TV

Downton Abbey
3x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Dragons' Den
10x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Person of Interest
1x05 Judgment
There was a lot of debate about the spelling of "judgement" recently, surrounding the posters for Dredd, which used "judgment" despite being a British thing. According to Wikipedia, both are acceptable in the UK, while only the E-less form is used in the US... but clearly we think of the with-an-E version as being British (in fairness, it's more common, and matches other spelling rules better). All this is relevant here because, while Channel 5's site uses the E-less form (see below), US site TV.com's listing for the episode is with-an-E (see above). So that's weird then.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Suburgatory
1x10 Driving Miss Dalia
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Films

RoboCop (1987)
[#80 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

this week on 100 Films

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


Supervillain Showdown!

Despicable Me vs. Megamind

2010 saw the release of two apparently-similar animated films, both dealing with the superhero genre from the perspective of the supervillain. As it turns out only one really does that, but still, it seems a reasonable point of comparison.

Read more here.


And new to the new blog...

Hot Fuzz (2007)

I wasn’t hyped enough about this film to pay £10 to see it a week before release, and instead paid just £3.75 to see it in a big screen with just myself and a friend. ... It’s five-and-a-half years on, so of course prices will have gone up, but nonetheless I have two observations:

1) The cost of a regular (peak time) adult ticket is now £9.
2) The cost of the equivalent ticket to the one I bought is £5.40. That’s a 44% increase.

Read more here.


James Bond @ 100 Films

With the Bond 50 Blu-ray box set out on Monday, I thought now was as good a time as any to bring 100 Films’ previous Bond reviews over to the new blog.

Featuring reviews of For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, Casino Royale (2006), and Quantum of Solace.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Comedy World Cup
1x01 Episode 1
Daft title, fun format: teams of comedians answer questions about comedy. I especially liked it because I did really well, particularly on the film round. If only I was a stand-up...
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]


Doctor Who
33x04 The Power of Three

How appropriate that this episode coincided with the release of the iPhone 5! Couldn't have planned it better if they tried.

That coincidence aside, I thought it was a very good episode. It looks the sore thumb amongst a raft of big blockbuster episodes (Daleks! Dinosaurs! Western! Angels! New York!), but if they're big bold exciting concepts and imagery than this was the episode of blockbusting emotions, with the Ponds and the Doctor giving serious thought to their relationships. The cubes were a neat idea with a spectacularly average resolution, but that barely mattered alongside the real point of the episode: the Doctor clashing with the Ponds' regular life.

Plus, genuine chills when they revealed the identity of Kate Stewart's father. Fabulous.

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


QI
10x01 Jargon (XL edition)
Ah, the return of QI. Hilarious, yes, but another year of trying to ensure you've seen all the episodes amongst the BBC's random scheduling and surprisingly frequent ditching of the XL version. And considering they pump out a massive 16 (or more) episodes per series now, I have absolutely no idea if I've seen them all or not.

Films

Ip Man 2 (2010)
[#79 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Crikey, is it really well over a year since I watched the first one?! Time flies.

Collection Count

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

This week, as well as new acquisitions, I finished my previously-half-hearted new shorts total -- hence why it's gone up by nearly 350 (plus one for Item 47). Which also proves it was worth doing. I thought I had a couple of collections and one or two here and there on various feature film releases, which I suppose might've reached 100-ish, so I was quite blown away by the final tally.

In the process the total number of films also somehow fell by 16 (and rose again with new purchases) and TV episodes went up by 19 (and, again, new purchases). Quite how that happened I have no idea, but it must've been warranted.

Number of titles in collection: 1,509 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,163 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 346 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 3,718 [up 4]
Number of films in collection: 1,504 [down 14]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,679 [up 21]
Number of short films in collection: 365 ['up' 346]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Gates
1x05 Episode 5 [season finale]
Enjoyed that overall. Be nice if they brought it back.


The Newsroom
1x10 The Greater Fool [season finale]

Well, that was a mixed bag. Just like the rest of the series, so it's only fitting.

The flashforwards/present-day-stuff meant there was absolutely no tension in any of the flashbacks, despite it being written and directed as if there was meant to be, while the Jim-Maggie-Don triangle teases us with the hope of resolution but, nope, it's going to soldier on regardless. At least Will's death threats didn't sink to the level of having him shot in some cliched attempt at a cliffhanger. Thank heavens for small mercies.

And yet despite all that, some of the dialogue is fast and funny and clever, and the meeting scene with Leona and Reese was kinda satisfying (even if Leona hadn't been in it enough to build up quite enough of a genuine threat), and all the stuff with how evil the Tea Party should be force fed to all Americans.

So, y'know, highs and lows.

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