TV

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

House
8x03 Charity Case

Pointless
3x23 (1/10/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Spooks
10x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Comics

Judge Dredd Megazine #313

That story that was on part seven last time? I give up. It makes no sense. Maybe if I'd been reading since the start... But no, I'm not wasting my time. It's called Numbercruncher, if you happen to care.

As for the others, to refer to them as I did last time: the Dredd was a two-parter that ends here, though leaves an intriguing Big Thing set up for the future. Look forward to that coming back. The one that was on part two (now three, obviously) is Samizdat Squad, and while I can follow it I don't especially care for it.

Finally, Anderson, Psi-Division (which was on part four and finishes this issue) has been a great little tale for the two parts I've read -- the only one I wish I'd been following since the start. I suppose I could always order back issues...

Articles

Joss Whedon on his secret film of Much Ado About Nothing: 'This is the best vacation I've ever taken' by Adam B. Vary
(from Inside Movies at EW.com)
First interview with Joss (plus stars Sean Maher and Amy Acker) about the just-wrapped/just-announced adaptation. Unsurprisingly, there's a tonne of new details in here.

The Jury returns after nine years in retirement by Vicky Frost
(from the Guardian)
Interview-y article about the Julie Walters-starring second series of The Jury, speaking to Walters and writer Peter Morgan. (Much better than Mark Lawson's faintly embarrassing article, where he goes on about it being a remake when (as numerous commenters point out) it isn't.)

TV

Home Cooking Made Easy
1x04 Simple [final episode]

The Jury
Part 5 (of 6)
Part 6 (of 6)
I suppose in a way the verdict was unsurprising, but I'm still glad they reached it. A good final pair of episodes too, generating genuine tension and wrapping everything up satisfactorily -- which, in some cases, meant leaving it ambiguous or unfinished. I don't really understand why this was so ignored at the time and isn't more often mentioned as an example of great British drama, because I think it deserves to be. Looking forward to the sequel, whenever that's on.

Pointless
3x22 (30/9/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

RED (2010)
[#88 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

Comics

Batman and Robin #2 by Peter J. Tomasi & Patrick Gleason
This series is becoming increasingly reliant on the past. I'm sure that's great for long-term readers, but it's not so good as part of (what's supposed to be) a line-wide new-reader-friendly re-launch. I coped with the first issue because I'm vaguely aware of some recent events in the Batman comics universe; this issue, it's really pushing my limit. We'll see how it goes -- I'll stick with it because nasty little git Damien, Bruce Wayne's son, is an interesting (if annoying) loose cannon.

Justice League #2 by Geoff Johns & Jim Lee
It's been a long wait for the second issue of DC's new flagship title -- nearly two months since #1! -- but critics found it worth the wait: after notoriously underwhelming reviews for that first issue, the follow-up has received much better notices. Personally, I enjoyed the first issue, and felt this one maintained the very good standard.

Resurrection Man #2 by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning & Fernando Dagnino
While this is still solid, all told I'm not as keen on it as the first issue. Resurrection Man is, I believe, the return of a long-dead series (oh irony), which makes it difficult to know if it's building on stuff from before or kicking off whole new mysteries. Considering the bafflement of the main character, hopefully things will get explained eventually, either way.

Articles

Drew Pearce to Write Sequel to As-Yet-Unreleased Sherlock Holmes Sequel by Kate Erbland
(from Film School Rejects)
To clarify, he's writing Sherlock Holmes 3 (as in the, the second sequel to the Downey Jr/Ritchie one). As the article says, "Pearce may very well be your favorite screenwriter whose work you’ve never actually seen" -- he's got several huge films in the offing, none of them yet released. Or even in front of cameras.

Joss Whedon & Nathan Fillion Do Shakespeare by Dave Golder
(from SFX)
Apparently around making The Biggest Blockbuster Ever (Maybe Probably Sort Of), Joss Whedon has found time to gather together a bunch of his chums (cast members from Buffy, Angel, Firefly and possibly others abound) to make a film of Much Ado About Nothing. What? Apparently it's not a hoax either. We'll see...
The official website, such as it is, is here.

Edit: there's a full press release confirming it all to be for real here. (It's also on the official website, but that has added commentary.)

TV

Downton Abbey
2x05 Episode 5
Mrs Bates is threatening something! ...but now it's sorted.
Mrs Bates is threatening something again! ...but now it's sorted.
Mrs Bates is threatening something else! ...but now it's sorted.
Time to wrap up the whole Mrs Bates thing, eh?
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Pointless
3x21 (29/9/10 edition)
25 people didn't know which war D Day was from?! I despair.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Spooks
10x04 Episode 4
As (most of) the rest of the nation's Spooks fans enjoy the series' last-ever episode, I'm still catching up on this final run. It is good though.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
5x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

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

Batman: Year One (2011)

this is a very down-to-Earth version of the Batman story. It’s even less sci-fi-y than Chris Nolan’s much-praised realistic films, in fact. There’s no Batmobile, no Batcave, no Bat signal, only a few gadgets (and those that are used are fully plausible), no cartoonish super-villains… This Gotham is a city where crime comes from gangsters, drug dealers, muggers and a thoroughly corrupt police force, and that’s what Batman sets out to fight.

Tangled (2010)

It’s funny, which is its biggest asset, and exciting at times — as usual, the highly movable camera of CG animation adds fluidity, speed and excitement to the action sequences, [but the] comedic-ish fantasy-kingdom world can come across a bit like lightweight Shrek [and] the songs are distinctly unmemorable

More next Sunday.

TV

Derren Brown: The Experiments
1x01 The Assassin
Brilliant (as ever from Derren), with some perhaps unexpected conclusions. Watching some of the extra video interviews online, it seems even the experts were surprised how things went.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Jonathan Ross Show
1x07 (15/10/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

The Jury
Part 4 (of 6)

Merlin
4x04 Aithusa
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
25x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Perfect Couples
1x06 Perfect Crime
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Pointless
3x20 (28/9/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Magazines

New Empress Magazine #3

The latest issue of the quarterly small press film magazine feels practically tailor-made to my interests, with almost every article piquing my curiosity.

After the reviews (of which over half interest me before even reading), there's an interview with the director of the BBFC; an entry in their 'why I hate film' series about the brilliance of TV; pieces on Westerns, going to the cinema by yourself, and the noir cityscape of Blade Runner; retrospectives on Jurassic Park, Casablanca, Bhaji on the Beach, and why Bring It On is actually good; plus a look back at much-underrated miniseries The 10th Kingdom.

There's also an article entitled "How Blu-ray killed the classics", which is interesting even if I disagree with it almost entirely.

(There's other good stuff too, but those were the ones that particularly appealed to me.)

This issue can be ordered online here if you're in the UK. Back issues, subscriptions and internationally-shipping copies are also available from their store.

Collection Count

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

This post represents the second anniversary of my collection counting. Hurrah!

Interestingly, this time last year I was switching my Back to the Future DVDs for the shiny new Blu-ray set; this year, I've done the same for Jurassic Park. I imagine it'll be Indiana Jones this time next year then, eh.

First up in my round-up is, as ever, the totals as they currently stand, with how they've changed since last week. A couple of DVD-to-BD upgrades leave this lot largely stable.

Number of titles in collection: 1,392 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,139 [down 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 253 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 3,447 [up 4]
Number of films in collection: 1,473 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,194 [up 26]

Secondly, how have they changed in a year? Well, unsurprisingly, all numbers have gone up -- indeed, the increases for many are even bigger this year than they were last. In a recession? Oops. Here's how they've increased over the last 12 months:

Number of titles in collection: up 166 (13.5%)
Of which DVDs: up 36 (3.3%)
Of which Blu-rays: up 130 (105.7%)

Number of discs in collection: up 440 (14.6%)
Number of films in collection: up 179 (13.8%)
Number of TV episodes in collection: up 914 (21.4%)

The overall increase is only slightly down (three titles fewer), but the increase in DVDs is under half what it was last year. That means Blu-rays make up the difference, the increase there being some 50 titles bigger than last year's. The increase in discs is also around 50 higher than it was last year; there are about 20 fewer new films, but nearly 300 more TV episodes added. Crikey.

Most of the percentage increases are lower than last year, because obviously they were all starting from a higher total. The one exception is TV episodes, thanks to an increase almost 50% bigger than last year's. Crikey.

Finally, and often most spectacularly, the running time update...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
248 days, 22 hours, and 31 minutes

That's up 1 day, 2 hours, and 2 minutes from last month... but what you really want to know is how much it's changed in a whole year, eh?

Well... it's increased 36 days, 15 hours and 33 minutes from last year. That's just over five solid weeks of viewing.

To put it another way, it's grown my collection's running time by 17.3%. And that rise is 12.5% bigger than last year's increase. That'd be all those TV episodes, I guess.

Anyway, that's all. Regular service resumes next week. See you then, faithful reader.

TV

The Jury
Part 3 (of 6)

Pointless
3x19 (27/9/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

QI
9x06 Inventive (XL edition)
I like Nina Conti, but I'm not sure how well a ventriloquist is suited to a panel show. They had a large section on ventriloquists, at least... most of which was cut out of the regular episode. Another tick in the box for XL editions, then.
[Watch QI XL (again) on iPlayer.]

Top Gear USA
1x01 Episode 1
It's not as good as the original British version -- the presenters are a bit weak, and certainly don't have the same camaraderie/rivalry as our lot; it's not as well made, either, lacking the slickness of direction the British one often shows -- but for all those faults it's a surprisingly entertaining re-make of the format.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Comics

2000 AD #1752
For this Prog, ECBT 2000AD added a new section to their regular reviews line-up, an initial-impressions art-only review. After that, the regular reviews are...

Judge Dredd Day of Chaos: Downtime

Ampney Crucis Investigates... The English Assassin Part Three

Indigo Prime Everything and More Part Three

Angel Zero Part 02

Low Life The Deal Part 3

The Dredd story this Prog seems to have been quite controversial among some of 2000 AD's readership (or maybe it's just one being vocally annoyed, I dunno) -- it's a one-shot in the middle of the big on-going Day of Chaos storyline -- but it also seems the majority side with it being a highly effective little tale looking at Dredd's current place in his world. With which I wholeheartedly agree. (Also, reading comments on this reminds me I'm still around four weeks behind with my reading. Ugh.)
Indigo Prime, on the other hand, is so befuddling and long-term-readers-only-y that it's the first Thrill I've seriously considered just skipping since I started reading.

Articles

Squirrelling Out Details On Watchmen 2 by Rich Johnston
(from Bleeding Cool)
Looks like it's happening after all, perhaps as a series of prequel stories. Hm. Well, at least prequels would be better than sequels: there's a gap in the Watchmen universe for stories from their costumed-heroics days, whereas a sequel would have to get all kinds of dealing-with-what-happened-y.

TV

Joanna Lumley's Greek Odyssey
Episode 1 (of 4)
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

The Jury
Part 2 (of 6)
This is almost 10 years old now, which makes it an interesting one for considering how TV drama has changed in the last decade. In many respects, not much -- it doesn't feel as old as a 10-year-old drama felt as little as three or four years ago, I don't think. In terms of things like camerawork, acting, pace, and so on, I wouldn't be surprised if this was new. You wouldn't get that similarity if you compared a production from 1991 to one from 2001.
That said, there are chunks of the story you'd have to change if making it now. Take the juror who's spent two episodes searching for someone he used to know, for instance: never mind phoning round old friends and employers, now he'd get her in a few seconds on Facebook. But these a minor points (and there aren't many of them) compared to that general stylistic one.

Spy
1x01 Codename: Loser
An original comedy… on Sky?! Starring someone from (ugh) My Family?! Oh dear.
But no, not oh dear -- it's actually really good. Because to say Robert Lindsay is "from My Family" is to underrate him; and it actually stars Darren Boyd, who's had supporting roles in all kinds of things for ages and deserves a lead role; and there's The One You Remember From Horrible Histories to provide some able support. Super.

Articles

Akira? A caricature, more like by Ben Child
(from Film Blog at the Guardian)
On why the US remake of Akira is a bad idea. It's not a fundamentally impossible proposition, but the way they're going about it -- with a hack director and Z-list cast -- is what will kill it.

Cool Tintin Concept Art by Helen O'Hara
(from Empire)
What it says on the tin.

TV

The Great British Bake Off
2x10 Masterclass Part 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Mock the Week
10x12 (13/10/11 edition) [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Pointless
3x18 (24/9/10 edition)
For some reason the BBC have abandoned the current series of Pointless mid-way to delve back two series to an apparently random point in series three, with episodes originally aired a little over a year ago. What's interesting is how different it all looks... but only slightly. The set and structure have clearly been slightly tweaked at some point (possibly when it made the move from BBC Two to BBC One) -- it's not massively different, but sort of subtly, uncannily so.
But hey, I've never seen these episodes, so it's got all the same play-along-at-home fun as a brand new one would.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Comics

It's new comics day! So while I wait for Forbidden Planet to get round to sending mine, and then wait for them to get round to arriving ("Saturday at best" is the usual time frame), it makes sense to read some of those late-arrivals I haven't got round to from the last fortnight of releases...

Animal Man #2 by Jeff Lemire & Travel Foreman
The villains and their crimes are horribly gruesome in this, but then I guess it's a horror comic (well, a superhero-horror comic) so it goes with the territory. The stuff with Buddy's family is brilliant though, giving it a completely different tone to most superhero books. It's not just a surface "this hero has a family!" schtick either, but one that Lemire is using really well as part of his story. You may remember that the first issue was a surprise sell-out hit, and I see no reason why that won't continue.
Though why one character is called Reg in dialogue but clearly has a name badge saying "Ned", I don't know.

Batgirl #2 by Gail Simone & Ardian Syaf
You may recall I wasn't massively enamoured with the first issue of Batgirl (unlike many a fangirl/boy, apparently), but I was intrigued enough by the villain to keep reading. This issue was much better, I felt, in large part again thanks to the villain -- Batgirl herself is too repetitive, especially in the over-recapping of the first issue at the start. I'll stick with this until the end of this arc, to find out what happens with said villain, but I imagine I'll drop it then.

(And one of these days I'll get round to my backlog of CLiNT -- it puts my piles of unread 2000 ADs & Megazines to shame.)

Articles

Review of Batman #2 by Ryan K. Lindsay
(from Comic Book Resources)
A second absolutely glowing five-star review for Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo's Batman book. Look forward to getting my copy sometime in the next 8+ days, then, depending on how efficient Forbidden Planet are feeling.

Five new DC Comics #1s recommended for movie lovers by Matt Singer
(from IFC)
We're over halfway through the #2s now, so this article is perhaps a little late to the party, but it's still a slightly different angle to look at The New 52 from.