TV

Elementary
1x20 Dead Man's Switch

The Good Life
3x04 I Talk to the Trees

Mad Men
6x04 To Have and To Hold

The Mentalist
5x19 Red Letter Day
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Non-Fiction

JN-T: The Life & Scandalous Times of John Nathan-Turner by Richard Marson
Chapter 11 - 12

Former head of drama and controller of BBC1 Jonathan Powell does not come off well in this book at all, especially in this section, dealing with the 1989 cancellation of Who. Naturally fans would blamed him and could be expected to be cross, but it's the comments from colleagues and other professionals that are most damning, not about the decision to ditch Who but his general attitude and ability. Russell T Davies gets particularly -- and appropriately -- blunt on page 318:

He gave his attention to The Barchester Chronicles or whatever was going to win him a BAFTA and let me tell you, 30 years later that stuff isn't coming to bite you on the arse but the Doctor Who stuff is. Your sins will find you out!

TV

Ben Earl: Trick Artist
1x01 Crime
With Dynamo snaffled up by whichever cable/satellite-channel-I-don't-get it is that he's on, here's Channel 4's latest answer to him -- and, I presume, intended Derren Brown replacement, as he seems to do fewer and fewer TV programmes. Initial impressions are OK, but he doesn't have quite the same wow factor as the other two.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Veronica Mars
1x13 Lord of the Bling

Films

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
[#43a in 100 Films in a Year 2013]
[3rd watch]

See also last week.

Non-Fiction

JN-T: The Life & Scandalous Times of John Nathan-Turner by Richard Marson
Chapter 10

this week on 100 Films

Just two new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week...


Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: Extended Version (2001/2004)

Included on the film’s original DVD release back in 2002, albeit under a series of frustrating mini-games, were six short deleted sequences and one extended one… and it’s those and those alone that were added back into the film in 2004.

Read more here.


Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Extended Version (2002/2005)

The difference in running time is 13½ minutes, spread across 19 differen extensions.... Unsurprisingly, many are of little significance, often just fleshing out minor characters or adding comedy beats. So are any especially beneficial?

Find out here.


And nothing new to the new blog! Oops.

Still, more next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Who
33x11 Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS

Well, I thought that was really good. Any fans expecting a revelation about what was at the heart of the TARDIS, or what weird lava-ish creatures the Doctor kept locked in its depths, was in for disappointment... but, really, did you expect them to rewrite the book in such a mad fashion? I didn't. It was nice that was all tied into the episode's plot, rather than just expanding the universe for the sake of it. And still, there was all that stuff about Clara getting a look at that Time War book and finding out the Doctor's name -- which, clearly, is both pronounceable by humans (one theory being that it wasn't) and meant something to her (but who knows what!?)

Anyway, what a fantastic look around the rest of the TARDIS! After they did it in The Doctor's Wife and all it amounted to was some identikit corridors and the old console room, it was nice to get a proper look -- the swimming pool! the library! some room full of stuff to do with Amy and River! And, I'm sure many will say, a much more impressive Eye of Harmony than they had in the TV movie.

Plus, only Doctor Who could do what would seem to be a 'bottle' episode and still require as many new sets, effects, costumes and characters as a regular episode.

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


The Voice UK
2x05 The Blind Auditions 5
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

Number of titles in collection: 1,554 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,162 [up 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 392 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 3,885 [up 3]
Number of films in collection: 1,671 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,754 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 380 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Good Life
3x03 A Tug of the Forelock

The Graham Norton Show
13x03 (19/4/13 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Veronica Mars
1x12 Clash of the Tritons

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
3x02 (19/4/13 edition) [season finale]
Sometimes, my "[season finale]" convention feels silly.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Have I Got News For You
45x03 (19/4/2013 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

How I Met Your Mother
8x13 Band or DJ?
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Playhouse Presents
1x06 Care
A new series of this started last week (apparently it's the second, though four-part miniseries A Young Doctor's Notebook was presented as part of the strand in between), but I never finished the first run, so, yeah, doing that now.

Scott & Bailey
3x04 Episode 4
Well that was grim.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

TV

The Great British Sewing Bee
1x04 Episode 4 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Pointless
6x47 (17/5/12 edition)

TV

Broadchurch
1x08 Part 8 [season finale]
Guessed who it would be a few weeks ago, but that doesn't really matter in drama this good. Fascinated to see what they have planned for the next series...
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

The Good Life
3x02 The Happy Event

Once Upon a Time
2x01 Broken
As ridiculously bad as ever? Of course it is! And yet, weirdly compellingly so. Partly because it's often so bad it's laugh-out-loud funny, which is nice.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Films

Man on a Ledge (2012)
[#43 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]

TV

The Mentalist
5x18 Behind the Red Curtain
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Not Going Out
6x03 Therapy
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Veronica Mars
1x11 Silence of the Lamb
And that's halfway.
I can't remember if I've said since I voiced my initial sort-of-doubts, but Veronica Mars does get really bloody good. This (and the last) are some of the best episodes thus far.

Non-Fiction

JN-T: The Life & Scandalous Times of John Nathan-Turner by Richard Marson
Chapters 8 - 9

Here's where the book gets really good, in a way: chapter 8 is The Chapter -- Hanky Panky, the one that most of the reviews and commentary on the book have focused on. Unsurprisingly, it's not nearly as shocking as some reports made out.

And then there's Doctor in Distress, the tale of Doctor Who's mid-'80s cancellation -- and un-cancellation. It's no wonder some fans are still paranoid that the BBC are sneakily trying to make Who unpopular and get rid of it, considering that's basically what they did back then. You're not paranoid if they're out to get you...

TV

The National Lottery: Who Dares Wins
6x05 (20/4/13 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Veronica Mars
1x10 An Echolls Family Christmas

Films

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
[#42a in 100 Films in a Year 2013]
[3rd watch]

Unlike Philosopher's Stone or Chamber of Secrets, there's no extended/altered cut here that would technically merit a review for 100 Films... but if I don't, Azkaban and next week's Goblet of Fire would be the only Potter films to go unreviewed. I figure I may as well bung a few sentences together at least.

Non-Fiction

JN-T: The Life & Scandalous Times of John Nathan-Turner by Richard Marson
Chapter 7

this week on 100 Films

This week, I mainly encouraged 100 Films readers to back Alex Cox's Bill the Galactic Hero Kickstarter. It's passed its goal and will be funded now, but if you want to be involved you can still do so here until 1am on Sunday night/Monday morning (UK time).


That aside, one new review was published this week...


Stiff Upper Lips (1998)

Spoof of British ‘Heritage’ films and TV series, particularly the work of Merchant Ivory... Specific targets include Brideshead Revisited and A Room with a View, with individual sequences riffing off the likes of Chariots of Fire and Orlando.

Read more here.


And new to the new blog...


Airplane! (1980)

This model of comedy — the silly spoof, as it were — is still in use today in the depressingly endless series of …Movie movies. But where they’re just crude, Airplane! is witty; where they’re just random, Airplane! is irreverent; and where they’re just derivative, Airplane! was original.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Arrow
1x19 Unfinished Business


Doctor Who
33x10 Hide

That's more like it!

I say that, but I've enjoyed most of this series of Doctor Who. Not so the reaction online, though, which seems to largely coincide with my above sentiment. Either way, this is the best episode of the current run so far; possibly the best episode of the series fullstop for some time. Considering writer Neil Cross was responsible for one of the most disappointing episodes in yonks (last fortnight's Rings of Akhaten), that's some turnaround in ability. He actually wrote this episode first, and it was on the strength of this that he was commissioned to write another, and it's easy to see why.

It's billed as A Scary One, and it properly is. No blood or guts or gore, but I'm not convinced this is only a PG (as recently passed by the BBFC). That monster was freaky! And even worse were those photos of the ghost... Shuddertastic. Scares aside, there was a solid story, dispensing with the all-too-repetitive "save the entire world!" palaver we've been getting too much of, really. Instead we had a mystery, which was investigated, and which produced a moderately original solution. Plus all the Clara vs TARDIS stuff was finally made more explicit, amongst an array of other character bits that were never too heavy-handed.

A triumph, then. Hurrah! And next week's looks awesome too...

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


The Voice UK
2x04 The Blind Auditions 4
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]