TV

Derren Brown: The Events - Live
1x04 How to Take Down a Casino [series finale]
Out by just one! That's really rather incredible.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

House
5x07 The Itch
5x08 Emancipation
Tying one's plot and subplots together thematically may be widely touted as a Good Thing, but it's also possible to do it a little too obviously or a little too much, which seems to be the case with both these episodes. On the other hand, The Itch uses the agoraphobic patient as a metaphor for House's locked-up feelings, whereas Emancipation's brother-accidentally-killing-brother subplot is just a straight-up mirroring of the main plot's eventual reveal.

How I Met Your Mother
1x18 Nothing Good Happens After 2 A.M.
1x19 Mary the Paralegal
How I Met Your Mother messes around with time ever so well. Jumping back 20 hours to show Robin's day in Nothing Good... worked quite well, but the "3 months earlier" thing in Mary the Paralegal is an example of the time-messing-around at its best.

Merlin
2x03 The Nightmare Begins
Nice to see Merlin furthering its arc plots, including bringing back and developing characters from the first season. As well as being good for regular viewers and raising the series above Magician of the Week status, it really gives a feel for the five-year plan the producers have. Even the episode title suggests that things are only just getting under way...
On another note, the music this season seems to have been very heavily influenced by The Dark Knight.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Fiction

Dean Koontz's Frankenstein - Book Three: Dead and Alive by Dean Koontz
Chapters 8 - 11

Articles

The Events by Derren Brown
(from Derren Brown Blog)
Derren apologises for mucking up the casino stunt, but, of more interest to me, reveals that C4's 3D Week is in November. Exciting stuff.

McGann: 'Doctor Who return unlikely' by Mayer Nissim
(from Digital Spy)
This is just disappointing! Someone get your act together and get this man back in the TARDIS! (Properly, on TV.)

TV

House
5x05 Lucky Thirteen
5x06 Joy
"Another life saved by girl-on-girl action."

How I Met Your Mother
1x16 Cupcake
1x17 Life Among the Gorillas

Films

Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)
[#55 in 100 Films in a Year 2009]
Some credit this as being the first ever film noir, but it seems there are numerous exceptions which would cast doubt on such an assertion.

Articles

Frankie Boyle leaves Mock The Week by Mayer Nissim
(from Digital Spy)
Disappointing.

Sutherland: '24 could continue without me' by Mayer Nissim
(from Digital Spy)
Which is what he's been saying since the end of season one. We'll believe it when it happens, Kiefer, and only then.

Worst of the Worst
(from Rotten Tomatoes)
The worst-reviewed films of the '00s (to September 2009, anyway), compiled from Rotten Tomatoes' large pool of critics. I've seen very few of them, fortunately, though that does include the list's #1 film. I won't spoil it if you're intending to read, but it was a surprise to me -- yes, it's undoubtedly a thoroughly awful film, but I'm fairly certain there are many on the list that are much worse.

TV

Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe
One-off special in which Brooker provides what effectively amounts to a Beginner's Guide to Gaming. There's a welcome disdain for the fetishisation of certain genres and their violent content, while continuing to appreciate what's actually good about gaming. Always nice to see Monkey Island turning up anywhere, but my main thoughts on this were how much I agreed with what Dara Ó Briain had to say. That and being rather surprised at just how bloody & gruesome some games are now -- the complaints on the news about the negative impact of games on impressionable minds used to be ludicrous, but I'm not so sure now.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Film 2009 with Jonathan Ross
Episode 16 (29/9/09 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

House
5x03 Adverse Events
5x04 Birthmarks
What an odd feeling to see the old team working together again. One wonders why they're still around -- they have so little to do in almost every episode, and are doing the new leads out of a place in the title credits. Still, while Adverse Events was perfectly adequate, Birthmarks was one of House's better episodes, thematically consistent (all the parent issues) and nicely revealing about its characters (by which I mean the regulars, particularly House and Wilson).

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
23x01 (1/10/09 edition)
James Corden did a pretty good job as the first incumbent of the newly guest-hosted Buzzcocks. Still, no Simon Amstell; but then, who is?
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Fiction

Dean Koontz's Frankenstein - Book Three: Dead and Alive by Dean Koontz
Chapters 1 - 7

The concluding part of Koontz's trilogy finally arrived a few months back, delayed several years in the wake of Hurricane Katrina -- it's set in New Orleans and Koontz felt (not wrongly) that the devastation caused by Katrina made it inappropriate to so quickly publish a novel novel about the destruction of the city by supernatural forces.

The story hits the ground running, very much Part Three of one story rather than the third book in a series. As such, at just 38 pages in it already feels like it's nearing the climax. It'll be interesting to see what Koontz has in store for the next 300+ pages. It also makes few concessions to the gap between publication of instalments -- no "Previously in Frankenstein..." to be found here. That said, the text is littered with little nuggets of information to help jog the reader's memory.

Despite the series' title bearing his name, this is the first book penned solely by Koontz -- though new editions sneakily rob his co-writers (Kevin J. Anderson on Prodigal Son, Ed Gorman on City of Night) of a credit, so one could suspect that originally-announced co-writer Gorman may still have had a hand. Alone or not, Koontz certainly has a way with words and structure that feels superior to most pulp paperback fiction authors, making Dead and Alive pleasant to read for more than just the plot.

(The series also also has an official website, which can be found here.)

Articles

Review of The Invention of Lying by Chris Hewitt
(from Empire)
A surprisingly hostile single-star review of the new Ricky Gervais film from Empire. It doesn't look that bad.

Star Wars – Movie Poster for minimalists
(from Live for Films)
This is a rather nifty minimalist-style poster for Star Wars. The gallery linked to features 14 more. Unfortunately, at least 12 of them aren't very good.

new review at 100 Films

High Society (1956)

Despite being adapted from an acclaimed play and film, the plot feels like a relatively slight contrivance to link together a couple of songs and some farcical humour with a romance-based thread. That the right people end up together is no surprise — so little surprise, in fact, that the story doesn’t even bother with such trivial things as making the final entanglements come together believably.

Read the full review at 100 Films.

There are currently 14 films in the review pipeline at 100 Films. As ever, updates here as and when they're posted.

TV

House
5x01 Dying Changes Everything
5x02 Not Cancer
I didn't have Sky1 when they started showing House earlier this year; I do now. So with the discovery that they're rolling straight on into season six this Sunday, it's time for an almighty season five catch-up. (There's no way I'll get it done for ep1, but I can aim for ep2.)
Thanks to Five letting it go, it's been an awfully long time since I've watched House (nearly 16 months, in fact) -- it almost feels a little odd to have it back. The Cases of the Week are still as disposable as usual, even when one features Felicia Day, but House's antics with Wilson -- and an excellent new private investigator character -- more than make up for the shortcomings.

Articles

John Barrowman talks Who, Torchwood by Neil Wilkes & Chris Allen
(from Digital Spy)
Normally I hate video interviews on sites -- I'd rather skim a transcription than sit through a five-minute video for 30 interesting seconds, thanks -- but these fifteen minutes with Mr Barrowman are packed with interesting stuff. He's one busy man.

Primeval recommissioned for two series
and
Primeval boss talks renewal, future by Neil Wilkes
(from Digital Spy)
What... but... This makes no kind of logical sense! Still, well done on the producers for securing such an extraordinary deal. I wonder if they'll be wise enough to end series five with a proper conclusion...

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.]