
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Articles

A Good Man Goes To War - UK Press reaction by Chuck Foster
(from Doctor Who News Page)
"Not so positive" would be my summary, based just on these quotes.

Review of A Good Man Goes to War by Patrick Mulkern
(from Radio Times' Doctor Who Blog)
A witty and insightful look back at the mid-season finale.

this week on 100 Films

3 new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

this version is certainly more Hollywoodised. Some hate it, and I can see their point… but it is fun, and it’s plain to see why men and women alike have fallen for Hepburn’s Golightly. A more sordid adaptation of the book might be interesting, but that doesn’t negate the unique qualities of the film.

Funny Face (1957)

a surfeit of excellent humour, choreography, cinematography, light satire of both the fashion world and the intellectual world… Indeed, dishing out said satire in both directions means the film never comes across as either snobbish or anti-intellectual… it takes fair jibes at both equally.

Sabrina (1954)

Then there’s Humphrey Bogart… At least his character is pretending to fall for [Hepburn] in order to get her away from his wastrel brother. But it actually feels very mean-spirited — Sabrina is likeable enough that we dislike his machinations. Which means that there’s no truly supportable lead character.

As these are three Audrey Hepburn films there's also a little summary post here.

Plus May finished in the middle of the week (in case you didn't notice), so there was the regular monthly update.

More next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Who
32x07 A Good Man Goes to War [mid-season finale]
Answers! But also, many questions!
And on that note, Doctor Who returns later this year. I believe someone said September...
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who Confidential
6x07 The Born Identity [mid-season finale]
That episode title still doesn't appear on the BBC website's episode guide. I'd assumed it was spoilersome, but... well, it's not really, is it.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Mentalist
3x23 Strawberries & Cream Part I
This aired as a two-hour season finale in the US; here, Channel 5 have decided to split it in two. Boo. They made a two-hour season finale out of two completely unrelated episodes either last year or in season one (I forget; maybe both), but when it's an actual two-parter... tsk.
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

The National Lottery: Who Dares Wins
4x06 (4/6/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Robot Chicken
2x16 Drippy Pony
2x12 The Munnery
2x11 Adoption's an Option
2x17 Day at the Circus
2x18 Lust for Puppets
2x19 Anne Marie's Pride (aka Donkey Punch)
2x20 Book of Corrine [season finale]

TV

Archer
2x05 The Double Deuce
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

The Graham Norton Show
9x07 (27/5/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Paul Merton's Birth of Hollywood
Part 1 (of 3)
Merton's a solid documentary maker, and here he tells the story of the beginnings of Hollywood -- how did America come to dominate the film world, why in the middle of nowhere in California, etc etc. Very good.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

$#*! My Dad Says
1x13 The Better Father
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Collection Count

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

This week my DVD total lands on 1,111. Which doesn't really mean anything, it's just... well, you can see what it is...

Number of titles in collection: 1,320 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,111 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 209 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 3,260 [up 4]
Number of films in collection: 1,393 [up 4]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,840 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Lead Balloon
4x01 Pig
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Mentalist
3x22 Rhapsody in Red
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

Scott & Bailey
1x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Films

Jonah Hex (2010)
[#59 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

DVD Extras

The Inside Story of Jonah Hex
Featurette on the Jonah Hex Blu-ray that takes a quick look at the history of the character in comics.

TV

The Culture Show
The Sounds of Hugh Laurie [special]
Laurie seems to have been everywhere promoting his album -- we've already had a whole hour-long special in ITV's culture series, for instance -- and here one of the Beeb's culture strands sits him down for a brief chat with a couple of singsongs. Nothing hugely new or hugely revelatory after all those other appearances, but nice enough.

The Shadow Line
Part 4 (of 7)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

The Event
1x22 Arrival [series finale]
So that's that for The Event, cancelled post-finale in the US -- which means we get a cliffhanger here. Fortunately a lot of threads are wrapped up first, so it doesn't make for a wholly unsatisfying ending. It's a shame the series never really latched on with viewers (both Stateside and here, where C4 ended up burying it around midnight), because it got a lot better as it went on. Aside from Leila's clichéd pregnancy reveal (they could really have done with killing her off when they had the chance), the handful of last-minute revelations were all very intriguing for where they'd've gone next. Shame.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Have I Got News For You
41x07 (27/5/11 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Fiction

Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver
Tuesday: Death in the Sand, Chapters 19-24

Articles

The Hobbit Films Get Official Titles by James White
(from Empire)
It's official: they're to be called The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again. Which is nice.

TV

Britain's Next Big Thing
Episode 7 (of 7)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Family Guy
9x07 Road to the North Pole [Christmas special]
5x09 Road to Rupert
BBC Three had a night of Family Guy's Road to... episodes last night, which I V+d and watched in the early hours. Sadly, they chose to only show five of the six (skipping Road to Germany), two of which I'd watched quite recently, and then my recording of the last one mucked up -- so their 'night' turns into 'two episodes'. Hey-ho.
The first one is last Christmas' hour-long (in the US) special and is all kinds of sick and twisted. I loved it. New favourite Christmas TV special! Yay!

Fiction

Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver
Sunday: The Red Danube, Chapters 1-5
Monday: The Rag-and-Bone Man, Chapters 6-18

Here we go, the new Bond novel. Unlike Faulks' effort from a few years ago, this one makes like the films and drags Bond into the present day, all GCHQ and al-Qaeda and iPhones and whatnot.

We'll see how it goes, but it starts well: the first five chapters are effectively the pre-titles, an action sequence in which Bond stops some kind of disaster that has an ancillary connection to the main plot that'll follow. In the process it sets up the new world order -- the 30-something Bond who in 2011 works for an organisation more secret than MI6; his app-laden phone, complete with orders delivered via text message; his ruthless but appropriate mindset -- plus story specifics, like the threat this novel will tackle -- real-world (no hollowed-out volcanoes, of course) but appropriately grand -- and a Bond-equalling henchman character. Good going.

The pace consciously slows after that, taking Bond back to London and indulging in even more world-building. This is a Bond reboot, even more so than Casino Royale, so we briefly learn how this Bond was recruited (three years ago) and where the fictional organisation he works for sits in the make-up of MI5/MI6/etc. Plus Chapter 9 introduces us to the villain, a properly nasty piece of work thanks to his hobby. Bodes well for later. (I mean how evil he is, not the hobby per se.) And in Chapter 18, Bond doesn't sleep with a woman. Very modern. But, even though it would seem anti-Bond, it works, continuing to establish how the character might well be now, rather than dragging a product of the '50s into the '00s.

Remember the review I mentioned the other day, criticising the writing? Most of it's fine. I've certainly read worse. The foul-sounding "steaming curds" as a description for lovely scrambled eggs does stand out, though, as does this nasty use of a made-up verb:

He greeted a smartly dressed Asian woman keyboarding deftly at a large computer

Ouch. Damn American writers.

So, most importantly: does it feel like Bond? Yes and no. While previous continuation (i.e. non-Fleming) novels have slowly shifted Bond into the era they were written (much as the films did), I've never read any of them, so for me the literary Bond has always occurred in the '50s and '60s (or, in the case of Young Bond, even earlier). Unlike Faulks, who emulated Fleming as far as possible, this reads to me like a classic Bond novel crossed with a modern thriller... which I guess is the point.

Articles

Matthew Vaughn On X-Men: First Class – On The Writing Credits, On The Bond Influence, On The Difficult Shoot And More by Brendon Connelly
(from Bleeding Cool)
A variety of interesting questions and answers with... well, the title sums it up.

TV

The National Lottery: Who Dares Wins
4x05 (28/5/11 edition)
The lists feel more desperately obscure/specific every week. And pity the poor girl who managed to throw away two out of three lists she played by guessing answers that were almost correct.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Vera
1x04 Little Lazarus [season finale]
Generally this is quite good, though in this case marred by some niggly plot holes (mainly to do with the husband).
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Articles

Agreeing and Disagreeing with Roger Ebert on Dim Projection by Tim League
(from Alamo Blog at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema)
A response to/continuation of Ebert's article the other day on dim projection of movies. It shows it can be done right, but, as Ebert says in the comments, "I have a sinking feeling that many theaters do not make the effort you describe".

Films That Killed Studios by Helen Cox
(from New Empress Magazine)
If you're a film fan you may well be familiar with some or all of these stories, but it's still quite astonishing to see how studios have been killed just by a single misjudged film.

this week on 100 Films

3 new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week. As they included both versions of Assault on Precinct 13, I did a Make/Remake feature on them here.

And the rest of the reviews included...

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

I should probably also note that the main cop character is black and the main criminal is white, which I imagine was revolutionary in the ’70s. To be honest, it would probably go against the norm today — note how the remake reverted to (stereo)type.

Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)

In terms of the representation of race on screen, this is a film that could certainly be seen as a step backwards. While the original had a black police officer in charge of a white criminal, here not only is the lead officer white — as are all but one of the dozens of other policemen — but all the criminals inside the precinct are black or (in one case) hispanic. Ouch.

Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story (2005)

it does feel like three Family Guy episodes stitched together. Much like that other stitched-together-from-three-animated-TV-episodes movie, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the events of part one (or the first twenty-odd minutes) seem entirely separated from the two-parter that makes up the back hour. Fortunately the Family Guy team seem to have more common sense than their Lucasfilm counterparts, choosing to link back round to the start for their film’s climax, tying it all together after all.

More next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Who
32x06 The Almost People
32x06a Prequel to Episode 7
Helluva cliffhanger -- impressive to live up to all the hype they've been giving it! And a teasing prequel indeed. I suspect we may finally get some answers next week... though as it's part one of two, and as we're halfway through the split-in-two season, I suspect there'll still be more than enough questions.
[Watch The Almost People (again) in HD on iPlayer, and the Prequel to Episode 7 on the official website.]

House
7x23 Moving On [season finale]
That was remarkably inconclusive. Ah well.

Robot Chicken
2x09 Massage Chair
2x13 Metal Militia
2x14 Veggies for Sloth
2x15 Sausage Fest

TV

The Graham Norton Show
9x06 (20/5/11 edition)
One of the least enjoyable Grahams ever, if you ask me. Ho hum.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Have I Got News For You
41x06 (20/5/11 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Robot Chicken
2x04 Celebrity Rocket
2x02 Federated Resources
2x05 Dragon Nuts
2x07 Cracked China
2x08 Rodigitti
2x10 Password: Swordfish
Ooh, Doctor Who reference! But no, I didn't get it... not 'til I read this.

Collection Count

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

Quite a lot of stuff turning up this week, one of them a DVD-to-BD upgrade of a box set that adds even more films to it. Lovely! Also, the running time update. Shiny!

Number of titles in collection: 1,316 [up 7]
Of which DVDs: 1,110 [up 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 206 [up 5]

Number of discs in collection: 3,256 [up 10]
Number of films in collection: 1,389 [up 9]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,840 [up 24]

As I said, it's time for a running time update, so...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
234 days, and 31 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 4 hours, and 8 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

How I Met Your Mother
6x13 Bad News
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Shadow Line
Part 3 (of 7)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

The Thief (1952)
[#58 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

Articles

Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver – review by Steven Poole
(from guardian.co.uk)
aka the new James Bond novel. This is a marvellously scathing review! Of course, this is just a thriller being reviewed by a broadsheet critic, so maybe the novel isn't so bad -- other reviews, like The Telegraph's and the Evening Standard's, are most positive -- but this review's still a good read.

The dying of the light by Roger Ebert
(from Roger Ebert's Journal)
On how 3D projectors in cinemas are ruining the projection of 2D movies. And they really are. This is also an interesting stat:

David Poland of MovieCityNews.com ran the numbers and determined 60% of sales [for Pirates of the Caribbean 4] were in 2D and 40% in 3D: "Not only is this a clear rejection of 3D on a major movie, but given how distribution is currently designed, it makes you wonder whether Disney cost themselves a lot of gross by putting their film on too high a percentage of 3D screens."

/Film Interview: X-Men: First Class Director Matthew Vaughn by Germain Lussier
(from /Film)
Title says it all. He also discusses the prospect of a sequel to Kick-Ass:

We might do it. People forget that Kick Ass we made for $28 million and now with DVD and everything else has made $225 million in revenue so it’s done great business. A lot of people say it could be like Austin Powers how the first one people couldn’t get their heads around, they all discovered it on video and then the second one was a huge blockbuster... There could be one but if I do a sequel to that it’s gotta be just as good, if not better.

TV

Archer
2x04 Pipeline Fever
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

The Mentalist
3x21 Like a Redheaded Stepchild
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

$#*! My Dad Says
1x12 Goodson Goes Deep
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Articles

Clash of the versus movies by Stuart Heritage
(from Film Blog at guardian.co.uk)

by the time that Dinosaurs v Aliens rolls around, we'll have been hit over the head with such an extraordinary number of similar movies that we won't care whether the dinosaurs or the aliens win. Mark my words, soon we'll all be suffering from versus fatigue.

Already in the pipeline are films such as Strippers v Werewolves, Gladiators v Werewolves, Aliens v Ninjas, Boy Scouts v Zombies, Humans v Zombies, Aliens v Avatars, Cockneys v Zombies and Michael Bay's Zombies v Robots. Add this to the teetering stack of versus movies made by The Asylum (including Alien v Hunter, Mega Shark v Giant Octopus and Mega Shark v Crocosaurus) and you would be forgiven for despairing at the film industry's staggering lack of imagination.

But why do so many of them feature zombies?! Are they the new vampires? Can we expect a Twilight-y human-zombie teen romance soon?

Oprah Winfrey: 10 moments that made her by Tom Geoghegan
(from BBC News Magazine)
Sounds like it's just a list of memorable things from her chat show, but it's actually a more analytical piece than that (through the prism of a top ten list), which makes it interesting.

Vaughn: 'X-Men: First Class influenced by Bond' by Zakia Uddin
(from Digital Spy)

He also teased a follow-up to the movie that could open with the assassination of John F.Kennedy, who has been shot with a "magic bullet controlled by Magneto".

Ooh, good idea!

X-Men: First Class Reviews from
Digital Spy by Ben Rawson-Jones
Empire by Dan Jolin
Total Film by Rosie Fletcher
Consensus so far (based also on other comments I've read scattered about) is that it's excellent, perhaps the best X-Men film yet. Super.

TV

Britain's Next Big Thing
Episode 6 (of 7)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Event
1x21 The Beginning of the End
Only one episode left?! Feels like there's much more to go. Hope it isn't too much of a cliffhanger...
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Robot Chicken
2x00 Christmas Special
2x01 Suck It
2x03 Easter Basket
2x06 1987
The special, included as an extra on the season two DVD, aired in the US on December 22, 2005 (between seasons one and two) and simply includes a couple of sketches from the first season and one from second.
Compilationtastic.
I fastforwarded the first season ones. And said second season sketch was in Easter Basket, so naturally I fastforwarded it the second time.
Fastforwardedtastic.

Yes, Prime Minister
1x07 The Bishop's Gambit

TV

The National Lottery: Who Dares Wins
4x04 (21/5/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

How Black People Use Twitter by Farhad Manjoo
(from Slate)
The subject of this article is something I have also noticed and been intrigued by, so I find this to be noticeably intriguing.

Review of Anno Dracula - New Edition by Blackgloves
(from Horrorview)
Interesting, insightful review of Kim Newman's seminal modern-classic SF/F novel.

TV

The British Academy Television Awards 2011
And that's the kind of thing that happens if you let your Audience Award be voted for on YouTube.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Music

Let Them Talk by Hugh Laurie
I was interested in this anyway, but having seen him promoting & performing from it all over TV recently it became a must-have. Didn't disappoint.

Articles

Sunday Herald names footballer accused on Twitter
(from BBC News)

"It seems to us a ludicrous situation where we are supposed to keep from our readers the identity of someone who anybody can find out on the internet at the click of a mouse, and in fact many people have already done so."

Quite right. More relevant comments along these lines in the article, plus the government report on super-injunctions where old out-of-touch justice-types once again misunderstand the potential, relevance, and importance of new technology.

this week on 100 Films

2 new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...

Death Race (2008)

everything that happens is an excuse to get to some action sequences, in which cars race around a circuit and attempt to destroy each other in some moderately creative ways. It caters perfectly to its intended audience: there’s fast cars, sexy girls, lots of action, big explosions. It doesn’t always make sense — those sexy girls are really shoehorned in — but that doesn’t really matter.

Iron Man 2 (2010)

I think Iron Man 2 has been underrated — I would contend that it is, more or less, as good as the first film. That didn’t seem to be the consensus at the time of release, which ranged from mediocre to rubbish, and I think this is in part due to viewers’ expectations. When one thinks a first film is better than it is, expectations for the sequel are heightened; when said sequel is only as good as the first film really was, it looks worse by comparison

Also this week, I pondered the movies everybody's seen but you, as dictated by iCheckMovies.com, including the top 10 I've not seen. Do have a look at my post and see what your ones are.

More next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Who
32x05 The Rebel Flesh
I really enjoyed that -- a proper Doctor Who story, I thought, and certainly my favourite of the series so far. Rory was brilliant in it, it was pretty scary in places, there are some great concepts and ideas that are being properly explored, and even if the cliffhanger was a tad obvious I'm sure it's thoroughly shocking if you're a kid. Fingers very crossed next week's second half can keep this quality up.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

No Ordinary Family
1x07 No Ordinary Mobster
Haven't watched this since February -- been too much on regular telly -- and it's been cancelled, but gotta finish season one...

Robot Chicken
1x14 Joint Point
1x17 Operation Rich in Spirit
1x19 That Hurts Me
1x20 The Black Cherry [season finale]

Yes, Prime Minister
1x06 A Victory for Democracy

Films

The King's Speech (2010)
[#57 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

Articles

Top 10 Spectacular Long Takes by James Oliver
(from MovieMail)
I love a long take, and here are ten of the best -- complete with clips and links to order the films on DVD.

TV

Plenty today...

Archer
2x03 Blood Test
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

The Event
1x20 One Will Live, One Will Die
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

House
7x22 After Hours
Different; good. Season finale next week! Crikey.

How I Met Your Mother
6x12 False Positive
Another strong episode. After struggling a bit (and coming in for some flack for it), HIMYM seems to have re-found its earlier narratively-playful groove. Nice.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

$#*! My Dad Says
1x11 Family Dinner for Schmucks
So this has been cancelled. It's not the greatest sitcom ever, but it's entertaining enough. Ah well.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

The South Bank Show
37x10 The Final Cut [series finale]
The last-ever edition of ITV's long-running arts show, which aired nearly a year ago now. It looks at South Bank itself, though in its usual atypical way: rather than just providing a history of the series it interviews three of its filmmakers to find out why they did things the way they did them. Very good.

Articles

The Impossible Astronaut - most recorded TV show of all time by Chuck Foster
(from Doctor Who News Page)
4.11 million people chose to record the opening episode of this series of Doctor Who and watch it within a week; the next nearest is the first episode of Come Fly With Me, with 3.29 million. That's quite a margin.
It's interesting to look at the full top ten, compiled here. The quote in the article points out they're all within the last three years -- that's true, but it's more impressive to look at it this way: nine of them are within the last 12 months. The anomaly is Christmas 2008's astonishingly popular Wallace & Gromit special. Also worthy of note that, of those nine, three of them were on Christmas Day 2010.
I'm also not sure I believe this is the real top ten: there's very neatly ten different series on there, series which are all enormously popular and air many episodes per year (as opposed to it being full of one-off dramas or sports events, etc), so how can it be that (for instance) 3.17 million people recorded one episode of The X Factor but no more than 2.37 million recorded any other? That doesn't seem to make sense.
But hey-ho, Doctor Who is still #1!

$#*! My Dad Says Creator, Father React to Show's Cancellation
(from The Live Feed at The Hollywood Reporter)
The news it's been cancelled is just news -- this response is pretty funny, but also heartwarming... in the way the show itself is heartwarming, so...

Waterstone's sold off as Amazon eBook sales bite by Nicole Kobie
(from PC Pro)
"For every hardback we sell online, we sell four eBooks online" -- this kind of statistic shouldn't surprise anyone. Who wants a huge, heavy, expensive hardback when you can have the same text on a highly portable eBook reader for the same price or less? It would be more interesting statistically to see how eBooks stack up against paperbacks.

Collection Count

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

This week, the number of Blu-rays I own passes the 200 mark. Woo! They now make up just over 15% of my collection.

Number of titles in collection: 1,309 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,108 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 201 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 3,246 [up 3]
Number of films in collection: 1,380 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,816 [up 6]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Doctor Who Confidential
6x04 Bigger on the Inside
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Graham Norton Show
9x05 (13/5/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Vera
1x03 The Crow Trap
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Films

Iron Man 2 (2010)
[#56 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]
Read my review here.

TV

Perspectives
1x04 Down by the River [season finale]
ITV1's South Bank replacement lets Hugh Laurie explain his love for blues music, culminating in his recent performance in New Orleans. It's perhaps not as intellectual as South Bank, which is probably the point, but it's certainly as informative and entertaining. The series also has a surprisingly extensive website, by ITV standards.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Wonderland
3x04 The Trouble with Love and Sex
Meanwhile, one of the BBC's documentary strands looks at the effect of Relate counsellors on relationships, through recordings of actual sessions visualised through animation. Interesting.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Yes, Prime Minister
1x05 A Real Partnership
This isn't a documentary. But it almost could be. And one about today's politics, too. Shocking, really, considering it was made over 25 years ago.

Films

Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)
[#55 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]
More importantly, however, this is the 500th new film I've watched while doing 100 Films! Crikey, eh.

TV

Britain's Next Big Thing
Episode 5 (of 7)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Robot Chicken
1x10 Badunkadunk
1x11 Toy Meets Girl
1x12 Midnight Snack
1x13 Atta Toy

Yes, Prime Minister
1x04 The Key

TV

The Mentalist
3x20 Redacted
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

The Shadow Line
Part 2 (of 7)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Exclusive: Tintin One-Sheet Online by Phil de Semlyen
(from Empire)
Brilliant. And look how big the writers' names are! The writers!
Trailer tomorrow, apparently.

No way to run a railway brand - how South West Trains have managed to trash their image. by Chris Arnold
(from Arnold on Ethical Marketing at Brand Republic)
This article feels like it's getting nowhere about something you've not heard, if you read it from the start. I suggest jumping to paragraph four ("The whole incident revolves around...") to get to the shocking point. If you keep going 'til the end, you'll find there's a petition here.

TV

The Event
1x19 Us or Them
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Have I Got News For You
41x05 (13/5/11 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

How I Met Your Mother
6x11 The Mermaid Theory
Hurrah for HIMYM being back on E4! Personally, I thought that was an exceptionally good episode.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Films

The Princess and the Frog (2009)
[#54 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

Articles

My mighty hammering over Thor by Roger Ebert
(from Roger Ebert's Journal)
Ebert defends his review of the Thor movie in the wake of ridiculous criticism from 'fans'.

this week on 100 Films

3 new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week -- coincidentally, all of films from 2009! They were...

(500) Days of Summer (2009)

An opening voiceover warns the viewer that “this is not a love story”. Of course, it is, just one without the traditional ending... romantics would do well to heed this warning anyway, otherwise they might find themselves disappointed. However, viewers who are prepared for a story that rings true... may well be pleasantly surprised. It’s not wholly unique, but equally it doesn’t feel derivative.

An Education (2009)

The film hangs on Carey Mulligan, justly nominated for her performance. Quite aside from whether the performance is awards-worthy or not, it’s effortlessly watchable... On the other hand, some have found her character too pretentious or naïve — maybe your own background will dictate if you see these negative traits.

Up in the Air (2009)

It’s easy to see how Clooney’s character — very much the centre of the piece — could be irritating or vapid or any number of other negative adjectives, but instead he’s… well, he’s George Clooney, isn’t he? He’s all charm. If you were going to be fired, you’d probably want George Clooney to be doing it.

Also worth noting (relatively) is that (500) Days of Summer is the 500th review of a feature-length film to be posted as part of 100 Films! It's not the 500th film though, as I've reviewed a variety of non-counted films. But that 500th is imminent...

More next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Who
32x04 The Doctor's Wife
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Eurovision Song Contest: Düsseldorf 2011
Thought this year's winner was a bit of a mediocre effort -- there were several much better songs. Still, at least the unusually close voting made for relatively interesting viewing.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Family Guy Presents Seth & Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show

Vera
1x02 Telling Tales
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Films

Salt: Director's Cut (2010)
[#53 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

Collection Count

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

Once again this entry is delayed a day, this time by Blogger's unexpected downtime, and also a few hours too, by unexpected downtime from my ISP. Thrilling.

Number of titles in collection: 1,307 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,108 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 199 [up 4]

Number of discs in collection: 3,243 [up 5]
Number of films in collection: 1,379 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,810 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Blogger, fixed

So Blogger seems all fixed now, and despite my earlier fears everything is back. Hurrah!

Consequently, there's two days worth of posts -- that's TV for Thursday, Articles that were going to be on Thursday but are now Friday because they are, and TV and Films for Friday too. Super.

The latest Collection Count update is, once again, bumped to Saturday.