Audio Drama

Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor Adventures
1.1 Vampire Weekend

Jodie Whittaker's Doctor comes to Big Finish — I'd say "finally", but this has to be quickest turnaround from TV to BF ever. No surprise: Jodie was talking about doing them before her time on TV had even finished. Anyway, here begins 12 new adventures released over the next couple of years (the final one is scheduled for May 2027). Can Big Finish do for the 13th Doctor what they've done for the 6th and, arguably, 8th and turn an underwhelming TV era into a fan favourite? Time will tell. This first instalment... isn't that.

But it's not bad, either. It feels very much like it's laying the groundwork. This is a light-weight romp-ish season opener; a reminder of all the different tones Who does, all at once (not a bad thing), with a breakneck pace and a focus on just being a bit of fun. In that sense, it's more successful than many of her TV episodes were.

Jodie and Mandip slip back into their roles as if they'd never been away, and there are some nice scenes between the Doctor and Yaz. That goes some way to make up for the supporting cast being a mite too large — there's not enough time for this many characters, so they're all quite vaguely sketched. It doesn't help that several sound quite similar, meaning it can get a bit confusing in fast-paced scenes with everyone present.

Still, a solid start to the 13th Doctor's adventures on audio. Hopefully future episodes will deliver on the promise of what Big Finish can do to positively transform an era's reputation.

Fiction

Doctor Who: The New Adventures
Timewyrm: Revelation by Paul Cornell
Chapters 12–13
Epilogue [the end]

This seems to be regarded as among the best of the Timewyrm quartet — okay, we're only talking about four books, so there's not much room for manoeuvre in ordering them, but the rankings I've seen consistently place it first or second, and I've seen it ranked in the top ten of all New Adventures novels..

Well, I've found it a bit of a slog. I mean, it's taken me almost two months to get through it, compared to under two weeks for each of the previous parts (that's partly real-life events disrupting my reading rhythm, but also partly me finding it tough going). It's got some great ideas, actually, but they take a while to show up. Part of what makes them great is that they're reveals and reveals require setup, but obviously it didn't do that pre-work engagingly enough for me. Ah well, it's done now.

Not sure where I'll go next with the New Adventures — I own a bunch, but not the followup Cat's Cradle trilogy (because it's not meant to be very good); although I do have the entire 61-book run as ebooks, so I could continue there… or maybe I should stick to ones I actually own and paid money for, and just progress in order of release. Either way, I've spent the better part of two years just getting through these first four, so I either need to pick up the pace or accept I'm going to spend the rest of my life reading the NAs.

Games

Gray Matter

I've got literally dozens of point-and-click adventure games I've bought over the last few years waiting to be played (not to mention a selection of various other types of game I've either bought on sale or got free through Prime, not least a few high-acclaimed and very long RPGs), and yet I wound up playing this, which I just saw recommended and, more or less on a whim, thought "let's play that!"

And then I spent way too much of my day trying to get it to work properly on my Mac (it's only available for PC — the basic port worked easily enough, but there was no audio, and that took ages to fix, and even now it doesn't work properly; but I can hear it, even if it's constantly glitchy, and that's better than nothing). So, I got there in the end, and therefore played... for 10 minutes.

Well, I've started it now, at least.

this week on 100Films.co.uk

It feels like just the other day I was writing about May on 100Films.co.uk, but a whole 'nother month has flown by and it's time to look back at June.

First up, the overall review...





...accompanied by my list of "failures"...





More next Sunday? More likely it'll be August before I know it.

TV

The 1% Club
3x09 Episode 9
[Watch all episodes (again) on ITVX.]

Have I Got News for You
69x10 (6/6/2025 edition; extended repeat) [season finale]
[Watch the extended episode (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

I thought this week was going to be dominated by Radiance, mostly sale pickups, but I guess those are coming on Monday now. Instead, there's a new Radiance box set, a title I missed in the sale so nabbed elsewhere (still with a discount, at least, but a few quid more than in the sale); plus a selection of Deaf Crocodile titles I ordered a while back but had to wait for them all to be released (it's a US label, gotta order multiple to make the p&p worthwhile).

Number of titles in collection: 3,575 [up 6]
Of which DVDs: 986 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,589 [up 6]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 483 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 8,603 [up 10]
Number of films: 4,539 [up 8]
Number of additional cuts: 449 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 10,154 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,250 [up 2]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

Heads of State (2025)
[#59 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]

Games

Smurfs Kart

Games

Smurfs Kart
I'm getting better at this. I guess there's something to be said for practice.

Games

Smurfs Kart
It's growing on me a little, but I really wish you could remap the controls. I'm also beginning to see why "steering assist" is on by default — I turned it off, but perhaps that was unwise.

Games

Garfield Kart: Furious Racing
Got in a few more races and achievements before it did actually leave the free-with-Prime tier on Luna. And then I tried to find a replacement...

Smurfs Kart
Very similar on the surface, but a few changes to controls and difficulty made it much less satisfying. I did a few races, but I'm not sure I'll be going back.

Trackmania
A different kind of racing game — still a bit wacky, definitely not a sim (there's also a monster truck game on Luna that sounded altogether too serious), but not a kart racer either. I didn't care for the way it's not always clear where you should drive, and if you go wrong it will just let you wander around, which is irritatingly pointless. Also not really built for the levels of input lag you get on cloud gaming.

Oh well. At least it doesn't cost me anything to try these. Imagine if I got a Switch 2 right now and hated Mario Kart...

Games

Garfield Kart: Furious Racing

This was supposed to be leaving Luna tomorrow morning*, so tonight I did a sort of “farewell tour” around all 16 tracks. I don’t know if I’m going to miss it, per se, but it scratched an itch for a bit.

* checked on Tuesday morning and it's still there, so who knows!

TV

Richard Osman's House of Games
8x14 Week 3: Thursday
8x15 Week 3: Friday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Friends
8x05 The One with Rachel's Date [6th or so watch]
8x06 The One with the Halloween Party [6th or so watch]

Richard Osman's House of Games
8x12 Week 3: Tuesday
8x13 Week 3: Wednesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Paddington in Peru (2024)
[#58 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]

Games

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Trick-Taking Game
Chapters 13–14

Collection Count

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

After last week turned out to be so much smaller than expected, it's this week that's ended up as a bumper bonus one, with 17 new titles arriving. That includes six upgrades (five of them BD to 4K), although one doesn't replace the previous edition. It could have, if they'd bothered to carry forward all the extras. That makes it a bit of a punt to buy the Rocky series on 4K right now, because there are several areas for improvement if they decide to do another edition someday (as well as reinstating those extras that have gone missing, a major new documentary included in the set is actually available in a longer version on YouTube). Basically, I've bet on them not bothering with such a reissue. Time will tell.

Number of titles in collection: 3,569 [up 12]
Of which DVDs: 986 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,583 [up 12]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 481 [up 5]

Number of discs in collection: 8,593 [up 25]
Number of films: 4,531 [up 18]
Number of additional cuts: 449 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes: 10,154 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,248 [up 8]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Friends
8x03 The One Where Rachel Tells Ross [6th or so watch]
8x04 The One with the Videotape [6th or so watch]

Films

The White Trap (1959)
This is included in the Edgar Wallace Mysteries DVD set, but isn't properly part of the series, so I decided not to count it for the "Series Progression" part of my Challenge. Also because it's a bit rubbish.

TV

Friends
8x01 The One After 'I Do' [6th or so watch]
8x02 The One with the Red Sweater [6th or so watch]

Richard Osman's House of Games
8x11 Week 3: Monday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Critical Role Live Show: Melbourne || LIVE Beacon Backstage Pass

Where the Sydney pre-show was defined by Vegemite, this one is mostly stories of their trip to Melbourne zoo. So that's... nice.

These backstage livestreams are kinda pointless, but also kinda fun. I guess they know there's a chunk of their audience that just likes hanging out with the cast, even if they're not really doing anything, and this plays to that demographic.

The only thing approaching 'genuine information' was they said they're planning to announce/reveal a bunch of stuff at San Diego Comic-Con, which is only about a month away, so that's exciting. In fact, it's the weekend after the Age of Umbra finale — could we finally get some Campaign 4 news?

[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]

Games

Garfield Kart: Furious Racing

Still bothering to unlock stuff, just because, well, that's what you're incentivised to do, I guess. I believe the game is leaving Luna at the end of the month, so will all the stuff I've achieved then get lost forever? If so, that makes it really pointless.

Articles

Letterboxd is the Gen Z fad that might just save cinema
by Louis Chilton (from Independent)

I've been a Letterboxd user for a number of years (I can't even remember when I started now, and I've back-filled it with data from here and 100 Films so I can't just see when my logs began*), so it's interesting to read this about how popular it's become, and how significant it might yet be.

* Turns out, I can tell from reviews — not by looking at my diary, but on my stats pages. The review count at the top of those pages is for reviews posted that year, not for films logged in my diary that year. So I can't tell exactly when I started (because, as mentioned, I've back-dated some reviews), but I know I posted 0 reviews in 2012 and 67 in 2013. So, yeah, I've been using Letterboxd for 12+ years. Madness.

TV

Age of Umbra
1x02 The Lost Monastery [2nd half]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]

Critical Role Cooldown
Age of Umbra Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]

Games

Garfield Kart: Furious Racing

Actually tried to unlock stuff by racing at harder difficulty levels. Didn't get on as well. A reminder, I guess, that though I used to like to while away some time on games like this, I was never that good at them.

TV

Age of Umbra
1x02 The Lost Monastery [1st half]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]

Games

Garfield Kart: Furious Racing

Films

Saltburn (2023)
[#57 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]
Blindspot 2025 #6

Fiction

Doctor Who: The New Adventures
Timewyrm: Revelation by Paul Cornell
Chapters 10–11

Games

Garfield Kart: Furious Racing

Yep.

I have a feeling I'm going to get bored with it quite soon, but until I do, hey, why not.

Films

28 Weeks Later (2007)
[#56 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]

I've been meaning to watch this for about 18 years. Whatever my intentions, there's a non-zero chance I take the title of 28 Years Later literally.

Comics

Judge Dredd Megazine
#472
Okay, I went back and read the interviews and two strips that were standalone. I liked the latter; the former ended up adding books to my to-buy list. So, that's good, I guess.

Games

Garfield Kart: Furious Racing

Of all the games I've given a 'quick spin' since I got my Luna controller — a gorgeous-looking well-regarded action-adventure with one of my favourite superheroes; an acclaimed James Bond outing I've wanted to play for over 20 years; an RPG regarded as one of the greatest games of all time — this stupid little rip-off kart racer is the only one I've so far returned to. But sometimes you just want a bit of dumb, easily-winnable racing fun, right? Well, I do, and this is my only (free) option at the moment, so on it went.

Collection Count

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

I thought this was going to be a big ol' week, but a couple of packages taking longer than expected means that's deferred 'til next week (they should arrive on Monday, unless something goes terribly wrong). Instead, just two additions this week, and one of those a BD-to-4K upgrade.

Number of titles in collection: 3,557 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 986 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,571 [up 1]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 476 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 8,568 [up 2]
Number of films: 4,513 [up 1]
Number of additional cuts: 446 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 10,154 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,240 [up 1]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

28 Days Later (2002)
[2nd watch]
[#55 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]

Comics

2000 AD
Prog 2400
First half of a multiverse-spanning crossover event, finishing up in that month's issue of Judge Dredd Megazine. It's a good thing they make a big fuss of these whenever they happen, otherwise I'd now be faced with sourcing a back issue — whereas instead, I can just go right on...

Judge Dredd Megazine
#472
The first 50-ish pages of this are the second half of the aforementioned crossover, and that's what I read. The rest is unrelated other stuff: a trio of interviews and several additional comic stories. Honestly, most of those don't interest me, so I don't intend to go back to them — not even the other Judge Dredd strip that's included, because it's a Part One and I don't have the following issues to finish it.

TV

Age of Umbra
1x01 Desperloch [remainder]
It's been fairly widely commented upon, but combat really does flow so much more smoothly in Daggerheart than D&D. The latter makes it feel like a minigame: you stop, roll initiative, then everyone takes it in turn to do their combo of action / bonus action / movement. In Daggerheart, it just... starts. Okay, here Matt goes off to get a map, so it is still demarked in that sense, but it's only a slight pause. I can see how a less respectful or controlled table could turn it into chaos and/or one or two people dominating, but when played as intended, there's an ebb and flow that keeps it more engaging. Coupled with the different damage system in Daggerheart, which makes every strike more impactful, and I think overall it works much better, certainly as a viewer.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]

Critical Role
Tag Team at the Teeth: Prologue
A nine-minute setup for their two Australian live shows. Watching this now feels a bit like taunting myself, because who knows how long it’s going to be before I can actually watch the shows proper? (I’m not in Australia, so can’t see them live. I’m not in the US or Canada, so can’t see them in a cinema later this week / next week. Presumably they'll be on Beacon shortly afte Age of Umbra, but they’re set after Campaign 3, so really I’m a couple of hundred episodes off getting to them.)
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]

Critical Role Cooldown
Age of Umbra Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]

Critical Role Live Show: Sydney || LIVE Beacon Backstage Pass
So, while it's going to be a while before the show itself is on Beacon, they did do this backstage livestream beforehand. It's just hanging out with the cast, doing things like improv warmup and eating Vegemite for the first time, but that's fun in its own way (for some us, at least).
[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]

Games

Garfield Kart: Furious Racing

Not the kind of thing I normally play, obviously, but I've seen so much stuff online going on and on about the Switch 2, it's making me want one; but the main (some might say "only", but let's not get into that) game currently is Mario Kart, and I've never been a huge kart racing game fan. Nonetheless, it put the idea in my head so much that I decided to try to scratch the itch by seeing what was free to play on Luna — and this was the only option.

Is it a good game? Probably not. I'm sure gamers would say it's not even close to Mario Kart (which it's clearly designed to emulate). But did it scratch that itch, as a free version of something I only really want to play because there's so much chatter about it? Yes, it did.

TV

Age of Umbra
1x01 Desperloch [1st hour]
As I've reached a very convenient end-of-story-arc point in my Campaign 2 viewing, I'm making a start on their currently-running Daggerheart-based miniseries. It's still the same players and GM playing a story-focused TTRPG, and yet the system switchup somehow makes it feel fresh and exciting. Interesting.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]


Ever since I started watching Critical Role, I’ve debated where to categorise it. Some would just say it’s TV, but I started watching it on YouTube — that’s not really TV, that’s just online video slop, right? (I get that this is a generational thing, and I’m definitely of a generation that doesn’t respect “YouTubers”.) I don’t even watch CR on my TV, but on my computer or tablet, something I would never dream of doing with real TV (this is less generational, more just being a purist — or, if you prefer, snob). But it sits uncomfortably under the “Video” heading too — that was created more for short-form disposable stuff.

Anyway, after (too) much reflection, I’ve decided to ‘upgrade’ CR and its associated content, and the start of their newest miniseries seemed as good a changeover point as any. Funnily enough, tomorrow this will include their backstage pre-show livestream from Sydney, which immediately threw me into a conundrum: a livestream is definitely more “Video” than “TV”. But I don’t want to split their stuff up like that, so I guess it’s all TV now!

Maybe I should just call it “Content”. My Content Experience. Ugh.

Fiction

Doctor Who: The New Adventures
Timewyrm: Revelation by Paul Cornell
Chapter 9

Fiction

Doctor Who: The New Adventures
Timewyrm: Revelation by Paul Cornell
Chapter 8

Videos

Critical Role
2x108 Traveler Con [2nd half]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Podcasts

The Empire Spoiler Special Film Podcast
Christopher McQuarrie on Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning Part One

Comics

2000 AD
Prog 2398
Prog 2399

Videos

Critical Role
2x108 Traveler Con [1st half]
Just 77 episodes (that's over half the campaign) after it was first mentioned (even at my accelerated pace, it's been a whole year since I watched that episode; in real life, it was over two years) — and after many, many episodes of steadily increasing mentions and preparations as it got closer and closer — Traveler Con is finally here!
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Films

Hardware (1990)
[#54 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]

Comics

2000 AD
Prog 2397

Collection Count

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

Three new purchases this week, all new releases — two from this week, one ahead of next week — with two of them being splashy UHD Collector's Editions, and one of those an upgrade to an existing Blu-ray.

Number of titles in collection: 3,556 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 986 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,570 [up 2]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 475 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 8,566 [up 7]
Number of films: 4,512 [up 2]
Number of additional cuts: 446 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes: 10,154 [up 2]
Number of short films: 1,239 [up 1]

It's also time for the monthly running time update, which passes a milestone...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
601 days, 17 hours, and 21 minutes.
(Up 1 day, 20 hours, and 37 minutes from last month.)

Yes, I've now passed 600 days! I passed 500 days back in March 2022 (with no fanfare). That's 3 years and 3 months ago, fact fans. I'd passed 400 days in July 2018, which was 3 years and 8 months before 500 — so the speed at which my collection increases is increasing. That doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

Purely in running time terms, my collection has doubled in size in just under 11 years. The number of titles has more than doubled in that time (makes sense, as the amount of TV thats gets released/bought by me has steadily decreased, and that has much higher running times per title). My DVD colleciton has shrunk by 17.9% in that time, while my Blu-rays have increased five-fold. I now own almost as many UHDs as I did Blu-rays back then. Considering I described 300 days as "madness" and I now have doubled that, I do have to wonder when (if) it will ever stop... Well, if I continue as I have been, logically I'll reach 700 hours around March 2028 — so let's see!

On a more immediate scale: I'll see you next week, faithful reader.

Films

Shoot First, Die Later (1974)
[#53 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]

Films

Save the Last Dance (2001)

Fiction

Doctor Who: The New Adventures
Timewyrm: Revelation by Paul Cornell
Chapter 7

Comics

2000 AD
Prog 2396

Fiction

Doctor Who: The New Adventures
Timewyrm: Revelation by Paul Cornell
Chapters 5–6

Games

Batman: Arkham Knight

It's over six months since I got my Luna controller — crikey, so long? Yeah, I've barely used it. To be honest, I didn't have the greatest experience with A Plague Tale — it was ok, but I've never really felt like going back to it. Things went better with Everything or Nothing, but I think my iffiness with the analogue sticks prevented me from revisiting it beyond the tutorial stages (I do still want to, though). And then I tried Final Fantasy VII, which... I sort of didn't get on with? The lack of free saving annoyed me, especially as I ended up having to play for hours when I didn't actually want to just to get to another save point. Maybe that's because I was still early in tutorial-esque bits and it gets better? It is a revered classic, after all.

Anyway, I finally whipped the controller out again today, to have a go at this Batman game that's currently available through Luna to regular Amazon Prime members (there's also an additional Luna+ sub that gets you even more, but I don't use it enough for that — evidently). This was the fourth in the series of 'Arkham' Batman games. I don't normally like I starting with the last, but this is the one that's free, so...

I ended up playing for about two hours — not because a lack of save points forced me to, but because I was actually enjoying it. I can certainly feel I'm out of practice at this type of gaming (aside from the aforementioned tests at the end of last year, I guess the last time I properly picked up a controller was pushing 20 years ago? Jesus, time flies...), but the game wasn't so punishing that I couldn't get somewhere (I did put it on 'easy' mode, but I feel no shame about that — like I said, I'm terribly out of practice. And, frankly, dying over and over and getting nowhere has never been part of the fun of gaming for me). Also, it looked pretty great. It's 10 years old, but when I haven't really played games since the GameCube / original Xbox (I did dabble with the Wii, but not enough give the amount of stuff I bought for it), I guess I feel the jump more! Imagine what I'd think of a new game...

Anyway, I can't promise I'll stick at this too much, because there are plenty of other demands on my free time (films, books, comics, podcasts, audio dramas, self-learning, card games, board games... eesh!), but I'm definitely more inclined to return now. The only possible downside is, the game is due to expire on Luna on the 1st of July — there's no way I'm going to play it enough to finish it by then. It's listed as being about 17 hours just for the main story, but I'm so out of practice that I suspect it will take me longer; and I'm always a completist, so the 31-hour-plus higher estimates seem more like it.

Videos

Critical Role
2x107 Devoutness and Dicks [2nd half]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Films

La Scorta (1993)
aka The Escort

Videos

Critical Role
2x107 Devoutness and Dicks [1st half]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Films

The Untouchables (1987)
[#52 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]
"What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...?" 2025 #6

Podcasts

The Empire Spoiler Special Film Podcast
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One — The Live Spoiler Interview with Christopher McQuarrie

I didn't listen to this fifth and final part of Empire's epic deep dive into M:I-7 back when it came out because it took so bloody long to be released: it was recorded in July, Part Four came out in September, and this last instalment wasn't released until Christmas Day — that's almost four months later. The Empire spoiler podcast costs money — I would've wasted three or four months of sub fees just waiting for this to turn up. Anyway, I've just re-subbed to listen to the new Final Reckoning episode(s), so before that I've gone back for this one.

More importantly: what McQ has to say is fascinating and insightful, so this is as brilliant as usual.

Fiction

Doctor Who: The New Adventures
Timewyrm: Revelation by Paul Cornell
Chapter 4

Comics

2000 AD
Prog 2395

Videos

Age of Umbra
Session Zero Creating Characters Matt Wants to Kill
You feel like a Session Zero should be a great tool for players, but probably not much fun to actually watch. Not so here — it's a delightful mix of learning about the background to the world of the miniseries (whether or not, and how much, that will also be covered in the series proper, who knows) and just getting to hang out with these guys. Yeah, I'm one of those people who enjoys that.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]

Fireside Chat LIVE With Matthew Mercer and Elise Rezendes!
Answering questions about Daggerheart — or, quite often, not being able to answer them while clearly being excited for what they can't reveal yet.
[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]

this week on 100Films.co.uk

Continuing where last week left off, I completed my look back at May on 100Films.co.uk by listing my "failures"...





More next Sunday? One day it'll happen.

TV

Doctor Who: Unleashed
3x09 20 Years of New Who in Wales [special]
A nice hour-long tribute to 20 years of nuWho.
(I'm numbering this as being in "Season 3" because I numbered the 60th anniversary specials episodes as Season 1 of Unleashed, which would mean Season 2 covered Season 1, and Season 3 covered Season 2, and this comes at the end of that season. Right?)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Predator: Killer of Killers (2025)
[#51 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]

Comics

2000 AD
Prog 2393
Prog 2394

I fell out of the habit of reading 2000 AD regularly and now I haven't read an issue since September. Oops. That's a lot of catching-up to do (44 Progs, to be precise, including the bumper Christmas one; plus an issue of Judge Dredd Megazine thanks to a crossover). Well, I've done big catchups before, so I'm sure I'll achieve it again, eventually.

Videos

Critical Role
2x106 A Fog Lifted [2nd half]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Collection Count

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

There are increases for every stat this week — yes, even DVDs(!) — as a handful of brand-new releases are accompanied by sale pickups. That DVD, incidentally, is one I've had my eye on purchasing (with no urgency, obviously) for 12 years. That's insane! Where does time go?!

Number of titles in collection: 3,554 [up 8]
Of which DVDs: 986 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,568 [up 7]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 473 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 8,559 [up 15]
Number of films: 4,510 [up 12]
Number of additional cuts: 444 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 10,152 [up 6]
Number of short films: 1,238 [up 1]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

The Wolfpack (2015)

Videos

Critical Role
2x106 A Fog Lifted [1st half]

With this episode, I’m three-quarters through Campaign 2 — the kind of milestone that has me thinking where I'll go next (not because I'm especially near the end — there's still 169 hours to go — but because, well, that end will come eventually).

CR recently started their Daggerheart-based Age of Umbra miniseries, which runs until the end of July; and by then they’ll have a backlog of live shows to share, which could well fill their August streaming calendar; so Campaign 4 almost certainly won’t start until September at the earliest; some believe it won't begin until 2026 now. Will I have finished Campaign 2 by then? September: probably not; especially as I plan to watch Age of Umbra (I would've started it already, but my free time was unexpectedly upended the past few weeks). The end of 2025: I really should have.

Either way, I’m increasingly certain my plan is to go straight from C2 to C4 (either when I finish C2 or overlapping with the end of it), and then possibly go back to C1 and/or C3 if (when?) once-a-week new episodes are not enough for my CR fix.

[Watch A Fog Lifted (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Films

Mr Bean's Holiday (2007)

TV

Friends
7x20 The One with Rachel's Big Kiss [6th or so watch]
7x21 The One with the Vows [6th or so watch]
7x22 The One with Chandler's Dad [5th or so watch]
7x23 The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding Part 1 [5th or so watch]
7x24 The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding Part 2 [season finale; 5th or so watch]

Games

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Trick-Taking Game
Chapters 10–12

this week on 100Films.co.uk

Most months nowadays I only post a single update about what's been happening at 100Films.co.uk, but this month the dates and days fall in such a way that there'll be (at least) two. Wow!

This week, it's time for the regular monthly review...





...but it's not until next week that I'll be posting its companion list of "failures".

So, for once I can actually promise: more next Sunday.

TV

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

Films

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

Games

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

Collection Count

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

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

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

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

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

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

Films

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

Games

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

Articles

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

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

TV

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

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

TV

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

Leverage: Redemption
1x07 The Double-Edged Sword Job

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

TV

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

Leverage: Redemption
1x06 The Card Game Job

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

TV

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

Films

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

Ten Little Indians (1989)

Games

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

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

TV

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

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

Leverage: Redemption
1x05 The Paranormal Hacktivity Job

Games

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

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

TV

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

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

Games

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

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

Collection Count

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

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

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

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

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

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

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

Leverage: Redemption
1x04 The Tower Job

TV

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

Films

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

Videos

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

Videos

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

TV

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

Collection Count

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you next week, faithful reader.