TV

Pointless
6x43 (11/5/12 edition)


Wallander [film series]
Sidetracked Part 1 (of 2) (aka Villospår)

For those not in the know, this is what we (well, I) call "the other Swedish Wallander", despite it being the original screen iteration of the character. Having finished the 26 films staring Krister Henriksson in the role, BBC Four aired some of these Rolf Lassgård-starring adaptations from December 2010 to January 2011.

They promised more later that year, but clearly someone got distracted (probably by The Killing and co) and it took them until July 2012 to air some more. They're also thoroughly out of sequence: having started with the sixth they moved on to the eighth, back to the seventh, then the ninth (and final) one, and here we have the fourth (to be followed by the fifth).

This one was made in 2001 but looks cheaper and older, so goodness knows what the first three (made between 1994 and 1996) look like -- maybe that's why they've not shown them. Anyway, it's all suitably grim and European… and for some reason has its credits in German. Goodness knows.

Films

Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project (2011)
[#81 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Articles

JK Rowling's The Casual Vacancy: Review round-up
by Mayer Nissim (from Digital Spy)

After the single review yesterday, here's... well, it says, doesn't it.

TV

British Legends of Stage and Screen
1x03 Sir Christopher Lee
Interesting and informative documentary about the life and work of Sir Christopher Lee, based around a new interview with him.
[Watch it (again), for a fee, on Sky Go.]

The Graham Norton Show
11x05 (11/5/12 edition)

The Great British Bake Off
3x07 Sweet Dough
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

JK Rowling review: The Casual Vacancy breaks Harry Potter's spell
by Allison Pearson (from The Telegraph)

It's a three-star review, but by golly it's persuaded me I want to read the book! Can't wait to see the reactions from inattentive parents who merrily let their little kiddy Potter fans read it, and from Americans. Just Americans -- their moral reaction will be essentially of the level of kids, I expect.

TV

Mock the Week
11x09 (20/9/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Person of Interest
1x06 The Fix
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

The Rob Brydon Show
3x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Vexed
2x05 Episode 5

TV

Arrested Development
1x01 Pilot
1x02 Top Banana
1x03 Bringing Up Buster
Everyone seems to go on about this being The Greatest Sitcom Of All Time Ever™, so as it's on Netflix, of which I am currently enjoying a free one-month trial, I decided to give it a go. And it is indeed very good. Hard to say how good, because of course it comes massively hyped and I'm only a few episodes in, but it is most definitely good. I particularly like the "next time" trails that are nothing or the sort. Very neat.

Once Upon a Time
1x18 The Stable Boy
And straight back down to its regular laughable level. Ah well. Only four left...

Suburgatory
1x11 Out in the Burbs
Having had to switch to downloads to keep up, I'm now pulling ahead of E4. Hey-ho.

Who Do You Think You Are?
9x05 Hugh Dennis
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Review: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 Won't Disappoint Bat-Fans
by Alex Zalben (from MTV Geek!)

I've had this for about a week or so now and haven't got round to it yet. Which is a shame, cos it's out tomorrow (Tuesday) in the US and I could've tied in a review. But hey-ho, this piece is interesting, and may inform my eventual comments.

TV

Downton Abbey
3x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Dragons' Den
10x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Person of Interest
1x05 Judgment
There was a lot of debate about the spelling of "judgement" recently, surrounding the posters for Dredd, which used "judgment" despite being a British thing. According to Wikipedia, both are acceptable in the UK, while only the E-less form is used in the US... but clearly we think of the with-an-E version as being British (in fairness, it's more common, and matches other spelling rules better). All this is relevant here because, while Channel 5's site uses the E-less form (see below), US site TV.com's listing for the episode is with-an-E (see above). So that's weird then.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Suburgatory
1x10 Driving Miss Dalia
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Films

RoboCop (1987)
[#80 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

this week on 100 Films

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


Supervillain Showdown!

Despicable Me vs. Megamind

2010 saw the release of two apparently-similar animated films, both dealing with the superhero genre from the perspective of the supervillain. As it turns out only one really does that, but still, it seems a reasonable point of comparison.

Read more here.


And new to the new blog...

Hot Fuzz (2007)

I wasn’t hyped enough about this film to pay £10 to see it a week before release, and instead paid just £3.75 to see it in a big screen with just myself and a friend. ... It’s five-and-a-half years on, so of course prices will have gone up, but nonetheless I have two observations:

1) The cost of a regular (peak time) adult ticket is now £9.
2) The cost of the equivalent ticket to the one I bought is £5.40. That’s a 44% increase.

Read more here.


James Bond @ 100 Films

With the Bond 50 Blu-ray box set out on Monday, I thought now was as good a time as any to bring 100 Films’ previous Bond reviews over to the new blog.

Featuring reviews of For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, Casino Royale (2006), and Quantum of Solace.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Comedy World Cup
1x01 Episode 1
Daft title, fun format: teams of comedians answer questions about comedy. I especially liked it because I did really well, particularly on the film round. If only I was a stand-up...
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]


Doctor Who
33x04 The Power of Three

How appropriate that this episode coincided with the release of the iPhone 5! Couldn't have planned it better if they tried.

That coincidence aside, I thought it was a very good episode. It looks the sore thumb amongst a raft of big blockbuster episodes (Daleks! Dinosaurs! Western! Angels! New York!), but if they're big bold exciting concepts and imagery than this was the episode of blockbusting emotions, with the Ponds and the Doctor giving serious thought to their relationships. The cubes were a neat idea with a spectacularly average resolution, but that barely mattered alongside the real point of the episode: the Doctor clashing with the Ponds' regular life.

Plus, genuine chills when they revealed the identity of Kate Stewart's father. Fabulous.

[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]


QI
10x01 Jargon (XL edition)
Ah, the return of QI. Hilarious, yes, but another year of trying to ensure you've seen all the episodes amongst the BBC's random scheduling and surprisingly frequent ditching of the XL version. And considering they pump out a massive 16 (or more) episodes per series now, I have absolutely no idea if I've seen them all or not.

Films

Ip Man 2 (2010)
[#79 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Crikey, is it really well over a year since I watched the first one?! Time flies.

Collection Count

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

This week, as well as new acquisitions, I finished my previously-half-hearted new shorts total -- hence why it's gone up by nearly 350 (plus one for Item 47). Which also proves it was worth doing. I thought I had a couple of collections and one or two here and there on various feature film releases, which I suppose might've reached 100-ish, so I was quite blown away by the final tally.

In the process the total number of films also somehow fell by 16 (and rose again with new purchases) and TV episodes went up by 19 (and, again, new purchases). Quite how that happened I have no idea, but it must've been warranted.

Number of titles in collection: 1,509 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,163 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 346 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 3,718 [up 4]
Number of films in collection: 1,504 [down 14]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,679 [up 21]
Number of short films in collection: 365 ['up' 346]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Gates
1x05 Episode 5 [season finale]
Enjoyed that overall. Be nice if they brought it back.


The Newsroom
1x10 The Greater Fool [season finale]

Well, that was a mixed bag. Just like the rest of the series, so it's only fitting.

The flashforwards/present-day-stuff meant there was absolutely no tension in any of the flashbacks, despite it being written and directed as if there was meant to be, while the Jim-Maggie-Don triangle teases us with the hope of resolution but, nope, it's going to soldier on regardless. At least Will's death threats didn't sink to the level of having him shot in some cliched attempt at a cliffhanger. Thank heavens for small mercies.

And yet despite all that, some of the dialogue is fast and funny and clever, and the meeting scene with Leona and Reese was kinda satisfying (even if Leona hadn't been in it enough to build up quite enough of a genuine threat), and all the stuff with how evil the Tea Party should be force fed to all Americans.

So, y'know, highs and lows.

TV

Adam Buxton's Bug
1x05 Episode Five
1x06 Episode Six

The Great British Bake Off
3x06 Puddings
Well, that was a particularly dramatic one!
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Newsroom
1x09 The Blackout, Part II: Mock Debate
This could be so much better if it didn't keep getting distracted with its OTT relationship stuff. Also the implausible thing that there's someone on staff who knows or is related to someone in an important, relevant or vaguely worthwhile position related to every single major news story of the past couple of years. It was pushing things the first time, but now we're on the goodness-knows-what-th and it's just silly.

TV

Derren Brown: Svengali
Not Derren's best live show, in my opinion. The titular doll isn't even the finale! Though the big ending was quite clever, it also somehow lacked impact for me.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Newsroom
1x08 The Blackout, Part I: Tragedy Porn

Once Upon a Time
1x17 Hat Trick
Surprisingly, that was really rather good… apart from it being based around not-a-fairy-tale Alice in Wonderland. What next week, Winnie the Pooh? An orangutan who wants to be human? A fox who robs from the rich to give to the poor? (I could go on.)

Suburgatory
1x09 The Nutcracker
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

The Newsroom
1x07 5/1
The Newsroom does the death of Bin Laden (the title refers to May 1st). Unfortunately, it was all terribly American about it.

Suburgatory
1x08 Thanksgiving
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Vexed
2x04 Episode 4

Films

Avengers Assemble (2012)
[#78 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]
aka Marvel's Avengers Assemble, aka Marvel Avengers Assemble, aka The Avengers, aka Marvel's The Avengers.

Articles

Disney Reponds To Avengers Blu-Ray Criticism
by Dave Golder (from SFX)

Ooh, the UK Avengers release has caused quite the fuss! It's been raging for a couple of days now -- weeks or months, actually, but so many people only notice when the discs actually come out. It's nice that, for once, awareness of these things from those-in-the-know has exploded into the mass population... though it also makes a point about bothering to do your research in advance, rather than just turning up and being shocked.

Anyway, there are loads of articles about this, and the situation seems to be still developing. I've linked to this one because it links on to one of the main articles while also offering commentary on it. Additionally, though, the BBFC have made a comment here that contradicts some of what Disney are saying.