TV

Billy Connolly's Route 66
Episode 2 (of 4)
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Outnumbered
4x05 Episode 5
Twists! Cliffhangers! Not what you expect from Outnumbered, really... but it's still brilliant. And Karen may just be the best sitcom character ever. Her "oh Jesus" on seeing Angela was perfect.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
5x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Comics

Batgirl #1 by Gail Simone & Ardian Syaf
A book I've grabbed a bit later, because it's proved one of the best-selling and apparently-popular of DC's relaunch. Personally I didn't quite latch on to it. It felt a lot briefer than the other books I've read so far, for one thing -- the CBR review puts it best: "it feels like Batgirl #1 has barely gotten moving full steam ahead when we get to the cliffhanger". Exactly how I felt. Perhaps, however, that my chosen reading format was part of the problem: whereas I've read the rest (so far) in print, this was in digital, and I think I perhaps didn't savour the art and storytelling as much because of it.

Batwoman #1 by J.H. Williams III & W. Haden Blackman
This one was scheduled to kick off long before the New 52 were announced (indeed, an issue #0 was published almost a year ago) and was highly anticipated. I'd also heard reports it was therefore hard to get into for new readers, presumably because it hadn't originally been intended as a complete jumping-on point. It's OK, though the backstory that's half-explained could do with greater explanation. Also read digitally; good enough that I'm going to re-buy and re-read in print, I think.

Articles

Dear DC Comics, by Michele Lee
(from Michele Lee)
There's been a lot of controversy surrounding the depiction of women in some of DC's relaunched comics. Here, a 7-year-old manages to get a better handle on what's wrong than the people at DC have (who just advised "look at a book's rating before buying"). It's certainly worth a read as a demonstration of how simple this is... yet DC seem unable to grasp it.

New 52 Pickup | Week 5 — decision time! by Steve Sunu
(from Robot 6 at Comic Book Resources)
The final summation of DC's 52 new #1s, ending with Sunu picking the 26 he'll buy #2 for. Except he only picks 25 -- the 26th is up to readers. Gasp!

Star Trek: The Next Generation is Coming to Blu-ray in 2012 by Angie Han
(from /Film)

In order to release the Blu-rays in high-definition, CBS dug up the original film negatives — over 25,000 reels — and edited them to match the original episodes precisely. Special effects were recreated, rather than upconverted from video tape. The end result will be all 178 episodes in high-definition 1080p, with 7.1 DTS Master Audio.

Crikey!

We will "save good television" say Doctor Who Confidential campaigners by Tim Glanfield
(from Radio Times)
RT interviews the anonymous person behind @SaveDWC.

TV

The A to Z of Crime
Episode 4 MNOP (of 6)
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Pointless
5x20 (23/9/11 edition)
5x21 (26/9/11 edition)
Christ almighty that pair of cackling chatterboxes (in the second of these episodes) were annoying. Thank goodness they made it to the final so I don't have to suffer them again in the next episode! Never have I been so glad that just two people remembered an answer, or that a name the contestants misremembered turned out to be pointless. (I'm cruel, I know.)
[Watch the 23/9/11 and 26/9/11 editions (again) on iPlayer.]

Wilfred
1x03 Fear
Yeah, it may be five weeks since I last watched this (feels longer), but I hadn't forgotten it, no.

Articles

DC Comics: Bad at Math by David Willis
(from Shortpacked!)
Short comic that demonstrates why, for all its successes, some of the (controversial) moves in DC's New 52 are doing nothing at all to help the cause of boosting comic readership; indeed, they may be actively hindering it.

Doctor Who Confidential Axed by Dave Golder
(from SFX)
"Scrapped due to cost cutting measures. See, this is what happens when you moan about the license fee". Disappointing news. I know I've moaned about Confidential's quality, but overall it's a pretty good show. Plus, it makes up the vast majority of nuWho's DVD extras. What are we likely to get in its place? Nothing, I'd wager.
If you want to try to save it, there's @SaveDWC on twitter and a petition here.

In Defence of: Doomsday by Fergus Burke
(from The Movie Bit)
Not the Doctor Who episode, or one of any number of other things with that title, but the 2008 Neil Marshall film. As the article so rightly puts it, though Marshall's "film's rank fairly highly on the internet site Rotten Tomatoes, one is continuously shit on. Can you guess which?" Yes, this one. I've not seen it, but I do have it on DVD (story of my life), and this goes some way to reigniting my interest in seeing it.

The Wolverine script rewrite explained by Hugh Jackman by Mark Langshaw
(from Digital Spy)
To summarise: "We've got the best script we ever had, but a less-acclaimed director than the one we used to have is working on it now and he wants to put his own stamp on it."

TV

Mock the Week
10x09 (22/9/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Pointless
5x19 (22/9/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)
[#81 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

Comics

Batman #1 by Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo
One of the few New 52 books to receive a resounding five stars from CBR, I'm not sure I was quite as taken with the book, but it does have a good setup (much more new-reader-friendly than Batman and Robin) and an intriguing plot.
Shame about the change of cover, though. The atmospheric original is on the left, the cartoony released one on the right. Click to enlarge.

Daredevil #2 by Mark Waid & Paolo Rivera
I would say CBR's 4-star review sums up most of my thoughts, though also note how may references it makes to past storylines -- potentially problematic for any new reader, and while I got by with much of it I had no idea I should/could have recognised the villain(s). Hopefully their pre-existence won't be too key to the story, then...

Articles

Doctor Who: The Complete Series Six Boxed Set confirmed for 21st November by Chuck Foster
(from Doctor Who News Page)
Only four audio commentaries this year? They're getting worse. I remember when the nuWho box sets were world-beaters: commentaries for every episode, Doctor Who Confidential Cut Downs, additional featurettes... Now we still get the shortened Confidentials, but they're quarter-length rather than half-length, a vastly reduced number of commentaries, no extra behind-the-scenes extras... We do get some new mini-episodes written by Moffat himself, but if they're anything like the online prequels or the two shorts on the previous box set, they're barely worth bothering with. Why not record more commentaries? How hard can it be to re-package some of the material from Confidential into extra featurettes in addition to the cut-down episodes? It just reeks of missed opportunities.
I do like those lenticular prints, though -- I hope there's a Blu-ray version too. Just a shame you have to get that nasty Silence-head cover to have them.

Photography and Contempt of Court by David Allen Green
(from New Statesman)
You may have heard the news story about the teenager jailed for two months simply for taking a photo in a courtroom. "A ridiculous overreaction!" was basically the tone of most reports. This, however, shows why you shouldn't believe everything you read: there's more to the story, and the sentence isn't so ludicrous after all.

TV

Ask Rhod Gilbert
2x01 Episode 1
I quite liked the first series of this, but really didn't expect to see it back, so that was a... surprise.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Pointless
5x18 (21/9/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Comics

Daredevil #1 by Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera & Marcos Martín
So distracted have I been by DC's new lot I've only just got round to the similarly-relaunched Daredevil, which you may remember I mentioned a couple of months ago when CBR gave it a 5-star review. Very good it was too, an excellent example of how to relaunch a book without doing an origin story, both establishing the basics of the character and summarising recent events succinctly enough that new readers get what's going on and (I presume) established readers don't get bored to tears from recappery. This approach to a relaunch is something some of DC's lot could do with, apparently.
(Also, see the audio version here. They've up to issue four now, but I've no idea if they kept this up.)

Resurrection Man #1 by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning & Fernando Dagnino
I'm saving up all my thoughts on the New 52s I'm reading for once I get to the end of the first month, so I'll say more on this then. But, for now, I really enjoyed this.

TV

Pointless
5x17 (20/9/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Spooks
10x01 Episode 1
And so the final series of Spooks begins… and it was actually rather good, though having watched Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy recently it did seem a tad overblown at times. They seem to be doing one of the Big Long Story seasons they've done occasionally over the years (or maybe it's just a two-parter, who knows), which makes sense with the reduced episode count (down to six for the first time since the first series) and the desire to wrap up Harry's story as this is The Final Season. It'll be interesting to see how much time and development the supporting cast get this year, then, especially as they're all either leftover characters who had little to do before or newbies who have a maximum shelf life of five more episodes.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
[#80 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

this week on 100 Films

Just 1 new review was posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, and it was...

Night of the Demon (1957)

A horror movie in the old fashioned mode — creepy and uncanny, rather than aiming to make you constantly jump or turn your stomach with lashings of gore. A scene at a children’s party at Karswell’s house is particularly unsettling, the apparent jollity contrasting with the ominous winds and undercurrent of evil.

More next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Who
32x12 Closing Time
32x12a The Prequel to The Wedding of River Song
That was an amiable enough episode, even if the Cybermen were underused (as ever in nuWho, I feel). I also thought the ending -- which was effectively a prequel to next week's finale -- was a bit overlong. It might've been neater to bung up the "Next Time" before cutting to all that stuff with River, and have that instead of a regular trailer. That would've been unusual, and I'd've liked it. Or they could've made it the above prequel, of course... but I'm sure they're very aware that only a relatively small number of dedicated fans will be watching that,
[Watch Closing Time (again) in HD on iPlayer, and The Prequel to The Wedding of River Song on the official site.]

Doctor Who Confidential
6x12 Open All Hours
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Dragons' Den
9x08 Episode 8
Giving away 79% of their company?! Madness. Probably a first as well.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Great British Bake Off
2x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Perfect Couples
1x03 Perfect Proposal
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Who Do You Think You Are?
8x02 JK Rowling
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

The Jonathan Ross Show
1x03 (17/9/11 edition)
Finally, a fully worthwhile line-up of guests. Unfortunately the ITV show being almost quarter-of-an-hour shorter than the old BBC one means they don't really get enough time (especially when so long was given over to Peter Kay mucking about).
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Outnumbered
4x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Pointless
5x16 (19/9/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
5x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

After last week's flood, not much to report this week -- just one new release from last Monday (Attack the Block) and one early release from next Monday (Thor).

Number of titles in collection: 1,386 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,139 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 247 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 3,433 [up 4]
Number of films in collection: 1,466 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,162 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Horrible Histories Big Prom Party
This was, as you'd expect, brilliant fun. Shame they gutted the classical pieces to make it an hour long and super kid-friendly, but that's what you expect I guess.
The full programme for this Prom can be read here.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Pointless
5x15 (16/9/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

QI
9x02 International (XL edition)
Finally, an explanation of the QI scoring system! ...well, sort of.
(Incidentally, the British Comedy Guide episode guides I've started linking to for the main episode title are really rather good, not only listing the contents of the episode in full but also detailing them major differences between the regular and XL editions. In case you might be interested.)
[Watch QI XL (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

The DC Comics New Reader Litmus Test: The New 52
and
The DC Comics New Reader Litmus Test: Week 2
by Josie Campbell (from Comic Book Resources)

The whole point of The New 52 was to offer up a slate of #1 issues to attract new/lapsed readers to/back to the DCU. So what better way to test that than by showing all the issues to new readers, unfamiliar with comics. And what it shows is... a bit of a failure. One of the things DC was keen not to do was tell origin stories, feeling too often a re-launch meant telling the origin yet again. This survey seems to suggest they were right for well-known characters like Batman and Superman, but for all the rest (who are largely or completely unknown in popular culture), the move hasn't worked, with several newbies expressing that an origin would be better. DC's existing-reader-friendly idea of a "soft reboot" may work for current fans, but it's going to turn off newbies.

Still, in some respects one might argue this sample was flawed: it sounds like it picked on people who weren't necessarily interested in reading comics. (The second week improved the methodology, mind.) Now, that may not be true, but the people who are actually going to walk into a store and purchase these -- or, rather, DC are hoping they can attract into a store to purchase these -- are people who have an interest in reading comics, even if they've never actually read one. Would they be more susceptible to the books' charms than this lot? Or would the lack of background on unfamiliar characters still turn them off?

Either way, DC's sales have been strong, and so long as that keeps up I'm sure they're happy.

And in other comics-y articles...

New 52 Pickup | Week 4 by Steve Sunu
(from Robot 6 at Comic Book Resources)
Finally, a book I'm definitely getting that Sunu loves! (See below for more.)

Review of Batman #1 by Doug Zawisza
(from Comic Book Resources)
Five stars (out of five). Definitely looking forward to getting this one, then.

TV

Billy Connolly's Route 66
Episode 1 (of 4)
To be completely honest, this was much better than I was expecting it to be! Most entertaining and informative.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Pointless
5x14 (15/9/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
5x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]