TV

The Choir: Boys Don't Sing
Part 5 Revisited
A "one year later" follow-up (come series recap, it must be said) of the second of Gareth Malone's projects.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
17x04 (25/9/09 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Harper's Island
1x07 Thrack, Splat, Sizzle
1x08 Gurgle
Much like its elaborate title, Thrack... is all filler no killer, despite being flashback-filled to the day of the original Wakefield murders. Not only are these largely unnecessary, if inevitable, but the late-20s cast struggle to look convincing as their teenage selves. Great cliffhanger though, which helps kick off a new phase of the series in Gurgle. Plot developments may still be rare, but at least there's excitement in the meantime. One positive of so little being revealed each episode is that, despite the show's numerous flaws, it always leaves you desperate to see what happens next.
[Watch Thrack, Splat, Sizzle and Gurgle (again) on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
3x08 (28/9/08 edition) [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

FlashForward
1x01 No More Good Days
The latest big thing from the US -- aka "The New Lost" -- commences on Five just four days after it premiered in the US.
It's a solid start -- better than Lost's for my money -- with lots of mysteries set in motion, already the hints at where answers may come from, and some stunning visuals alongside it. The dialogue may lack the sparkle of the best programmes and the characterisation isn't exemplary either, but then neither Lost nor similar former-big-hit Heroes ever managed those things either. Besides which, this is a 45-minute pilot, tasked with setting in motion an incredibly complex set of events that's got to feed at least the rest of this season and, if the creators have their way, another six after that.
Signs are good though, so fingers crossed this can deliver, in the way Lost apparently has for its fans, rather than sink into mediocrity, a la Heroes.
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

How I Met Your Mother
1x15 Game Night

Last Chance to See
Part 2 Northern White Rhino
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

new reviews at 100 Films

A themed pair of reviews at 100 Films this evening, looking at two documentaries about the Moon missions.

In the Shadow of the Moon (2007)

It may not offer the plain facts and figures of how we went to the Moon and who did it when, but it does present the reflections of the men who risked their lives to further the knowledge and reach of our species.

Read the full review at 100 Films.


For All Mankind (1989)

the glorious footage and skilled editing of Mankind — and the added wonder of seeing it in HD, it must be said — leaves one with a sense of awe that isn’t as present in the more informative Shadow. Its beauty provides the superior experience.

Read the full review at 100 Films.

There are currently 15 further films in the review pipeline at 100 Films. As ever, updates here as and when they're posted.

TV

Last Chance to See
Part 1 Amazonian Manatee
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Secret Millionaire
4x05 Martin Stamp
Some programmes just defy any reasonable attempt you make to give them episode numbers.

Films

Copycat (1995)
[#53 in 100 Films in a Year 2009]

High Society (1956)
[#54 in 100 Films in a Year 2009]

TV

Derren Brown: The Events - Live
1x03 How to Be a Psychic Spy
Derren once again perpetrates a great hoax on the nation -- note the sheer volume of concentric circles on display, not least right behind the 'hidden' picture! Also, the way curator-girly-on-the-TV was lit also made her eyes into very obvious concentric circles, for just one other blatant example we were invited to stare at.
Do I mind that it's just a trick? Not in the slightest -- that's what he does. But some people are now going to toddle off believing it worked, and they really shouldn't.
(Additionally, 4oD seem to be a bit slow at getting stuff online, so last week's episode is now available.)

Merlin
2x02 The Once and Future Queen
Much better than last week's too-generic opener.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Mock the Week
7x12 (24/9/09 edition) [season finale]
I say "season finale" -- episode 13 will air around Christmas.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Red Riding reviews at 100 Films

Last night I posted reviews for all three films in the Red Riding Trilogy over at 100 Films. You can read my thoughts on the trilogy as a whole here (including links to the individual film reviews), or just read film-by-film from the links below.

Red Riding: 1974 (2009)

a stock noir tale, dressed up with fancy filmmaking techniques and claims of realism to look like something more truthful, more real, more Important. And it makes me a little bit angry because of it.

Read the full review at 100 Films.

Red Riding: 1980 (2009)

it’s all too straightforward: the people you suspect did it actually did, as it turns out, and there’s no serious attempt to conceal that.

Read the full review at 100 Films.

Red Riding: 1983 (2009)

builds on previously-seen events and characters... bests its predecessors in almost every assessable value. The story and characters have more genuine surprises and suspense than ever

Read the full review at 100 Films.

There are currently 15 further films in the review pipeline at 100 Films. As ever, updates here as and when they're posted.

TV

The Tudors
3x08 The Undoing of Cromwell [season finale]
Best beheading ever!
Shame there's only one more season to go.
[Watch Episode 8 (or, as the BBC insists, '6') (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

FlashForward execs 'have ending planned' by Dan French
(from Digital Spy)
Thank goodness for that! I was worried it'd be another show where they make it up as it goes along and we never get any decent answers. I'm now even more keen to see it. (Read the article for a few more details on what these plans actually are, in a totally spoiler-free way.)

Whedon "bitter as hell" over Dollhouse by Dan French
(from Digital Spy)
Not because it's been cancelled or anything, just his thoughts on why they didn't air the final episode of season one in the US.

TV

How I Met Your Mother
1x14 Zip, Zip, Zip

Single-Handed
1x03 The Drowning Man [season finale]
Not Single-Handed's best episode -- the ending/whole second half felt like a letdown after the suspicions and tension built in the first, although the forest scene was stunning (as is all the cinematography in this series) -- but still strong. Fingers crossed for more.
(As noted previously, the series was original screened in Ireland as three two-parters in January 2007, January 2008 and April 2009, but ITV showed them as one series of three films.)

Dr Horrible invades the Emmys

As brilliant as it sounds (and then some):

Though, what's up with Fillion's accent?

TV

Harper's Island
1x05 Twack
1x06 Sploosh
Finally other characters notice that there are murders taking place! It's a good thing BBC Three have chosen to show Harper's Island in double bills, actually, because I think it might feel a tad slow in individual installments.
[Watch Twack and Sploosh (again) on iPlayer.]

How I Met Your Mother
1x12 The Wedding
1x13 Drumroll, Please
Ooh, a two-parter, which I accidentally watched back-to-back. Sometimes fortune smiles upon us. Or, me.

Articles

Best Watchmen Promo Item Ever
(from WatchmenComicMovie.com)
This sounds utterly incredibly and I am insanely jealous of the 1,000 people who have one.

Gilliam’s Watchmen Gripes
(from WatchmenComicMovie.com)
Top director Terry Gilliam, who twice failed to bring Watchmen to the big screen, here criticises the eventual film. Naturally the author of the post lays into Gilliam -- this is a fansite, after all -- failing to acknowledge that Gilliam is ten times the director Snyder will ever be.

Zack Snyder Talks Director’s Cut
(from WatchmenComicMovie.com)
With the 'Ultimate Cut' recently announced, it's nice to remember that it's just "an experiment" and the already-available (in the US anyway) Director's Cut is Snyder's final vision of the film proper.

TV

The Choir: Unsung Town
Part 4 (of 4)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Red Riding: 1983 (2009)
[#52 in 100 Films in a Year 2009]
The final part of the trilogy is the best by some margin, in my estimation.

Magazines

Doctor Who Magazine #413

Featuring The Mighty 200, DWM's reader-voted countdown of the best Doctor Who stories ever (and, indeed, the worst) -- the first time they've done this since 1998, in which time we've had 50-something new stories with Chris Eccleston and David Tennant. Some of the final placings are quite surprising -- I wonder if shops will now have to remove the "No.1 Story Ever" stickers from Genesis of the Daleks DVDs?

Best of all, however, is this observation in closing: "note the awesome symmetry of the stories at either end of the poll being not just from the same season, but actually consecutive. That's Doctor Who all over -- madly diverse, occasionally polarizing, but always surprising."

TV

The Secret Millionaire
4x08 Martin Stamp [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Would I Lie To You?
3x07 (21/9/09 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

How I Met Your Mother
1x09 Belly Full of Turkey
1x11 The Limo
As expected, I was right that I'd missed an episode and it was entirely my fault. Ho hum. A run of three very good episodes though -- and, indeed, so were the ones before them. Given a couple of weeks to settle in, How I Met Your Mother has definitely found its feet.

Walk on the Wild Side
1x05 Episode 5
I had been intending to watch this whole series after it was quite well-reviewed by the Radio Times. But then I didn't. The promise of Wildlife on Mars in this edition spurred me on however. Shame it was rubbish. Much of the rest of the programme was quite good though, ironically. Maybe I'll watch it again in future... except the last one was this week.

Films

Red Riding: 1974 (2009)
[#50 in 100 Films in a Year 2009]
Are they films or are they a miniseries? I shall expound further on this when I post my review (though I think it's obvious which option I'll choose).

Red Riding: 1980 (2009)
[#51 in 100 Films in a Year 2009]

TV

Later... with Jools Holland
35x01 (18/9/09 edition)
See here for my comments on Tuesday's live version of this edition.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Merlin
2x01 The Curse of Cornelius Sigan
Saturday night's second best family drama returns for a new run, with a rather by-the-numbers episode unfortunately. Nothing wrong with it, but it was more mid-season filler than big comeback, sadly. The rest-of-series trailer at the end looked quite good though.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Mock the Week
7x11 (17/9/09 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Tudors
3x07 Protestant Anne of Cleves
Cromwell's downfall looms -- hooray! But Joss Stone seems miscast as the appallingly ugly Anne of Cleeves; not because she can't act, but because she's hardly ugly.
[Watch Episode 7 (or, as the BBC insists, '5') (again) on iPlayer.]