TV

Adam Buxton's Bug
1x05 Episode Five
1x06 Episode Six

The Great British Bake Off
3x06 Puddings
Well, that was a particularly dramatic one!
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Newsroom
1x09 The Blackout, Part II: Mock Debate
This could be so much better if it didn't keep getting distracted with its OTT relationship stuff. Also the implausible thing that there's someone on staff who knows or is related to someone in an important, relevant or vaguely worthwhile position related to every single major news story of the past couple of years. It was pushing things the first time, but now we're on the goodness-knows-what-th and it's just silly.

TV

Derren Brown: Svengali
Not Derren's best live show, in my opinion. The titular doll isn't even the finale! Though the big ending was quite clever, it also somehow lacked impact for me.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Newsroom
1x08 The Blackout, Part I: Tragedy Porn

Once Upon a Time
1x17 Hat Trick
Surprisingly, that was really rather good… apart from it being based around not-a-fairy-tale Alice in Wonderland. What next week, Winnie the Pooh? An orangutan who wants to be human? A fox who robs from the rich to give to the poor? (I could go on.)

Suburgatory
1x09 The Nutcracker
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

The Newsroom
1x07 5/1
The Newsroom does the death of Bin Laden (the title refers to May 1st). Unfortunately, it was all terribly American about it.

Suburgatory
1x08 Thanksgiving
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Vexed
2x04 Episode 4

Films

Avengers Assemble (2012)
[#78 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]
aka Marvel's Avengers Assemble, aka Marvel Avengers Assemble, aka The Avengers, aka Marvel's The Avengers.

Articles

Disney Reponds To Avengers Blu-Ray Criticism
by Dave Golder (from SFX)

Ooh, the UK Avengers release has caused quite the fuss! It's been raging for a couple of days now -- weeks or months, actually, but so many people only notice when the discs actually come out. It's nice that, for once, awareness of these things from those-in-the-know has exploded into the mass population... though it also makes a point about bothering to do your research in advance, rather than just turning up and being shocked.

Anyway, there are loads of articles about this, and the situation seems to be still developing. I've linked to this one because it links on to one of the main articles while also offering commentary on it. Additionally, though, the BBFC have made a comment here that contradicts some of what Disney are saying.

TV

Mock the Week
11x08 (13/9/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Person of Interest
1x04 Cura Te Ipsum
What?! That's supposed to pass for an ending? Ugh, what a cop out. There's room for ambiguity in fiction, but you've got to know where to put it. Unless they intend to return to the theme of how far Reese is prepared to go, the climax of an episode of an on-going series isn't the place to leave stuff open-ended.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Suburgatory
1x07 Sweet Sixteen
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

Dragons' Den
10x01 Episode 1
Ten series now! Crikey.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Great British Bake Off
3x05 Pies
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

Two new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...

Marvel One-Shots (2011)

With Avengers Assemble out on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK next Monday, now seemed as good a time as any to post reviews of the first two Marvel One-Shots.

For those who don’t know, these are short films included on the home ent releases of their big movies, which take place within the same interconnected movie universe

For full reviews of The Consultant and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer, look here.

And new to my new blog...

A Study in Terror (1965)

it’s a decent Holmes movie, with an atmospheric rendering of Victorian London and a passably intriguing plot. However, the relatively light basis in the true story of Jack the Ripper may grate with some who approach it from that angle: there’s a Holmesian plot grafted onto a smattering of Ripper facts, as opposed to using Holmes to deduce one of the posited real solutions.

Read more here.

The X Files: I Want to Believe - Director's Cut (2008)

not the kind of X Files most people were expecting — i.e. Something To Do With Aliens — forgetting that the series was never just about extraterrestrials. The idea that I Want to Believe was a bit rubbish and thoroughly disappointing is consequently as much (if not more) the fault of those viewers who expected a different kind of film. That said, it’s a shame it isn’t wholly successful as the kind of film it’s trying to be either

Read more here.

More next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Who
33x03 A Town Called Mercy
A bit of a serious one, this. Relatively, anyway. But I think it all worked rather nicely. The themes seemed somehow appropriate to the Western setting too. The location work really paid off because it looked fantastic, and Murray Gold's score was exemplary.
I had my doubts about this lot of episodes from the series trailer -- it didn't really excite me -- but it's shaping up to be a very solid run.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Rob Brydon Show
3x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Fantastic Four (2005)
[#77 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Collection Count

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

Last time I talked about changes to numbers, and this week they've been implemented -- at least in part. Firstly, I've added a short film count to my list of totals. I don't buy many shorts DVDs, but I have enough and they turn up now and then to make it a number that feels worth including.

Secondly, I've been reconsidering what I count as a film. Generally anything broadly feature-length that was the main feature on the DVD went down as a film, but is that right? Should it be only stuff I'd be happy to review at 100 Films, say? I've got quite a few concert DVDs and that kind of thing which were listed as containing 1 film, but they're not really films, are they? But nor are they shorts or TV episodes. Is it OK they're not counted at all? I'm not 100% on this one so it's a bit inconsistent. But then I'm also inconsistent about whether I count alternate cuts under the number of films or not, so... I ought to come up with more consistent 'policies' really, for my own state of mind.

Finally, as I'll be selling them and getting the incredibly huge Wizards Collection for Christmas, the totals below see my Harry Potter BDs removed. I'll be doing the same to my James Bond DVDs soon I imagine, which will see an even bigger drop.

Number of titles in collection: 1,507 [down 7]
Of which DVDs: 1,163 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 344 [down 7]

Number of discs in collection: 3,714 [down 31]
Number of films in collection: 1,518 [down 79]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,658 [up 9]
Number of short films in collection: 19 ['up' 19]

Said it'd be drastic.

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Gates
1x04 Episode 4

Lorraine's Fast, Fresh and Easy Food
1x03 Simple Classics
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Newsroom
1x06 Bullies

Once Upon a Time
1x16 Heart of Darkness
Every episode of OUaT is laughable, but there was one particularly hilarious bit in this episode:

Snow White: King George took James. I have to get him back.
Grumpy: No Snow, you can't do it!
Snow White: I can't let the King just kill him. He came back for me. It doesn't matter what happens to me now I have to try.
Grumpy: [angrily] That's not what I meant! [Snow frowns] What I meant was... You can't do it alone. But luckily you won't have to. [music swells, dwarves have cheesy expressions, etc.]

In action it's even more hilariously awful than it sounds when written down. I think the whole series is pretty much locked in So Bad It's Good territory at this point.

TV

The Great British Bake Off
3x04 Desserts
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Mock the Week
11x07 (6/9/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Person of Interest
1x03 Mission Creep

TV

Now all that sport is over, it's time for a massive catch-up...

The Great British Bake Off
3x03 Tarts
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Rob Brydon Show
3x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Wallander [British]
3x03 Before the Frost [season finale]

Articles

Wallander is on the case again, in six new Mankell thrillers
by Jorn Rossing Jensen (from Cineuropa)

Swedish actor Krister Henriksson has embarked on his third assignment as Ystad Detective Inspector Kurt Wallander - the lonely, slightly overweight, but excellent crime investigator - in an €11.3 milllion package of six thrillers based on Swedish author Henning Mankell's character...

Swedish director Agneta Fagerström-Olsson last week (May 28) started principal photography for The Troubled Man, from Mankell's tenth and last Wallander novel... The Troubled Man will be released theatrically, while the five following films will go straight to television-home entertainment.

Despite this news being months old, I've only just stumbled across it. Very exciting it is too. Hopefully BBC Four will pick them up once they're all done.

TV

Gates
1x03 Episode 3

London 2012: Our Greatest Team Parade
and
Our Greatest Team: Athletes' Parade Live
The Channel 4 and BBC coverage (respectively) of the TeamGB/ParalympicsGB celebratory parade, which I watched a bit of both of for failed-recording reasons. Worth it for Boris' speech alone.
[Watch the BBC's coverage on iPlayer, and Channel 4's on their Paralympics videos site.]

TV

The Great British Paraorchestra


London 2012 Paralympics
Day Eleven
Closing Ceremony

That's it! Shame it came to end with a glorified Coldplay gig, but hey, the sport stuff was good. Whatever will we do now?

[Watch archived coverage, including the closing ceremony, on Channel 4's Paralympics site.]

this week on 100 Films

Four new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...

George Sanders as the Falcon
Reviews of the first three films in RKO's crime-adventure series: The Gay Falcon, A Date with the Falcon, and The Falcon Takes Over, the last of which is the first screen adaptation of a Raymond Chandler novel (Farewell, My Lovely, to be precise).
Read more here.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

Thematically it boils down to a man vs nature parable; about how we mistreat it, but also how we think we’re so far above it. Some of these themes may seem obvious, but they’re not overly spelt out — no one stands around bemoaning experimentation on animals, or lamenting man’s hubris in not taking the ape threat seriously enough.

Read more here.

And new to the new blog...

It's All Gone Pete Tong (2004)

If you’re into dance music/clubbing/Ibiza/etc, then this film is definitely aimed at you. As for the rest of us normal folk… well, to be honest, it’s actually a fair bit better than I was expecting!

Read more here.

The Outrage (1964)

If you’ve ever seen Akira Kurosawa’s classic Rashomon, the opening minutes of The Outrage will leave you in no doubt that you’re watching a Hollywood remake... But don’t mistake this effort for a thoroughly pointless rehash — though it can’t better the original, The Outrage has much going for it.

Read more here.

More next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Who
33x02 Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

Living up to their blockbustery aims here, I think, with an episode that's technically just as confined to a single facility as last week's but somehow feels grander.

There's an argument to be made it was the perfect evocation of Who: exciting, funny, emotional, subversive, with a clever continuity, and, most of all, utterly barmy. People have picked faults, but most of them are bad natured -- this is about having fun, and it achieves that massively with no serious problems. (Seriously, you're whinging the Triceratops was too slow? Go watch something else, you've missed the point!)

I imagine I'm in the minority, but while I did like Asylum of the Daleks, I properly enjoyed Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. Fun wins.

[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]


London 2012 Paralympics
Day Ten
Final day tomorrow! Final Last Leg tonight! Gonna miss it.
[Watch archived and live (when it's on) coverage on Channel 4's Paralympics site.]

Collection Count

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

Quite a surge this week to the main numbers, as you'll see, but it's had a surprising minimal effect on the monthly running time update. That's because the 18 TV episodes are actually an adjustment I missed, so it's actually just five new films. Neat increase number though.

There may be some uncommonly big changes next week -- I'm thinking of making some changes to how I record the collection that could knock some numbers around. We'll see.

Number of titles in collection: 1,514 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,163 [up 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 351 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 3,745 [up 8]
Number of films in collection: 1,597 [up 5]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,649 [up 18]

And that running time update...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
269 days, 7 hours, and 12 minutes.
(Up 22 hours and 22 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.