TV

Doctor Who
Shada Episode Three

Films

Absence (2015)
Short film from the guys behind lockdown hit Host. I actually watched it twice, because it's so short (under 3 minutes), having read the director's notes in between, and I found it more interesting the second time with those in mind. Also, if you're going to watch it, do so on Vimeo rather than YouTube — the film has a very specific visual texture that the latter's heavyhanded compression absolutely wrecks.

Come and See (1985)
[#72 in The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2022]
Blindspot 2022 #9
+ the special feature on Criterion's Blu-ray where cinematographer Roger Deakins talks about the film's quality for ten minutes

Magazines

Doctor Who Magazine #584

I rarely bother to mention it (the last time was in 2016), but I buy DWM every month, and usually read at least some of it. This is a special issue, though, because it's packed with info about the forthcoming era — "forthcoming" as in "doesn't start for a whole year", and yet already we're learning about it. That's a level of marketing I can get behind.

Also of particular note: the comic strip this issue picks up directly where The Power of the Doctor left off, beginning a 13-part tale (which will unfurl monthly until the first 60th anniversary special airs, this time (ish) next year) that's the official first adventure for the 14th Doctor. The comic strip's never been allowed to do something so vital before. Exciting times.

TV

Doctor Who
Shada Episode Two

TV

Doctor Who
Shada Episode One

Being the 2003 BBCi webcast version starring Paul McGann, also known (retrospectively) as Return to Shada. Yes, it's taken me almost 20 years to get round to this. (20 years! Where does time go?)

It's always nice to hear McGann as the Doctor, but this first episode is a bit slow going, fuelled by too little plot and too few instances of Douglas Adams' brilliant wit (although there are, thankfully, a couple of examples). I hope things pick up in future episodes…

TV

Inside Man
Part 4 (of 4)
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer.]

Louis Theroux Interviews
1x02 Dame Judi Dench
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Lost City (2022)

this week on 100Films.co.uk

It was a week of roundups on 100Films.co.uk this week, with the usual "new month" stuff plus a compilation of last week's Scream reviews.

We'll come to that in a minute, because first it's the overall review of October...





And that was accompanied by the usual overview of films I failed to watch last month...





Finally, as I mentioned at the start, that roundup of my Scream coverage...





More next Sunday.

Collection Count

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

Four new additions this week, although it really doesn't look like it. Yes, I've been upgrading again. This time it's Highlander, from Blu-ray to 4K. I also bought Arrow's red Giallo Essentials box set, from which I already owned one of the films, so the box set replaces that. Then Indicator's Universal Noir #1 set turned up several weeks earlier than expected, and that single-handedly accounts for most of the increases below.

Number of titles in collection: 2,956 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,041 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,915 [up 2]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 209 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 7,310 [up 10]
Number of films: 3,550 [up 9]
Number of additional cuts: 290 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 9,432 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,010 [up 3]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Blankety Blank
2x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

How I Met Your Father
1x05 The Good Mom

Inside Man
Part 2 (of 4)
Part 3 (of 4)
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
30x05 Episode 5

Richard Osman's House of Games
6x08 Week 2: Wednesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

The Rookie
4x05 A.C.H.

Films

See How They Run (2022)
[#71 in The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2022]

TV

Blankety Blank
2x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Inside Man
Part 1 (of 4)
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
30x04 Episode 4

TV

Doctor Who
39x09 The Power of the Doctor [2nd watch]
Posted some rewatch thoughts on Letterboxd.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
30x03 Episode 3

Richard Osman's House of Games
6x07 Week 2: Tuesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Blankety Blank
2x01 Episode 1
Is this only series 2? It feels like it's been back longer than that...
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Richard Osman's House of Games
6x06 Week 2: Monday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Have I Got News for You
64x06 (28/10/2022 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended episode (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

La Grande Illusion (1937)
[#70 in The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2022]
Blindspot 2022 #8

this week on 100Films.co.uk

It's Halloween tomorrow, and to mark the occasion, 100Films.co.uk has covered the entire Scream movie series (so far)...


Scream (1996)

simultaneously a spoof of the slasher genre and a genuine entry in it — potentially a tricky tightrope to walk (several major directors were rejected because they thought the film was just a comedy), but Wes Craven nails the tone so perfectly that he makes it look easy. So what might have been a last-hurrah commentary on what had already been instead turned out to be the beginning of a new wave; one which has helped fuel the genre for over 25 years since.

Read more here.


Scream 2 (1997)

Where the first was a forensic deconstruction of the slasher genre, the second is more of a vague gesture in the general direction of sequel tropes — less focused, less insightful, less funny. But, crucially, it’s still quite entertaining.

Read more here.


Scream 3 (2000)

The Scream movies were always noteworthy for the metatextual way in which they addressed and engaged with the tropes and clichés of slasher movies, but actually setting this one in Hollywood on the set of a slasher movie based on the events of the previous movies is perhaps taking the whole self-awareness thing one step too far.

Read more here.


Scre4m (2011)

the eleven years since the last movie gave the filmmakers enough fresh material to chew on to make the film a more-than-worthwhile addition to the franchise. For my money, the fresh perspectives make it easily the series’ best film since the first.

Read more here.


Scream (2022)

it gets to both have its cake and eat it by pointing out the laughable clichés and ridiculous tropes of other horror films, then doing them anyway. Some people dislike this approach — “pointing out that what you’re doing is a cliché doesn’t stop it from being a cliché” — but, personally, I think it’s part of the charm of these films. They don’t do the thing and then have someone go “that was so cliché!”, they tell you “wouldn’t it be clichéd if this happened?” and then it does. Too subtle a difference for some, I guess, but it works for me.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Have I Got News for You
64x05 (21/10/2022 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended episode (again) on iPlayer.]

Mock the Week
20x12 Compilation
20x13 End of Year Special [season finale]
21x06 The History of... Part 1
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Mission (1986)
[#68 in The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2022]
"What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...?" 2022 #8

Scream (2022)
[#69 in The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2022]
+ the audio commentary. I only put it on to find out who the participants were (because the menu didn't say), then I wound up leaving it on for a bit, until eventually I decided I may as well just stick with it until the end.

Collection Count

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

As it's almost Halloween, spooky new additions this week include Ghostwatch, the BBC's (in)famous 1992 horror special. This is the third time I've bought it, even though I've never seen it, which is ridiculous, I know. The new edition is a Blu-ray — perhaps a bit pointless, seeing as it was made for TV back in the SD era, but it has new special features and whatnot, so I replaced my two previous DVD copies.

Four other new titles this week (one of which includes four different cuts of the same film) results in... this...

Number of titles in collection: 2,954 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,041 [down 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,913 [up 5]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 208 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 7,300 [up 4]
Number of films: 3,541 [up 5]
Number of additional cuts: 290 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes: 9,432 [down 2]
Number of short films: 1,007 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.