TV

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

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

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

Films

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

TV

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

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

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

Films

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

TV

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

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

Yes, Prime Minister
1x04 The Key

TV

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

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

Articles

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

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

TV

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

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

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

Films

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

Articles

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

this week on 100 Films

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

(500) Days of Summer (2009)

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

An Education (2009)

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

Up in the Air (2009)

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

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

More next Sunday.

TV

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

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

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

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

Films

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

Collection Count

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

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

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

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

See you next week, faithful reader.

Blogger, fixed

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

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

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

TV

The Graham Norton Show
9x04 (6/5/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

House
7x21 The Fix

Robot Chicken
1x07 A Piece of the Action
1x05 Toyz in the Hood
1x06 Vegetable Funfest
1x09 S&M Present

Films

Iron Man (2008)
[2nd watch]
This was #31 in 100 Films 2008, when I watched it at the cinema. I liked it then, but think I enjoyed it even more second time round. The sequel is on Sky Premiere from next Friday, so naturally I'm aiming to watch my Blu-ray of that before then and post a review in time -- hence watching this one now.

Articles

16 movie poster traditions that need to die in a horrible fire by Ali
(from theshiznit.co.uk)
I don't entirely agree with some of them -- the "from the producer of" credit is kinda irritating, but at the same time producers do tend to make the same kind of films because they know how to make those kind of films, so it's not a worthless comparison, especially in the age of producers like Jerry Bruckheimer, who arguably have more control over the final film than the director -- but most are spot-on, and several quite amusing too.

If this summer's movie posters told the truth by Ali
(from theshiznit.co.uk)
And from the same site, a better take on posters. These are most amusing. I particularly like the Super 8 one -- "E.T. With Lens Flare". It's funny because it's true.

Steven Moffat speaks out against spoiler "vandals" by Chuck Foster
(from Doctor Who News Page)
Moffat's 'anti-fan' comments seem to be increasingly regular and causing an increasing stir amongst certain aspects of fandom. But the thing is, pretty much everything he has to say is true -- proper fans should be agreeing, not moaning about it. It's only 'fans' -- the people who claim to like the show but always complain about it, or deliberately spoil it and take the fun out of it -- that need to feel offended, and offended they should feel because... well, he's right about them.

Where are today's Steinbecks? by Michael Goldfarb
(from BBC News)

Millions of men and women have lost their jobs in the latest global downturn - the biggest for decades. Why do we hear so little about them?

Or, why art is so slow to respond to the current global recession when it wasn't last time.

Blogger's stupidity

Those who don't use Blogger are likely to have missed this, but somehow yesterday evening they buggered up their whole system and left everything in read-only mode while they tried to fix it -- that's why, in the case of this blog in particular, you dear readers would still have been able to read everything, but no new posts appeared.

To fix it they seem to have deleted Wednesday's posts. They are, apparently, still in the process of restoring these. Additionally, it seems all saved posts have reverted to pre-Wednesday form -- or, to put it another way, all my half-written & saved-as-drafts posts for Thursday's viewing, reading, etc, have disappeared as well.

I am miffed about this.

Fingers crossed it's all coming back, not just posted posts. I shan't publish any other updates for the immediate future, just in case, and if it doesn't get fixed I'll catch up on Wednesday (though, that should come back anyway) and Thursday later tonight or tomorrow.

Just in case you were curious.

TV

Archer
2x02 A Going Concern
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

The Secret History of Eurovision
Plenty of British people seem to think it's just a joke or ungrounded PR spin when it's said that Eurovision is much more important on the continent than it is over here, and can have a genuine effect on more serious political issues. Even the Radio Times voiced such ideas in their review of this documentary. But I think this does a good job of showing that, actually, it's true -- the silly camp little thing we largely ignore has been, and continues to be, incredibly significant to much of Europe; and it exposes this while also acknowledging its occasional (well, frequent) silliness and campery. Good documentary.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Shadow Line
Part 1 (of 7)
New murder/crime/conspiracy thriller, which started last week (so I am of course watching this week). Rather unusual in all kinds of ways -- pace, writing style, acting -- but all of it marvellous in its irregular fashion. This has "classic in the making" written all over it. If you're not watching, start before it's too late.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

$#*! My Dad Says
1x10 You Can't Handle the Truce
Hold on... what? Last episode, Vince and Bonnie decided to move out of their home, and we saw their dog, who we'd met before. This week, they're in the same place and they're trying to adopt a dog, with no sight or mention of their previous one. So... what?
Well, the TV.com page for this episode says it was originally scheduled to air the week before the first episode featuring the dog, and said dog turned up right at the end, so I presume this episode should really be placed earlier in the season and 5* just weren't paying attention. Tsk.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]