TV

Game of Thrones
1x07 You Win or You Die
1x08 The Pointy End
Now that's what I call a twist! Um, at the end of You Win or You Die, that is; though The Pointy End has its fair share of surprises, and a cliffhanger-ish ending all of its own. Ned Stark may be the only honourable man in the whole of Westeros, and it looks like that will do him no favours.

Just a Minute [2012]
1x06 Episode 6
1x07 Episode 7
[Watch episodes six and seven (again) on iPlayer.]

Perspectives
2x02 Lenny Henry: Finding Shakespeare
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

The Voice UK
1x03 The Blind Auditions 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Comics

All Star Western #7 by Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti & Moritat

Excellent as ever. Moritat's art is better than I feel some would give him credit for.

Plus a back-up strip starring Western superheroes Nighthawk and Cinnamon, drawn by Patrick Scherberger, giving the former some Batman-esque roots.

TV

Archer
3x04 The Man From Jupiter
Being the episode they should've shown last week (note, however, that the Demand 5 URLs are completely wrong, and I guess will be until episode nine). No one corrected the continuity announcer though (who last week definitely introduced this episode, and with this week's not-quite-matching intro was presumably describing next week's episode).
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Game of Thrones
1x06 A Golden Crown
A pivotal episode, this -- I knew so going in, thanks to it being the subject of a picture-in-picture "Anatomy of an Episode" feature on the Blu-ray (on top of having a regular commentary track), which is regularly stated because it's so important. (It also manages to take up an entire disc, and the Anatomy feature makes it eight minutes longer -- maybe it's just separately encoded rather than a genuine PiP thing? Anyway, doesn't really matter.) It is quite pivotal -- the final scene in particular resolves a major plot -- but perhaps no more so than the preceding episode, although by dealing with the fallout from that it nails a lot of colours to masts. Still, s'all great stuff.

Onion News Network
2x06 Today! Now! Special
Different. Still funny. Who knew ONN would end up having arc plots and stuff?

Pointless
4x10 (25/3/11 edition)

Comics

Daredevil #9 & #10 by Mark Waid & Paolo Rivera
One of the best comics currently going has another strong two-parter, with a great standalone story (nice twists) and moving forward the on-going plot too (more nice twists). Waid's engrossing storytelling is complimented by Rivera's exceptional art, which renders action excitingly and dynamically, and pulls off feats like conveying emotion and indecision just through a series of close-ups on a hand. Simply fantastic stuff all round.

Uncanny X-Men #9 by Kieron Gillen & Carlos Pacheco
Blah. Not bad, just not that interesting either. Which is why I'm skipping AvX -- if it's any good, I'll find out and just read it after. The 7-page preview of #1 included here is a bit promising, though.

Collection Count

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

Once again, nothing new to report. I'm trying to be good about buying stuff, see. Lots of new releases from the 2011's winter season coming out later this month and through May and June though, so once that comes around the numbers will be bolstered. If I can work out where to order them from -- everything's inundated with exclusive Steelbooks and/or prices rising by a quid or two at the better sites, which is annoying.

Number of titles in collection: 1,459 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,149 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 310 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 3,616 [no change]
Number of films in collection: 1,548 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,449 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Dirk Gently
1x03 Episode 3
Some fans of the books have criticised this series for not including enough science fiction elements. I can see their point. But despite that, it's still jolly good. More please.

Game of Thrones
1x04 Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things
1x05 The Wolf and the Lion
The first time I decide to watch a two back to back and they make an exceptionally good double bill, with plenty of plots and subplots continuing directly on at this point. Cripples... is still a lot of talking and exposition, but things really begin to heat up as the series reaches the halfway point in The Wolf and the Lion. It's really addictive now too -- I could well imagine watching most or all of it in a single sitting. But no, I shouldn't burn through it too fast -- there's not enough of it for that.

Just a Minute [2012]
1x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Game of Thrones
1x03 Lord Snow
The first new episode of GoT I've watched in nearly a year -- ooh, I feel like everyone else the other night watching the season two premiere. It's weird, actually, because while episode two continues what episode one started, here a whole host of new characters and plots are introduced.
Plus, this is the episode with an audio commentary by the Stark children, which begins with them singing the theme tune. Most amusing.

House
8x15 Blowing the Whistle
On Sky1 tomorrow, as it goes.

Pointless
4x09 (24/3/11 edition)
Resuming the repeats from early 2011 that were left off (by me, anyway) in December.

The Sarah Millican Television Programme
1x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Twenty Twelve
2x01 Boycott Part 1
Despite its award-winning-ness, I don't personally know anyone who actually likes Twenty Twelve. But hey-ho, I do. And it's developed episode titles this series, which pleases me. More British series should bother with episode titles.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Castle
2x06 Vampire Weekend
In-joke-tastic opening!
(I would've posted a screengrab, but turns out Castle is surprisingly dark. Turn some lights on!)
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Game of Thrones
1x02 The Kingsroad [2nd watch]
When I watched this first time round, I commented that I was looking forward to the villains getting their comeuppance. I've since read that George R.R. Martin's fantasy world is characterised by its dystopian nature -- i.e. no such luck any time soon. Still, better to know that than keep getting my hopes up.

Just a Minute [2012]
1x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Pointless
6x34 (30/3/12 edition)
Pointless has gone back in to repeat mode after this episode. I've still got 16 episodes backed up from last time they did this though, but that's OK because from today they're on to episodes I've seen before (i.e. this one). But hey, that was nearly a year ago -- maybe I'll just watch them again. And do really well.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Game of Thrones
1x01 Winter is Coming [2nd watch]
As season two kicks off in America (and, indeed, tonight in the UK), I'm finally getting on with watching the first season. And golly does it look good on Blu-ray; and golly aren't the discs packed with special features -- I'll have to get stuck in to them too, at some point. Other than that, it's still as awesome as it was first time round (has it really been almost a year?! Crikey). I look forward to actually finishing it this time.

The Graham Norton Show
10x18 (2/3/12 edition)

Just a Minute [2012]
1x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Pointless
6x33 (29/3/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Comics

Batman: The Dark Knight #7 by David Finch & Paul Jenkins
A big fight? Fine. Attempt at a Big Twist? Adequate. Featuring plenty of Superman and the Flash in a Batman book? No thanks, this isn't Justice League. Upcoming change of writer? Good good.

Batwoman #7 by J.H. Williams III, W. Haden Blackman & Amy Reeder
Less-good art and a confusing story is robbing Batwoman of its previous greatness. Boo.

Resurrection Man #7 by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning & Fernando Dagnino
After last month's trip to Gotham, now Mitch Shelley is in Metropolis. Not sure if there's a reason for that, other than hanging him on bits of the DC universe everyone will know. Still, good book, no matter of where it's set.

Articles

Box Office Guru Wrapup: Hunger Games Still #1, Breaks $250M
by Gitesh Pandya (from Rotten Tomatoes)

The stats are quite incredible, so I shall try to abbreviate this to the key interesting ones:

The Hunger Games remained the most popular film leading the box office with more ticket sales in its second frame than the two new releases combined...

[It] scored another $61.1M this weekend, according to estimates, propelling the ten-day cume to an eye-popping $251M. That allowed [it] to break Avatar's record for the fastest non-sequel to break the quarter-billion mark. [Avatar] needed 12 days... including the Christmas frame whereas Hunger had no holiday help. In fact, only three films in box office history have ever reached the milestone faster - The Dark Knight... Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen... All were July releases when weekday numbers were much stronger thanks to students being out of school and the Potter figures included a boost from 3D...

The fact that Games could collect so much in such a short period of time outside of summer is nothing short of incredible. Overall, it was the seventh best performance for any film in its sophomore weekend and fourth biggest among non-sequels behind Avatar, Spider-Man, and Alice in Wonderland [which is, you could argue, a sequel]. Among second weekends, Hunger beat out every installment of the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises...

Overseas... the international total [reached] $113.9M... A final global gross near $600M is possible for the $75M production.

That's what happens when you take teeny books with a Twilight-esque fanbase and turn them into a film that's actually well-reviewed.

TV

The Mentalist
4x17 Cheap Burgundy
[Watch it on Demand 5 from Friday 13th April. Probably.]

Pointless
6x32 (28/3/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Scott & Bailey
2x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Watson & Oliver
1x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) In HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Despicable Me (2010)
[#34 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Not as good as Megamind.

Comics

Batman #7 by Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo

Some fantastic twists and revelations as Batman's battle against the Court of Owls continues. The Night of the Owls crossover is coming, and it's set to be exciting.

That said, some kind of "previously on" mightn't go amiss from time to time. When it's a month between issues it can be tough to remember little details, and when things hark back to stuff published six or more months ago it can get even tougher. And, mainly, I have no idea who the girl in the opening scene is, but we clearly should. Grr.

Still: see also this article, by Nathan Birch at Gamma Squad: 9 Reasons Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Batman is the Best Bat-Book in Decades. I'm not qualified to make such a bold assertion, but I concur with all the reasons why it's awesome. Reading this arc, it feels like you're watching a classic in the making.


Nightwing #7 by Kyle Higgins, Eddy Barrows & Geraldo Borges

It's a shame that Batman and Nightwing are published in the same week -- the end of this issue duplicates a scene from Batman #7, but elements of it make much more sense coming after the earlier events of this instalment (which wraps up the relaunched series' first arc ahead of the Night of the Owls), so it would have been better to have read this first. Both issues do work regardless... though having read Batman first, the scene in question feels somewhat transplanted from there to here... despite, like I said, feeling I should have read this first. Weird.

I started buying Nightwing because, as The New 52 kicked off, there were comments that it would be closely tied to Batman. It seemed obvious how at first -- there was a Big Thing at the end of Batman #1 -- but then that went away quite quickly. I stuck with it, though, because it was a good tale in its own right... and now I'm very glad I both started and kept it up, because it turns out the whole thing (both so far and, especially, going forward) is pretty closely tied to the Court of Owls storyline. And, as we have established, that's awesome.

this week on 100 Films

No new reviews this week -- I've gotten very lax -- but there is the March update (also on the classic blog here).

TV

Just a Minute [2012]
1x01 Episode 1
1x02 Episode 2
I used to hate playing Just a Minute on those occasions on which it came up as a game at school, but it's jolly good fun to watch the pros have a go.
[Watch episodes one and two (again) on iPlayer.]

Mad Men
5x01 A Little Kiss Part 1
5x02 A Little Kiss Part 2
It's been a long time coming, but hurrah at last for the return of Mad Men! And a feature-length/double-bill opener, too. You spoil us.

The Voice UK
1x02 The Blind Auditions 2
Not sure if I loved or loathed the continuity announcer introducing this with a reference to its ratings success, but it was certainly unlike the Beeb. Also uncommon: Danny turning round before anyone else once or twice! I know it's only the second episode, but it didn't seem like something he'd ever do. That said, he still spent plenty of songs trying to work out if anyone else was going or not.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Megamind (2010)
[#33 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

This seems to have been lost in the wake of the similarly-themed and well-received Despicable Me (which was released about two months earlier). I've not seen that, but this I enjoyed.

Articles

Game of Thrones showrunners on season 2, splitting Book 3 and their hope for a 70-hour epic
by James Hibberd (from Inside TV at EW.com)

Title pretty much covers what's in this one, then. Interesting though, but with kinda-spoilers for season one.

Collection Count

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

More minor tweaks this week, upgrading a DVD to a two-film BD set.

Number of titles in collection: 1,459 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,149 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 310 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 3,616 [up 1]
Number of films in collection: 1,548 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,449 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Pointless
6x31 (27/3/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Sport Relief 2012
Part 3
The final chunk, including Absolutely Fabulous, QI and Mock the Week, amongst others.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]