TV

The 92nd Annual Academy Awards
aka the Oscars. A good ceremony this year -- and, of course, an historic winner in Parasite. I look forward to getting a chance to see it...

Friday Night Dinner
5x05 The Violin
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

The Goes Wrong Show
1x06 90 Degrees [season finale]
They must make more, I demand it. (The DVD release is labelled "Series 1", which I'm taking as a good sign.)
[Watch it (again and again) on iPlayer.]

The Good Place
3x02 The Brainy Bunch
3x03 The Snowplow
[Watch the whole series (again) on Netflix.]

Lucifer
3x19 Orange is the New Maze
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

The Rookie
1x04 The Switch

TV

Doctor Who
38x07 Can You Hear Me?
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

E! Live from the Red Carpet: Oscars 2020

The Rookie
1x03 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Films

Christopher Robin (2018)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #7

Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942)
[3rd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #6. I counted this as a new first-time viewing back in 2008, but I always suspected I'd seen it before. You see, I knew I'd seen some Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films before I embarked on the whole series, but I wasn't certain which; but now, having definitely seen them all, I'm pretty sure this was one (possibly even the only one) I'd seen in my childhood.

this week on 100 Films

Just 1 new review on 100 Films in a Year this week...


1917 (2019)

I love a bit of real-time, so that was right up my street. I have similar feelings about single takes (fake or not), so I loved that aspect too. Plus I’ve got a long-standing interest in World War One, which I don’t feel is represented well enough on film (at least, not as well as its sequel), so getting a big-budget high-profile movie about it is something else I welcome. And I love the work of cinematographer Roger Deakins, who is absolutely on fine form here (when isn’t he?) The long and the short of it is, 1917 was always a movie almost tailored to things that interest me.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

The Good Place
3x01 Everything Is Bonzer!
[Watch the whole series (again) on Netflix.]

The Great British Bake Off
1x06 Tea Party [season finale]
[Watch series 1 (again) on Netflix.]

Lucifer
3x18 The Last Heartbreak
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

The Rookie
1x02 Crash Course

Collection Count

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

My overzealous purchasing spree continues this week, with seven new acquisitions. Most of those were in sales (four Jackie Chan Blu-rays and two films in 3D that aren't well regarded but I enjoyed in 2D), plus a Blu-ray to Blu-ray upgrade for Doctor Who: The Specials, aka Series 4b. This Steelbook version includes improved transfers for the episodes, plus HD versions of two animated specials I previously owned on DVD (though I'm hanging onto one of those for the special features). That would play merrily with my numbers, but thanks to the sheer volume of stuff, nearly everything goes up -- except DVDs, dropping for the fourth week in a row.

Number of titles in collection: 2,288 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,116 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,172 [up 6]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 41 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 5,976 [up 5]
Number of films: 2,684 [up 6]
Number of TV episodes: 8,747 [up 3]
Number of short films: 688 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Death in Paradise
9x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
38x06 Praxeus [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Friday Night Dinner
5x04 Lord Luck
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

The Goes Wrong Show
1x05 Harper's Locket
[Watch it (again and again) on iPlayer.]

The Rookie
1x01 Pilot

TV

The Great British Bake Off
1x05 Pastry
[Watch series 1 (again) on Netflix.]

Lucifer
3x16 Infernal Guinea Pig
3x17 Let Pinhead Sing!
[Watch season 3 (again) on Prime Video.]

TV

Death in Paradise
9x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
38x05 Fugitive of the Judoon [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Friday Night Dinner
5x03 The Surprise
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

The Great British Bake Off
1x04 Puddings
[Watch series 1 (again) on Netflix.]

Would I Lie To You?
13x07 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Good Omens
Part 3 Hard Times
[Watch the whole series (again) in HD or 4K UHD on Prime Video, or parts 1-3 on iPlayer.]

Films

Booksmart (2019)
[#13 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

TV

Good Omens
Part 2 The Book
[Watch the whole series (again) in HD or 4K UHD on Prime Video, or parts 1-3 on iPlayer.]

TV

The British Academy Film Awards 2020
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
38x06 Praxeus
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Good Omens
Part 1 In the Beginning
Finally making a start on this -- it's only taken me 8 months. That's not because of disinterest -- actually, quite the opposite. I loved the book when I read it as a kid, and have therefore been waiting (in a very passive sense) for a screen adaptation for the best part of 25 years. So this wasn't something I could "bung on", or watch an episode casually now and then -- I needed to approach it with due reverence. But things have been up and down and hectic for me this last year, so I didn't feel I could commit to it properly... until now.
[Watch the whole series (again) in HD or 4K UHD on Prime Video, or parts 1-3 on iPlayer.]

Star Trek: Picard
1x02 Maps and Legends
[Watch it (again) on Prime Video.]

this week on 100 Films

A new month began this week, so it was time for 100 Films in a Year to look back at the old one...





There were 2 new film reviews published too...


Ad Astra (2019)

Ad Astra is certainly a journey into darkness — of space; of mind. Whether it gets to the heart of it, I’m not convinced. But it’s still a trip worth taking.

Read more here.


Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)

Like any good blockbuster, Laputa has it all: thrills, humour, emotion, wonder… It’s the complete package. Plus, that level of broad familiarity (it wouldn’t take too many steps to imagine this remade as a Hollywood blockbuster, although they’d inevitably mess it up somehow) probably makes it the perfect starting point for any newbies to anime or Ghibli.

Read more here.


And my latest TV column 'n' all...





More next Sunday.

Collection Count

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

A mix of new releases and sale pick-ups means another healthy boost to my collection this week -- well, apart from for DVDs, which drop for the third week in a row.

It's also time for the monthly running time update, which gives an idea just how much stuff I've already bought in 2020.

Number of titles in collection: 2,283 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,117 [down 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,166 [up 6]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 41 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 5,971 [up 9]
Number of films: 2,678 [up 6]
Number of TV episodes: 8,744 [no change]
Number of short films: 688 [up 5]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
437 days, 5 hours, and 54 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 22 hours, and 51 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)
[#12 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

TV

The Twilight Zone
3x10 The Midnight Sun
3x16 Nothing in the Dark

Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series
Part 8 (of 18) [2nd watch]
In UHD as part of the From Z to A box set (the only episode included in UHD, aside from the original pilot) -- hence why I'm only watching one episode from the middle of the series.

TV

The Twilight Zone
5x17 Number 12 Looks Just Like You

Films

Twin Peaks (1990)
[5th watch]
aka Twin Peaks: Pilot (Original Version)

Rewatchathon 2020 #5

Yeah, this is really an episode of TV... but it's presented in a standalone manner on the From Z to A Blu-ray set (by being the only original series episode included in UHD), so I thought I'd count it.

I also rewatched the 19-minute alternate ending. It has some good bits (all of which Lynch nabbed to recycle in the series proper), but it's not as good an ending as... well, the season-and-a-half of TV that followed the original.

TV

Star Trek: The Next Generation
6x26 Descent [season finale]
7x01 Descent, Part II
More episodes I'm watching as background for Picard. Unlike the last one, however, I don’t think these can be amongst the best of TNG. The first part has some interesting stuff with Data struggling to understand if he’s started to experience emotions, but the second half is an underwhelming bit of something-and-nothing, only really noteworthy for the relish with which Brent Spiner plays Data’s evil twin brother. (I do intend to watch all of TNG in full someday, not just random episodes now and then like I've been doing for the past few years.)