Collection Count

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

This week, it's the monthly running time update — which really should've been last week, but I've pushed it on one because, as you may've noticed, it's a new year (hopefully better than the last one), so I can include all the 2020 increases too.

Aside from that, just one new addition this week; though I also vetted the numbers in prep for the annual increases and noticed a couple of minor discrepancies. No idea how they came about, but everything should be on track now.

Number of titles in collection: 2,510 [up 1 this week; up 234 in 2020]
Of which DVDs: 1,081 [no change this week; down 43 in 2020]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,429 [up 1 this week; up 277 in 2020]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 93 [no change this week; up 56 in 2020]

Wait... 234 titles in one year? What the fuck?! I had to double-check the maths because that's mad. I mean, I knew I'd gotten carried away sometimes this year (there were several "biggest months ever"), but I didn't realise it had been that bad! My previous high (since I've been recording it here) is 154 in 2017, and the average of the previous seven years is 108 — so this year alone I've acquired more than double my average. And if we just look at Blu-rays, they're almost 2.5 times my average of 111. Jesus.

And, remember, that isn't even all my purchases, because any upgrades didn't increase the titles total. For example, DVDs are down by 43, and all of those would've been upgrades (though some may be accounted for by box sets, etc). That's also higher than my norm, which has been decreasing by an average of 22 a year for the past four years. Meanwhile, my UHD collection is icnreasing exponentially: I acquired 9 in 2018, tripled that to 28 in 2019, and doubled that to 56 this year. I'd wager 2021 will see a further increase.

Okay, so, let's move on to what will surely be some more scary numbers...

Number of discs in collection: 6,446 [up 8 this week; up 514 in 2020]
Number of films: 2,901 [up 15 this week; up 234 in 2020]
Number of additional cuts: 203 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 8,982 [no change this week; up 289 in 2020]
Number of short films: 811 [up 4 this week; up 135 in 2020]

Somehow, those numbers aren't as scary... though maybe that's just because I've got used to these barmy increases now. I mean, over 500 discs in a year is still insane. My average is 300, so it's still a 71% increase. Meanwhile, the film number is slightly compromised by this year's addition of an "additional cut" count — but even allowing for that, 234 is 54% above my average. On the other hand, 289 episodes of TV is actually well below my average of 428; in fact, it's the lowest its ever been (the previous smallest was 323 in 2018). This perhaps says something about less TV getting released on disc nowadays; or my reluctance to buy something I'm less likely to rewatch (due to length). As for shorts, 135 is over 3 times my average increase; and the previous high was 91 in 2017. I've not been buying any shorts collections, so I think this speaks to the increasing prevalence of shorts being included as special features.

And so, finally, the big one...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
466 days, 14 hours, and 32 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 19 hours, and 28 minutes from last month.)
(Up 32 days, 7 hours, and 29 minutes from last year.)

Unsurprisingly, that's also the most ever — although the previous high, just under 29¼ days in 2015, is relatively close — but it's still 44% above the average of 22 days, 10 hours, and 35 minutes. That reverses a trend, as it's been dropping the past couple of years. I do hope I manage to calm it down again next year...

And next year begins next week — in which I can already promise a couple of new additions. I'm hopeless.

TV

Doctor Who
39x00 Revolution of the Daleks [New Year's Day special]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Happy New Year Live!
A pre-filmed stand-in for the usual fireworks. It was alright. I'm certainly not going to moan about the inclusion of some broadly political topics, unlike those right-wing snowflakes on social media this morning.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Hogmanay 2020
Meanwhile, in Scotland, they still had actual fireworks. Also music and interviews and stuff.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Only Connect
Doctors: Medics v Gallifreyans [Series 16 Specials 3/4]
Music: Festival Fans v Choristers [Series 16 Specials 4/4]
Two episodes from the "Series 16 Specials", which thus challenge my episode numbering methodology. Maybe it's for the best I don't watch Only Connect on a regular basis...
[Watch Doctors and Music (again) on iPlayer.]

Talking Pictures
Dames
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

University Challenge
Christmas 2020 ep10 Grand Final [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Videos

Fare Well - Edinburgh's Hogmanay 2020

A prerecorded New Year's celebration from Edinburgh — you may have seen part of it on the news (like I did) but then been unsure where to find it (like I was), so here it is in full, because it's very good. (Click through above or below to watch it bigger.)

TV

The Graham Norton Show
28x12 New Year's Eve Show
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Last Leg
20x09 The Last Leg of the Year [2020]
Apparently the last time I watched The Last Leg was over five years ago. It doesn't seem to have changed much.
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

University Challenge
Christmas 2020 ep6 Durham v Downing, Cambridge
Christmas 2020 ep7 New College Oxford v Reading
Christmas 2020 ep8 Semi-Final 1
Christmas 2020 ep9 Semi-Final 2
[Watch this series (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Yesterday, I set a record for the highest number of new films I've watched in a year. But today, I'm just trying to make sure December 2020 doesn't fall short of my goal of 10 new films per month...

Death to 2020 (2020)
[#264 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Does this count as a film or a "TV special"? Netflix have well and truly blurred the line at this point — so I'm going with "Film", because I need it to reach my target.

Minions 3D (2015)
[#263 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

TV

Not Going Out
11x00 Resolutions [special]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Power of Grayskull: The Definitive History of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2017)
[#261 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Under the Skin (2013)
[#262 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Blindspot 2020 #12 (i.e. the last one — hurrah!)

Films

Tenet (2020)
[#260 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
+ several featurettes from the film’s special features (8 out of 13, to be precise); mainly ones about how they achieved depictions of time running simultaneously forwards and backwards

Films

Presto (2008)
[2nd watch]
Saw this in the cinema before WALL-E with my mum, but she couldn’t remember it so we pulled it up on Disney+. She still didn’t remember it, but it is bloody good.

Soul (2020)
[#259 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

this week on 100 Films

There was just my final pre-Christmas monthly TV column over at 100 Films in a Year this week...





More next Sunday.

Collection Count

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

This would've been a running time update, but I've pushed it to next week to cover the yearly totals. I'm not currently expecting anything between now and next week, but you never know (especially with my procilivity for caving to sales).

Number of titles in collection: 2,509 [up 7]
Of which DVDs: 1,081 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,428 [up 7]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 93 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 6,438 [up 10]
Number of films: 2,886 [up 8]
Number of additional cuts: 203 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 8,982 [no change]
Number of short films: 807 [up 4]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2020
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Dad's Army
7x06 Turkey Dinner [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Have I Got 30 Years for You
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Morecambe and Wise Show
The Lost Tapes Episode 1 (of 2)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Russell Howard Hour
4x15 The Big Issues [special]

University Challenge
Christmas 2020 ep5 UCLAN v Loughborough
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Fiction

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories —
Part V: Christmas Adventures edited by David Marcum
The Stolen Relic by David Marcum
Not sure how I feel about the religious, supernatural aspect of this story, but it gave it a suitably seasonal aspect, at least.

TV

Blankety Blank
Christmas Special
I'm always up for a revival of Blankety Blank (the last one was on ITV in 2016), and this is no exception. It was pitched as a Christmas one-off, but I would imagine they'll be more if it was a hit.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Mrs Brown's Boys
Mammy of the People [Christmas special]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Strictly Come Dancing
18x18 2020 Christmas Special
Unable to do their usual Christmas special, Strictly resorted to a viewer-voted countdown of the 25 best dances from the show's history — which, in many respects, made for a more entertaining special than usual.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Wheel
1x05 Christmas Special
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

And also...

La La Land (2016)
[final 20 minutes]
I'm counting this in the TV section rather than Film because we only caught the last 20 minutes on BBC Two before calling it a night for Christmas Day (so it's not a proper, i.e. full, rewatch). But I have to mention it anyway because, my God, what an ending! And what a remarkable, strangely fitting capstone to this most unusual Christmas.

Fiction

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories —
Part V: Christmas Adventures edited by David Marcum
The Adventure of the Missing Irregular by Amy Thomas
The Adventure of the Knighted Watchmaker by Derrick Belanger

These were both pretty good, I thought. Glad to see the collection picking up.

TV

Cinderella: A Comic Relief Pantomine for Christmas
Very silly, of course, but all in the right spirit. There's a slightly extended version also available on iPlayer, so I might (re)watch that at some point. [Watch the BBC Two edit (again) on iPlayer.]

Ghosts
2x07 The Ghost of Christmas [Christmas special]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Roald & Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse
Sometimes, I count TV movies as movies for 100 Films. And sometimes, I don't. Maybe I should be more consistent on this...

University Challenge
Christmas 2020 ep4 Nottingham v Sheffield
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Upstart Crow
4x00 Lockdown Christmas 1603 [Christmas special]
Apparently it's been two years since the last episode of Upstart Crow, which amazed me when I realised it because, well, it doesn't feel like it's been that long. I have nothing more insightful to add to that — it's just weird.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two (2020)
[#258 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
A proper Christmas film for Christmas Eve Eve.

Die Hard (1988)
[5th watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #45. Another proper Christmas film for Christmas Eve Eve.

Fiction

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories —
Part V: Christmas Adventures edited by David Marcum
The Case of the Ruby Necklace by Bob Byrne
The Jet Brooch by Denis O. Smith

Every Christmastime for the past five years, I've intended to actually read this collection. In 2016 (when it was published and I bought it), I actually started it... but only managed the introductions (of which there are five! Slightly excessive, I feel), and first piece, a poem, of which my only comment was "oh dear". This time, I re-read the intros, but skipped the poem.

Sadly, the first story didn’t give me any more confidence about the quality of these pastiches — it’s scattered with blatant Americanisms and bits of prose that are on the surface adequate but lack refinement. It’s also not a particularly engaging or remarkable mystery; and the Christmas setting is entirely incidental and not even atmospherically evoked. Either this is just a misguided way to start the collection, or it really shows just how special Doyle’s writing was (or perhaps the kind of authors who focus on pastiching someone else’s characters are at the same level as self-published internet fan fiction, even when they appear in a professional-looking printed volume).

Fortunately, the second of these stories was considerably better; not without issues (the climax, where everyone is happy to blurt out every little detail with only the mildest prodding) was a little lacking in stylistic nuance for my taste, but the mystery, its investigation, and its solution were all neat enough.

There are a total of 31 pieces in the book, which would be perfect for filling December — if one started it on time, which, obviously, I did not. Let's see how much further I get before the season ends and reading these feels inappropriate...

TV

The Goes Wrong Show
2x00 The Nativity [Christmas special]
The BBC list this as being in "series 2" but don't give it an episode number, so I'm assuming (hoping) it counts as a special and that means there's six more episodes on the way — because the more the better, in my opinion! Quite how they keep coming up with so much pure hilarity from what sounds like it should be an easily-exhaustible concept is beyond me.
[Watch it (again and again) on iPlayer.]

Small Axe
Lovers Rock
[#247 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
This has been appearing on "best film of the year" lists — it was Sight & Sound's #1, even. I... had a very different reaction. I'm not a fan. [Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]