TV

Due South
3x08 Spy vs. Spy [2nd watch]
Even by Due South's standards, this episode was barmy.

Family Guy
1x07 Brian: Portrait of a Dog [season finale]
2x01 Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater
2x10 Running Mates

The Graham Norton Show
8x18 (25/2/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
[#26 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]
Christ, it's nearly two-and-a-half years since I read this! And I've been meaning to watch it ever since.

Collection Count

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

After everything turned up last week, there's still a few left over this week (just): three new titles and a DVD-to-BD upgrade. Thrilling. But on the bright side, running time update for the lot of it! Yay!

Number of titles in collection: 1,278 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,102 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 176 [up 4]

Number of discs in collection: 3,185 [up 6]
Number of films in collection: 1,348 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,730 [up 22]

Plus this week it's time for a running time update, so...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
228 days, 10 hours, and 32 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 13 hours, and 55 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

10 O'Clock Live
1x06 (24/2/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Due South
3x05 Seeing is Believing [2nd watch]

Family Guy
1x03 Chitty Chitty Death Bang
1x05 A Hero Sits Next Door
1x06 The Son Also Draws

My Life in Books
Episode 5 Peter Snow and Dan Snow (of 10)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Due South
3x06 Bounty Hunter [2nd watch]

Family Guy
1x01 Death Has a Shadow
1x02 I Never Met the Dead Man [2nd watch]
1x04 Mind Over Murder
I've only seen random episodes of Family Guy before (plus the first two Star Wars ones). Turns out, this second one is one of them.
And secondly, Family Guy has a whole messed-up-mixed-up history of which episodes are in which season and which order, for various reasons that don't need going into. Though I'll just watch them in the order presented on the Region 2 DVDs, numbering is courtesy of Wikipedia's episode list (i.e. by US transmission).

Friday Night Dinner
1x01 The Sofabed
C4's new sitcom apparently had a very good launch, ratings-wise. Which is nice, because it's quite good.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Killing [aka Forbrydelsen]
1x11 Day 11
I hope it wasn't Troels who did it, because a) you surely can't drag that out for half the series, and b) Bremer deserves what's coming to him. In fact, I hope Bremer did it and is trying to frame Troels. That'd be good.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

My Life in Books
Episode 4 Sir Trevor McDonald and Rebecca Front (of 10)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

House
7x11 Family Practice

How I Met Your Mother
6x10 Blitzgiving
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

My Life in Books
Episode 2 Giles Coren and Sue Perkins (of 10)
Episode 3 Clare Balding and Hardeep Singh Kohli (of 10)
[Watch episode 3 (again) on iPlayer.]

Silk
1x01 Episode 1
Excellent, very believable new legal drama. Of course, being so plausible means it can be as gruelling as watching news about trials -- they don't always give the correct verdict or a fair sentence.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards
aka the Oscars, of course. Once again, I've got myself Sky Movies specially for this -- pricey, but lots of movies for a month. Yay.

Due South
3x07 Mountie and Soul [2nd watch]
Wait... hold on... what are they doing?! No, they haven't skipped another episode (or three) -- despite acknowledging on their website that this is indeed the seventh episode, BBC Two for some reason showed this before episodes five and six. And, incidentally, showed five and six the wrong way round. And seem to be doing the same with later episodes too. It probably doesn't matter -- Due South isn't big on serialisation -- but still, what the hell?

Extraordinary Dogs
1x04 Crucial Hearing
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

My Life in Books
Episode 1 PD James and Richard Bacon (of 10)

Outcasts
1x05 Episode 5
Good, unexpected final twist. So at least this series has produced something almost worthwhile in the end.
[Subject yourself to it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Showtime renews Episodes, Shameless by Mike Moody
(from Digital Spy)
As requested. Super.

TV

Due South
3x04 Strange Bedfellows [2nd watch]
I don't mind New Ray, but I do rather miss Old Ray at this point.

Oscars 2011: Red Carpet Live
Not much red carpet in the red carpet show -- which is fine by me! The actual awards begin at 1:30am here (1am Stateside, I believe), so I'll mention that tomorrow, as usual.

South Riding
Part 1 (of 3)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Top Gear
16x05 (20/2/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Up in the Air (2009)
[#25 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

this week on 100 Films

Just 1 new review was posted to 100 Films in a Year again this week. Must try harder.

The Invention of Lying (2009)

there are two points to be made. One, it’s not really setting out to be a 100% flawless world-without-lies — it’s our world, reflected back with lies removed. And two, it’s a comedy — the honesty of the corrupt cop or the casino box office is funny. On a deeper level, one might argue the film is exploring the lies we tell ourselves and each other — how harsh the world would be without them.

More next Sunday.

TV

The Culture Show
Forget the Oscars, Here Are the Kermodes [special]
Mark Kermode tells us how the Oscars have got it wrong this year. And he's probably right.
See also: today's Articles.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Due South
3x03 I Coulda Been a Defendant [2nd watch]

Fast and Loose
1x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Faulks on Fiction
Part 3 The Snob
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Killing [aka Forbrydelsen]
1x10 Day 10
Once again a conclusion feels like it's nigh -- but we're only halfway through! As much still to come as there's already been! Tensiontastic.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Let's Dance for Comic Relief 2011
Episode 1 (of 4)
Despite all his trending on twitter and what have you, I didn't think Russell Kane's routine was that great. Dressing up in drag may've worked in both previous series, but it was accompanied by an amusing and well-performed routine -- I didn't think Kane managed either. And Katie Price was one of the worst too. But hey, whoever said the British public had taste?

Whose Line is it Anyway?
4x12 (10/4/92 edition)
3x16 (3/5/91 edition)
Despite Whose Line's fame and endurance (ten series of the UK version followed by eight of a US one), I've never seen it before. Caught these in the middle of the night on Dave, for some reason showing the last non-compilation episodes of the British version in reverse order. OK... And though this is the British one, these episodes were both taped in New York. One wonders where these ideas come from.
[Watch 3x16 and 4x12 (again) on 4oD.]

Articles

Groundbreaking Cinema: 15 Films from 2010 That Challenged & Advanced the Medium by Adam Quigley
(from /Film)

the movies from 2010 that, as best as I have been able to ascertain, helped contribute to the landscape of film in ways that are important, creative and culturally significant — regardless of any personal animosity you may feel toward them.

A most interesting read. And the intro is great as a reminder of the dozens of films the Oscars have completely overlooked, all of them more influential and/or popular than a good deal of actual Best Picture winners.

TV

Due South
3x02 Eclipse [2nd watch]

Episodes
1x07 Episode Seven [season finale]
It took a few episodes to find its feet, but I properly enjoyed it by the end. More please.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Graham Norton Show
8x17 (18/2/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Nanny McPhee & the Big Bang (2010)
[#24 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]
aka Nanny McPhee Returns in the US, for God knows what reason.

Fiction

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

Collection Count

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

Titles this week include The Social Network soundtrack on Blu-ray (yes, a soundtrack on Blu-ray) and The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Blu-ray, which means that I now own, for various reasons, the 25th, 30th and 35th anniversary releases of that particular film. I need to get eBaying...

Incidentally, I thought the orders that made up this update would spread themselves out over two or even three weeks, yet somehow they've all turned up in just one. Back to being a bit quiet next week then... probably...

Number of titles in collection: 1,275 [up 8]
Of which DVDs: 1,103 [up 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 172 [up 6]

Number of discs in collection: 3,179 [up 13]
Number of films in collection: 1,345 [up 4]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,708 [up 37]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

10 O'Clock Live
1x05 (17/2/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Due South
3x01 Burning Down the House [2nd watch]
This is the one episode of Due South I'm absolutely certain I've seen, because I remember not approving of the new Ray at the time. Now, I also don't approve of the new opening theme music or the new closing theme music. New Ray -- played, incidentally, by Callum Keith Rennie, he of a thousand recognisable guest/recurring roles since -- isn't as good as Old Ray, true, but he's not too bad.

Extraordinary Dogs
1x03 Myth and Reality
Aww, look at all the cute doggy-woggies!
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

House
7x10 Carrot or Stick

Just Good Friends
2x07 Goodbye Again [season finale]

The Killing [aka Forbrydelsen]
1x09 Day 9
There's a bit of an "entering phase two" feeling about this episode, as a lot of long-running threads are closed off, giving rise to new ones that may well drive the rest of the series. Still over half to go though...
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Clash of the Titans (2010)
[#23 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

Articles

The Day the Movies Died by Mark Harris
(from GQ)
Interesting article about the (potential) death of American movies.

Internet-savvy Firefly fans fly back into the fight by Doug Gross
(from Geek Out! at CNN)
Hard to believe anything will come of this plan to revive Firefly, but it's impressive how much coverage it gained so quickly.