Monday 24 January 2011

TV

10 O'Clock Live
1x01 (20/1/11 edition)
Despite all the controversy, I thought it was rather good. It'll benefit from time to bed in and by giving longer slots to debates and interviews, but it's a decent start.
For two slightly conflicting, interesting views on its quality, have a read of this pair of deliberately paired articles from the Guardian.
And when it comes to sites I link to in episode titles (for any series), I do try to find the most useful from the three or four (or more, of course) different options you can readily come up with. Channel 4's own episode page is fine, but doesn't bother linking on to the useful content they provide elsewhere on the series' minisite -- namely, further information on the episode's guests and external links on the episode's topics. Potentially handy stuff, that.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Just Good Friends
2x04 Caught on a Shoulder Strap

The Killing [aka Forbrydelsen]
1x01 Day 1
BBC Four's latest Nordic crime offering, a 20-part Danish thriller from 2007, showing in Saturday night double bills ahead of the US remake's Stateside premiere in April -- and, on the strength of this, hopefully it'll be here soon after.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Not Going Out
4x03 Movie
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Radio

As regular readers will easily notice, I don't listen to much radio. Radio 4 are having a film season, however (a film season on the radio? How barmy!), so I've managed to tune in for some of that. I say "tune in" -- iPlayer is our friend...

Hollywood
Part 1 The Prequel
Two-part documentary. Last week's first part (i.e. this one) looks at the rise of Hollywood, and how many of the genres and styles we associate with it actually come from other, more-powerful-in-their-day, countries' film outputs. Part two, The Sequel, on tonight (by the time you're probably reading this) looks at Hollywood's potential future.
[Listen (again) on iPlayer.]

Life at 24 Frames a Second
Part 1 In the Dark
Part 2 Fear & Desire
David Thomson certainly makes for an... idiosyncratic, shall we say... guide to the movies.
[Listen to Part 2 (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Airbender, Eclipse lead Razzie noms by Simon Reynolds
(from Digital Spy)
Ah, the Razzies -- probably the only awards the Twilight films deserve to be nominated for.

Kevin Smith Buys His Own Film At Sundance Auction, Swears Off Distributors, and Announces Full Details for Self-Distribution by David Chen
(from /Film)
Or, to put it another way: Kevin Smith is bonkers... but if this works, it could change everything. Well, some things. A bit.

Spider-Man has a new adversary… the web by Ross McG
(from Ross! v Ross!)
The world wide web and all its spoiler-some websites, that is. Yes, such topics have been discussed many a time before, but this is still a well-put take on what's a continuing issue.