Sunday 24 June 2012

TV

Dexter
5x05 First Blood
It's been 10 months since I last watched Dexter (in which time FX have not only finished airing it, they've aired all of the next season too), but now that there's not much else on I can get back to it.
And thank goodness for its solid "previously on" too, because without it I was struggling to remember what was going on, and with it I'm fully back up to speed. I knew I'd appreciate those things one day.

Episodes
2x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

MythBusters
5x17 Superhero Hour
5x16 Red Rag to a Bull
5x18 Myth Evolution
The episode about superhero stuff was pretty cool. Nearly didn't watch the second one -- I know bulls don't care about red; you know how a bull in a china shop is going to turn out -- but the other half of the episode, about bullets in ovens/on campfires, was cool... and it turns out a bull in a china shop isn't so obvious after all. And then the third one goes for a load of stuff they missed, according to fans, which fortunately meant it was more packed with stuff than usual. I like Mythbusters, but damn it's full of repetitious recaps.

Would I Lie To You?
6x08 Episode 8
Why the BBC have hung on to this until now I don't know. The outtakes episode, sure, they often air that later, but just a single regular episode of the series? Why?
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

Two new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...

The Man from Earth (2007)
what one might call Proper Science Fiction. Most films classed as sci-fi just feature aliens or what have you; they’re space opera, or just action movies where Americans fight off-planet enemies instead of out-of-country enemies; the kind of thing Ray Bradbury termed fantasy rather than sci-fi. Instead of Shooting And Blowing Up Stuff, or even comedy antics with a twist, The Man from Earth deals in Ideas.
Read more on my new blog or my classic blog.

The Scarlet Claw (1944)
it really is a horror movie too. There’s not just the elements of occult in the myth of the Canadian town Holmes and Watson find themselves in almost by chance, but also the way the production is staged... [Roy William Neill's] direction is incredibly atmospheric, from a wonderful mist-covered opening scene, replete with an incessantly tolling bell, to regular instances of shadow-drenched photography afterwards
Read more on my new blog or my classic blog.

Tonight sees the UK terrestrial TV premiere of Up in the Air (9pm BBC Two), so I've also added my review from last year to my new blog. You can read it here. (It should be there, anyway. If it isn't, it'll be at that link later today.)

More next Sunday.