TV

How I Met Your Mother
6x17 Garbage Island
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

James May's Things You Need to Know
1x01 The Human Body
If more documentaries moved this fast, we'd learn a lot more. And they wouldn't need to be as long. That said, how much of it goes in at this speed is another matter. Interesting while it's on though.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Middle Sunday at Wimbledon means no play, which means TV catch-up day for me...

125 Years of Wimbledon: You Cannot Be Serious
Odd documentary to commemorate the 125th championships at Wimbledon. Rather than telling the history of the tournament, as you might expect from such a documentary, it jumped back and forth to tell brief famous snippets. Such brevity and disconnectedness also meant some tales weren't very well told. Weird, and slightly disappointing because of it.

Case Histories
1x05 When Will There Be Good News? Part 1
1x06 When Will There Be Good News? Part 2 [season finale]
It's amazing how reliant on coincidences all three of these plots have been. In most writing it would be considered a shockingly huge weakness; in the world of Jackson Brodie and work of Kate Atkinson, I presume (or hope, at least) it's supposed to be A Thing.
Also, lead guest star this episode was Gwyneth Keyworth, who I've previously noticed in a Sarah Jane Adventures story and as the daughter in The Great Outdoors. She was on some list of young actors to watch out for, I believe, and I'd have to agree. One to watch.
[Watch parts one and two (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Castle
1x02 Nanny McDead
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Horrible Histories with Stephen Fry
1x01 Episode 1
Kids' series Horrible Histories has proved remarkably popular and awards-winning, despite being 'buried' on CBBC. So, to capitalise on its consistent word-of-mouth, here the BBC edit together highlights from series one & two, with new links by Stephen Fry, and show them to a primetime Sunday audience. Good idea.
(Sadly they've not series linked it on iPlayer, so I can't direct you to it if you still missed it. Here's episode two, though.)

Lead Balloon
4x04 Off
That cliffhanger would've been a great shock... if the following episode hadn't been quite well promoted already.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Penn & Teller: Fool Us
1x02 Episode 2
As I watched two hours' worth of this only two days ago, I'd intended to save the new episode for a bit longer. But I couldn't resist. Darn it's good.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Scott & Bailey
1x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

this week on 100 Films

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

Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance. (2009/2010)

The second new Evangelion film isn’t as straight-up enjoyable as the first. It starts incredibly well, but then it feels like its getting too bogged down in the politics of a world that hasn’t been properly established for us and in the intricacies of some thematic considerations — the latter is especially worrying as it was this that made the ending of the TV series so unsatisfactory

Salt: Director's Cut (2010)
including a comparison to the Theatrical and Extended versions.

Salt’s mystery is one of its strong points. The plot developments are well-paced throughout, shifting our expectations rather than stretching it all for a glut of final act reveals. In this regard... it has twists and follows storylines you wouldn’t expect in a Hollywood summer blockbuster.

Unthinkable (2010)

the vast majority of the action takes place in a deserted high school commandeered as a temporary military base, where Samuel L. Jackson conducts his interrogation in a sort of one-way-glassed torture tank placed in the gym. So there’s no 24-style thrills as people rush around the city/country hunting out bombs — Unthinkable is wholly reliant on the script and performances to draw us into its story, and its debate.

More next Sunday.

TV

Lee Mack's All Star Cast
1x01 (18/6/11 edition)
That was... uh... Oh dear.
And yet I know I'll keep watching the series.

Mystery Science Theater 3000
3x21 Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
That was more accessible. Plus, a TARDIS reference! Yay!

The National Lottery: Who Dares Wins
4x08 (18/6/11 edition) [season finale]

Fiction

Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver
Thursday: Disappearance Row, Chapters 49-52
That's the end of that section. The next -- funnily enough, called Friday -- is the last. Exciting stuff.

Collection Count

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

This week, a DVD-to-BD upgrade, a new DVD and a BD-to-BD upgrade, which has the effect of making it look like I got a 16-episode 4-disc Blu-ray. Which I didn't. Oh, life!

Also, running time update. Exciting.

Number of titles in collection: 1,326 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,112 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 214 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 3,312 [up 4]
Number of films in collection: 1,398 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,992 [up 16]

And the running time update...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
239 days, 17 hours, and 41 minutes.
(Up 5 days, 17 hours, and 10 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
9x10 (17/6/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Penn & Teller: Fool Us
1x00 Special
1x01 Episode 1
This magic series began as a one-off special shown back in January, which was obviously popular because a series of it started last Saturday. I've been meaning to watch the first since it aired (with my typical tardiness, obviously), so this is me catching up before starting the series... which I then went straight into because it's so addictive. Love me some magic.
[Watch episode one (again) on ITV Player.]

Wimbledon 2011
Including Laura Robson's second round loss against Maria Sharapova. No surprise at the result, but Robson made a stunningly good account of herself.
[Watch Robson v Sharapova (again) on iPlayer.]

Fiction

Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver
Wednesday: Killing Fields, Chapters 39-43
Thursday: Disappearance Row, Chapters 44-48

TV

Archer
2x08 Stage Two
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

The Sex Researchers
Episode 1 (of 3)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

$#*! My Dad Says
1x16 Well Suitored
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Fiction

Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver
Wednesday: Killing Fields, Chapters 32-38
It's been 2½ weeks since I last read any of this. Oops. The end of Chapter 36 is the halfway point, as it goes.

Articles

Torchwood: the UK wait continues by Chuck Foster
(from Doctor Who News Page)

The BBC Press Office have now released details for 9-15 July... Torchwood: Miracle Day does not feature amongst the highlights listed for that week. ... it would currently seem that Torchwood won't begin on UK television until at least a week after its premiere in the United States [and Canada and Australia].

This is getting silly now. And showing it in the UK 10+ days after the US isn't going to do it any favours -- sure, the fanbase who download will be much smaller than the potential BBC One audience, but they're also the ones that really generate word of mouth, online discussion, etc -- ever so important in keeping a series high-profile and popular these days -- and it massively increases the chances of spoilers, both fan-to-fan and in the press. Plus it's generally annoying and sort of disrespectful -- "it's still a British show"? Yeah, right.

TV

Mock the Week
10x02 (16/6/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Wimbledon 2011
Various bits of Wimbledon today, but mainly the brilliant three-setter between Venus Williams and Kimiko Date-Krumm and Laura Robson's first round victory over Angelique Kerber. Didn't watch Andy Murray.
[Watch Date-Krumm v Williams and Murray v Gimeno-Traver (no Laura Robson match) on iPlayer.]

Films

Saw 3D (2010)
[#67 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]
I watched it in 2D, but it's still called Saw 3D. Stupid.

TV

How I Met Your Mother
6x16 Desperation Day
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Luther
2x01 Episode 1
I wasn't sure we'd see the return of Luther, but here it is, in rejigged form as two two-parters. Which would seem to lend itself to the Sunday/Monday broadcast recently afforded Case Histories, but for some reason they've scheduled it across four Tuesdays. Each to their own. Anyway, the rejig they've made so much of in the press running up to the series isn't very significant. Sure, characters are gone and new ones are here, and some of the relationships have changed, but the series still feels the same and functions in the same way. So it's still as awkward, weird, sick, but strangely likeable.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Mystery Science Theater 3000
4x24 "Manos" The Hands of Fate [season finale]
Having enjoyed the MST3k movie last year, I decided to start my viewing of the series with perhaps the most famous episode, in which the Satellite of Love gang riff off one of the worst movies of all time. And it truly is a dreadful movie... and, unfortunately, doesn't seem to give them much to work with. It has its moments as an episode, but there were too many long stretches without notable funnies. Though fans do say not to start newbies with this episode, so...
(Incidentally, MST3k follows Family Guy and Robot Chicken as my... I don't know what, really, but it's filling their void. Sure, they had 22-minute and 11-minute episodes respectively, while MST3k runs 90 minutes per episode, but I watched big chunks of the other two, so it kinda works out.)

TV

Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed
Show Two (of 13)
As I probably mentioned during BBC One's The Magicians earlier this year, I enjoy magic, but I enjoy even more finding out how the tricks are done. Magicians like to claim this ruins the experience because the reveal is too mundane and never as fun as the trick. Maybe this is true for some, or even most, viewers, but personally, I'm too aware the trick isn't what it says it is (obviously) and find it more impressive how they make it seem to be that way. Anyway, that's a long-winded way of saying I love shows like this, which finally tell us how it's all done. And this was a particularly good edition, answering some things I'd been wondering about for a while.
Plus, it's an American show, so it has the bonus of a ridiculously OTT title and a marvellously cheesy voiceover. The narration is so omnipresent I swear it could be classed as an audio description track.
I stumbled across this particular edition on Virgin TV's catch-up; ITV Player online currently has four more (with more to come, I hope). I may have to watch those soon...
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Lead Balloon
4x03 Shoddy
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

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.]