TV

$#*! My Dad Says
1x17 Lock and Load
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

The South Bank Show
36x04 Disney.Pixar
I watched the final-ever South Bank Show back in May, but this is the last one I have knocking about to watch.
Broadcast in October 2009 (11/10/09, to be precise -- neat date) -- before Up was out, and while The Princess and the Frog was still at a stage where clips here are unfinished -- this edition both recounts the history of Pixar and examines its philosophy, and how this has gone on to influence how Disney is managed today. It doesn't shy away from the problematic history between Pixar and Disney either, which is good. In fact, it's a great demonstration of why The South Bank Show should never have been cancelled: it treats one of the most popular of popular culture things as serious art worthy of examination and documentation. Damn you, ITV.

Tim Vine: So I Said To This Bloke...
One of Vine's live shows, from 2008, shown on ITV4 for the first time recently. I like his style, but it gets a bit wearing over a whole hour.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Wimbledon 2011
Ladies' semifinals day, which this year meant matches between Victoria Azarenka & Petra Kvitova and Maria Sharapova & Sabine Lisicki. Hurrah for Azarenka going out, but shame for Lisicki.
[Watch Azarenka v Kvitova and Sharapova v Lisicki on iPlayer.]

Articles

10 TV Shows We Wish Got Another Season by Eric Goldman & Matt Fowler
(from IGN TV)
Including shows I definitely agree about, like Firefly, Twin Peaks and Deadwood; shows I haven't got round to yet, like Flight of the Conchords and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles; and almost half-a-dozen others too.

Marvel Studios to Start Producing Short Films? by Angie Han
(from /Film)
This seems like a good idea -- a way to test (or just flat out use) second-string characters on the big (or small) screen. The suggested Pixar model -- i.e. putting a short before every feature released -- seems like a very good one.

Wednesday Comics Review: CLiNT #9 Now With Added Jimmy Carr by Rich Johnston
(from Bleeding Cool)

The biggest change to CLiNT #9, in UK shops tomorrow and US shops in a month, is the lack of articles.

CLiNT was always sold as a collection of comics and articles, with an eye on the newstand mainstream market, almost with comics snuck in there... And it was the articles that suffered the greatest criticism, seen as filler, bland irrelevance in many cases...

That’s all gone. And we’ve got 74 pages of comics [and just 4 pages of articles]. That’s a massive jump in terms of comics content. Titan reps have told me that while the magazine hasn’t succeeded as they’d have liked on the newsstand, it’s had a much bigger reception in comic stores, so it may well be that is reflected in the new mix.

Ironically, this is probably the first issue since the first to attract significant media attention (I've seen several articles about it floating around today, anyway), thanks to the presence of a strip "written" by Jimmy Carr (he's actually just provided the story).

TV

Archer
2x09 Placebo Effect
This episode should be called Terms of Enrampagement. That flaw aside, it was great; one of my favourite Archer episodes.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Horrible Histories with Stephen Fry
1x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Mock the Week
10x03 (23/6/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Wimbledon 2011
Including Federer's disappointing loss to Tsonga. I like Tsonga -- indeed, he's my favourite player left as we go into the semi-finals -- but I was hoping Federer would win it this year. Hey-ho.
[Watch Federer vs Tsonga (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

James May's Things You Need to Know
1x02 The Universe
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Lee Mack's All Star Cast
1x02 (25/6/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Sex Researchers
Episode 2 (of 3)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Articles

300 spinoff Xerxes retitled Battle of Artemisia by Simon Reynolds
(from Digital Spy)
Or, 300 prequel given title Americans can pronounce.

DC Comics no longer 'writing for the trade' by Hugh Armitage
(from Digital Spy)

DC Comics will no longer be structuring its storylines to fit into graphic novel format... Writers have been told to write the story they want to write and not worry about the trade collecting

We'll see how long that lasts -- collected trade paperbacks are incredibly lucrative for comic publishers. That said, if they can turn it back to people buying individual issues it'll earn them even more money.

Friday from the Cheap Seats by Greg Hatcher
(from Comics Should Be Good! at Comic Book Resources)
Much has been written about DC's big September relaunch, but I don't think I've mentioned it here before. Here's a neat piece of analysis though, of which I think the (lengthy, I know) fifth thought is especially pertinent. The way the comics industry is run looks crazy to any reasonable outsider -- some of the biggest, most recognisable characters/properties in the world selling to and aiming themselves at a tiny hardcore fanbase. DC's #1s idea is a start, but I won't be surprised if a more fundamental overhaul of the whole industry occurs in the next decade. The fans won't like it... but, as always, they'll come along anyway.

Is Hollywood Over Its Love Affair With Geek Culture? by Graeme McMillan
(from Spinoff Online)

Reports that movie studios are abandoning this year’s San Diego Comic-Con have started to circulate... But it does raise one important question: Has Hollywood realized that San Diego was always a waste of their time? ... Why? Well, maybe because we’re just not useful enough.

Insightful. It's also something I've been thinking for years, but studios and/or fans only now seem to be waking up to.

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.]