TV

Dexter
7x10 The Dark...Whatever
Thank goodness they avoided the obvious 'twist' with the fire inspector! Feels like a rare moment of unobviousness for this season, to me. But you can tell the writers know they're getting near the end (this being one of the closing episodes of the penultimate season), what with ditching one of the entire series' main conceits (the clue's in the title).

The Good Life
4x06 Sweet & Sour Charity

Wimbledon 2013
Poor Lisicki, but the way Bartoli played meant she really did deserve it.
[Watch the ladies' final, and many other matches, on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

A busy old week, this one. As I mentioned last time, I had a few things in the post. While a couple trickled in during the week, the vast majority (seven of the nine additions) arrived on Friday and Saturday, meaning a bit of last-minute totting up before posting this. How exciting.

The biggest addition must be The Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Blu-ray set. I'm keeping my DVDs (sentimentality, pretty packaging, that kind of reason), so it just adds to the numbers -- and it adds 15 discs, primarily.

Number of titles in collection: 1,579 [up 9]
Of which DVDs: 1,168 [up 3]
Of which Blu-rays: 411 [up 6]

Number of discs in collection: 3,941 [up 24]
Number of films in collection: 1,690 [up 8]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,782 [up 9]
Number of short films in collection: 380 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader, when a running time update will see what difference all of this has made to that.

Comics

Batman '66 #1 by Jeff Parker & Jonathan Case

The new digital-first series. I was going to buy it in print, but now that I have an iPad and I read that it was very much designed for digital (with animations 'n' all that) I decided to pick it up this way. And it was fun, evoking the mood of the '60s TV show well (as it's meant to, of course). Be interesting to see how it translates to print, but I dunno if it'd be interesting enough to pay for again.

You can get it on Comixology (of course). For those unfamiliar, do be aware that it's a weekly series (three times a month) and each three parts form one story. So while issue one is only 99¢ (69p), you'll need three for each complete story.

Articles

A Field in England, review
by Robbie Collin (from the Telegraph)

Collin always comes across as pretty irritating as a person on TV or wherever, and this review's positivity is at odds with the more muted responses I've encountered elsewhere, but it's still an entertaining read.

TV

Comic Relief's Big Chat with Graham Norton
Part 4 (of 4)
Just a little bit left now...

Dexter
7x09 Helter Skelter
Much like 24, I like it better when Dexter does whole-season-long plots rather than these coming-and-going few-episode-long ones.

TV

Comic Relief's Big Chat with Graham Norton
Part 4 (of 4)
Not all of it -- it's two hours. But soon, soon it shall be over.

Dexter
7x08 Argentina
I've not quite been seeing what everyone else so loved about this season, but it felt to me like it kinda got moving in this instalment.

Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs
2x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

TV

Dexter
7x07 Chemistry

Miranda
1x05 Excuse [3rd watch]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Touch of Evil: Reconstructed Version (1958/1998)
[#58 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]

I watched this late last night, so I'm counting it as June for the purposes of 100 Films...

TV

Agatha Christie's Marple
6x02 Greenshaw's Folly
A bit slow in the second half, but otherwise a good one -- with a nicely traditional everyone-in-the-drawing-room explain-it-all denouement. Yay.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

The Good Life
4x05 Suit Yourself

Mad Men
6x13 In Care Of [season finale]
Helluva finale. Didn't see a lot of that coming, because I thought they were on the path of "the fall of Don Draper" to end the whole show with next season. But maybe he'll now be redeemed? Can't wait to find out.

this week on 100 Films

Four brand new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week! They were...


The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

Andrew Garfield dons the webbed onesie for an unwarranted reboot of the only-one-decade-old Spider-Man film franchise, retelling his origins… but with a twist! Cos, y’know, the last version was only out about 10 minutes ago.

Read more here.


Dungeons & Dragons: The Book of Vile Darkness (2012)

it is rubbish… I suppose… Thing is, it sort of grew on me. After a start that looks like a fan film shot in someone’s garden, by the time our hero teams up with a ragtag gang of evil-doers it begins to come together.

Read more here.


Final Destination 5 (2011)

this feels fresher than the dire fourth film. Not much, perhaps, but it has a few more twists on the formula. That said, it’s generally a very tired format now — the identikit plot is merely a delivery medium for more varied deaths.

Read more here.


Flightplan (2005)

Notorious (to me) for unjustly beating Serenity to #1 at the US box office (a slight we Brits can proudly say went unrepeated), this plane-based uncredited remake of The Lady Vanishes is the kind of film that’s a 12 for no real reason. It contains “moderate violence and suspense”. Wow.

Read more here.



Plus, new to the new blog...


Spider-Man 2.1 (2004/2007)

Shortly before the release of the threequel, Spider-Man 2 returned to DVD in this newly extended form. What’s there? Not much.

Read more here.


Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Spider-Man 3 carries the distinct air of a group of people trying to recapture former glories, and the fun they had achieving them, and failing on both counts.

Read more here.


Stardust (2007)

Perhaps the simplest way to describe Stardust is as “the British Princess Bride”. That may do it a disservice however, as this is sufficiently its own beast to stand apart from such (admittedly lofty) comparisons, and be much more than a simple rehash with different accents.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Comic Relief's Big Chat with Graham Norton
Part 3 (of 4)

Would I Lie To You?
7x08 Episode 8
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

If Films Were Reviewed Like Video Games
by Dennis Farrell (from Something Awful)

Hilarity at the expense of gamers ensues...

Collection Count

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

Just one new addition this week, the BD release of Hammer's original Dracula. There's a few things in the post though, so next week may be more lively.

Number of titles in collection: 1,570 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,165 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 405 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 3,917 [up 3]
Number of films in collection: 1,682 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,773 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 380 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Comic Relief's Big Chat with Graham Norton
Part 2 (of 4)
The rest of this segment. Halfway there now...

Dexter
7x06 Do the Wrong Thing

TV

Comic Relief's Big Chat with Graham Norton
Part 1 (of 4)
Part 2 (of 4)
Remember this? I've had it lying around since it was on, when I watched some of the first chunk, so figured I ought to get on with the rest. Another 45 minutes down across these two sections...

How I Met Your Mother
8x22 The Bro Mitzvah
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Mad Men
6x12 The Quality of Mercy
When one of the show's cast said there were some big twists coming up about Bob Benson and who he was, that wasn't really what I expected. Unless there's even bigger twists to come in the finale...

TV

Dexter
7x05 Swim Deep

Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs
2x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

TV

All the President's Men Revisited
New feature-length Discovery Channel documentary (it premiered in the US back in April, and was shown over here as part of the channel's White House Season), which reflects on the Watergate scandal and the resulting film about the newspaper investigation into it, All the President's Men. As it features fresh interviews with seemingly every major surviving player, I imagine it's a pretty definitive retrospective. That said, it clearly leaves a lot of stones unturned.

Mad Men
6x11 Favors

TV

The Hoff's Best Film ...Ever!
1x03 The Hoff's Best Sports Film ...Ever!
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Mock the Week
12x02 (20/6/13 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Agatha Christie's Marple
6x01 A Caribbean Mystery
A script from a well-known writer and a cameo from Ian Fleming seem to have been the catalyst for some even-classier-than-usual touches in this particular episode. Lots of lovely direction, especially during the rain-drenched final act (even if, earlier, some bits were terribly awkwardly staged), and a Bond-referencing score that was consequently delightful.
Bit unusual, but there's a surprisingly thorough promotional photo gallery to be found at the bottom of this review, which I mention because it contains some uncommonly good photos for just TV promo images.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Dexter
7x04 Run

Would I Lie To You?
7x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

No new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week, but new to the new blog were...


Big Nothing (2006)

A long time before the credits roll it degenerates into a grab-bag of random incidents and twists strung together until the made-up-as-it-goes-along script hits something approaching a produceable page count.

Read more here.


Flight 93 (2006)

Oh dear.

The Other Film About United 93 is just that.

Read more here.


Runaway Train (1985)

taken as a straight-up high-concept action-adventure, Runaway Train has an awful lot going for it. And if you want to get pretentious about it, well, it might just support that too.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.