TV

Case Histories
1x03 One Good Turn Part 1
1x04 One Good Turn Part 2
Having pointlessly killed a dog in the first two-parter, they pointlessly kill a cat in this one. Place your bets for what perishes in the third...
[Watch parts one and two (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Agatha Christie's Marple
4x04 Why Didn't They Ask Evans? [season finale]
Two years after it was first shown in America, 18 months since it was released on DVD, and after having already broadcast all of series five, ITV finally deign to let us see the final episode in Marple's fourth series. Weirdos.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Films

101 Dalmatians (1996)
[2nd watch]
The first -- and, obviously, last -- time I saw this was, I believe, in the cinema when it came out, almost 15 years ago. So that's something...

A Study in Terror (1965)
[#66 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

Happy Father's Day

via @kevtsai

this week on 100 Films

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

Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)

The film concludes with a hair-raising final sequence. I reckon it must be among the most tense, scary and chilling sequences in all of cinema, certainly that I’ve seen. It’s not so much the performances, or the shadow on the wall, or the screeching music — though they all contribute — as the fear of the actual situation: your home, your personal, private, safe space, being invaded, and the first you know of it is an all-too-solid shadow on the wall, coming up the stairs to get you…

The Thief (1952)

if The Thief is known for anything it’s for its dialogue — as the poster proclaims, “not a word is spoken…!” ...it is a fairly straightforward and archetypal story — while it demonstrates that you can tell a story without dialogue, it might leave one wondering about the possibilities for telling a wholly original or truly complex story that way.

And look here at midnight for my review of the second Rebuild of Evangelion film, Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance..

More next Sunday.

TV

Castle
1x01 Flowers For Your Grave
Channel 5's Mentalist replacement is a good choice -- it has the same tone, but seems different enough to keep it fun. Nathan Fillion is certainly always good value. They've already shown three series in America so there's plenty to catch up on too.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Films

Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance. (2009/2010)
[#65 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

Collection Count

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

This week, I add a whole TV series on DVD and upgrade a film trilogy from individual DVDs to a Blu-ray box set, amongst other new acquisitions, so the numbers do all kinds of upping and downing. Love it when that happens.

Number of titles in collection: 1,325 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,112 [down 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 213 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 3,308 [up 21]
Number of films in collection: 1,398 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,976 [up 68]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Channel 4's Comedy Gala
C4's second huge comedy event at the O2. I was going to highlight who I thought were the best and worst of the show, but with a whopping 21 acts performing I can't really remember it all...
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Graham Norton Show
9x09 (10/6/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Injustice
Episode 5 (of 5)
So, that was that. Can't say I was terribly surprised by most of the twists, but there were a couple of curveballs in there, even if, despite the occasionally glacial pace, several threads still went underdeveloped.
I reckon Horowitz is angling for a second run too -- not only the open ending, but that needless "created by" credit at the beginning -- not that I'd expect another series to do anything with most of the stories from this tale (which were wrapped up, just not fully explored before they reached their end). Injustice wasn't the best of the current glut of crime dramas on TV, but a second series wouldn't be wholly unwelcome.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

The National Lottery: Who Dares Wins
4x07 (11/6/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Scott & Bailey
1x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Films

Valley of Fear (1983)
[#64 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

TV

Dermot's Big Fat Comedy Gala
Dermot O'Leary presents an hour-long advert -- sorry, behind-the-scenes special -- for Channel 4's second O2 comedy event in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital.
(Incidentally, I really ought to stop watching so many things a whole week after they were broadcast. Though tell that to some of the unfinished series I haven't watched for months...)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

How I Met Your Mother
6x15 Oh Honey
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Injustice
Episode 4 (of 5)
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Articles

Review: Awkward, uneven Green Lantern packs no punch by Drew McWeeny
(from Motion Captured at Hit Fix)
This is going to surprise some fanboys who have been salivating over the trailers. Personally, I thought they all looked dreadful and this doesn't surprise me one bit. I don't expect it will connect with a wide audience... but then crap makes tonnes of money at the box office all the time, so we'll have to wait and see.

Woody and Buzz Lightyear as Badass Action Figures
(from Live For Films)
Title says it all:

Click to enlarge.

TV

Archer
2x07 Movie Star
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Injustice
Episode 3 (of 5)
Some TV series have to be sliced right back if Hollywood latches on to them for an adaptation (see: State of Play), but I could imagine this quite comfortably squidging down into a two-hour version. Still two episodes to go, mind, but so little has happened that it doesn't feel over halfway through.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Mock the Week
10x01 (9/6/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

$#*! My Dad Says
1x15 Ed Goes to Court
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Articles

Duke Nukem's PR threatens to punish sites that run negative reviews by Ben Kuchera
(from Opposable Thumbs at Ars Technica)
It's a little startling that the idea of blacklisting outlets that give negative reviews seems to just be an accepted part of gaming PR. It's things like that that prove it's an industry still not half as grown-up as it likes to think it is.

Lee Mack 'winces at early Not Going Out' by Morgan Jeffery
(from Digital Spy)
I thought early Not Going Out was funnier and more original than the recent series have been, probably for the reasons Mack dislikes it. Oh well.
(Also, I think I missed at the time (back in April) that it's been commissioned for two more series. Even if it's not as good as it was, this is still good news.)

Oscars to allow five to ten 'Best Picture' nominees by Simon Reynolds
(from Digital Spy)

'Best Picture' nominees will now need to receive at least 5% of first-place votes from AMPAS members to make the cut, meaning between five and ten movies will be nominated.

Good plan, thinks I. Also adds to the fun of predicting the Oscars -- "how many nominations will there be this year?", etc.

TV

Injustice
Episode 2 (of 5)
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Lead Balloon
4x02 Dead
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Law Abiding Citizen: Director's Cut (2009)
[#63 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

Articles

No full series for Doctor Who in 2012 by Chuck Foster
(from Doctor Who News Page)

[BBC1 Controller] Danny Cohen says there won't be a full series of Doctor Who in 2012, but a special run for the anniversary in 2013.

So goes the report. Not entirely sure what I feel about this; depends a little on exactly how many episodes we see in 2012 and what exactly a "special run" in 2013 means.

TV

Injustice
Episode 1 (of 5)
New five-part thriller by Anthony Horowitz, which was shown one-per-day last week. Last time ITV had a five-part Horowitz-penned drama in one week it was a bit rubbish, but Injustice gets off to a more promising start bit doesn't hold a candle to recent high-quality output in the genre (the likes of The Shadow Line, for instance), with it's irritatingly clichéd characters and leaden expositional speeches, but it holds promise in some of it's mysteries. It remains to be seen if certain elements have relevance or if that's just a side effect of he odd/sluggish pace.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Robot Chicken
3x16 Boo Cocky
3x17 Bionic Cow
3x18 Monstourage
3x19 President Evil
3x20 Chirlaxx [season finale]
And that's that done too. Now I need to find another comedy series to fill my lazy late nights...

Articles

Robert Downey Jr, Jon Favreau: 'Iron Man 3 will be tricky' by Tara Fowler
(from Digital Spy)

on how the release of The Avengers will affect Iron Man 3... "I guess in comics you can say that it's an individual storyline and you can break it off into a group," said Favreau. "But in movies, it's hard not to take into consideration what just happened. What are you gonna say? 'They all just lost their cell phones and you can't get help?' So it's going to take a lot of ingenuity to make it make sense to a mainstream film audience"

TV

Case Histories
1x01 Case Histories Part 1
1x02 Case Histories Part 2
Adaptation of Kate Atkinson's novel -- she's having a good month! Pretty decent, though the best thing about it was the cute little dog owned by the sisters... so why did they kill him off?! Poor doggy.
For the interested, the official BBC site (linked above) has a tonne of articles about the series, many more than they normally bother with.
[Watch parts one and two (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

The Artist Uggie wins 2011 'Palm Dog' by Mayer Nissim
(from Digital Spy)
They have an award for the best dog in a film at Cannes! That's brilliant!