Thursday, 3 October 2024

TV

A Perfect Spy
Episode Four (of 7)
Episode Five (of 7)
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer.]

Richard Osman's House of Games
7x65 Week 13: Friday
7x66 Week 14: Monday
7x67 Week 14: Tuesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Wednesday, 2 October 2024

TV

A Perfect Spy
Episode Two (of 7)
Episode Three (of 7)
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer.]

Richard Osman's House of Games
7x63 Week 13: Wednesday
7x64 Week 13: Thursday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Tuesday, 1 October 2024

TV

A Perfect Spy
Episode One (of 7)
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer.]

Richard Osman's House of Games
7x61 Week 13: Monday
7x62 Week 13: Tuesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Monday, 30 September 2024

Sunday, 29 September 2024

Films

Rio Bravo (1959)
[#75 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024]
Blindspot 2024 #8

Fiction

NPCs by Drew Hayes
Chapters 4–7

Comics

X-Men #2 by Jed MacKay & Ryan Stegman

I'm not deliberately reading these one each Sunday, it's just how it happens to be panning out. I am still a total of four issues behind across all three books, but considering what US comics publishing schedules are like, I'd still probably catch up in a month or two even if I maintained this pace.

As well as the feature story, this issue includes the eighth and concluding part of Deadpool/Wolverine crossover Weapon X-Traction. It looks like the first seven parts were to be found in random other comics ("random" in the sense that, for example, no other X-Men books featured an instalment). I guess it was all about promoting Deadpool & Wolverine as widely as possible rather than telling a story in a reasonably accessible manner. Anyway, I didn't read it. What would be the point?

Articles

10 Years In, Critical Role is Still Just Getting Started
by Casey Epstein-Gross (from Paste)

Nice piece based around an interview with Travis, Marisha and Sam about the current state of CR and its future.

Videos

Talks Machina
#109 'A Turtle By Any Other Name'
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

this week on 100Films.co.uk

3 new reviews were published to 100Films.co.uk this week...


Cecil M. Hepworth shorts
Featuring...
- Alice in Wonderland (1903)
- Explosion of a Motor Car (1900)
- The Indian Chief and the Seidlitz Powder (1901)
Read more here.


See you next Sunday for the monthly reviews.

Saturday, 28 September 2024

TV

The 1% Club
3x10 Episode 10
[Watch it (again) on ITVX.]

The Hollow Crown
1x02 Henry IV Part 1
[Watch the entire series (again) on iPlayer.]

Fiction

NPCs by Drew Hayes
Prologue
Chapters 1–3


Someone recommended this in a thread I was reading on Twitter — I forget who or the exact context, but it appealed to me so I bought it. So far... not wholly convinced. It definitely has some clear markers/faults of being self published, which is unfortunate, but it also has some neat-enough ideas.

Collection Count

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

4K-a-go-go this week, with five new additions and every one of them UHD — and they all turned up this afternoon!

Number of titles in collection: 3,383 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 998 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,385 [up 5]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 395 [up 5]

Number of discs in collection: 8,140 [up 11]
Number of films: 4,177 [up 4]
Number of additional cuts: 401 [up 4]
Number of TV episodes: 9,800 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,167 [up 2]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday, 27 September 2024

Films

Cutthroat Island (1995)
[3rd watch]
[#74 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024]

After I last watched this back in 2008, I disliked it so much I thought I'd never watch it again. I'm not even sure what changed my mind. But I'm glad I did, because I actually really enjoyed it, and feel like a lot of what I wrote last time is poppycock. I don't know what changed, but there we go. It's far from a perfect film, but as a piratical action-adventure it hits most of the right beats and is a lot of fun. Plus, it's nice to see a film that truly looks and feels like a Film nowadays, rather than aggrandised digital video — that's a bonus a lot of '90s flicks benefit from when watched now, I think.

Music

Yesterwynde
by Nightwish
[2nd listen]

My copy of the official store exclusive edition turned up yesterday, which includes a Blu-ray copy with the whole album mixed in Dolby Atmos (along with versons in 5.1 and uncompressed stereo), so I listened to that today. I don't know much difference it made, to be honest, other than that listening to stuff through high-quality sound equipment is always good (and I did notice a few definite surround elements).

Videos

Critical Role
2x60 A Turtle By Any Other Name
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Thursday, 26 September 2024

Films

Golem (1980)
[#73 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024]

Fiction

Doctor Who: The New Adventures
Timewyrm: Apocalypse by Nigel Robinson
Chapters 16–21
Epilogue
[the end]

Well, this wasn't as terrible as I'd been led to believe, but nor is it much cop. It's not fundamentally flawed — there are some decent ideas here, especially with the reveal of how the Timewyrm is involved this time (a writer like Steven Moffat could probably work wonders with that storyline) — but there are myriad lesser issues that add up to an unsatisfying whole. It's not outright bad, it's just aggressively adequate.