Films

Anand (1971)
[#201 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Ikiru (1952)
[#202 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
As part of Blindspot 2020, a leftover from WDYMYHS 2019.
+ Alex Cox’s 15-minute introduction on the BFI DVD, over half of which is a Kurosawa biography rather than specifically about the film

Apropos of nothing, these are both films about men dealing with a terminal cancer diagnosis. (After watching Anand I read that it was partly inspired by Ikiru, so that planted the seed of choosing to watch the latter.)

Music

Imploding the Mirage by the Killers

I've not read any full reviews, but I get the impression this has been the Killers' best-received album for years, and I'd agree -- even though I've only listened to the last two recently, and they did grow on me, I instantly enjoyed this a lot more than either of those. I'm not entirely sure about standout tracks yet, but my initial favourites are My God, Caution, Lightning Fields, and the title track.

this week on 100 Films

The big news at 100 Films in a Year this week was a special announcement...





In regular business, a new month began this week, so it was time to look back at the old one...





There was also a new TV column, packed to bursting...





And there were even 4 new film reviews, too...


The 100-Week Roundup X

Featuring...
- Lost in the Space
- Skyline
- April and the Extraordinary World
- I Kill Giants

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Derren Brown: Miracle
[Watch it (again) on All 4 or Netflix.]

Collection Count

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

Except that, for the first time in over three months, there's nothing to report! I'm sure it'll pick up again before I know it...

Number of titles in collection: 2,441 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,089 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,352 [no change]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 71 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 6,276 [no change]
Number of films: 2,758 [no change]
Number of additional cuts: 185 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 8,958 [no change]
Number of short films: 762 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Cobra Kai
1x01 Ace Degenerate
1x02 Strike First
1x03 Esqueleto
1x04 Cobra Kai Never Dies
1x05 Counterbalance
When I sat down to start this, I didn’t intend to watch half the first season in one sitting, but turns out it’s pretty addictive. It helps that the episodes are short, really feeding the “just one more” feeling. In fact, because they’re around 25 minutes each, this still only totals a bit over 2 hours of viewing — like a double-bill of a usual streaming drama.
[Watch seasons 1&2 (again) on Netflix.]

Films

In the Mood for Love (2000)
[#200 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Blindspot 2020 #8, and my third-ever #200! I wrote something about that milestone here.

Music

Wonderful Wonderful by the Killers

The second album in my Killers catchup. Battle Born quickly grew on me after just a couple of additional plays, but I can't say the same for this. The Man is great, and The Calling is pretty good, but I didn't care for most of the rest. Oh well.


Hot Fuss by the Killers
[9th listen]

So, I went back to the Killers' debut record to see if it was just that my taste had changed and left them behind. Nope -- this features banger after banger. It's not all perfect (it tails off a bit at the end), but there's at least half-a-dozen all-timer tracks here.

Films

All Is True (2018)
[#199 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Music

Battle Born by the Killers

So, the Killers recently released their sixth studio album, which made me realise I'd never got round to listening to their fourth (from 2012) or even bought their fifth (from 2017). Now I have all three and am catching up. Sadly, I didn't think a great deal of this one on my first listen — I didn't feel like I'd missed out by not listening to it for eight years. I liked a couple of tracks, though (mainly The Rising Tide and Battle Born); and I listened to it again and felt less ambivalent. I'm not sure it's going to be a favourite, but maybe it improves with repeat listens.

TV

Agatha Raisin
3x04 As the Pig Turns [season finale]

Friday Night Dinner
6x04 Dad's Birthday
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

The Great British Bake Off
10x10 The Final [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
6x10 Episode 10 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Lucifer
5x08 Spoiler Alert
And that's it for now -- this is a "mid-season finale", because Netflix have decided to split the fifth run in two.
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

Films

Dressed to Kill (1946)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #37. That completes my rewatch of the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films. The first time it took me eight years; this time it's taken eight months.

TV

The Great British Bake Off
10x09 Pâtisserie Week
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
6x09 Episode 9
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Jonathan Creek
5x00a The Grinning Man [Christmas special]
There was a five-year gap between the last series of Creek and this one-off special, which led to it doing big numbers in the ratings, and then more specials being commissioned. iPlayer and stuff like that list those specials as part of series 4, which is daft given that big gap; but they're also not part of series 5, which came several years later. Numbering systems for TV series aren't really built for shows that pop back and forth between one-offs and full series... Anyway, for now I'm going to number all those specials as "5x00" because I don't have a better answer.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Lucifer
5x06 BlueBallz
5x07 Our Mojo
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

The Rookie
2x17 Control

this week on 100 Films

2 new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week...


Ready or Not (2019)

definitely a comedy-horror, with more laughs than scares and an appropriate amount of gore. It obviously owes a debt to other movies, or at least has points of similarity (You’re Next particularly comes to mind), but it also has a few nice subversions and doesn’t always go the way you’d think

Read more here.


Venom (2018)

I wasn’t sure what I thought of Venom. It’s kind of fun, in a juvenile way (juvenile like teenagers who think violence and edgy dialogue is “grown up”). But it’s also kind of rubbish in places, in part because it can be so juvenile (juvenile like… yeah, same again).

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Jonathan Creek
4x06 Gorgons Wood [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Lucifer
5x05 Detective Amenadiel
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

The Rookie
2x16 The Overnight

Films

Entrapment (1999)
[#198 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Collection Count

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

Even as I try to cut back, I can't help buying more! This week's lot includes three titles from Masters of Cinema (one new release, two from a sale), with 6 films between them.

I also bought Arrow's new edition of The Game, which duplicates most (but not quite all) of the special features from the Criterion edition I already own. So I ought to sell that, probably, but haven't made up my mind entirely, so it remains for now.

Number of titles in collection: 2,441 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,089 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,352 [up 5]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 71 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 6,276 [up 9]
Number of films: 2,758 [up 8]
Number of additional cuts: 185 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 8,958 [no change]
Number of short films: 762 [up 2]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Friday Night Dinner
6x03 The Au Pair
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
6x08 Episode 8
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Jonathan Creek
4x05 The Chequered Box
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Lucifer
5x04 It Never Ends Well for the Chicken
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

The Rookie
2x15 Hand-Off

Films

The Show Must Go On: The Queen + Adam Lambert Story (2019)
[#197 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

This documentary was originally produced for US TV, but it's now being pitched as a film by Netflix, so I'm counting it.

TV

The Great British Bake Off
10x08 Pastry
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Jonathan Creek
4x04 The Seer of the Sands
Kinda far-fetched, even by Creek's standards, though I liked how important punctuation was!
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Lucifer
5x03 ¡Diablo!
[Watch it (again) on Netflix.]

The Rookie
2x14 Casualties