TV

The British Academy Television Awards 2010
BAFTA do pick some odd nominees. And winners. But hey-ho, that's awards for you.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
31x10 Vincent and the Doctor
A surprisingly excellent and brave episode. Well done on Richard Curtis for not shying away from Van Gogh's depression and suicide, particularly at the end, having the encounter with Amy & the Doctor not making it all alright. All credit to Tony Curran for pulling it off with a great performance too. Also, to Curtis again, for featuring a monster that was introduced late, dealt with early, and seemed to exist to support the characters and story rather than the other way round. Also, appropriate for the BBC to put the Action Line number up at the end, signalling the importance of what had just been covered.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Mock the Week
7x03 (23/7/09 edition) [2nd watch]
7x04 (30/7/09 edition) [2nd watch]
Ah, random late-night Dave. Though why half the adverts seemed to be aimed at women is a mystery.

Wallander [Swedish]
2x06 Prästen (aka The Priest)

Articles

FlashForward fans for 'blackout' protest by Mike Moody
(from Digital Spy)
As fan campaigns to bring back TV shows go, this is a nicely original but very relevant one. Well done FlashForward fans.

Sex and the City 2: What happened to good old Sex? by Victoria Coren
(from Comment is free at guardian.co.uk)
An interesting, humorous take on the widely-despised sequel, which finds it to be "the most radical and challenging film of the year".

this week on 100 Films

3 new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...

Alice in Wonderland (3D) (2010)

this new Alice positions itself freshly by following in the footsteps of the specific side of the filmic fantasy genre started by Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings. Although it uses the original’s most famous elements, the narrative and its structure — particularly a final epic (well, epic-ish) battle in which our unlikely heroine emerges as the long-prophesised One Who’ll Win It For The Good Guys — is familiar from those recent films

National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)

National Treasure 2 essentially offers more of the same. That’s often levelled as a criticism, but in this instance it’s absolutely fine: it isn’t a rehash — there’s a new mystery with new puzzles — but is another adventure in the same vein, with clue-hunting and the occasional action sequence.

Public Enemies (2009)

I’d be among the first to be worried about Mann’s unglamorous, cheap digital video style — indeed, when I saw the first trailer, I was distinctly unimpressed — but colour me converted, because it largely works here. I wouldn’t want to see it on every film, but as a stylistic choice it’s a valid one

Also this week, the first in a new monthly series looking at my progress. This one was, naturally, for May 2010.

More next Sunday.

TV

The Mentalist
2x16 Code Red
"Someone's murdered me" -- great opening. Tad wasted on a decent-but-run-of-the-mill mid-season episode of another detective show, though.
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

Robot Chicken
Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II [special]
So, it's just over a year since I watched the first Robot Chicken Star Wars special, and apparently this one was on in 2008. Sometimes I feel behind the times.

Articles

Last Time Sources Checked This Still America
(from the Onion)
Amusingly (deliberately) cliché-packed.

TV

How I Met Your Mother
5x02 Double Date
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Luther
1x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Public Enemies (2009)
[#58 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]
Read the 100 Films review here.

Articles

Note To Hollywood: How To Get People To Switch To Blu-Ray by Helen O'Hara
(from Empire States...)
Kinda what it says on the tin, plus general pros & cons of Blu-ray -- from the perspective of "actually buying and watching it", not all that theoretical "5x better picture" stuff you normally here. Loads of comments; some are stupid, as ever, but some are good, particularly #115.

Collection Count

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

This week, a larger increase than usual these days, due to a fair few cheap DVDs from Play.com in aid of acquiring their limited 20th Century Fox book.

The book itself doesn't show up on my "outstanding orders" page. Still, it should turn up before the month's out; I'll try to remember to let you know if it does in a future update.

Meanwhile, in the running time, two recent Complete Series sets give it a nice big boost.

Number of titles in collection: 1,182 [up 7]
Of which DVDs: 1,094 [up 6]
Of which Blu-rays: 88 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 2,892 [up 8]
Number of films in collection: 1,246 [up 7]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,045 [no change]

Statistic of the week:

Total running time of collection (approx.):
202 days, 9 hours, and 18 minutes.
(Up 5 days, 2 hours, and 5 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Derren Brown Investigates
1x03 The Ghosthunter [season finale]
Verdict: no proof here. Though at least he seemed like a decent guy, unlike the money-grabbing conmen of the other episodes.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Dexter
3x05 Turning Biminese
Thanks to various series ending, I'm finally able to resume a couple that had fallen by the wayside -- namely, this and (shortly) Damages and (hopefully before too long) Sandbaggers (nearly a year since I watched that!)
I was particularly keen to resume Dexter, though, having already had to restart it once. Last time I'd only watched one episode and left it 9 months; this time I'd seen four and it was only 2½ months, making resuming it that much easier -- no need to rewatch. Not that rewatching Dexter would be unrewarding but, y'know, been there before 'n' all that...
Um, so, self-obsessed and largely uninteresting babble aside... good ep. Ayup. Moving on...

Articles

Derrick Bird and the price of infamy by Anton Vowl
(from Enemies of Reason)
Vowl is, as ever, spot on, this time about some of the media's ghoulish reporting of the recent Cumbrian shootings.

Laurie: 'House was undone in the finale' by Catriona Wightman
(from Digital Spy)
Hugh Laurie's thoughts on what went on in the most recent House season finale.

Mark Kermode on Godard's latest

Selected from the comments section:

Godard feels that English is the language of political and cultural imperialism

Just to establish that, because this is the reasonable response, I feel:

Isn't it slightly unreasonable of [Jean-Marie Straub, a director mentioned in an earlier comment] to refuse to subtitle his films because he "feels an audience should learn the language the film is presented in"? Considering there are several thousand languages in the world, and it takes years to master a language to the level required to fully appreciate all the nuanced dialogue in a film script, aren't the filmmakers practicing a far more blatant level of cultural imperialism by insisting people learn THEIR language before enjoying THEIR film?

At best, he's creating a pointless cultural apartheid, and severely limiting his audience, which might explain why I've never heard of him.

If people want to self-importantly withdraw from international markets then good luck to them. If they want to continue cutting the world into little mutually exclusive sections then they are free to do that, safe in the knowledge that they are contributing absolutely nothing to cross-cultural understanding or awareness.

Put it another way: which is more culturally imperialist -- showing an English-language film to French viewers with French subtitles, to ease understanding for non-English-speakers; or showing a French-language film to English viewers with no subtitles, obscuring understanding for non-French-speakers?

TV

FlashForward
1x22 Future Shock [series finale]
After spending most of the series not being too fussed about it -- indeed, I've criticised it often enough -- the mystery-packed cliffhanger ending has left me wishing they'd got a second series. Damn you, FlashForward!
That said, I won't miss Mark Benford one bit.
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

TV

How I Met Your Mother
5x01 Definitions
Although I only finished watching season four three months ago, it feels an age thanks to having blasted through the first four seasons in one six-month stint. ("Six months" sounds a long time for a "stint", but we're talking 88 episodes here.) So, yes, it's nice to have it back, though slightly odd to return to watching it only weekly rather than whenever.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Stephen Fry on Wagner
Unfailingly interesting, as per usual -- Stephen Fry is consistently proving himself to be a very good documentary maker/host. Which, I suppose, is no surprise.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

A space odyssey of the mind by Jon Kelly
(from BBC News Magazine)

Six would-be astronauts will this week begin a 520-day mock space voyage to simulate a mission to Mars. How will they cope with the huge psychological pressures?

An intriguing idea, but it will be interesting to see if they can last the full 520 days. Doing something like this in some Russian hangar is very different to actually going to space.

Homer Simpson voted greatest TV character by Morgan Jeffery
(from Digital Spy)
No surprise there, really, though others in the top five -- Buffy, Tony Soprano -- are more surprising/welcome. And Harry Potter's there, of course. Though it's a little depressing that Spongebob Squarepants has made the top ten.

Why the Digital Economy Act simply won't work by Cory Doctorow
(from Digital rights, digital wrongs at guardian.co.uk)
If only the government, etc, would listen, rather than pushing on with this nasty piece of legislation.

TV

The Queen
Part 5 How Do You Solve a Problem Like Camilla? [final episode]
...and today is that day. Felt almost like Part Two of the last episode, this one.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD or SeeSaw.]

You Have Been Watching
2x07 Kids' TV
I was going to mention a couple of quotes from this episode, or maybe add a screencap, but in the end there was just too much hilarity to choose from. So just watch it. All of it. Go on, you've earnt it.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Films

Max Payne (2008)
[#57 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]
What a load of rubbish.

Websites

Ultra Culture

Normally this would go under Articles, but this is my new favourite film blog (that I've discovered today) so there's too much to share. Check out the Daily Mail-satirising post on The Killer Inside Me, for example, or the analysis of The Twilight Saga in Promotional Photos and Amanda Seyfried's career in promotional photos.

I was made aware of this blog thanks to Edgar Wright's twitter, where he mentioned the post Our 10 favourite bits from the second Scott Pilgrim trailer. I like numbers 3, 4, 7, 9, and, of course, 8.

TV

Have I Got News For You
39x08 (27/5/10; extended repeat)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)
[#56 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]
Read the 100 Films review here.