Tuesday, 11 February 2014

Monday, 10 February 2014

TV

The National Lottery: Who Dares Wins
7x05 (1/2/14 edition)

Star Trek: The Next Generation
1x01 Encounter at Farpoint
This isn't me making a start on TNG -- this is me making a start on the sampler Blu-ray released a couple of years ago.

Veronica Mars
3x20 The Bitch is Back [series finale]
Veronica Mars: The Movie is released March 14th. I'll see it as soon as the distribution of Kickstarter rewards allows.

Yonderland
1x07 The Heart of the Sun

Comics

Wolverine #8-9 by Paul Cornell & Alan Davis

Being the first third of Killable. Great stuff so far. Adams' art is excellent, too, leaving me a little baffled about why it wasn't to my taste in the first few issues. The inker and colourist haven't changed either, so goodness knows what was going on.

Sunday, 9 February 2014

TV

Archer
4x12 Sea Tunt Part 1
4x13 Sea Tunt Part 2 [season finale]
Finally got round to these via other means after Channel 5 titted around with them at the end of last year. I might just download the next season at some point, rather than wait for C5 to mess it up again.

Friends
8x04 The One with the Videotape [5th or so watch]
8x05 The One with Rachel's Date [5th or so watch]

Veronica Mars
3x19 Weevils Wobble But They Don't Go Down

Films

Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)
[#10 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

Comics

Wolverine #5-7 by Paul Cornell & Mirco Pierfederici

When I said I didn't like Alan Davis' art, I meant it just wasn't to my taste, not bad per se. Pierfederici's is poor, though, with all kinds of messed-up faces, perspectives, and a sudden loss of detail in the middle of his third issue.

Next up is The Big Arc Everyone Talked About, which I suspect these first seven issues were all about facilitating: Killable. And Davis is back for it, which I now welcome.

this week on 100 Films

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


The Big Lebowski (1998)
it does meander a bit, and has a certain relaxed manner that isn’t going to be for everyone, I think that’s a valid stylistic choice rather than a filmmaking error. It’s perhaps a film to relax with, to laze even, rather than one to expect to grip you and hold your attention tight for two hours.
Read more here.


Oblivion (2013)
You could probably have generated a whole film about this world as it appears to Cruise and Riseborough, but it’s obvious from the very start that there’s something more going on. The guessing game is part of the fun, and as with almost any film with twists some viewers will get them bang-on and feel it’s all blatant, and some will be genuinely surprised.
Read more here.


And new to the new blog...


Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)
it’s easy to see why this was accused of being an American revenge fantasy. It’s not only got a bunch of Vietnamese soldiers being slaughtered (this time America wins!), but they’ve teamed up with the Ruskies (we’re still in the Cold War here, remember), so Rambo gets to blow a load of them away too. How satisfying for a certain facet of America
Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Saturday, 8 February 2014

TV

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
1x04 M.E. Time
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

How I Met Your Mother
9x01 The Locket
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Outnumbered
5x02 The Swimming Competition
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Voice UK
3x05 The Blind Auditions 5
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

The Next Three Days (2010)
[#9 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

The first 50 minutes thereof, anyway -- then the disc went screwy (again). I await a replacement for the remaining 80-or-so minutes.

Comics

Wolverine #2-4 by Paul Cornell & Alan Davis

Both the story and art grew on me over the remaining issues of the storyline. Though, in typical modern comics style, even though the story's over, it's not over. Tsk.

Collection Count

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

Just one again this week. May be the same next week too, though there should be a little bit of a rush towards the end of the month.

Number of titles in collection: 1,654 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,197 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 457 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,135 [up 2]
Number of films in collection: 1,781 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 6,102 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 406 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday, 7 February 2014

TV

Death in Paradise
3x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Friends
8x03 The One Where Rachel Tells Ross [5th or so watch]
"THAT IS BRAND NEW INFORMATION!"

The Last Leg
4x01 (31/1/14 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Room 101
14x02 Episode 2

Suits
3x02 I Want You to Want Me
Dave advertise this so much, I decided to (semi-accidentally) give it a go. I quite liked it at first, but by the end it degenerated a bit into, "let me tell you what happened earlier and exactly how I feel about that so the audience are clear on it". Shame.
[Watch it (again) on Dave OD.]

Comics

Wolverine #1 by Paul Cornell & Alan Davis

Not the issue that was out on Wednesday, but the last "Wolverine #1"... which was out less than a year ago, in March 2013. Marvel have really gotten ridiculous with their re-numberings recently (they also managed to get this up to 13 issues in just 10 months, which is another typical Marvel move), although Wolverine is an almost-historic case-in-point: this was (by my reckoning) the fifth Marvel comic to be dubbed Wolverine #1, making the new one the sixth!

Anyway, I didn't really like the art and I'm not sure about the story yet. Hopefully things pick up because I've got all 13 issues of this particular iteration (which flows on into the 'new' #1, cementing that it's just a marketing ploy).

Thursday, 6 February 2014

TV

Friends
8x02 The One with the Red Sweater [5th or so watch]
Pretty sure I'm grossly underestimating how often I've seen some of these episodes now. Hey-ho.

Films

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
[#8 in 100 Films in a Year 2014]

Articles

AMC officially developing Preacher as a TV series with Seth Rogen
by Sean O'Neal (from A.V. Club)

After all the other times Preacher was "officially" coming to the screen, I'll believe this one when I see it.

Tuesday, 4 February 2014

TV

Friends
8x01 The One After "I Do" [4th or so watch]

Top Gear
21x01 (2/2/14 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Veronica Mars
3x17 Debasement Tapes

Fiction

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Volume I: Mr Norrell, Chapter 14