Articles

Universal 100th Anniversary Plans
by Dave Foster (from Home Cinema @ The Digital Fix)

Relevant to DVD and Blu-ray fans are the studio's efforts to restore thirteen films over the course of the centennial year... Universal Home Entertainment will be introducing a limited edition 100th Anniversary Collector’s Series featuring some of the aforementioned film restorations on Blu-ray in collectible, book-style packaging...

In addition, special collections will be released throughout the year culminating in the highly anticipated Blu-ray releases of Universal’s Classic Monster and Alfred Hitchcock series. A selection of movies that have shaped Universal’s legacy will also be released in commemorative packaging, many of them on Blu-ray for the first time ever.

Exciting stuff. More details at the link.

They've also rejigged their logo for the anniversary -- about time, I think, because the old '97 CGI was beginning to get a bit tired. Here's the swish but faithful new look, as unveiled by universal100.tumblr.com.

Click to enlarge.

this week on 100 Films

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

Centurion (2010)

The story moves quickly, keeping the momentum up. Indeed, at times it moves so fast that some characters seem to be given short shrift. There’s a “who will survive?” element to the plot — Marshall’s horror roots showing through, perhaps — but you can largely guess which order they’ll be shuffled off in based on, a) how much screen time the character has, and b) the good old deciding factor of “which actors are most recognisable”.

The Spider Woman (1944)

the story sees Sherlock Holmes fake his own death to help tackle the Irene Adler-esque titular woman, apparently his intellectual match, who’s somehow causing a spree of suicides. Several borrowed elements — the faked death and The Woman — lead to some delicious scenes, such as when an incognito Holmes meets the woman, who is actually aware of his true identity. Gale Sondergaard is so good that they crafted a sequel around her

And in case you missed them last week, a pair of looks back at 2011 -- my watched list & statistics for the past year and my top ten (and bottom five) -- are obviously still available.

More next Sunday.

TV

The Great Sport Relief Bake Off
Episode 1 (of 4)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The House of Rooms
1x01 Episode 1 - Paul
Or Milton Jones's House of Rooms, as the listings would have it. It's a pilot, but they called it Episode 1 on screen -- confidant. It was completely barmy, which you should expect from Jones really, and quite fun because of it. Go on C4, make a series.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Jonathan Ross Show
2x01 (7/1/12 edition)
Still not got round to the Christmas special. Ho hum.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

The Magicians
2x01 Episode 1
I can see why they've made it live -- for tricks like the social media one and, even more so, the public vote -- but it did make it feel rather clunky and unpolished at times. Hopefully it was first night nerves and things will firm up as the series goes on, because it's still a fun show.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Pointless
5x42 (11/1/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Underworld: Extended Cut (2003)
[3rd watch]

Technically my second watch, for this version (the first being the theatrical cut, in the cinema right back in '03). Last time was just before the first sequel hit cinemas, so about six years ago.

My opinion on it hasn't changed a great deal in that time, though I may have grown out of it a little more... but then I was always aware the dialogue was frequently clunky, the desaturated look a bit forced, the production design self-consciously Goth-y, and some of the performances dire: on one hand you have the likes of always-excellent Michael Sheen, on another Bill Nighy hamming it up magnificently, and on another the flat-as-a-pancake Shane Brolly, with the rest of the cast hitting various quality levels around them.

But it's good supernatural/action/Goth-geek-cool fun for all that. I imagine it's a helluva lot better than that other populist vampire vs. werewolf love story of recent times.

TV

Black Mirror
1x03 The Entire History of You [season finale]
Another bloody good episode; possibly the best one, in fact. So that's three for three -- impressive stuff. I hope this gets a re-commission, because intelligent TV sci-fi is much needed and always welcome.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Graham Norton Show
10x10 (6/1/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Perfect Couples
1x12 Perfect Pants
The first of two episodes shown only online in the US. They take place before the wedding, so presumably they were ditched from the TV schedule when the show was cancelled in favour of finishing off the story arc.

Pointless
5x41 (10/1/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Stella
1x01 Episode 1
New comedy-drama written by and starring Ruth Jones. Very good, I thought. So that's another good original comedy on Sky -- what are they playing at?

Articles

Interview: Daniel Handler
by Tasha Robinson (from A.V. Club)
A rather interesting and lengthy interview with the man behind Lemony Snicket about all kinds of things I found quite interesting. So there.

Collection Count

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

Y'see, this is the problem with January: there's all the stuff you didn't get for Christmas to buy, plus the new releases. Why are there so many new releases in January? I guess it's all the stuff they didn't think would sell in the pre-Christmas rush, saved up for the (alleged) post-Christmas lull. Unfortunately for me (or, rather, for my bank balance), I'm interested in all that stuff too.

Number of titles in collection: 1,433 [up 7]
Of which DVDs: 1,148 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 285 [up 7]

Number of discs in collection: 3,569 [up 21]
Number of films in collection: 1,527 [up 8]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,388 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

How I Met Your Mother
7x10 Tick, Tick, Tick...
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Films

Outland (1981)
[#3 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

TV

Law & Order: UK
6x01 Survivor's Guilt
A tough subject matter, left over from last season's cliffhanger, but beautifully handled. Who knew before L&O that Bradley Walsh would turn out to be such a spectacularly good actor?
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

No Ordinary Family
1x16 No Ordinary Proposal
1x17 No Ordinary Love
"Actually, getting hit by that bullet saved his life."
"The only thing that can beat chemical love... is true love."
Oh No Ordinary Family, you are ridiculous. And surprisingly slow. But even though it's been five months since I last watched it, I still feel the need to finish it.

Perfect Couples
1x10 Perfect Exes
1x11 Perfect Wedding
How to make a middling series like Perfect Couples seem better: watch it immediately after No Ordinary Family. Seriously, it worked. (Hence why there's two of each.)

Pointless
5x40 (9/1/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Have I Got News For You
42x11 2011 (extended repeat) [season finale]
Being a best-of-the-year thingamy.
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

The National Lottery: Who Dares Wins
5x01 (7/1/12 edition)
Ah, Who Dares Wins -- rubbish really, but the format's fun for playing along.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Pointless
5x39 (6/1/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Endeavour
I never watched Inspector Morse, but this feature-length prequel was pretty good, and I'm assured it was faithful and fitting to its inspiration too. My guess about the solution was completely, epically wrong.

The Mentalist
4x05 Blood and Sand

The One...
1x01 Lenny Henry
Inspired by the rather good The One Ronnie special from last Christmas (well, the Christmas-before-last now, isn't it), here a selection of other older comedians do a similar thing: a bit of stand-up, a few sketches with Younger Things, and so on. Lenny isn't as good as Ronnie, but some of the sketches were pretty decent nonetheless.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Onion News Network
1x05 The Trial of TR-425

Pointless
5x38 (5/1/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Rhod Gilbert and the Cat That Looked Like Nicholas Lyndhurst
Didn't intend to watch this, but stumbled across it a few minutes in and left it on. I have a bit of a love/hate opinion on Rhod Gilbert's comedy (more of the former, really, but I don't go out of my way to watch him), and this was rather good.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

Sherlock
2x02 The Hounds of Baskerville
Shame about the dodgy CG doggy turning up at the end. That aside, I enjoyed this, a solid modernising of a familiar story with nice nods to the original. The revelation about the morse code was a particularly amusing twist -- hound, dogging, hehehe, etc.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV's 50 Greatest Magic Tricks
Regular readers will know I love a bit of magic, and so what better piece of entertainment than this, Channel 5's three-hour countdown of the best tricks TV has ever offered. And it was brilliant too, though there were quite a few tricks I wish they could've found the time to show in full. And, of course, I wish we were told how they were all done.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Films

Top Hat (1935)
[2nd watch]

Articles

J.J. Abrams Talks Star Trek 2; Says Filming Begins Thursday and 3D Tests on First Star Trek Convinced Him to Post-Convert Sequel
by Christina Radish (from Collider.com)
He also says that the 3D "was something that the studio wanted to do, and I didn’t want to do it." Ah. He goes on:

And then, when I saw the first movie converted in sections, I thought that it actually looked really cool. So, I was okay with their doing it, as long as I could shoot the movie the way I wanted to, in anamorphic film, and then let them convert it. So, those who want to see it in 3D, which looked pretty cool, can do it, and those that want to see it in 2D can do that too

So 2D is his preferred format, I'd say. He also talks about the casting of Benedict Cumberbatch and other bits and bobs like that.

this week on 100 Films

No new reviews on 100 Films in a Year this week, but I have posted my two looks back at the previous year:

The Full List, which lists every film I saw in viewing order, plus a stack of fascinating statistics (now with graphs!)

and

In Retrospect, in which I list my five worst and ten best films of the year, as well as fifty I missed.

And that's 2011 done with... apart from the pile of reviews I still have to post. More of them next Sunday.

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Countdown: The Channel 4 Mash Up
Bits of both shows jumbled together? Ah, a proper mash-up.
[Watch some of it (again) on 4oD.]

Charlie Brooker's 2011 Wipe
Charlie Brooker recaps and satirises the year that was "like an end of season finale for all of mankind".
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Eternal Law
1x01 Episode 1
New supernatural/legal drama from the creators of Life on Mars. Also from the creators of the reviled Bonekickers, which is unfortunately more relevant. Despite the good writers, a good cast and an interesting high concept, this is the victim of weak writing (a slow start, an implausible courtroom), weak acting and too much unnecessary opacity in the way the premise is presented. Shame.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

House
8x08 Perils of Paranoia
This episode, aired in November, was the last one until the end of January. On the one hand, "oh America and your crazy scheduling!" On the other, I haven't watched it until now (partly because it was the last one until January), so what does it matter.

How I Met Your Mother
7x09 Disaster Averted
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Paddy's 2011 Show and Telly
I can't stand Paddy McGuinness, but I love TV and a quiz show about it sounded fun. But it's presented by Paddy McGuinness. Ugh. Appalling, for all kinds of reasons.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player. But I wouldn't if I were you.]

Pointless
5x37 (4/1/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

It really ought to be a quiet time in January, post-Christmas, but it's not going to be completely silent -- look, I've started already!

Number of titles in collection: 1,426 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,148 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 278 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 3,548 [up 11]
Number of films in collection: 1,519 [up 5]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,388 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Absolutely Fabulous
6x01 Identity [Christmas special]
6x02 Job [New Year special]
You assume these kind of revivals are going to be at best pretty weak and at worst hopelessly embarrassing, but I thought these two episodes were actually rather funny. Not sure the mooted movie is a good idea though.
[Watch Identity and Job (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Many Faces of
Dame Judi Dench

The Mentalist
4x03 Pretty Red Balloon
US TV should be re-starting before too long, so I ought to catch up on the ones I've not seen... not that The Mentalist seemed to stop over Christmas.

Pointless
5x36 (3/1/12 edition)
Returning post-Christmas, Pointless returns to new episodes (last aired in October). Not that it matters much to me -- I hadn't seen the repeats they'd been showing anyway. Though I was dreadfully behind on them, and now have them all saved up for when they switch to repeating episodes I have seen.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

QI
9x13 Intelligence (XL edition)
Being the one I missed that I keep going on about.

Articles

Outnumbered to return for fifth series?
by Morgan Jeffery (from Digital Spy)
Fingers crossed for this one. Though I agree the kids are getting a bit too old and they should probably wrap it up soon, I think they should wrap it up soon rather than just stop it, and doing a fifth series this year -- rather than in 2013 as mooted -- seems to the best way to do that.

TV

Earthflight
Part 1 North America (of 6)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Black Mirror
1x02 15 Million Merits
That was a bit bleak and depressing... much like the reality TV & app cultures it was satirising, then. That's what all the best sci-fi does: comment on the here & now. Usually such things are more subtle, but where does subtlety get you these days? And I'm sure plenty of people are too dim to get that this is a comment on where things are at now rather than where they might theoretically end up.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Lee Mack: Going Out
Apparently this was all-new, but as it went on I began to feel like I'd seen some of it before. Maybe just déjà vu, I dunno. (Last time I watched some Lee Mack stand-up, I had seen it before. Coincidencetastic.)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
25x13 Episode 13 [season finale]
Just a best bits show, except for a couple of quite amusing outtakes near the end.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Comic Relief 2011: What a Cracker
A poorly-edited (every sketch was truncated! great stuff was missing!) set of highlights from last year's Comic Relief. Oh well.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Great Expectations
Part 3 (of 3)
I enjoyed that greatly. Makes me want to watch the David Lean film again to see if the bits I didn't remember were in it or not.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Misfits
2x07 Christmas Special [season finale]
3x00 Vegas Baby!
I didn't watch last year's special sooner because it wasn't near enough Christmas when I finished series two proper. Now I'm struggling to justify to myself that it's still Christmas season enough to get away with it. Oops. On the bright side, it is quite separate from the series proper -- set three months later, even -- so in that respect it's been a good gap. Great episode too.
Then there's the amusing, and surprisingly long, series three prequel, explaining the departure of a major character (I'm sure if you care you know who, even if you're as behind as me). As well as 4oD, the prequel's available on iTunes for free -- and in HD too! -- here.
[Watch the Christmas special and Vegas Baby! (again) on 4oD.]

TV

Great Expectations
Part 2 (of 3)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Little Crackers
2x01 My First Brassiere

QI
9x15 Ice (XL edition) [Christmas special]
Keeping track of QI has becoming a nightmare over Christmas, where they've shown a mix of old and new episodes in both regular and XL editions. Plus they've apparently put some brand-new stuff in those VG episodes, aside from all the best bits and best-bits-of-episodes-not-yet-shown; and then there's that episode I missed, which it turns out I have recorded.
Is it all just some kind of test for those people who want to see every episode in its fullest form, I wonder?
[Watch QI XL (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Top Gear
18x00 India Special
This year's Christmas special sees the boys "set off on an epic road trip across India", which doesn't sound quite as iconically Christmas as last year's baby Jesus-themed thing.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)
[2nd watch]
This was #70 in 100 Films 2011, and why I watched it again today will become obvious imminently...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)
[#2 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]
That's a little over four-and-a-half hours of Potter today. Epic.

Also, last night...

Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
[#1 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

TV

Great Expectations
Part 1 (of 3)
Love a bit of Gothic, and this is marvellously so.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

How I Met Your Mother
7x08 The Slutty Pumpkin Returns
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Little Crackers
2x11 I Was a Teenage Santa!

Sherlock
2x01 A Scandal in Belgravia
God that was good. I'd like to say which bits I liked, but they make Sherlock such a densely packed hour-and-a-half that it's difficult to know where to begin. Or end. Absolutely brilliant.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

Happy New Year!

Anyway...

Just 1 new review was posted to 100 Films in a Year this week... but there was also the December update, being the first in my annual triumvirate looking back at the year (the next two looking back at the year, rather than just the month-and-by-association-of-it-being-the-last-month,-the-year).

Anyway, that review...

Gambit (1966)

Gambit is distinctly underrated. The huge advantage of this is that you’re not very likely to have had all the twists spoiled, which is wonderful news! Indeed, because the biggest twist is near the start, it’s pretty hard to review without giving it away. But I’ll do my best. Honestly though, avoid other reviews, just in case.

More next Sunday.

TV

The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2011
Last year I did massively well at this; this year, not so much... though 27 out of 38 was still respectable enough to land me second.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Films

The A-Team: Explosive Extended Edition (2010)
[#100 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]
I did it, so I did! Hurrah!

The Man from Earth (2007)
[#98 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

Winnie the Pooh (2011)
[#99 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

DVD Extras

Featurettes on The Man from Earth
Four short interview-based bits, coming to only a little over 12 minutes total, about life On the Set, discussing The Story of the Story, screenwriter Jerome Bixby's Sci Fi Legacy, and the process of taking the film From Script to Screen. Interesting, but it might be nice to have a little more detail on the themes of the piece, which are so central to a tale like this. The disc does include two feature-length commentaries, but that swings the other way and feels somehow excessive.

Winnie the Pooh and His Story Too
Short featurette on the US Blu-ray of Winnie the Pooh briefly explaining the character's history. Nice.

Collection Count

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

So, here's my Christmas haul, and a couple more too. And as it's now New Year's Eve, this is also the final tally for 2011! Whoo! Last year's equivalent post has allowed me to chart how the collection has increased in the past year, alongside the regular weekly increase.

Number of titles in collection: 1,423 [up 9 this week; up 165 in 2011]
Of which DVDs: 1,148 [up 4 this week; up 48 in 2011]
Of which Blu-rays: 275 [up 5 this week; up 117 in 2011]

Number of discs in collection: 3,537 [up 20 this week; up 401 in 2011]
Number of films in collection: 1,514 [up 7 this week; up 180 in 2011]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,388 [up 50 this week; up 843 in 2011]

Crikey, that's a lot of TV! Wish I could remember what it all was...

As well as all that, it's also time for a (delayed) running time update...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
256 days, 2 hours, and 26 minutes.
(Up 4 days, 19 hours, and 50 minutes from last month, and 31 days, 20 hours, and 11 minutes from last year)

And that's that for 2011! See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Dara O Briain: This is the Show
Three stand-up shows in as many days! I guess it's not just the DVD market that likes to pump these out at Christmastime these days.
Ironically, whereas the other two were English comedians filmed in Ireland, here we have an Irish comedian filmed in England! Well I never.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Felix & Murdo
One-off sitcom, and/or sitcom pilot, about two Edwardian gentlemen, played by Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller, written by Men Behaving Badly creator Simon Nye. And that's an indicator of where this went. It was needlessly crass in places -- a list of sexual acts does not constitute a joke -- and slightly uncomfortably old fashioned -- all video-shot and studio-audience-laughter-getting-in-the-way -- but it had its moments. It probably wouldn't have seemed so bad if the Radio Times hadn't gushed about it so heavily.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Films

Faintheart (2008)
[#97 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]
24 hours to go; three films to go. It's not impossible...

The Spider Woman (1944)
[#96 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

TV

Bill Bailey: Dandelion Mind
roflysst
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

I've Never Seen Star Wars
2x00 Stephen Fry [Christmas special]
Two-and-a-half years since they last tried to bring this Radio 4 series to TV, it's back, with a new host, a new set, the same theme music, and only as a one-off. I enjoyed it first time round and I like it just as much now. More please.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Little Crackers
2x09 My First Christmas Number One
2x10 Papaji Saves Christmas

Films

Hotel for Dogs (2009)
[#95 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]
Right down to the wire. Doesn't look like I'll make 100 this year.

TV

Little Crackers
2x06 Shappi 4 Todd
2x07 My First Ton
2x08 The Daltons

Poirot
12x04 The Clocks [season finale]
It seems daft to bung a season finale tag on Poirot, seeing as how ITV seem to show them in whatever order they fancy over the course of several years per series, but hey-ho, technically this is the last in the 12th run.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Simon Amstell: Do Nothing Live
Stand-up from the former Buzzcocks host. I identified.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

The Graham Norton Show
10x09 Christmas Special
For some reason the BBC episode guide doesn't include this in the series' regular run, instead listing the next episode as number 9. Why? Yes, this edition was slightly longer and very mildly Christmas themed, but it was still mostly a regular episode with the regular kind of guests promoting their just-released/upcoming stuff. I don't care what you say, BBC -- this is episode 9.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Have I Got News For You
42x10 (23/12/11 edition; extended repeat) [Christmas special]
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

The Borrowers
Wasn't too sure what I'd make of this -- I loved the BBC series that was on when I was young, then read and enjoyed all the novels, but the American film that came out a few years afterwards was awful, and this new version looked uncertain. But I actually really enjoyed it. Sequel please.
Now I just need to see Ghibli's Arrietty... which fortunately is out on DVD & BD here in a fortnight. On the same day as this production. What a coincidence!
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
32x13a The Prequel to The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe
Oops, forgot to watch this before the episode itself! It is, of course, short and typically pointless -- if it was vital it would be in the programme itself, wouldn't it.
[Watch it (again) on the official Doctor Who website.]

Downton Abbey
2x09 Christmas Special
Advantage to watching it the day after: no ad breaks. It had a 125-minute slot on TV; we got through it in 93 minutes. Thats half-an-hour of my life saved.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Little Crackers
2x03 Barbra
2x04 Your Face
2x02 Daddy's Little Princess
2x05 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Daytime
Sky1's Christmas short films return for a third year with a second round of eleven celebrity-starring autobiographical tales. Jane Horrocks' and Jack Whitehall's were fine; Alan Davies' started darkly but had a sweet dog; Harry Hill's was stupid. I don't like Harry Hill. (The numbering is the order they were originally shown; the order they're listed is the order they were shown in an omnibus on Christmas Day and therefore the order I watched them.)

Michael McIntyre's Christmas Comedy Roadshow
Good fun.
According to the BBC website this is episode 3 of 6. Which is strange as it's the only episode scheduled -- even if there's a new series on the way, surely this is therefore episode one?
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Mock the Week
10x13 Christmas Special
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Doctor Who
33x00 The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe [Christmas special]
I enjoyed that -- particularly good performances by Matt Smith and Claire Skinner, and the bit with the Bill Bailey-led whatsits was most amusing -- but it wasn't a patch on last year's, in my opinion, which I adore.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Gruffalo's Child (2011)
[#94a in 100 Films in a Year 2011]
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Rev.
2x07 Christmas Special [season finale]
Surprisingly glum. Well, maybe not surprisingly. I guess there was a reason it wasn't part of the Christmas Day schedule. Good though.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Strictly Come Dancing
9x27 Christmas Special 2011
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Nativity! (2009)
[#94 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]
Appropriate, no?

Comics

2000 AD #2012

The bumper-length Christmas Prog, because, as a weekly, 2000 AD stops publishing over Christmas. Plus this way we get four more pages of Thrill-power than we would in the three Progs it covers. Four!

It also usurps the regular numbering to take next year's 'name'. I don't know quite what they'll do when they reach the real Prog 2000. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't either. Plus there's a Prog 2000 and a Prog 2002 but not a Prog 2001 -- awkward. But hey, that's all 5 years away yet!

As a lot of this Prog is Christmassy themed and several of the strips take place out of the on-going storylines (or start new ones), I've jumped ahead to read some of it -- would be a bit odd to get all this Christmas Thrill-power when I finally catch up in January (or February, or March... God I'm behind...) Those that are on-going, or kick off new on-goings, I'll come back to when I catch up.

Anyway, because of the jumping ahead, no ECBT 2000AD reviews yet. I'll add them later. For now, some have links to relevant features on the 2000 AD website. (Naturally, these are only the ones I actually read.)

Judge Dredd Choose Your Own Xmas

Absalom Sick Leave

Aquila Prologue

Dandridge A Christmas Ghost Story

Sinister Dexter Now & Again

this week on 100 Films

Merry Christmas!

Anyway...

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

Beyond the Pole (2009)

Unfortunately it’s only mildly amusing rather than laugh-out-loud hilarious. Worse still, it’s occasionally a bit thumb-twiddly as the inevitable plot points inevitably happen. In fact, it goes a bit OTT with implausibility for my liking… On the bright side, it doesn’t go on about the green agenda too much

The Brothers Bloom (2008)

it can be surprisingly dramatic in places, at least more so than the trailer suggested. It’s not quite as all-out-fun as it looked… but then the job of a trailer is to sell you a film, so if the end result doesn’t match it 100% is that a failing? How are you meant to summarise the entire tone of a film in a two-minute spoiler-free sales burst anyway?

Cruise of the Gods (2002)

Though the film pokes fun (fairly good-naturedly) at sci-fi obsessives, the underlying story here is about a man overshadowed by his past. In this Brydon gives a strong performance — I think he’s a better actor than he’s normally given credit for — and he’s ably supported by Corden in particular

More next Sunday.

TV

Charley Boorman's Extreme Frontiers
Episode 4 (of 4)
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Life's Too Short
1x07 Episode 7 [season finale]
Well, that was that. Ricky Gervais says there'll be a second series. Not sure I can be bothered with it.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Lorraine's Last Minute Christmas
Why they didn't keep up the branding and call this Christmas Made Easy I don't know.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Merlin
4x13 The Sword in the Stone Part Two [season finale]
Ooh, much dramaticness! All set-up quite intriguing for a fifth -- and, possibly, final -- season.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
25x12 Christmas Special
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Outnumbered
4x07 The Broken Santa [Christmas special]
The BBC don't give episode titles for Outnumbered, but this list on Wikipedia has them so they must've come from somewhere. (You'd assume the DVD releases, but this episode doesn't have one yet.)
Apparently this is our last Outnumbered for a while -- there's to be no series next year, but perhaps some specials. I can understand why they might want to finish it off as the kids are getting older, but wouldn't it be nicer to officially end it and give it a big proper send-off, rather than slowly wind it down so it sorta fades away?
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Rob Brydon Show
2x08 Christmas Special 2011
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Ruth Jones' Christmas Cracker
2011
Shown on BBC Two on Wednesday, and then in a slightly extended version on BBC One Wales-only the next day. But hey, that's on iPlayer, so naturally it's the longer one I've linked to here.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

A few last minute things here (as it were), most of which I didn't actually expect to turn up until after Christmas. So that's nice.

Number of titles in collection: 1,414 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,144 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 270 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 3,517 [up 9]
Number of films in collection: 1,507 [up 6]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,338 [up 3]

See you next week, faithful reader, with all my Christmassy haul, and the delayed running time update to boot!

TV

Argumental
4x08 Christmas Special
A Christmas special? Those things get everywhere these days...

The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff
1x00 Christmas Episode
Dickens spoof. Most amusing. Look forward to the full (well, full-ish -- it's only three episodes) series next year.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Junior Bake Off
Episode 13 (of 13)
Hooray!

Lost Christmas
A one-off "urban fairytale" starring Eddie Izzard. Surprisingly gritty for a kid-friendly Christmas tale, which is presumably why they wound up scheduling it so far out from Christmas (despite a Christmas Eve setting, it was shown on the 18th). I thought it was really good... until the final few minutes, when the chance for a genuinely worthwhile message was abandoned for a reset happy ending. Oh well.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Merlin
4x12 The Sword in the Stone Part One
Dark, exciting season finale stuff, but also with plenty of the funniness. Well played, Merlin. Good thing I only have to wait 'til tomorrow for the second half.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The song ITV didn't want you to see

ITV Cut Tim Minchin’s Christmas Song Amidst Fears Of Offending Christians And Right-Wing Press
by Hannah Shaw-William (from Bleeding Cool)

This was due to air on the Christmas edition of The Jonathan Ross Show tonight on ITV1, but they seem to have had a last-minute wimp-out and cut it. (Lots more detail at the above link, including comments from Tim Minchin and Jonathan Ross.)

Fortunately, Mr Minchin obtained a copy of the final edited song before it was cut, and he's made it available to view online himself:

If you enjoyed it -- or even if you didn't -- feel free to complain to ITV about their censorship via an email to viewerservices@itv.com.

TV

It's "catch up before all that Christmas telly begins" time!

Black Mirror
1x01 The National Anthem
Media-satirising anthology series from the brain of Charlie Brooker, which in fairly typical me fashion has already finished before I'm even starting it (still, at least this was only three episodes -- I'm a series behind with Misfits and I've not even got going on the 15-part Story of Film). Very dark, very good. Anthology series are in short supply so it would be nice if this took off.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Dave's One Night Stand
3x05 Tommy Tiernan [season finale]

The Graham Norton Show
10x08 (16/12/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Have I Got News For You
42x09 (16/12/11 edition; extended repeat) [2nd watch]
A particularly good episode, I thought; and, as ever, even better extended.
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

How I Met Your Mother
7x07 Noretta
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Life's Too Short
1x06 Episode 6
Apparently this has been picked up for a second series. Not sure how I feel about that.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Live at the Apollo
7x06 Episode 6 [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Rev.
2x06 Episode 6
A season finale of an episode, even though there's a Christmas special next week... well, it was on two days ago, but... yeah.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

The Impressions Show with Culshaw and Stephenson
3x06 Episode 6

Michael Bublé: Home for Christmas
Mmm, cheese.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Onion News Network
1x04 Fifth Anniversary

Rev.
2x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Digital Spy readers' awards 2011: The winners!
by Mark Langshaw (from Digital Spy)
I wouldn't bother mentioning this normally, but the final award prompted a laugh: in a Digital Spy poll for best entertainment news website, Digital Spy won! What a shocker.

TV

Argumental
4x07 Episode 7

Death in Paradise
1x08 Episode 8 [season finale]
That was good fun. I hope we get more.

The Royal Variety Performance 2011
Back to ITV and it gets worse. Well, there were some very good bits, but most of the singing (of which there was plenty) was appalling.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

TV

Charley Boorman's Extreme Frontiers
Episode 3 (of 4)
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
25x11 Episode 11
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

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

Cars (2006)

it’s a bit predictable, kinda like Pixar/any kids’ movie by numbers. Pixar are usually better than that. There may be one or two slight surprises along the way — mostly in aid of a Good Strong Moral Message for the kiddies — but at times it’s a bit thumb-twiddly as you wait for characters to reach the point they’re inevitably headed for.

Diner (1982)

Diner is like a series of vignettes. There’s a loose plot holding it all together — the aforementioned wedding — but it all plays like a series of connected subplots. It’s a “slice of life” kind of film, rather than a “big story” kinda film. That works for some viewers and not for others. For me, I enjoyed some of it and some of the amusing moments, but it all felt ultimately empty.

More next Sunday.

TV

Strictly Come Dancing
9x25 The Final Part 1
9x26 The Final Part 2 [season finale]
[Watch both parts (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

The British Comedy Awards 2011
Didn't agree with all the winners... but then there were a few that really exceptionally deserved it, and it was Good Fun All Round. Plus, a Harry Hill clip that actually made me laugh. First time for everything.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Have I Got News For You
42x09 (16/12/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Live at the Apollo
7x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

QI
9x16 VG Part 1
I seem to have completely missed an episode of QI. Really don't know how. Annoyed about that now.
This was just a highlights show. Which was fine. It also included at least one clip from at least one episode that hasn't aired yet. Which was different.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Best And Worst Sci-Fi Movie Posters 2011 by Dave Golder
(from SFX)
You might not agree with every choices in either category (I certainly didn't), but it's a good reminder of the last year nonetheless.

Doctor Who: Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill to leave next series by Daniel Sperling
(from Digital Spy)
I know no one really believed it when they left toward the end of the last series, but the thing is kids probably did, and it was a good surprise, and more importantly it was a good, well-reasoned send off. How are they going to bring them back after the Doctor's resolve that he was messing up their lives? And how will they write them out again in a way that tops that? As much as I love Rory, it's a shame they've not just let them go.

Doctor Who: "The assumption that the audience is intelligent has paid off" says Steven Moffat by Tim Glanfield
(from Radio Times)
Yes indeed. Though to be honest, I preferred it before all these intricate multi-year timey-wimey plots. Self-contained one- and two-parters with maybe a big linking season finale for me, please.

Collection Count

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

This week, the number of films in my collection crosses the 1,500 mark. I dread to think how few of those I've actually watched...

Number of titles in collection: 1,411 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,143 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 268 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 3,508 [up 4]
Number of films in collection: 1,501 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,335 [no change]

This week should be the latest running time update, but I'm 'on the road' at the minute so don't have access to that information. Instead, I've decided to bump it back a fortnight, thereby covering whatever I get for Christmas too. Shiny.

Before then -- see you next week, faithful reader.

Films

Enchanted (2007)
[2nd watch]
This was #80 on 100 Films way back in 2008, and obviously I hadn't watched it since. It's bloody great though.

Articles

Doctor Who Magazine's Christmas tribute to Radio Times by Paul Jones
(from Radio Times)
The new DWM, out today, takes as its cover inspiration a Christmas RT from the '20s. See the original and the homage at the link.

TV

Curiosity
1x03 Why is Sex Fun?
Based on this -- a big new flagship documentary with a different celebrity presenter for each episode and that kind of thing -- the Americans aren't half as good at making documentaries as we are. Sure, it's ultimately informative, but it's also repetitive, over-directed and inaccurately titled. Plus it has a dreadfully cheesy title card/ad break bumper; so bad I thought it was years old, but it seems it's brand new. Ugh.

Frozen Planet
Part 7 On Thin Ice [final episode]
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Graham Norton Show
10x07 (9/12/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Have I Got News For You
42x08 (9/12/11 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Live at the Apollo
7x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Onion News Network
1x03 Man-Horse Marriage

TV

Dave's One Night Stand
3x04 Stephen K Amos

The Impressions Show with Culshaw and Stephenson
3x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Life's Too Short
1x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Pointless
4x08 (23/3/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 30

To finish we need a great tune for the end credits -
what's your favourite sci-fi theme?

This one really is very, very easy, and conforms to what I'm certain must have been a running theme...

Doctor Who

Whether it's the creepy electronic original, or one of the synth-tastic '80s versions, or the orchestral TV movie recording, or one of Murray Gold's bombastic modern renderings, the Doctor Who theme is always unbeatable. It can inspire dread or excitement as needed, and that scream into the cliffhanger... Ah, perfection!

Plus, it's easily singalongable. Who hasn't at some point oo-wee-oo'd?


That's it! The end! What a good note to end on (see what I did there?)

I've quit enjoyed this, even if I did struggle with a few answers. Maybe I should try to find another one...

Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

Argumental
4x06 Episode 6

Blue Peter
5/12/11 edition
For the making of the BBC One Christmas trail. Also, Ed Sheeran is clearly not cut out to be a presenter.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Charley Boorman's Extreme Frontiers
Episode 2 (of 4)
Most of it, anyway -- for some reason the copy on Virgin Media Catch Up died every time at the final ad break. I suppose I should just watch it online...
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Death in Paradise
1x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
25x10 Episode 10
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 29

Best pre-1980s sci-fi

For this one I wanted something that was only pre-'80s -- so no Doctor Who (not even classic series only), no Star Wars or Star Trek, etc. Naturally cases could be made for all of these -- I could just have an era of Who, or the original Trek, or just Empire Strikes Back -- but I wanted to push for something different.

I don't know if "best" is quite the right word, and maybe I should've chosen this yesterday, but...

Flash Gordon serials

Larry "Buster" Crabbe starred in three of these cinema serials (the precursor of TV series, I suppose) in the '30s and '40s -- Flash Gordon, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe. They used to show them on BBC One on Saturday mornings in the late '90s (God that makes it sound long ago), when I was in the early year(s) of secondary school, and my friends and I used to love them.

They're silly and schlocky, and notorious for those kinds of cliffhangers where everything seems impossible... and in next week's recap something completely different happens and everything's OK. Ah, an age before repeats or VHS or harddrive recorders or iPlayer. Or, apparently, memory.

These things aren't Great in the proper use of the word -- there's no revolutionary SF concepts or fantastic screenplays or beautiful performances to be found -- but they're damn good fun, full of scrapes and spills and primitive special effects. They're a joy.

And I don't think I've seen all of them. I've seen at least two, because I remember the serial changed on the Beeb and suddenly the lead female characters had swapped hair colours, which was most confusing. I have two on DVD -- I hope different ones -- but I'm not sure which two, because they go under so many different titles. Quick read of Wikipedia suggests I have the first and third; don't know which I saw on telly. Anyway, I must try to right this and see them all.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

Have I Got News For You
42x07 (2/12/11 edition; extended repeat)

How I Met Your Mother
7x06 Mystery vs. History
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]