TV

Arrow
1x21 The Undertaking
I imagine that, in a Lost-y kinda way, the producers see the island flashbacks as an integral part of Arrow's structure. They did an island-centric ep a few back and have said they'll do more in season 2. This episode has no island flashbacks... and I didn't miss them. I thought I quite liked the island stuff, but, well, there you go.

The Graham Norton Show
13x05 (3/5/13 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The National Lottery: Who Dares Wins
6x07 (4/5/13 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Tintin and the Mystery of the Golden Fleece (1961)
[#46 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]

Articles

We Need To Talk About Steven...
by Eddie McGuigan (from Outpost Skaro)

Opinion piece on the state of Doctor Who under Steven Moffat's showrunnership. I don't agree with everything it says, but a lot of it seems sadly spot-on.

Vote for your favourite Harry Potter film!

Just for fun!

[link]

TV

The Good Life
3x07 The Last Posh Frock [season finale]

The Job Lot
1x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player].

Scott & Bailey
3x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Watson and Oliver
2x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer].

TV

Ben Earl: Trick Artist
1x02 Art
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Have I Got News For You
45x05 (3/5/2013 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

Veronica Mars
1x17 Kanes and Abel's

Articles

A Field in England premieres in cinemas and on Film4 on the same day!
(from Film4 Blog)

The article's first paragraph sums up why this is of interest as succinctly as I ever could, so:

Ben Wheatley’s A Field in England – the first feature film commissioned by Film4.0 – will be the first ever film to be released in UK cinemas, on freeview TV, on DVD and on Video-on-Demand on the same day – with Film4, Picturehouse Entertainment, 4DVD and Film4 Channel partnering for this innovative watch-it-where-you-want experiment on Friday 5th July.

TV

Elementary
1x21 A Landmark Story
Title feels kinda self congratulatory, with nothing to justify it in the episode's actual story.

Lego Star Wars
The Padawan Menace
The Empire Strikes Out
These two made-for-TV CG specials are quite fun, actually, with nods for adult fans as well as silliness for kids... and also adults.

Not Going Out
6x04 Conference
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Pointless Celebrities
3x06 (1/12/12 edition)

Vicious
1x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player].

TV

The Mentalist
5x20 Red Velvet Cupcakes
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Pointless
6x49 (21/5/12 edition)

The South Bank Show
39x01 Tim Minchin

TV

The Good Life
3x06 Whose Fleas Are These?

Films

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
[#45 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]


Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
[#45a in 100 Films in a Year 2013]
[3rd watch]
This was previously #78 in 100 Films 2007.

this week on 100 Films

The main news this week is that it's May (did you notice?), which can only mean it's time to look back at April. This month's top list: the five worst superhero movies. That I've seen.

As well as that, two new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...


Ip Man 2 (2010)

The only major downside comes when the Brits turn up for the final act. Stereotyped and poorly acted, presented with palpable jingoism and xenophobia, their presence and storyline drag the film down.

Read more here.


Ted (2012)

Family Guy’s stock in trade is two things: non-sequiturs, which Ted replaces with a plot; and an edgy, borderline-offensive sense of humour, which Ted retains, and in some cases pushes farther, unrestrained by the demands of US network TV.

Read more here.


And new to the new blog...


The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939)

Rain-lashed, fog-drenched Victorian London streets! Brutal murders by foul foreigners! Dastardly plots against the crown! Galloping carriages! Romantic subplots! A smattering of comedy! A song-and-dance number! (No, really, there is.) And a final shoot out… in the Tower of London!

Read more here.


Harry Brown (2009)

Michael Caine killing hoodies... If that doesn’t get you excited about seeing this movie, then what kind of film fan are you? A mentally mature one, probably. But hush, don’t spoil our fun — those of us who may occasionally hanker for a morally simple form of voyeuristic vigilante justice want to see Sir Michael shooting yobs

Read more here.


The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)

One of the novel’s strong points is its occasional Gothic styling, and this is something the film version does very well. Dartmoor looks fantastic, like something Tim Burton would have created were he working in the ’30s. It’s clearly a set, but it’s dramatic and moody and completely effective.

Read more here.


Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943)

more a spy thriller than a traditional detective tale. That’s not to say Holmes’ abilities as a detective aren’t present, but if you switched him for a generic British Intelligence agent the plot would be unlikely to suffer and the dialogue probably wouldn’t need much work.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Who
33x12 The Crimson Horror

At this point I think it's clear that it would be to everyone's benefit if Mark Gatiss stuck to writing Victorian-set Doctor Whos. As much as I liked Cold War, it wasn't well-received universally and I'd agree wasn't perfect. Tonight's episode, however, was marvellous -- funny, scary, exciting, innovative; a pretty perfect mix.

Gatiss' previous Victorian ep, series one's The Unquiet Dead, was his previous best. His intervening offerings have floundered from poor (The Idiot's Lantern, Victory of the Daleks) to divisive (Night Terrors, Cold War -- both of which I liked, incidentally). He obviously has a clear sense for the Gothic, as well as what's unsettling in the right context; so by all means let The Moff's Sherlock buddy contribute again... but perhaps confine him to what he does best.

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


Veronica Mars
1x16 Betty and Veronica


The Voice UK
2x06 The Blind Auditions 6
The last of the chair-spinning audition eps. This is where the audience disappeared last year, so it'll be interesting to see what happens next. Personally, as good as the blinds are, I also like the battle rounds. And they have an interesting new twist this year, so that might work.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]


Would I Lie To You?
7x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
[#44 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]

Not so amazing, sadly.

Collection Count

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

This week, a DVD-to-BD upgrade disappears under two other new BDs and a new DVD, and a movie-length edit of two TV episodes causes a debate about whether that counts as a film or two TV episodes. (Clue: I went with the former.)

Number of titles in collection: 1,557 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,162 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 395 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 3,891 [up 6]
Number of films in collection: 1,673 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,761 [up 7]
Number of short films in collection: 380 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Good Life
3x05 The Wind-Break War

The Graham Norton Show
13x04 (26/4/13 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

How I Met Your Mother
8x14 Ring Up!
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Veronica Mars
1x15 Ruskie Business

Articles

Fan buys 14,000 Doctor Who books to donate to schools
by Stephen Kelly (from Radio Times)

How heartening.

TV

Brushing Up On...
1x01 British Tunnels
Not normally my kind of programme, but the Radio Times did fawn over it so. I thought it was quite good.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Have I Got News For You
45x04 (26/4/2013 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

Pointless
6x48 (18/5/12 edition)
Whenever they cancel Pointless, I'll have enough saved up to keep me going for years.

Ruth Jones' Easter Treat
This was on in 2011! I missed it at the time, but have had it sat around for nearly two years. God, time flies...
The above link is accurate, but for some reason dead at the time of posting. But you can still watch a clip of the best bit -- featuring Tim Minchin -- on the BBC Comedy site here. Oh, and the second best bit -- featuring Michael Sheen -- is also there. Tidy.

Scott & Bailey
3x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

TV

Arrow
1x20 Home Invasion

Once Upon a Time
2x02 We Are Both
Is that... can it be... no! Character development?! Well, we'll see how long that lasts. I don't believe either the writers or the actors can keep it up for long.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Playhouse Presents
1x08 Walking the Dogs
That was quite good. Definitely one of the better ones.

Veronica Mars
1x14 Mars vs. Mars

TV

The Job Lot
1x01 Episode 1
The second half of ITV's big new Monday night comedy double bill, which was fine but in many respects is just the latest in a long line of Office imitators. And The Office is 12 years old now...
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player].

The National Lottery: Who Dares Wins
6x06 (27/4/13 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Playhouse Presents
1x11 Psychobitches [season finale]
Having sat through six of these to this point and not especially liked many of them, I've decided to be both less linear and more selective with my viewing going forward. So I've completely ditched the tenth episode, starring the irritating Trevor Eve and almost-as-bad Richard E. Grant; and also jumped ahead to this one, because I fancied something lighter.
Unfortunately, it's essentially a half-hour-long adult-rude Horrible Histories sketch, but not as funny.
Still, the remaining three episodes from the first run, as well as the two thus far shown in the second, all sound quite interesting. Fingers crossed...

Vicious
1x01 Episode 1
The first half of ITV's big new Monday night comedy double bill, with a big starry cast and 'cutting edge' setup (it's about an old gay couple!), but very traditional live-audience production. It was a little stagey, but had enough good lines to carry it. Room for improvement, but shows promise.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player].

Watson and Oliver
2x01 Episode 1
A lot of people really didn't like the first series of this. It might be fairer to say many hated it. But I quite enjoyed it, so I was pleased (if surprised) to see it recommissioned. I thought this was a little more consistent than the first series, but it's still a sketch show so it's still hit-and-miss.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer].