Sunday, 15 March 2020

this week on 100 Films

1 new review on 100 Films in a Year this week...


The Lion King (2019)
it’s like a cover song from a TV talent show: a reasonable approximation of the original, although clearly not as good, with unnecessarily added riffs and tricks as the cover artist struggles in vain to “make it their own” while not fundamentally deviating from what made the original so beloved.
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Saturday, 14 March 2020

TV

Doctor Who
4x24 The Moonbase Episode 2 [2nd watch]
As noted yesterday, I've seen the two surviving episodes of this serial before.

Star Trek: Picard
1x04 Absolute Candor
1x05 Stardust City Rag
[Watch Absolute Candor and Stardust City Rag (again) on Prime Video.]

Films

Godzilla 3D (2014)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #11

Collection Count

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

As promised last week, another pile of additions. No records being challenged this time, but it's still bigger than the norm... although, as I've been a bit purchase-mad of late, maybe this is the current norm. Well, it can't last forever... but it will last until next week, at least, when I've got another pile of sales acquisitions turning up. I must develop some restraint.

Number of titles in collection: 2,318 [up 6]
Of which DVDs: 1,112 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,206 [up 6]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 45 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 6,034 [up 12]
Number of films: 2,711 [up 5]
Number of TV episodes: 8,792 [up 8]
Number of short films: 690 [up 1]

One of this week's additions is the new animation of Doctor Who serial The Faceless Ones, and it presents a 'challenge' in terms of counting: how many episodes are on it? It's a 6-part serial, but it contains the whole animated serial in colour, and in black & white, and also the two surviving live-action episodes. You might say "it's a 6-parter, so it's 6", but those are all viable viewing options to me, so does that mean it's 14 episodes? Or split the difference and say 8 -- 6 animations (in colour or black & white) plus 2 live-action? I think that's what I'll go with, partly because the last animated release, The Macra Terror, also had both colour and b&w versions and I only counted it as 4. I'm not sure that's the right way to go about it (it seems to hedge it, rather), but it'll have to do.

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday, 13 March 2020

TV

Doctor Who
4x23 The Moonbase Episode 1
Continuing my watch-through of animated missing episodes that I've not yet seen. This serial's only half missing, and I've seen the surviving episodes before (plus audio to fill the gaps, I presume (I forget)). This first part is one of the animated ones.

Films

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
[#36 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

The Lion King 3D (2019)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #10

Thursday, 12 March 2020

TV

Doctor Who
4x14 The Power of the Daleks Episode Six
A great serial. How mad it was wiped. The animation isn't perfect, but it's a reasonable stand-in.
Also watched the commentary on episode four by a selection of people involved with the Daleks in nuWho, and the roundup of short clips that survive from the original.

Films

Showman: The Life of John Nathan-Turner (2019)
[#35 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Some might just consider this a special feature on a Doctor Who Blu-ray, but it's feature-length and received some measure of praise, so I'm counting it. And it really is very good -- if you consider yourself a Whovian, it's a must-see.

Wednesday, 11 March 2020

TV

Doctor Who
4x13 The Power of the Daleks Episode Five

Would I Lie To You?
13x12 More Unseen Bits [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Harakiri (1962)
[#34 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

The 4th greatest film of all time according to Letterboxd user, and 33rd according to IMDb voters, and yet it's never been on my Blindspot list! It was under consideration this year but, well, there's not room for everything.

Tuesday, 10 March 2020

TV

Doctor Who
4x11 The Power of the Daleks Episode Three
4x12 The Power of the Daleks Episode Four

The Twilight Zone
1x26 Execution
3x12 The Jungle
So far I've been watching episodes judged to be the best of The Twilight Zone, but now I'm switching it up and watching some of those considered to be the worst. (I didn't want to have these be the last ones I viewed if I kept going in order of quality, so I decided to 'jump ahead' to them now.)

Would I Lie To You?
13x11 The Unseen Bits
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Lego Movie 3D (2014)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #9. It really doesn't feel like over 5 years since I last watched this (where does time go?!) First time in 3D, though, and (as I expected, given how good other LEGO movies looked in 3D), the visuals were superb.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part 3D (2019)
[#33 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Monday, 9 March 2020

Films

Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018)
[#32 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Articles

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie is an unappreciated masterpiece
by Karen Han (from Polygon)

I liked LXG (as it was marketed at the time) when it came out. The other people I saw it with agreed with the critics, i.e. that it wasn't very good. I think I rewatched it on DVD at some point and came around a bit to that way of thinking. But I still have kinda-fond memories of it, and this piece (and some of the reaction to it on Twitter) suggests I'm not wholly alone. It also prompted me to the order the Blu-ray (it's going cheap nowadays, of course) to reassess.

Sunday, 8 March 2020

TV

Doctor Who
4x09 The Power of the Daleks Episode One
4x10 The Power of the Daleks Episode Two
Halfway through the recent series of Doctor Who, I realised it had been several years (five years and four months, to be precise) since I last watched any of the classic show. I decided I needed to fix that as soon as the season finished. Plus, with new animations of The Faceless Ones and Fury from the Deep imminent, I was reminded that I hadn't actually got round to watching the other animations of missing serials they've done in the past few years. So now I'm righting both those wrongs, starting with the oldest of those new animations (which came out at the end of 2016, so that's taken me three-and-a-bit years 'n' all).

Would I Lie To You?
13x10 Episode 9
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

Just my (slightly later than anticipated) monthly TV column over at 100 Films in a Year this week...





More next Sunday.

Saturday, 7 March 2020

Films

The Karate Kid Part II (1986)
[#31 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Collection Count

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

After hitting 6,000 discs last week, this week I've hit the nice round number of 1,200 Blu-rays. Okay, not quite as nice or round as last time, but still. That's thanks to 13 new additions this week (two of them DVD-to-BD upgrades).

That, in case you weren't aware, is a lot of new additions -- the most in one week since July 2011, when I added 8 DVDs and 6 BDs for a total of 14. Of course, the overall net change is 11 additions, but you still have to go back almost as far, to August 2011, to find another week with as big a tally. In the entire history of this count, only one further week has seen a net increase as large as 11 (it was in December 2009), so this is a pretty remarkable week all round.

(None of those is the biggest ever change, though, which was a decrease. When I bought the Bond 50 Blu-ray box set, it replaced my individual DVD copies of all the films, and the overall number of titles dropped by 18.)

Number of titles in collection: 2,312 [up 11]
Of which DVDs: 1,112 [down 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,200 [up 13]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 45 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 6,021 [up 21]
Number of films: 2,706 [up 13]
Number of TV episodes: 8,784 [up 15]
Number of short films: 689 [up 1]

And I've still got plenty more on order, too! Looks like it's going to be another big running time update in a few weeks' time...

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday, 6 March 2020

TV

Death in Paradise
9x08 Episode 8 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Good Place
3x11 Chidi Sees the Time-Knife
3x12 Pandemonium [season finale]
[Watch the whole series (again) on Netflix.]

Lucifer
3x24 A Devil of My Word [season finale]
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

The Rookie
1x06 The Hawke

Articles

Candyman Director Bernard Rose Details His Unmade Sequel in More Depth Than Ever Before
by Jason Jenkins (from Bloody Disgusting)

The headline sums up the basis of this article pretty well, but it's worth a read for all the fascinating details. It sounds like a film with a lot of promise -- shame we'll never get to see it.

Thursday, 5 March 2020

TV

Death in Paradise
9x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Flesh and Blood
1x04 Episode 4 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Friday Night Dinner
5x06 Wilson [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

The Good Place
3x10 The Book of Dougs
[Watch the whole series (again) on Netflix.]

Lucifer
3x23 Quintessential Deckerstar
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

Wednesday, 4 March 2020

TV

Death in Paradise
9x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Flesh and Blood
1x02 Episode 2
1x03 Episode 3
[Watch episodes two and three (again) on the ITV Hub.]

The Good Place
3x08 Don't Let the Good Life Pass You By
3x09 Janet(s)
[Watch the whole series (again) on Netflix.]

Lucifer
3x21 Anything Pierce Can Do I Can Do Better
3x22 All Hands on Decker
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

Tuesday, 3 March 2020

TV

Death in Paradise
9x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Flesh and Blood
1x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

The Good Place
3x06 A Fractured Inheritance
3x07 The Worst Possible Use of Free Will
[Watch the whole series (again) on Netflix.]

Lucifer
3x20 The Angel of San Bernardino
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

Monday, 2 March 2020

TV

The Good Place
3x04 Jeremy Bearimy
3x05 The Ballad of Donkey Doug
[Watch the whole series (again) on Netflix.]

McDonald & Dodds
1x01 The Fall of the House of Crockett
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

this week on 100 Films

A new month began yesterday, which meant it was time to once again look the last one over at 100 Films in a Year...





Also this past week, 1 new review...


Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
Now, here’s a film I really need to see again. Not to affirm whether I liked it or not — in fact, I loved it; enough to rank it the #1 film I saw in 2019 — but to fully assess and analyse and process it. This admission is not the best way to begin a review — reviews are meant to be assessment and/or analysis, after all — but, nonetheless, it indicates the kind of effect I felt from the film. What is that effect? In my best-of-year piece I said it was “the kind of film that casts a spell”, by which I’m referring to how it sweeps you in; how it engages you in such a way that you’re just experiencing it
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Sunday, 1 March 2020

Saturday, 29 February 2020

TV

The Twilight Zone
3x33 The Dummy

Films

Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
[#29 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Collection Count

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

It's a little late this week (only a few hours, not that anyone'd care whatever) because it's time for the monthly running time update, and I've been buying so much stuff recently that there was a lot I hadn't yet added. As for this week itself, there are only three new additions, which normally would be a kinda average number, but for recent times is on the low end. (Never fear, I've got loads on order.)

One other observation this week: I've landed on exactly 6,000 discs. 6,000! Crikey.

Number of titles in collection: 2,301 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,114 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,187 [up 3]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 45 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 6,000 [up 5]
Number of films: 2,693 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes: 8,769 [no change]
Number of short films: 688 [no change]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
439 days, 7 hours, and 9 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 1 hour, and 15 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday, 28 February 2020

TV

The Twilight Zone
3x09 Deaths-Head Revisited
+ the audio commentary by Twilight Zone expert Marc Scott Zicree and author Neil Gaiman

Films

The Karate Kid (1984)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #8. I'm sure we rented this on video when I was a kid, but I don't remember any of it. No idea if I ever saw the sequels.

Thursday, 27 February 2020

Tuesday, 25 February 2020

TV

The Twilight Zone
1x27 The Big Tall Wish

Films

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
[#26 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Blindspot 2020 #2

+ the special features on the Blu-ray, which amount to a short introduction, a re-release trailer, and two of the featurettes Universal produced for their 100th anniversary, Restoring the Classics and Academy Award Winners

Seasons of War (2015)
A short Doctor Who-related fan film, made to promote a charity anthology book (which is no longer available). You can watch the film on YouTube here. Normally I'd count this kind of thing for 100 Films, but eh, I'm not sure I can be bothered.

Monday, 24 February 2020

Sunday, 23 February 2020

TV

Doctor Who
38x09 Ascension of the Cybermen
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
13x09 Episode 8
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Escape Room (2019)
[#24 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

this week on 100 Films

1 new review on 100 Films in a Year this week...


Emma. (2020)
According to IMDb, Jane Austen’s Emma has only been adapted for the big screen twice before — and one of those was Clueless. There have been multiple TV movie and miniseries takes on the novel, though, but as the most recent was over a decade ago I guess someone felt it was about time to trot it out again (after all, every major Dickens and Austen must be adapted for the screen at least once a decade or so, right?)
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Saturday, 22 February 2020

Films

The Crimson Permanent Assurance (1983)
[#21a in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
The short film that precedes (and is usually considered part of)...

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983)
[#22 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Us (2019)
[#23 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Collection Count

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

This week, I discovered I owned a copy of a film that I also owned in a box set -- the exact same disc -- and somehow I'd missed this fact when I bought the box set (over seven years ago, yikes!) and hadn't removed the standalone copy from my collection. So I've done that this week... alongside another busy week with seven new additions.

One of those is the UK limited edition of World on a Wire, for which I already own the Criterion release. Originally created as a two-part miniseries for German TV, the Criterion version features it as a single long movie, running at 24fps. The UK release retains the original two-part structure, across two discs, running at the correct 25fps -- that seemed like a good bet to me, especially as it has more special features. The Criterion release has a long-ish unique extra, however, so I'm keeping it for the time being, making this an addition rather than replacement.

Same goes for Doctor Who series 4 on Blu-ray, finally getting the Steelbook to go with my copies of series 1-3 and the David Tennant Specials. It should probably just replace the DVD, really, but I have a sentimental attachment to those big ol' box sets. Also a DVD-to-BD upgrade is Heroes Shed No Tears, but, similar to World on a Wire, the old edition has unique extras, so for now I'm keeping both.

The other four newcomers are all flat-out new, so that's nice.

Number of titles in collection: 2,298 [up 6]
Of which DVDs: 1,114 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,184 [up 7]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 44 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 5,995 [up 12]
Number of films: 2,691 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes: 8,769 [up 22]
Number of short films: 688 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader -- when I may well pass 6,000 discs!

Friday, 21 February 2020

TV

Would I Lie To You?
13x08 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Thursday, 20 February 2020

Wednesday, 19 February 2020

Tuesday, 18 February 2020

Monday, 17 February 2020

Sunday, 16 February 2020

TV

Doctor Who
38x08 The Haunting of Villa Diodati
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

There were 2 new posts on 100 Films in a Year this week, only one of them a review...


Toy Story 4 (2019)
Last weekend, with dull inevitability, Toy Story 4 won Best Animated Feature at the Oscars. Of course it did — in the last decade, the award has gone to a Disney or Pixar movie eight times out of ten. I’ve not seen any of the four other nominees, but I strongly suspect at least one of them deserved it more, because Toy Story 4 is… fine. Heck, it’s good, even. But when the three films that precede it are all-time classics that formed a perfectly complete trilogy, just being “good” is not enough.
Read more here.


The Random Mid-Monthly Review for Valentine’s Day
Hello, dear readers. It’s been a while since my last post, but I don’t have any reviews banked ready to go, so here’s a random mid-month update... After the back half of last year was sent into relative disarray by house moves and whatnot, 2020 is off to a similarly bumpy beginning...
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Saturday, 15 February 2020

TV

My Dad Wrote a Porno
One-off live special version of the hit podcast, which I've heard things about but never listened to (as you may've noticed from their absence from this blog, I don't really 'do' podcasts). I thought this was pretty funny though, and by all accounts it's inferior to the podcast itself, so maybe I should check that out.

Theatre

Dial M for Murder
at Theatre Royal Bath

Collection Count

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

A whole pile of new additions this week, and only one of them an upgrade (going all the way from DVD to 4K). And I've got loads more on order (I've gone a bit OTT recently), so expect similar increases next week.

Number of titles in collection: 2,292 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,115 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,177 [up 5]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 44 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 5,983 [up 7]
Number of films: 2,688 [up 4]
Number of TV episodes: 8,747 [no change]
Number of short films: 688 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday, 14 February 2020

TV

Good Omens
Part 6 The Very Last Day of the Rest of Their Lives [series finale]
[Watch the whole series (again) in HD or 4K UHD on Prime Video, or parts 1-5 on iPlayer.]

Films

Tag (2018)
[#16 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Thursday, 13 February 2020

TV

Good Omens
Part 5 The Doomsday Option
[Watch the whole series (again) in HD or 4K UHD on Prime Video, or parts 1-5 on iPlayer.]

Films

Johnny English Strikes Again (2018)
[#15 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Wednesday, 12 February 2020

TV

Good Omens
Part 4 Saturday Morning Funtime
[Watch the whole series (again) in HD or 4K UHD on Prime Video, or parts 1-5 on iPlayer.]

Films

The Nightingale (2018)
[#14 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Monday, 10 February 2020

TV

The 92nd Annual Academy Awards
aka the Oscars. A good ceremony this year -- and, of course, an historic winner in Parasite. I look forward to getting a chance to see it...

Friday Night Dinner
5x05 The Violin
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

The Goes Wrong Show
1x06 90 Degrees [season finale]
They must make more, I demand it. (The DVD release is labelled "Series 1", which I'm taking as a good sign.)
[Watch it (again and again) on iPlayer.]

The Good Place
3x02 The Brainy Bunch
3x03 The Snowplow
[Watch the whole series (again) on Netflix.]

Lucifer
3x19 Orange is the New Maze
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

The Rookie
1x04 The Switch

Sunday, 9 February 2020

TV

Doctor Who
38x07 Can You Hear Me?
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

E! Live from the Red Carpet: Oscars 2020

The Rookie
1x03 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Films

Christopher Robin (2018)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #7

Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942)
[3rd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #6. I counted this as a new first-time viewing back in 2008, but I always suspected I'd seen it before. You see, I knew I'd seen some Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films before I embarked on the whole series, but I wasn't certain which; but now, having definitely seen them all, I'm pretty sure this was one (possibly even the only one) I'd seen in my childhood.

this week on 100 Films

Just 1 new review on 100 Films in a Year this week...


1917 (2019)
I love a bit of real-time, so that was right up my street. I have similar feelings about single takes (fake or not), so I loved that aspect too. Plus I’ve got a long-standing interest in World War One, which I don’t feel is represented well enough on film (at least, not as well as its sequel), so getting a big-budget high-profile movie about it is something else I welcome. And I love the work of cinematographer Roger Deakins, who is absolutely on fine form here (when isn’t he?) The long and the short of it is, 1917 was always a movie almost tailored to things that interest me.
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Saturday, 8 February 2020

TV

The Good Place
3x01 Everything Is Bonzer!
[Watch the whole series (again) on Netflix.]

The Great British Bake Off
1x06 Tea Party [season finale]
[Watch series 1 (again) on Netflix.]

Lucifer
3x18 The Last Heartbreak
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

The Rookie
1x02 Crash Course

Collection Count

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

My overzealous purchasing spree continues this week, with seven new acquisitions. Most of those were in sales (four Jackie Chan Blu-rays and two films in 3D that aren't well regarded but I enjoyed in 2D), plus a Blu-ray to Blu-ray upgrade for Doctor Who: The Specials, aka Series 4b. This Steelbook version includes improved transfers for the episodes, plus HD versions of two animated specials I previously owned on DVD (though I'm hanging onto one of those for the special features). That would play merrily with my numbers, but thanks to the sheer volume of stuff, nearly everything goes up -- except DVDs, dropping for the fourth week in a row.

Number of titles in collection: 2,288 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,116 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,172 [up 6]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 41 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 5,976 [up 5]
Number of films: 2,684 [up 6]
Number of TV episodes: 8,747 [up 3]
Number of short films: 688 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday, 7 February 2020

TV

Death in Paradise
9x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
38x06 Praxeus [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Friday Night Dinner
5x04 Lord Luck
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

The Goes Wrong Show
1x05 Harper's Locket
[Watch it (again and again) on iPlayer.]

The Rookie
1x01 Pilot

Thursday, 6 February 2020

TV

The Great British Bake Off
1x05 Pastry
[Watch series 1 (again) on Netflix.]

Lucifer
3x16 Infernal Guinea Pig
3x17 Let Pinhead Sing!
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

Wednesday, 5 February 2020

TV

Death in Paradise
9x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
38x05 Fugitive of the Judoon [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Friday Night Dinner
5x03 The Surprise
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

The Great British Bake Off
1x04 Puddings
[Watch series 1 (again) on Netflix.]

Would I Lie To You?
13x07 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Tuesday, 4 February 2020

TV

Good Omens
Part 3 Hard Times
[Watch the whole series (again) in HD or 4K UHD on Prime Video, or parts 1-3 on iPlayer.]

Films

Booksmart (2019)
[#13 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Monday, 3 February 2020

TV

Good Omens
Part 2 The Book
[Watch the whole series (again) in HD or 4K UHD on Prime Video, or parts 1-3 on iPlayer.]

Sunday, 2 February 2020

TV

The British Academy Film Awards 2020
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
38x06 Praxeus
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Good Omens
Part 1 In the Beginning
Finally making a start on this -- it's only taken me 8 months. That's not because of disinterest -- actually, quite the opposite. I loved the book when I read it as a kid, and have therefore been waiting (in a very passive sense) for a screen adaptation for the best part of 25 years. So this wasn't something I could "bung on", or watch an episode casually now and then -- I needed to approach it with due reverence. But things have been up and down and hectic for me this last year, so I didn't feel I could commit to it properly... until now.
[Watch the whole series (again) in HD or 4K UHD on Prime Video, or parts 1-3 on iPlayer.]

Star Trek: Picard
1x02 Maps and Legends
[Watch it (again) on Prime Video.]

this week on 100 Films

A new month began this week, so it was time for 100 Films in a Year to look back at the old one...





There were 2 new film reviews published too...


Ad Astra (2019)
Ad Astra is certainly a journey into darkness — of space; of mind. Whether it gets to the heart of it, I’m not convinced. But it’s still a trip worth taking.
Read more here.


Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)
Like any good blockbuster, Laputa has it all: thrills, humour, emotion, wonder… It’s the complete package. Plus, that level of broad familiarity (it wouldn’t take too many steps to imagine this remade as a Hollywood blockbuster, although they’d inevitably mess it up somehow) probably makes it the perfect starting point for any newbies to anime or Ghibli.
Read more here.


And my latest TV column 'n' all...





More next Sunday.

Saturday, 1 February 2020

Collection Count

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

A mix of new releases and sale pick-ups means another healthy boost to my collection this week -- well, apart from for DVDs, which drop for the third week in a row.

It's also time for the monthly running time update, which gives an idea just how much stuff I've already bought in 2020.

Number of titles in collection: 2,283 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,117 [down 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,166 [up 6]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 41 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 5,971 [up 9]
Number of films: 2,678 [up 6]
Number of TV episodes: 8,744 [no change]
Number of short films: 688 [up 5]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
437 days, 5 hours, and 54 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 22 hours, and 51 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday, 31 January 2020

Thursday, 30 January 2020

TV

The Twilight Zone
3x10 The Midnight Sun
3x16 Nothing in the Dark

Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series
Part 8 (of 18) [2nd watch]
In UHD as part of the From Z to A box set (the only episode included in UHD, aside from the original pilot) -- hence why I'm only watching one episode from the middle of the series.

Wednesday, 29 January 2020

TV

The Twilight Zone
5x17 Number 12 Looks Just Like You

Films

Twin Peaks (1990)
[5th watch]
aka Twin Peaks: Pilot (Original Version)

Rewatchathon 2020 #5

Yeah, this is really an episode of TV... but it's presented in a standalone manner on the From Z to A Blu-ray set (by being the only original series episode included in UHD), so I thought I'd count it.

I also rewatched the 19-minute alternate ending. It has some good bits (all of which Lynch nabbed to recycle in the series proper), but it's not as good an ending as... well, the season-and-a-half of TV that followed the original.

Tuesday, 28 January 2020

TV

Star Trek: The Next Generation
6x26 Descent [season finale]
7x01 Descent, Part II
More episodes I'm watching as background for Picard. Unlike the last one, however, I don’t think these can be amongst the best of TNG. The first part has some interesting stuff with Data struggling to understand if he’s started to experience emotions, but the second half is an underwhelming bit of something-and-nothing, only really noteworthy for the relish with which Brent Spiner plays Data’s evil twin brother. (I do intend to watch all of TNG in full someday, not just random episodes now and then like I've been doing for the past few years.)

Films

(1963)
[#11 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Blindspot 2020 #1

aka Federico Fellini's 8 1/2

Monday, 27 January 2020

TV

The Twilight Zone
1x34 The After Hours
5x25 The Masks
It's been a few months (alright, six), but I'm finally getting back on to watching more classic Twilight Zone.

Films

Ad Astra (2019)
[#10 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Sunday, 26 January 2020

TV

Doctor Who
38x05 Fugitive of the Judoon
Well, that was certainly a lot of unexpected stuff! I feel like Chibnall's playing at being Moffat now (with wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey mysteries that threaten to rewrite the show's long-standing continuity), but we'll see. At least it's interesting.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Star Trek: The Next Generation
5x23 I Borg
Widely regarded as one of the very best TNG episodes (it is, indeed, excellent), and likely to be of importance to the events of Picard (hence why I'm watching it now).

this week on 100 Films

1 new review was published to 100 Films in a Year this week...


The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019)
I don’t know how thoroughly the film adapts the novel's 768 pages, but it feels like it’s trying to cram in as much as possible. It rattles by at a whipcrack pace, which is both one of its greatest assets, because it moves like the clappers, and its biggest drawbacks, because it winds up feeling a bit too long... This is a minor complaint, though, because while those 119 minutes may be a few more than seems strictly necessary, what’s within them is frequently riotously funny.
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Saturday, 25 January 2020

TV

QI
17x12 Quagmire
17x13 Quills
[Watch Quagmire and Quills (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Bait (2019)
[#9 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Collection Count

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

Two new releases this week, one an acclaimed British film from last year (Bait), the other not actually out until Monday (the latest Doctor Who Collection Blu-ray, which upgrades three DVDs (but leaves one behind, for now)).

Similarly, a Blu-ray upgrade for the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series. It's been available for years in other countries (the US, Germany, Italy, etc), but BD-adverse ITV simply won't release it here, so I've finally given in and imported it (for a very nice price).

And the net result of all that is "no change" to the title total!

Number of titles in collection: 2,279 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,119 [down 4]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,160 [up 4]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 40 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 5,962 [up 4]
Number of films: 2,672 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes: 8,744 [up 3]
Number of short films: 681 [up 5]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday, 24 January 2020

TV

The Ready Room
2x01 "Remembrance" Recap
After-show for Picard, only available in the US -- except, of course, where there's a will there's a way... Whether it's worth finding that way depends on your tolerance for these kinds of things. The bit about the making of the theme music was interesting, though.
[Watch it on YouTube.]

Star Trek: Picard
1x01 Remembrance
[Watch it (again) on Prime Video.]

Thursday, 23 January 2020

Wednesday, 22 January 2020

Films

What Did Jack Do? (2017)
[#8a in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Oh, David Lynch...

Tuesday, 21 January 2020

TV

Friday Night Dinner
5x02 The Tin of Meat
Coming up to two years since I last watched this, but here we are. Hurrah for the wonders of on-demand viewing.
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Monday, 20 January 2020

TV

Death in Paradise
9x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

His Dark Materials
1x07 The Fight to the Death
1x08 Betrayal [season finale]
[Watch series 1 (again) on iPlayer.]

Lucifer
3x25 Boo Normal [bonus episode]
Skipping ahead a little here, but it's recommended. At the end of season 3 they made two episodes for inclusion in season 4; when the show was cancelled (before being picked back up by Netflix), they released those two as "bonus episodes". According to co-showrunner Joe Henderson, this one fits best between episodes 15 and 16, so that's where I've watched it.
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

Sunday, 19 January 2020

TV

Doctor Who
38x04 Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Great British Bake Off
1x03 Bread
[Watch series 1 (again) on Netflix.]

His Dark Materials
1x05 The Lost Boy
1x06 The Daemon-Cages
[Watch series 1 (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #3

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #2

this week on 100 Films

Just one new post on 100 Films in a Year this week: my 12 picks for 2020's Blindspot challenge...





More next Sunday.

Saturday, 18 January 2020

TV

Doctor Who
38x03 Orphan 55 [2nd watch]
I didn't think much of this the first time, but its flaws only become more obvious on a rewatch.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Goes Wrong Show
1x04 The Lodge
[Watch it (again and again) on iPlayer.]

The Great British Bake Off
1x02 Biscuits
[Watch series 1 (again) on Netflix.]

His Dark Materials
1x03 The Spies [2nd watch]
1x04 Armour
[Watch series 1 (again) on iPlayer.]

Lucifer
3x15 High School Poppycock
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

Collection Count

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

From one extreme to the other: after the absolute quite of last week, there's something new for every category this week -- although for DVD it's just a further reduction. (It's not an unrelenting downward slide nowadays, but the last year my DVD tally actually increased was 2015, and then it was only by 7 across the entire year.)

This week's big addition is the Twin Peaks: From Z to A box set (out in the UK on Monday). Theoretically it should upgrade the previous Blu-ray box sets... but then they should've upgraded the previous DVDs and I hung on to them, so for the time being I'm keeping the lot. In some cases that's never likely to change (the season one DVD has audio commentaries that David Lynch won't allow to be included on future releases, so I'll hang on to those), but in others I really ought to just give in and sell (the only thing stopping me in most cases is the nice packaging, which is daft really). So, really From Z to A should've barely changed the numbers at all, but instead it adds piles of stuff. Most notably, though: it includes the original pilot and season three's Part 8 in UHD, so counts to that tally.

As you can see, it's one of three UHD additions this week. I haven't had anything to report there in over two months, and now three at once! The others were Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Don't Look Now (which is the upgrade responsible for dropping a DVD). Finally, anime movie Time of Eve adds some short films to round out every category.

And all of that looks like this:

Number of titles in collection: 2,279 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,123 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,156 [up 4]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 40 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 5,958 [up 26]
Number of films: 2,670 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes: 8,741 [up 48]
Number of short films: 676 [up 2]

Not counted: soundtrack CDs. There are two this month (in Don't Look Now and Time of Eve). Back when I first started tallying my DVD collection, I decided CDs "didn't count" -- because they were CDs and this was a list of DVDs (duh). But now I've got so many releases with soundtrack CDs bundled in, I wish I had kept a record. Maybe I should go back and count them in somehow? Maybe their own count; or I could just straight-up add them to my disc count -- it might not skyrocket exactly (it's already at nearly 6,000 and I doubt there's more than a few dozen CDs, max), but it would give it a notable bump (as I said, possibly a few dozen).

Or maybe I just can't be bothered.

See you next week, faithful reader.