TV

Have I Got News For You
40x10 (17/12/10 edition; extended repeat)
Maybe not, then. Super!
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Strictly Come Dancing
8x25 The Final Part 1
8x26 The Final Part 2 [season finale]
[Watch both parts (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Rambo III (1988)
[#119 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]

Collection Count

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

Not much showing this week -- the pre-Christmas slump, where I buy very little in case someone decides to give it to me for Christmas. Plus gotta find money to buy presents from somewhere.

The next update is due on Christmas Eve, but as that's likely to have even less change than this one, I may put it off a day or two and cover my Christmas haul. I'm sure no one will complain.

Number of titles in collection: 1,247 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,095 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 150 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 3,094 [up 1]
Number of films in collection: 1,320 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,472 [no change]

Statistic of the week is having a little rest.

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Event
1x09 Your World to Take
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Graham Norton Show
8x07 (10/12/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Impressions Show with Culshaw and Stephenson
2x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

QI
8x12 Horses and Hunting (extended repeat)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Robert's Web
1x03 (10/12/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

Band of Brothers
Part Ten Points [2nd watch; final episode]
As I noted at the start, this is the first time I've watched Band of Brothers since it was on TV almost a decade ago. I'm pleased to report that it's still absolutely brilliant from beginning to end. Looks stunning on Blu-ray too.

Coronation Street
10/12/10 edition 1
10/12/10 edition 2
That's the end of their Big Dramatic Tram Crash Week, and so this is where I get off. Probably. That's the thing with soaps, isn't it -- the storylines never stop; you always want to know just what happens next...
[Watch it (again) at the above link.]

Due South
2x03 Witness [2nd watch]

Fiction

Return to the Hundred Acre Wood by David Benedictus
Chapter Three in which Rabbit organises almost everything
The Domesday Book? A Census? This is meant to be Winnie-the-Pooh!

TV

Coronation Street
9/12/10 edition
This is The Live One, by-the-by. Well staged.
[Watch it (again) at the above link.]

Live at the Apollo
6x03 (9/12/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Natural World
Panda Makers

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
24x08 Episode 8
Lee Mack's TV domination continues.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Fiction

A fine night and all's well... by Michael Morpurgo
Morpurgo provides a 'ghost' story for the Radio Times Christmas issue. I know this is a family magazine and so the story's going to be kid-friendly, but even still, this is a particularly toothless example. Yes, there's a ghost involved, but it's not even remotely spinetingly. Nor is it Christmassy, really. Oh well.

TV

Band of Brothers
Part Nine Why We Fight [2nd watch]

Due South
2x02 The Vault [2nd watch]
I'm labelling all of these "2nd watch" because I definitely watched Due South first time round, but I don't think I've actually recognised any of it yet. (Beyond the very basics of the show's setup, that is.) I guess my memory has wiped the mid-'90s pretty thoroughly, then.

The Mentalist
3x08 Ball of Fire
Nearly caught up with Five (and therefore, as of this Friday, the US).
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

Sarah Jane's Alien Files
1x05 Episode 5
1x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
I've decided this is very good for wrapping presents in front of. For that reason, wish I hadn't left it so long that episodes three and four got deleted from iPlayer.

Fiction

Star Trek: Countdown by Mike Johnson, Tim Jones & David Messina
Number Four (of Four)
The last part rattles along, which is a not unwelcome change of pace. Impressively, it also manages to completely wrap up its own story while still providing background and setup for the film. Job nicely done, chaps.

Articles

Author Slams eBook Piracy, Son Outs Her As a Music Pirate by enigmax
(from TorrentFreak)
Headline says it all, really.

Roger Ebert: ‘There Are Only Two Meaningful Ratings: R and Not-R’ by Germain Lussier
(from /Film)
Insightful. Plus, the US film ratings system is often amusing.
Ebert's original piece, to be read before or after /Film's commentary on it, is here.

Toby Ord: Why I'm giving £1m to charity
(from BBC News Magazine)
This is just quite interesting. For instance: "When I was earning £14,000 as a student, I found I was in the richest 4% in the world, even adjusting for how much further money goes in developing countries. Giving away 10% of that, I found that I would still be in the top 5%." See?

The X Factor takes on the world by Sinead Garvan
(from BBC News)

Perhaps the most insightful - and damning - assessment of The X Factor comes from underground rap artist Dan Le Sac.

"It simply doesn't matter," he says... "I know Joe McElderry won last year, but I couldn't tell you who won the year before. We get rid of it. It recycles itself within a year."

TV

Band of Brothers
Part Eight The Last Patrol [2nd watch]
The roster of quite-recognisable young British actors in this seems never-ending. This episode, Primeval's Andrew Lee Potts joins the list.

Coronation Street
7/12/10 edition
8/12/10 edition
Whatever I think of soaps normally, there's no denying that this Big Dramatic Tram Crash Week has been incredibly well staged.
[Watch both episodes (again) at the above links.]

Doctors
12x160 The Living Gaylights
Doctors goes Bond-spoof-tastic. Not to everyone's taste, I imagine. You have to wonder what regular Doctors viewers thought if they tuned in without having seen any reviews...
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Due South
2x01 North [2nd watch]

Have I Got News For You
40x09 (9/12/10 edition; extended repeat)
I think this may be the last of the series (with next week's being a compilation). Boo.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

House
7x08 Small Sacrifices
That's it for House until the middle of January. Funny US scheduling antics...

Films

Verity (2010)
[#118a in 100 Films in a Year 2010]

Short student-made biopic about Doctor Who's first producer, Verity Lambert, covering her early days on the series. You can watch it for free in various qualities (though don't bother with 1080p, it isn't) on YouTube, and read my review here.

Fiction

Star Trek: Countdown by Mike Johnson, Tim Jones & David Messina
Number Three (of Four)
How many Next Generation characters can they squeeze into this thing?! They should've tried to get all this into the film -- it probably would've flopped marvellously.

this week on 100 Films

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

The Good German (2006)

is this a case of style over substance? Some critics accuse it of just that, saying it concentrates more on the look & feel than the characters. They do have a point, but the style is, if not incidental, then still not the sole purpose. The tale is more about the mystery — indeed, mysteries — than the characters.

The Night Listener (2006)

this is a case of Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction because, though fictionalised, that sequence of events is entirely based on stuff that really happened to author and co-screenwriter Armistead Maupin. The downside is, this “but it happened!” logic seems to allow the filmmakers to get away with not offering adequate explanation.

Solaris (1972)

parts are like an endurance test — Berton’s seemingly endless drive through a future cityscape (actually just ’70s Tokyo), for instance — but, though still glacially paced, most of the film has some discernibly relevant content. Provided you’re not expecting Star Wars, that is, but who in their right mind would be?

The Special Edition of Beauty and the Beast (1991/2002)

Do you need me to tell you how great Beauty and the Beast is? I imagine not. If you’ve seen it, you’ll know. If you haven’t, you really should, and then you’ll know.

Verity (2010)

This nine-minute effort from student screenwriters Thomas Cowell and Joey Guy... focuses on the start of Verity Lambert’s producing career, dramatising the events around her being chosen by Sydney Newman (then the BBC’s Head of Drama) to shepherd his idea for an educational science-fiction children’s drama, Doctor Who.

The Wolfman: Unrated Version (2010)

Despite the “unrated” branding implying “more gore” as per usual, there’s hardly any of that added. Instead it’s mainly character moments of varying degrees of relevance, plus an array of inconsequential tweaks. I appreciate the attempt to bring a slower, creepier style back to modern horror films, but Johnston over-eggs it

More next Sunday.

TV

The Armstrong & Miller Show
3x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Coronation Street
6/12/10 edition 1
6/12/10 edition 2
I don't normally watch soaps (as I'm sure you've noticed), but this is Corrie's Big Dramatic Tram Crash Week -- including The Live Episode -- so I thought it might be worth a go. Turns out, soaps are about as good as I think they are (i.e. not very), but the crash itself was rather good.
[Watch both episodes (again) at the above links.]

The Impressions Show with Culshaw and Stephenson
2x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Mentalist
3x07 Red Hot
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

Fiction

Star Trek: Countdown by Mike Johnson, Tim Jones & David Messina
Number Two (of Four)
See, I hadn't forgotten... I just don't get round to these things very quickly.

TV

Due South
1x23 Letting Go [2nd watch; season finale]

The Event
1x08 For the Good of Our Country
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Graham Norton Show
8x06 (3/12/10 edition)
Ugh.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Robert's Web
1x02 (3/12/10 edition)
I think it's fair to describe the quality of this as "...mixed".
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Films

Surrogates (2009)
[#118 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]

Collection Count

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

Nearly Christmas now -- which hopefully means a big jump in numbers, of course -- but, me being me, that doesn't mean I've stopped buying things. This week's lot includes another "Complete Series" Blu-ray set, hence the big jumps in discs and TV episodes. Lovely.

Number of titles in collection: 1,247 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,096 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 149 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 3,093 [up 43]
Number of films in collection: 1,319 [up 5]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,472 [up 120]

Statistic of the week:

Number of titles rated 12:
188
(15.1% of the total)

I've now covered titles rated U, PG, 15, 18 and those unrated, so that only leaves the 12s. (And a bunch of foreign ratings where I only have a handful in each, but shh.) So, job done!

See you next week, faithful reader.