TV

Death in Paradise
2x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Dexter
6x04 A Horse of a Different Color

TV

Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe
1x02 (7/2/13 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Elementary
1x11 Dirty Laundry

Yes, Prime Minister [2013]
1x05 Scot Free
Talk about drawing a plot out. I know they've introduced other stuff (this episode, Scotland and independence), but the old Yes PM would've dealt with Kumranistan in one episode and been all the better for it.

TV

Arrow
1x07 Muse of Fire

Dexter
6x03 Smokey and the Bandit

Films

Animalympics (1980)
[#16 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]

Articles

Doctor Who 50th anniversary special to be filmed in 3D
by Morgan Jeffery (from Digital Spy)

Considering the low take-up of 3D TVs, it might've been nice if the BBC had spent the money (because I don't imagine it'll be cheap) on something the majority of its viewers could actually see.

TV

The British Academy Film Awards 2013
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Dexter
6x02 Once Upon a Time...

QI
9x19 The Immortal Bard (XL edition) [Shakespeare special]
Watched the regular edition in April 2012. This only aired a few weeks later, hence why I've had it lying around 'til now.

Films

The Pearl of Death (1944)
[#15 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]

this week on 100 Films

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


The Artist (2011)

Some have said The Artist is not a patch on any of the real silent films it seeks to emulate. I take umbrage with that. While it may not be to the level of the very best the silent era has to offer, they churned ‘em out in those days, and I’d wager it is more than equal to the period’s average output.

Read more here.


The Lady Eve (1941)

In the interests of completing my backlog of 2012 reviews, I’ve decided to post some ‘drabble reviews’ of the stuff I watched longest ago. For those unfamiliar with the concept, a drabble is a complete piece of writing exactly 100 words long. So, the first of these ‘drabble reviews’ is…

Read more here.


Scre4m (2011)

One of the hallmarks of the original films is that they featured characters who were very aware of the rules of the horror movie. That’s not gone in Scre4m, which sets its sights on the US horror predilections that have followed since; mainly remakes and reboots. Sadly, there’s probably more on-the-nose exposition about the poor quality of remakes than actually integrating such criticism into the film

Read more here.



And new to the new blog...


Monkey Business (1952)

The plot sees a married couple accidentally take a youth serum the husband has been developing, causing them to inexplicably start acting younger — much younger. But in terms of the story, we see a happily married couple wind up happily married having been through no real strain.

Read more here.


Nanny McPhee (2005)

Nanny McPhee is brilliant. But to expand more directly on that sentence would be a conclusion, and so, before that, I present a collection of thoughts on bits I liked. Let’s call it “a review”.

Read more here.


Nanny McPhee & the Big Bang (2010)

Thompson treats the audience with respect in relation to the first film, playing on expectations and speeding through parts of the story we know. You don’t need to have seen it, but you’ll get a bit more if you have. Also as with the first film, there’s a perhaps surprising undercurrent of genuine emotion and serious issues.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Britain's Brightest
1x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Dexter
6x01 Those Kinds of Things
Rather behind on Dexter now (season eight starts Stateside in a few months), so time to crack on with catching up. And it's as good as ever, with a nice theme of religious hypocrisy kicking off this season.

Elementary
1x10 The Leviathan
Did they replace someone high-up on Elementary after a few episodes, because I think it's continuing to improve...

Room 101: Extra Storage
13x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Everything or Nothing (2012)
[#14 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]

Collection Count

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

A couple of small things this week... which should continue for the next couple of weeks, actually, with a moderately steady stream of pre-orders. So that's nice then.

Number of titles in collection: 1,533 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,151 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 382 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 3,850 [up 2]
Number of films in collection: 1,609 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,722 [up 4]
Number of short films in collection: 374 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Britain's Brightest
1x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Graham Norton Show
12x15 (1/2/13 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Stella
2x04 Episode 4

Top Gear
19x02 (3/2/13 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Arrow
1x06 Legacies

Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe
1x01 (31/1/13 edition)

How I Met Your Mother
8x02 The Pre-Nup
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Last Leg
2x02 (1/2/13 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Articles

From Sunderland to Australia – message in a bottle makes it Down Under
(from Sunderland Echo)

A boy who dispatched a message-in-a-bottle (written on a Doctor Who postcard) from the UK in August 2011 had a reply informing him it had reached Australia in January 2013! Quite incredible, really.

TV

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

Pointless
6x44 (14/5/12 edition)
Last time I watched this series of Pointless was September! And yet I have (almost) all the episodes since just ready to be watched. This is what happens when you find software that lets you download from iPlayer.

The Sarah Millican Television Programme
2x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

The Artist (2011)
[#12 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]

Black Death (2010)
[#13 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]

TV

Britain's Brightest
1x03 Episode 3

Stella
2x03 Episode 3

Yes, Prime Minister [2013]
1x04 A Diplomatic Dilemma

TV

Elementary
1x09 You Do It To Yourself
Another better than average episode, I thought. Probably because it was at least in some part inspired by an original Conan Doyle story. But still, s'all good.

Person of Interest
1x23 Firewall [season finale]
Ah, the season one finale... which leaves me in an odd limbo between Channel 5 (who just re-started and are way back in the middle of the season) and the US (who are halfway through season two now). Plough ahead or wait to be caught up? I dunno, I think I'll just go back to several-seasons-behind Dexter.

Pointless Celebrities
2x07 (2/6/12 edition)

The Sarah Millican Television Programme
2x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Blandings
1x03 Company for Gertrude
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
[#11 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]