TV

Horrible Histories
4x10 Episode 10

Once Upon a Time
1x08 Desperate Souls
By focussing on far and away the show's best element, Robert Carlyle, they managed to produce a pretty good episode. Surprising.
That said, apparently jumping forward a fortnight from last episode's major death absents every character from really having to deal with it. What a cop out (pun not intended).
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Romanzo Criminale
1x06 Episode 6
For a serialised drama this feels like a pretty standalone episode -- it's The One Where They're In Prison -- until the final few minutes whip out a bunch of elements that better tie it to everything else, with plot turning points as well as thematic elements. Nicely done.

Silk
2x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Comics: Star Trek / Doctor Who

Star Trek: The Next Generation / Doctor Who: Assimilation² #1 by Scott & David Tipton (with Tony Lee) & J.K. Woodward

Here's something fans have debated/dreamed about for decades, finally made reality thanks to the coincidence of the comics licence for both properties residing with IDW: a Doctor Who/Star Trek crossover, with a nice unwieldy title thanks to them choosing Next Gen for the Trek bit plus licenced comics' constant need to give things a subtitle. Apparently it's selling by the bucketload, as you'd expect for something joining two such huge franchises, even if people hadn't been discussing it as a pipe dream for so long.

As a Doctor Who fan, it's not the greatest dream realisation ever. It's telling that it's penned by regular Trek scribes Scott & David Tipton, with IDW's regular Who writer Tony Lee "helping"; and it's no coincidence that Trek comes first in the title. That's partly to do with sales (IDW aren't allowed to directly sell Who comics in the UK, due to DWM's licence, but arranging the title thusly means it falls under their Trek licence, which can be sold over here), but as an American company I imagine they see the Trek element as a far bigger point. Hey-ho.

But all that said, this is actually mostly Who. Indeed, it's the Trek fans who are liable to be disappointed. It starts all Trek-y, with the invasion of A Generic Federation Planet, but most of the issue is taken up with an adventure in ancient Egypt for the Doctor, Amy and Rory. Then a final-page shot features a couple of TNG cast members. And that's your lot. This is going to be an eight-issue series so I'm sure they're playing the long game, and that'll be fine in the inevitable collected edition, but as a monthly series of instalments that structure leaves it lacking in the crossover element the title promises. Judging how well this long-anticipated meeting of franchises actually works in practice will have to wait for later issues, then.

One observation, however. Though it's resulted in that daftly long title, choosing Next Gen has a practical advantage: that's where the Borg originated, and as the Borg are more-or-less the same concept as the Cybermen (albeit invented a couple of decades later -- in your face, Trek), they're the obvious choice for a villain team-up in this franchise team-up.

The Tiptons pretty well nail the Who characters. The Trek section is full of awkward po-faced dialogue, so I guess they've nailed that too. The main way their writing lets the reader down is in decompression. It's taken to daft heights here, with whole pages given over to exciting action like Rory knocking over a vase. Seriously. The amount of wasted space is astonishing. And Woodward's painted-style art does little to make up for it. It's relentlessly photo-referenced when it comes to recognisable faces, and Generic Extra Cast Members are scruffily rendered.

A bit of a let down for a first issue, then. We'll see how it goes, but unless the pace of the story can pick up a bit, I fear it's going to be relentlessly disappointing.

(For a slightly different but fundamentally similar version of my thoughts, see the review I bothered to post on Comixology.)

TV

Have I Got News For You
43x08 (1/6/12 edition; extended repeat)
aka The Alastair Campbell One. Brilliant.
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

Mad Men
5x11 The Other Woman
Wow. Stunning episode in so many ways. One of my favourite bits was a perfectly-executed twist, and it wasn't even at the end of the episode! And that final scene between Don and Peggy...
All those saying this season hasn't been up to standard are so, so wrong.

Romanzo Criminale
1x05 Episode 5
Might be the best episode yet -- things move apace, and surprisingly in places, and a big cliffhanger ending too.

Comics

Extermination #1 by Simon Spurrier & Jeffrey Edwards

Created by BOOM! Studios' Editor-in-Chief Matt Gagnon but for whatever reason handed to Brit Spurrier to actually write, Extermination (which I keep calling Extinction for some reason) is set in a post-alien-invasion world where superheroes and supervillains must team up to fight the invaders, plus flashbacks to the pre-destroyed world and their regular superhero-y lives.

It's all good fun, actually. The characters are entertainingly written, with a fun and banter-some relationship. Spurrier gets to play with superhero cliches (the good guy, Nox, is Batman in all but name and bat-ears) and sci-fi ones too, like using silly made-up words but having one character question why they're using such a silly made up word. Edwards' art is more than up to Spurrier's writing, detailing both typical superhero action and the post-apocalyptic alien-stuff just as well, with a slight cartoony edge that suits the tone.

I don't read enough indy-ish comics to know if this is the kind of thing that will break out and be something people will recommend in years to come (a la Hellboy or The Walking Dead, say). Plus it has to keep this level of quality up, of course. But I hope it does because I really enjoyed it. Glad I followed Bleeding Cool's recommendation (in fact, I liked it even more than they did).

this week on 100 Films

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

The A-Team: Explosive Extended Edition (2010)

If you’ve seen the trailer you know there’s a bit where they fall out of a plane in a tank. Then they battle with fighter jets from this free-falling tank... As I see it, your reaction to that tank bit in the trailer will dictate your reaction to the whole film: if you thought it looked bloody stupid, extrapolate; if you thought it looked frickin’ cool, extrapolate; if you thought, like me, that it looked enjoyably far-fetched, extrapolate.

Read more on my new blog or my classic blog.

The Book of Eli (2010)

Eli starts off with the potential for an arty 5; slips slightly to a solid 4 when the standard post-apocalyptic trope of a gang fighting for local power comes in to play; unsteadies that 4 with an increasingly atonal second half; and quite frankly borders a 1 with its sickening ending.

Read more on my new blog or my classic blog.

More next Sunday.

TV

Episodes
2x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Romanzo Criminale
1x04 Episode 4

Vera
2x03 Sandancers
ITV screened this episode out of sequence due to real-life events (it concerns, in part, a death in Afghanistan), but the advantage of catching up later is I can put it back where it belongs. Not that it really matters.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Comics

Wolverine and the X-Men
#9 & #10 by Jason Aaron & Chris Bachalo
#11 by Jason Aaron & Nick Bradshaw

Here we go, then: super-mega-event-crossover AvX hits the usually-brilliant WatXM for the next few months. Has this involvement ruined it? Well, things start off fine. There's plenty of unavoidable AvX stuff, but the book's own ongoing stories continue and the tone remains the same -- lots of good laughs in #9, for instance.

But there's a shift as it goes through #10, and by #11 it's in full-on part-of-the-event mode. #9 flows well enough into #10, but #11 has to open with a kind of "previously on" for things we haven't seen -- events that have taken place in other books that have an effect on characters covered by this one (primarily, Wolverine). It feels like skipping an issue.

Also, I've seen some complaints from fans that (despite claims from the honchos at Marvel) you can't follow AvX just by reading the main miniseries, and based on the content of WatXM #11 I can well believe this. As well as pages given over to excerpts of Avengers-on-mutants battles from around the globe, there's a significant chunk of plot with Wolverine and Hope that would seem essential to the story (says me, who's not reading AvX... yet). Unless this is all duplicated in an issue of the main series, I don't see how you could get by without reading this. Maybe I'll find out later.

WatXM's own subplots do still continue, Aaron's writing can still be good fun at times, and the art by both Bachalo and (especially, for me) Bradshaw is still enjoyable, but AvX is definitely starting to get in the way. Shame.

It has, incidentally, persuaded me that maybe I should return to Uncanny after all, if I can easily pick up the missing issues. While I presume that has become similarly embroiled in the Big Damn Crossover, I also presume it has similarly continued its own story threads, and I was being interested by them.

Articles

Everything We’re Told About The Justice League Movie: Directors, Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Flash, Wonder Woman, Lobo
by Matt McGloin (from Cosmic Book News)
I've never heard of this site, so I've no idea about them or their sources, but at the very least these are a raft of interesting rumours/speculations about a potential JL movie and/or a DC film series.

TV

How I Met Your Mother
7x16 The Drunk Train
Better.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Romanzo Criminale
1x03 Episode 3
I watched the first two episodes of this back in November, but then it kind of fell by the wayside. I've got loads (and loads and loads) of TV catching up to do at the minute, but this one is taking up a phenomenal amount of space on my V+ box (most other stuff is downloaded one way or another) so it gets priority for the moment. Fortunately I managed to pick the plot threads back up well enough.
Incidentally, if you'd like to see it too, Sky Arts 1 seem to be beginning a repeat run next Wednesday. So there's a coincidence.

Articles

DC Confirms Zero Issues For September, Launches Talon, Amethyst, Team Seven And Phantom Stranger Series
by Rich Johnston (from Bleeding Cool)

There are dozens of articles about this across the 'net today, each with their own little tidbits of information, but this headline sums it up best. For a follow-up piece at Bleeding Cool look here; for a lengthy interview with DC co-publisher Dan DiDio look here; and for a slightly more detailed piece on Night of the Owls spin-off Talon look here.

Collection Count

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

This week's update does include The Artist. Hurrah. There should also have been a few random things I picked up in Jubilee sales, but they're still in the post. Something for next time.

Number of titles in collection: 1,488 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,155 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 333 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 3,691 [up 2]
Number of films in collection: 1,576 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,489 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Silk
2x02 Episode 2
Another great episode. If you don't watch this, may I recommend it.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Horrible Histories
4x09 Episode 9
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

How I Met Your Mother
7x15 The Burning Beekeeper
Ah, a good old HIMYM Structurally Complicated Episode. For all it's cleverness, it's a bit underwhelming -- too caught up in Being Clever to provide any real story for the characters. Shame.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Silk
2x01 Episode 1
This is over halfway through on the TV now, I think, so about time I got going with it. It's still great.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Captain America 2 Gets The Directors Of You, Me And Dupree
by Hannah Shaw-Williams (from Bleeding Cool)
Oh, that doesn't sound good. I hope Marvel know what they're doing.

First Full Trailer For Django Unchained – ON ICE
by Brendon Connelly (from Bleeding Cool)
This looks awesome. Normally I'd embed it (and post it as a Trailers post), but at the time of writing it's been pulled. The official release is later tonight in the US though, so it should re-appear at this link (and no doubt dozens of others) before too long.

TV

Castle
2x15 Suicide Squeeze
Apparently Channel 5 are stopping Castle now for, of all things, Big Brother... and until next year too. That's at least 7 months' pause, mid-season. What the hell?! I may switch to downloads.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Mad Men
5x10 Christmas Waltz
Last week Dark Shadows, this week Star Trek; they're bidding for the Jaguar account; the season began with a real-life event... Mad Men seems to be getting itself stuck into Real Things much more than it has before. I wonder if there's a reason?
And it's ever so weird watching Christmassy episodes as we head into summer.

Comics: Night of the Owls

Night of the Owls concludes!

I've so far given over two posts to my thoughts on last month's Batman event: for the first half, see Sunday, and for the next few see yesterday.

And so to the final few issues...


Batman: The Dark Knight #9 by Judd Winick & David Finch

Well, that was an odd one. A Talon's perspective on the night, showing some of his earlier life and then his rebirth for this particular night -- a neat idea, and one with some good moments. The Talon in question is the one who killed Lincoln March in Batman #9, so we also get a new perspective on that issue's final pages followed by a What Happened Next.

But... Red Robin is featured prominently on the cover, but turns up for just one panel, in which nothing like the cover event occurs. What was he doing during the Night? I don't think it's covered anywhere. Incredibly odd choice for a cover image, anyway. Then the issue ends with this particular Talon slinking off into the sewers, still alive. Will he be revisited later? I doubt it -- The Dark Knight is moving on; this event hasn't even been referred to in Batman so it'd be weird to bring it up later.


Batman Annual #1 by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV & Jason Fabok

Here's one that's included in the event almost by default. It's really a Mr Freeze story, re-telling his origin with a new New 52 twist, but it takes place on the Night of the Owls (after it, really) and refers to Freeze's involvement in passing. If one were to look back over the event as part of the ongoing Court of Owls story, however, this segment should probably be left out.

As a story in its own right, then, it's incredibly decompressed. Though nearly double the length of a regular issue, I think it could easily be condensed to normal size without too much effort. It's a shame Snyder and Tynion can't put all those extra pages to good use, rather than just use them to tell a short story in more expanded form. So many panels which are so thoroughly pointless... Oh, modern comics.

The main talking point is the new twist at the end. Some people will surely be up in arms about it; personally, I think it's a neat new twist. It changes things in an interesting way, but it's hardly a history-betraying re-write.


Catwoman #9 by Judd Winick & Guillem March

Winick pens his third issue for the Night of the Owls, making him as prolific as event mastermind Scott Snyder. (More so, you could argue, as Snyder only co-wrote Batman Annual and only has two more because the previous month's issue of Batman is also included. But anyway.)

So here we have the last issue of the Night itself (there's still All Star Western, as you can see below, but more on that in a moment). It's the early hours of the morning and Catwoman (and some sidekick she currently has) accidentally runs into a Talon trying to kill the Penguin. She doesn't know about the whole shebang, but fights and defeats him anyway.

And yet, for all that unconnectedness, this is one of the better-characterised Talons of the whole event. Many other issues have tried to make them more than masked assassins, but I think this is the most successful -- even including the issue that was entirely from a Talon's perspective! Seems even with a new writer The Dark Knight can't really succeed... even if that writer also wrote this one. Funny how these things work out.

Oh, and this one is rated T+, presumably because there's a nude male bottom and characters say things like "crap", "hell" and "Godalmighty". Though based on the content/rating dynamic of other books, I imagine the rating came before the content.


All Star Western #9 by Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti & Moritat

Difficult to place in a reading list, this: it takes place over a hundred years before the Night itself, but does feature a Talon and is branded as a tie-in. But really, it's shoehorned into the thing, even less significant to the Court of Owls story than some of the standalone ancillary tales from other Bat-books this month (at least those take place on the right night!) Instead, forcing a Talon into the ongoing Hex story means the promising August 7 storyline is cut short -- all wrapped up in just six pages. I worried about that happening when I read the last issue and this one realises my concerns. They seemed to have a lot of potential, so this is real a shame.

Then the Owl thing finishes off the longer plot in another seven pages (was it really so many?!), and a new story begins in the final seven. It would seem efficient were it not for very little happening in each of these long chunks. When All Star is good it's great, but it seems to struggle to transition from one story to the next. You don't need a handover instalment (which they seem to keep doing), just devote a whole issue to a climax and start afresh the month after. As it is, all the endings feel rushed with a tacked-on new beginning. Shame.

Also this issue, the concluding part of Patrick Scherberger-pencilled backup strip Nighthawk and Cinnamon, which has no relation to the Owls whatsoever. It's a decent story, nicely drawn, but there's just so much needless dialogue. It has a kind of B-movie cheesiness which is sort of nice, but even allowing for that being deliberate there's just so much. A little pruning, please.


And that's that! Bit of a downbeat conclusion to the event, with no issue here that really has a significant bearing on the storyline. Indeed, two of them are barely connected at all. Oh well.

Overall, it's been pretty fun. The winner for me is the two-part Nightwing tale, though Red Hood and the Outlaws was surprisingly good too. The main story, taking place in two issues of Batman, felt underwhelming, with a lack of scope considering the Gotham-wide nature of the event -- indeed, such a sense was conveyed better in Batgirl, of all things! Actually, that was one of the event's better issues too.

I imagine the Batman pieces actually fare better when taken as two instalments near the climax of the eleven-issue Court of Owls saga, rather than as the linchpin of the Night of the Owls. That's been a great story and I can't wait to see how it ends.

Articles

Christopher Nolan Won’t Make a Howard Hughes Film, But He Still Wants To Direct a Bond Movie
by Russ Fischer (from /Film)

The headline pretty much covers it, except for this tidbit:

Nolan does tell Empire that he met with producers about Bond, but that any film with his name on it “would have to be the right situation and the right time in their cycle of things.” Precisely what “the right situation” is can be open to question, but since part of Nolan’s working method is exerting total control, he might want to cast his own Bond. Given how much effort EON puts into choosing and marketing their Bond, that could be the one and only stumbling block that matters.

Really need to get round to reading that Empire -- it has a huge feature (really, a set of features) on The Dark Knight Rises.


Forecast: Online Demand For Movies, TV Shows Will Top DVD Sales This Year
by Daniel Frankel (from paidContent)

It's a bleak and depressing headline, sure -- online streamed or downloaded video content mostly doesn't have the quality of DVD, and stuff that claims to be HD is nowhere near as good as Blu-ray. Sure, it's fine for the latest trashy blockbuster, even more so for the average viewer; but for those who care about quality and a film-like experience, it's rubbish.

But the news in the article itself is much more heartening:

IHS predicts digital transactions will only yield around $1.7 billion in 2012, compared to $11.1 billion for physical formats. Even by 2016, the research firm projects that digital viewing will only account for 17% of home entertainment revenue...

“We are looking at the beginning of the end of the age of movies on physical media like DVD and Blu-ray. But the transition is likely to take time: almost nine years after the launch of the iTunes Store, CDs are still a vital part of the music business.”

Sounds like we should be getting discs for years -- perhaps decades -- more yet. Hopefully at least time enough for technology to make that streaming/downloaded content achieve the same visual/audio quality as Blu-ray, if not exceed it. Hurrah!

TV

Episodes
2x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

MythBusters
9x13 Bikes & Bazookas
9x17 Flying Guillotine
9x16 Duct Tape Plane
In the first of these, they spend half an episode seeing if something from the film RED is plausible. I could've told them that in half a second. Still, it meant stuff blowing up, and that's always cool. The second episode, meanwhile, showed that C4 (as in the explosive) is pretty amazing stuff. (Though how Discovery UK decide the broadcast order of these episodes is beyond me.)

Comics: Night of the Owls

Night of the Owls continues!

For my thoughts on the first half, see yesterday's post. The next batch (according to this reading order) begins with...


Birds of Prey #9 by Duane Swierczynski & Travel Foreman

Not the strongest issue to get back into things with, as the ragtag group of minor characters that are the Birds of Prey battle another generic Talon.

There are some good touches -- the Talons-eye-view panels that re-imagine what he's seeing as being from the 1800s are neat, and Foreman (formerly of Animal Man) delivers good imagery all round -- but Swierczynski's dialogue feels awfully clunky, shoehorning in references to on-going plot threads for no good reason... other than perhaps as some kind of attempt to get the casual Night of the Owls reader to start buying BoP regularly. Well, not close to working on me.

Fine, but (along with Batwing) the least-essential tie-in yet.

Oh, and no beheadings, but a gory double-page spread at the start including slit throats and spilled intestines. Still rated T.


Nightwing #9 by Kyle Higgins, Eddy Barrows & Andres Guinaldo

Picking up where the previous issue left off, this finishes the flashback story of the first Talon Batman encountered, who is also (spoilers!) Nightwing's great-grandfather, while in the present day the relatives go head-to-head.

It's one of the best issues of the whole event, in my opinion. While Batman may be aiming for an epic main battle against the Court of Owls, Nightwing conveys the personal, emotional impact of events on such a key member of the Bat-family. It makes this storyline much more of a heavy-hitter, and proves that Nightwing is as essential to the storyline as the main title.


Detective Comics #9 by Tony S. Daniel

Batman turns up at Arkham Asylum, presumably at some point in the couple-of-hours gap between two panels near the end of Batman #9. There's also a brief reference to the end of Nightwing #9, and the implication Batman's off to find the Birds of Prey in their #9... which is interesting, because he doesn't turn up in that issue!

Anyway, despite the presence of Batman himself this is pretty much a standalone fight. Though he leaves with Dr Arkham at the end for no particular reason, unless that thread's going to crop up again in one of the few remaining issues. Considering he decides to drop him with Nightwing, I can't imagine which.

The Two-Face backup strip continues, nothing to do with the event. Szymon Kudranski's art is impenetrably dark and shadow-driven, making an already lacklustre story even harder to follow. Meh.


More tomorrow.

TV

Archer
3x13 Space Race Part 2 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Have I Got News For You
43x07 (25/5/12 edition; extended repeat)
aka The William Shatner One. Absolutely brilliant.