TV

Britain's Next Big Thing
Episode 1 (of 7)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
31x04 The Time of Angels [2nd watch]
31x05 Flesh and Stone [2nd watch]
31x05a Meanwhile in the TARDIS
This two-parter is excellent -- a big proper blockbuster slapbang in the middle of a season of TV! Marvellous! My thoughts from the broadcast all still count, so read them at the above links.
As for this second (and, for now, final) instalment of Meanwhile in the TARDIS... it's non-essential, obviously, but the bit with Amy finding out about previous companions is quite fun. As a fan I'd naturally have liked more time on that aspect of the scene, but hey-ho. Defining the Doctor as "Space Gandalf" is a nice line though.

Twenty Twelve
1x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
After that ending, I'm very glad it'll be back.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Doctor Who actress Elisabeth Sladen dies
(from BBC News)
"Goodbye, my Sarah Jane."
Some collected tributes.

TV

The Event
1x15 Face Off
Still running a fortnight behind on this, but as C4 have had to take a break tonight (thanks to the US schedule -- the ep that would've been on in the UK tonight is actually only on in the US for the first time tonight) I'm back to my usual one-episode-behind. Hurrah!
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Have I Got News For You
41x02 (15/4/11 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Law & Order: UK
4x06 Skeletons [season finale]
And that's that for James Steel. I wonder if his replacement will be quite so... self-righteous...
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

$#*! My Dad Says
1x06 Easy, Writer
"Dad, it was one article -- it's not like I'm going to make a whole career out of writing down what you say."
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Films

La Règle du jeu (1939)
[#44 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]
aka The Rules of the Game.

Articles

Once More, With Feeling: Joss Whedon Revisits Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog by Dave Itzkoff
(from Arts Beat at the New York Times)
Including talk of the sequel and a little bit about his other upcoming projects.

TV

Dave's One Night Stand
2x01 Chris Addison
'ello 'ello, didn't really expect to see this back! I suppose it must be quite cheap to make really, and then endlessly recyclable if you're a repeats-based network.

Wallander [film series]
The Pyramid (aka Pyramiden)
Fulfilling my Scandinavian crime fix now that The Killing is over and I've got through the Millennium trilogy, this was the ninth and final Wallander adaptation to star Rolf Lassgård (the first episode of the other Swedish Wallander was also an adaptation). This one hasn't been tackled by the British series (yet), most likely because its narrative is a combination of several tales from a book of short stories. It was the best of the Lassgård Wallanders, in my opinion, perhaps because it was less familiar and I've finally accepted him in the role.
I believe BBC Four are intending to show some more of the Lassgård episodes later this year (they showed the sixth, eighth, seventh and this one (in that order) around the end of 2010).

this week on 100 Films

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

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

this is a real showcase for Pacino. As Sonny the whole film rests on his shoulders, and he’s more than capable of bearing the weight. Some roles allow an actor to subtly be good throughout the film; others allow a few grandstanding set-pieces where they can Act; but Dog Day Afternoon gives Pacino both... Pacino is brilliant, understated but revealing, cementing the conflicting forces that have pulled on Sonny throughout the film.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2009)

To succinctly compare this to its predecessors, it’s better than The Girl Who Played with Fire but not really as good as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This is in part because there’s not as much detail of the investigation. Lots of the plot seems to be forwarded by people explaining it to each other, rather than genuinely digging and uncovering information, while the villains futilely attempt to stop the heroes publishing everything they already seem to know.

Lumet: Film Maker (1975)

This ten-minute documentary short is made up of behind-the-scenes footage of some of the filming of Dog Day Afternoon, with the occasional on-set interview with some (to be honest, minor) crew members, snippets of audio interview with Lumet himself, and a voiceover narration.

Nanny McPhee & the Big Bang (2010)

Thompson treats the audience with respect in relation to the first film, playing on expectations and speeding through parts of the story we know. You don’t need to have seen it, but you’ll get a bit more if you have. Also as with the first film, there’s a perhaps surprising undercurrent of genuine emotion and serious issues. This is one of the things that marks these two films out from the overcrowded kids’ film genre

More next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Who
31x03 Victory of the Daleks [2nd watch]
I remember this as being of the fifth series' weakest episodes and, to be honest, it probably is. But that's rather a mark of how excellent the series on the whole is, because Victory of the Daleks has plenty of absolutely great bits -- Ian McNeice's Churchill, for instance (so good I want him back, please), or the Spitfires in space. It's still riddled with niggles and the odd more fundamental flaw -- it's at least five minutes too short, for one, that time being needed to build up some of the subplots; and it does feel rather like just a prelude to whatever the next Dalek story is, existing simply to explain the redesign -- but it's not bad, just not as good as it could be.
On a personal note, when I first thought of re-watching series five in the run up to series six I had plenty of time to do it; when I actually started, I still had enough time; now, I've got 10 episodes left and the new series starts in a week -- oh dear. That said, thanks to the three two-parters, it still averages out at one story per night, more or less -- so maybe, then, eh?

DVD Extras

Helter-Skelter
Featurette on the DVD of Time and the Rani about the creation of the Seventh Doctor's title sequence, the first for Doctor Who to be created using CGI. It was emerging technology at the time, and this featurette certainly gives one a new appreciation for how cutting-edge and extraordinary the sequence was for the time.

Articles

85 Authors Protest At The BBC’s Treatment Of Genre Fiction by Dave Golder
(from SFX)
Some of the comments go a bit far, but the original authors do have something of a point.

Stephen Fry prison 'pledge' over 'Twitter joke' trial
(from BBC News)
That's the headline-grabbing bit; more genuinely interesting is the rest of the article, about a benefit gig in support of the defence.

TV

The Mentalist
3x16 Red Queen
Normally I hate stories that start at the end and then jump "36 Hours Earlier" or whatever -- it's a massively overdone technique now and there's rarely any need for it -- but I'll let this one pass because it was such an effective surprise opening.
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

Articles

BBC Four recommissions hit comedy series Twenty Twelve
(from BBC Press Office)
Didn't really expect that. But I'm glad, because I like it. (Look out particularly from the quote from, not Hugh Bonneville, but Hugh Bonneville's character.)

Collection Count

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

Everything's still on the up. Which is to be expected, really, because I never go selling stuff off. I ought to, probably. Indeed, I have a huge pile of stuff I've upgraded still waiting to be eBayed...

Number of titles in collection: 1,296 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,103 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 193 [up 4]

Number of discs in collection: 3,224 [up 8]
Number of films in collection: 1,366 [up 6]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,794 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

10 O'Clock Live
1x12 (7/4/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Friday Night Dinner
1x06 The Date [season finale]
It's already been recommissioned. Which is nice, 'cause it's quite good.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

DVD Extras

Audio commentary by Sidney Lumet on Dog Day Afternoon
Remember I watched this last week? I started listening to the audio commentary then too, just for a bit, and found it rather engrossing, so now I've gone back and listened to the rest.

Lumet: Film Maker
[#43a in 100 Films in a Year 2011]
Vintage documentary short about the making of Dog Day Afternoon, included on the DVD.

The Making of Dog Day Afternoon
A series of four featurettes about... well, obviously. Because they're listed on IMDb separately, they are: The Story, Casting the Controversy, Recreating the Facts and After the Filming.

Articles

Blu-ray just gives me the blues by Phelim O'Neill
(from Film Blog at guardian.co.uk)
An interesting (not always entirely factually accurate, I don't think, but interesting) article on the state and potential of the Blu-ray market. Less academic than that makes it sound.

Game Of Thrones by The Numbers by Lesley Goldberg
(from The Hollywood Reporter)
A bunch of stats about HBO's big new fantasy adaptation. How much it costs, how many extras there are, how many beheadings are in the first episode -- that kind of thing.

TV

The Crimson Petal and the White
Part 1 (of 4)
Absolutely, strikingly magnificent. It's truly gorgeously shot (especially when seen in HD), beautifully designed, marvellously acted (including at least one very surprising performance), beguilingly written... I actually had goosebumps by the final scenes. If you haven't watched it, I urge you to -- it's phenomenal. If it can keep this level up for the remaining three episodes, it'll be a certified classic in my book.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
31x02 The Beast Below [2nd watch]
For the past year (i.e. since it was on) I've been happy to assert that this is the most underrated episode of the 11th Doctor's/Steven Moffat's first series. Having watched it again, I absolutely agree with myself: this is an excellent episode that seems to have been unjustly under-appreciated.
I posit two reasons: one, it followed The Eleventh Hour, which is probably one of the very best Who stories ever; and two, what's so great about it is how (for want of a better word) dark it is. The final 15 minutes (ish) are amongst Who's most hair-raisingly dramatically serious, with the Doctor placed in an impossible moral decision. All credit to Moffat for being willing to take what it is ostensibly a kids' show into such deep territory. It pays dividends, to my mind; and bear in mind that my mind is one that considers Doctor Who's "kids' show" status to be vital to its success in the past and now. The reason such dilemmas and topics work here is because, while they're serious and grown-up, they're serious and grown-up in a way it's appropriate for children to be considering (in my opinion, obviously).
So yes, I love The Beast Below, and anyone who thinks it isn't a good episode is plain Wrong.

Twenty Twelve
1x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Yes Minister
3x07 The Middle-Class Rip-Off [season finale]

Articles

The Crimson Petal and the White: Watching my novel reborn on TV by Michel Faber
(from guardian.co.uk)
As you may guess from the title, the author of the novel responds to the currently-running TV adaptation. It's rather pretentious in places, but still worth a read.

"I've never worked quite as hard as this... but look at the two shows I do. It's absolutely worth it." by Benjamin Cook
(from Doctor Who Magazine #433, p.22-31)
A great interview with Doctor Who's head blokey, Steven Moffat, revealing all sorts of things, from his thinking behind this season's unusual structure to what it's like being in charge of two of TV's biggest dramas at the same time. Insightful and surprisingly candid -- great work, Mr Cook and DWM.
Plus there's all sorts of other great stuff in the issue, as per always... so, y'know, buy it.

TV

The Event
1x14 A Message Back
Getting increasingly far behind on this. I'll have to make an effort to catch up.

Extraordinary Dogs
1x10 Instinct: The Sixth Sense 2
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Family Guy
3x15 Ready, Willing, and Disabled
3x16 A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas
3x17 Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows

Monroe
1x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

$#*! My Dad Says
1x05 Not Without My Jacket
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Articles

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair Has Small Changes That Produce Big Results by Germain Lussier
(from /Film)
Seems they've been screening the single-film cut of Kill Bill in LA to celebrate Tarantino's birthday. Any chance of the long-promised DVD/Blu-ray release too, mm?

Peter Jackson Explains Why He’s Shooting The Hobbit at 48 Frames Per Second by Peter Sciretta
(from /Film)
If you're a filmy person like me, this is very interesting. For the layperson, probably not so much.