TV

Black Mirror
2x02 White Bear

Class
1x01 For Tonight We Might Die
The new Doctor Who spin-off has a strong start here. It's basically The Sarah Jane Adventures multiplied by Torchwood, but with a good set of characters to help enliven that familiar format. Similarly, the bit where it tips its hat to all the other TV shows with a similar basic setup is funny, but does make you wonder how it might fare in the longer run. We'll see -- it's earnt a chance.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Great British Bake Off
7x09 Patisserie Week
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again
[#165 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]
Coming to Sky Cinema over here next Friday, when I'll review it.

Collection Count

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

Just one big DVD-to-Blu-ray upgrade this week, who's only really result impact on these stats is to halve the number of discs in that set!

Number of titles in collection: 1,894 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,199 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 697 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 4,872 [down 21]
Number of films in collection: 2,093 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,452 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 496 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Castle
7x03 Clear & Present Danger

The Crystal Maze
Stand Up to Cancer Celebrity Special
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Articles

Black Mirror's Charlie Brooker interview: 'I'm loathe to say this is the worst year ever because the next is coming'
by Jacob Stolworthy (from the Independent)

An extended interview about the new season of Black Mirror, plus other stuff. Brooker's always worth a read.

TV

Castle
7x02 Montreal

TV

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
3x08 Episode 8
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Ripper Street
5x06 Occurrence Reports [series finale]
[Watch it exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.]

Films

Serenity (2005)
[6th watch]

TV

Red Dwarf
11x04 Officer Rimmer

Ripper Street
5x05 A Last Good Act
[Watch it exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.]

TV

Black Mirror
2x03 The Waldo Moment [season finale]
This is by far the lowest-rated episode of Black Mirror according to IMDb users -- whereas all the others range from 8.1 to 9.0, this has 7.1. And they're not wrong. There are some interesting and sometimes amusing ideas, and like all the best Black Mirrors it's sickeningly plausible, but it ends rather abruptly without seeming to have reached an ultimate point, and a future-set coda gets kind of silly. Ah well.

Duck Quacks Don't Echo
5x07 Episode 7

Ripper Street
5x04 The Dreaming Dead
[Watch it exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.]

Films

Raising Arizona (1987)
[#164 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

The Great British Bake Off
7x08 Tudor Week
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Ripper Street
5x03 All the Glittering Blades
[Watch it exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.]

Star Trek
1x28 The City on the Edge of Forever

Star Trek: The Animated Series
1x02 Yesteryear
All of the Star Trek TV series are available on Netflix, which I've currently got for Luke Cage, so I thought I'd watch some of the most acclaimed episodes while I can. I picked these two almost on a whim, not realising they're actually connected. How serendipitous.

this week on 100 Films

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


Armageddon (1998)

Many Hollywood blockbusters have ludicrous concepts, but Armageddon feels designed to plow new furrows of ridiculousness. Apparently NASA show the film to new managers and ask them to spot the errors. There are at least 168. It only takes a few minutes before it’s already so OTT that it seems like a spoof of Bay — I mean, the title card explodes for crying out loud.

Read more here.


Cop Car (2015)

The director of minor horror Clown and (more significantly to the history of cinema, maybe) next year’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, Jon Watts drew the attention that landed him the latter job with this festival-hit thriller

Read more here.


Deep Blue Sea (1999)

There is definitely a level of “so bad it’s good” about it. It’s definitely not a good movie in the traditional sense, but it is fun; and unlike, say, Armageddon, it’s clearly not taking itself too seriously. Nicely, it gets by without the constant winks-and-nods at the audience you get in today’s deliberately-trashy genre movies

Read more here.


The Quay Brothers in 35mm (2015)

Christopher Nolan made a few headlines last year when his first post-Interstellar film was announced for near-immediate release... an eight-minute short documentary, Quay, about British-based American-born identical-twin animators the Quay brothers. The short was screened theatrically as part of a programme of animated shorts directed by the brothers, curated by Nolan to accompany his documentary, [which included In Absentia, The Comb, and Street of Crocodiles.]

Read more here.


The Salvation (2014)

The spirit of the Spaghetti Western is kept alive in this Euro-minded South Africa-shot revenge Western.

Read more here.


Also, my 100 Favourites series continued with 2 more posts...


Schindler's List (1993)

The stark black-and-white cinematography acknowledges the incomprehensibly horrific events, while Spielberg’s divisive penchant for sentimentality seems well-matched to the tale, offering a measure of hope from humanity’s darkest days.

Read more here.


Se7en (1995)

I normally say Se7en is my favourite movie... There are more easily enjoyable movies in my 100 Favourites, but there are none that are any better made, nor any that better expose the dark heart of humanity.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Ripper Street
5x02 A Brittle Thread
[Watch it exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.]

Would I Lie To You?
10x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Moneyball (2011)
[#163 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

Collection Count

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

A number jumble this week, with some new additions, some upgrades, and some just being sold off.

Number of titles in collection: 1,894 [down 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,200 [down 5]
Of which Blu-rays: 696 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 4,893 [down 4]
Number of films in collection: 2,093 [up 5]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,452 [down 60]
Number of short films in collection: 496 [down 2]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Black Mirror
2x01 Be Right Back
It's only taken me 3½ years to get round to this (seriously, where does time go?!)

Castle
7x01 Driven
Normally I prefer a gap between seasons of things, but as six ended on a cliffhanger...

Ripper Street
5x01 Closed Casket
[Watch it exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.]

Films

Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made (2016)
[#162 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Castle
6x23 For Better or Worse [season finale]

Red Dwarf
11x03 Give & Take

TV

Duck Quacks Don't Echo
5x04 Episode 4

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
3x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Musketeers
2x07 A Marriage of Inconvenience

Films

The Big Short (2015)
[#161 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]