The Wire : Complete HBO Season 1
The Wire: Complete HBO Season 2
For those fresh to the show, surely the best, most intelligent piece of scripted drama to emerge from America in the last decade, the actual premise is fairly simple. Across the thirteen episodes of its season, it charts one case, and the numerous influences upon it. So it devotes roughly equal time to those committing the crimes as it does to those chasing them. This time, the Baltimore Police Department have twin worries. There's the continuing, festering narrative of events from the season before, along with a new problem when a container of dead bodies turns up at the nearby docks. After initial battles over whose statistics the bodies will be attributed to, a fresh case begins for the embattled officers of the Major Crimes Unit. Yet season two is about much more than the case itself. Bubbling under the surface are characters with real problems, that take their toll on the day-to-day, while at the docks themselves there are union struggles underway, which also have a part to play. Thanks to, frankly, superb scripting, these various narrative threads are woven together quite brilliantly, and the result is perhaps the finest series of The Wireto date. And that's no small feat. If you're one of the many who have let The Wirefly under their radar thus far, then you're urged to rectify that. Clearly season one is the logical starting point, but begin your adventure in the knowledge that this second series is simple exceptional. For the rest of the US television industry, this is the standard to aim for. —Simon Brew The Simpsons - Season 9
Boasting twenty five episodes in all, and backed up by the superb selection of extras we’ve come to expect from Simpsons boxsets, there are some terrific episodes to be found. The 200th episode of the show, for instance, "Trash Of The Titans" makes compelling viewing out of, literally, sanitation, while "The City Of New York vs Homer Simpson" is likewise outstanding, as Homer trots off to recover his car. Truth be told, for this reviewer’s money, The Simpsons: Season Nine isn’t the equal of the two boxsets that preceded it, and it certainly has its fair share of easily forgettable episodes. But these are still in the minority, with the bulk of this set being as representative of the great writing, humour and wry observations we’ve come to expect from The Simpsons. Cracking value for money, too.—Simon Brew The Wire: Complete HBO Season 3
Cleverly sowing the seeds for the series that'll follow, while lacing the narrative with a wealth of challenging ideas to deal with there and then, season three isn't perhaps the finest of The Wireto date, but it sure does run things close. From its willingness to explore a solution of tolerance to the problem in hand, through to the political ambitions of one man determined to make a name for himself, and the small matter of a drugs operation riddled with in-fighting, it's compelling drama. It's also unequalled in recent times, courtesy of its outstanding writing, measured performances and willingness to take some bold gambles. Put bluntly, The Wire: The Complete Third Seasonis a quite brilliant piece of television drama, and easily rewards a purchase. —Simon Brew Casino Royale (Daniel Craig) [2006]
For longtime fans of the franchise, Casino Royaleoffers some retro kicks. Bond wins his iconic Aston-Martin at the gaming table, and when a bartender asks if he wants his martini "shaken or stirred," he disdainfully replies, "Do I look like I give a damn?" There's no Moneypenny or "Q," but Dame Judi Dench is back as the exasperated M, who one senses, admires Bond's "bloody cheek." A Bond film is only as good as its villain, and Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre, who weeps blood, is a sinister dandy. From its punishing violence and virtuoso action sequences to its ill-fated romance, Casino Royaleis a Bond film that, in the words of one character, makes you feel it, particularly during an excruciating torture sequence. Double-0s, Bond observes early on, "have a short life expectancy." But with Craig, there is new life in the old franchise yet, as well as genuine anticipation for the next one when, at last, the signature James Bond theme kicks in following the best last line ever in any Bond film. To quote Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin, now I know what I've been faking all these years. —Donald Liebenson Idiocracy [2006]
Extras : Complete BBC Series 1 & 2 Boxset [2005]
Unlike their previous The Office, Gervais and Merchant have delivered a less accessible but no less rewarding programme with Extras. It starts with Andy Millman, a ‘background artist’, sitting in the shadows of a variety of different shows, before, in the second series, he gets his own spot in the limelight. What’s helped characterise the series, of course, has been the continued presence of star names in cameo roles. These range from Hollywood bigshots—Samuel L Jackson, Kate Winslet and Harry Pott.., sorry, Daniel Radcliffe—and continue through to familiar faces from British TV—step forward Les Dennis, Ross Kemp and Barry from EastEnders. Most of the plaudits, though, rightly go in the direction of the splendid Ashley Jensen, who emerges as the most likeable and rounded of all the show’s characters. There’s little danger, it seems, that Extras will dethrone The Office from the top of its creators’ CVs, but thanks to its strong writing, its measured mix between melancholy and amusement, and some superb performances, it more than carves a very strong niche for itself. —Jon Foster Arrested Development - Season 3
It's difficult to describe what makes Arrested Developmentso brilliant. The ensemble is uniformly superb (Jessica Walter, as the family's boozing, scheming matriarch, is particularly devastating this season) and the surprising guest stars (including Andy Richter, James Lipton, Justine Bateman, and many others) are perfectly cast; the characters' abominable behavior defies conventional television notions of "likability", yet they only grow more endearing the more you watch; the humour embraces wild slapstick and sharp satire, often within a single scene; and the nimble documentary style allows for sly glancing references to jokes and scenes from long-past episodes, rewarding devoted fans. But the key is that, no matter how screwball Arrested Developmentbecomes, the show offers a rich, textured, and wonderfully coherent world in which these characters feel genuine, a world completely unlike the flat, plastic simulacrum offered by the average sitcom. Arrested Developmentwas true to itself to the end. Its followers will cherish it forever. —Bret Fetzer Mario Strikers Charged Football (Wii)
The game uses the analogue stick on the nunchuck to move, with the Wii remote itself being used to tackle by gesturing in the appropriate direction. There's no such thing as a foul in this game so not only do you take possession via a range of painful looking barges but you can also try and push an opposing player off the side of the pitch and into an electrified fence. Other elements not usually featured in the beautiful game include the "mega strike", which is a special move unique to each captain and which creates an automatic shot on goal which the other player has to save with the Wii remote. With football games becoming ever more serious and complicated this should please both sports fans and those simply looking for the next big multiplayer hit. HARRISON DENT Family Guy Season 6 [2007]
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii)
Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii)
More than twenty-five characters from both universes will be playable in the game, including not just Mario and Sonic but also Luigi, Tails, Yoshi, Knuckles, Bowser, Doctor Eggman, Princess Peach and Amy. Other characters will have cameos as judges such as Cream the Cat and Toad. You'd expect some characters to be naturally better at some sports than others but each has their own strengths and weakness, with even Sonic's incredible speed mitigated by his slow acceleration. The whole game is developed by Sega but overseen by legendary Nintendo creator Shigeru Miyamoto, with full tournament and missions modes as well as online leaderboards for all the different events. The name may sound like an April Fool's joke at first but this crossover could well be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Harrison Dent The Principles of Beautiful Web Design
Something Wicked This Way Comes (Fantasy Masterworks)
Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe
A Devil's Chaplain: Selected Writings
Six Easy Pieces: Fundamentals of Physics Explained (Penguin Press Science)
Sammy's Hill
Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time
The Confederation Handbook
As a "non-fiction" companion volume, The Confederation Handbook maps out this future galaxy's joyous complications. Technologies: the affinity gene allowing telepathic man/machine communication; neural-nanonics implants which link your brain to the net; intelligent voidhawk and blackhawk spacecraft; forbidden antimatter weapons; and space drives. People: human Adamists who reject the affinity gene; Edenists whose affinity links offer a "real" afterlife that replaces religion, struggling colonists everywhere; and three very different alien species—the Tyrathca, Kiint and Jiciro. Places: crowded old Earth with its O'Neill halo of orbital installations; communist Mars; utopian Edenist habitats mining helium-3 fusion fuel from gas-giant planets; quirkily various colony worlds; and the mysterious alien wreckage of the Ruin Ring. The Handbook carefully, almost too carefully, avoids spoiler revelations about the apocalyptic action of Night's Dawn. As in those books, its Timeline stops before the main story begins, and—besides names of "Possessors" in a cast list slightly updated from The Naked God's—the superpowered returned dead who threaten the entire Federation aren't mentioned at all. Readers nervous of SF terminology may find this a useful guide to the trilogy's huge, exhilarating blend of roller-coaster action and ghost-train chills. —David Langford Pandora's Star
Judas Unchained
Humanity's interstellar Commonwealth is in serious trouble. Thirteen of its hundreds of worlds (linked by wormholes and high-speed trains) were lost to a first mass attack by the insanely hostile alien Primes. The controlling Prime intelligence, MorningLightMountain, can imagine no way of dealing with first contact but genocide—and has the resources to do it. Amid political and personal chaos, it's becoming clear that the war was arranged by a third party. For centuries, only the fanatical, outlawed Guardians cult believed in this mysterious influence called the Starflyer. New evidence emerges, only to vanish again. Key figures are destroyed by near-invincible assassins crammed with inbuilt "wetwired" weaponry. One determined detective is on the track, but she faces massive political opposition. The multi-stranded action follows many criss-crossing human stories, with fights, pursuits, quests, deaths, resurrections, exotic landscapes and armaments, good sex, and several interesting aliens. Betrayals are frequent, thanks to brainwashed Starflyer agents in positions of trust. Only the Guardians have a scheme to deal with the Starflyer itself—a grandiose strategy known as "the planet's revenge"—but no one trusts those crazy cultists… In space, the arms race becomes dizzying, with Prime doomsday weapons used against suns while frantic human research leads to "quantumbusters" so appalling that there's serious moral debate about their use. Can we face the guilt of total genocide, even against a horror like MorningLightMountain? Or is there some way to force this psychopathic genie back into the bottle? The action climaxes in a long, exhilarating chase sequence spiced with ultra-violent skirmishing as the Starflyer comes into the open at last. Stormgliding, an extreme sport introduced in book one, becomes vital to the race against time. Meanwhile, rival starships with different plans chase one another to the Prime system. Hamilton delivers the expected multiple payoffs with suitable pyrotechnics and a satisfying scatter of happy endings. A long, colourful, suspenseful example of modern British space opera. —David Langford The Dreaming Void (Void Trilogy 1) (Void Trilogy 1)
Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs - A Parody
Office Space [1999]
His co-workers in the cube farm are an annoying lot, his boss is a snide, patronising jerk, and his days are consumed with tedium. In desperation, he turns to career hypnotherapy, but when his hypno-induced relaxation takes hold, there's no shutting it off. Layoffs are in the air at his corporation and with two colleagues (both of whom are slated for the chute) he devises a scheme to skim funds from company accounts. The scam soon snowballs, however, throwing the three into a panic until the unexpected happens and saves the day. A little bit like a US version of The Office, director Mike (King of the Hill) Judge's debut movie is a spot-on look at work in corporate America circa 1999. With well-drawn characters and situations instantly familiar to the white-collar milieu, he captures the joylessness of many a cube denizen's work life perfectly. Jennifer Aniston, a waitress at Chotchkie's, a generic beer-and-burger joint, plays Peter's love interest and Diedrich Bader has a minor but hilarious turn as Peter's moustached, long-haired, drywall-installin' neighbour. —Jerry Renshaw As Daylight Dies
Peep Show Series 4
The Simpsons - Season 10 [1998]
Season ten of The Simpsons features 23 episodes, spread across four discs, and there are some belters contained within. "Lard Of The Dance", for instance, finds Homer and Bart trying to steal and sell grease, against the backdrop of Lisa’s school dance. "Lisa Gets An ‘A’" meanwhile sees the Simpsons’ eldest daughter getting addicted to videogames, while "Mayored To The Mob" throws in Mark Hamill and a science fiction convention. Quite brilliant stuff. The lazy argument though is that by season ten, The Simpsons was on the slide, but there’s plenty of compelling evidence in this boxset to counter that. Sure, not every episode’s a classic, but there are a lot of laughs and much entertainment to be gleamed here. Furthermore, when you factor in the commentaries, deleted scenes, sketch gallery and look at the upcoming film, once again the stops have been pulled off for a distinguishable TV collection. Again, The Simpsons—in more than one sense—sets the standard that the others look up to. —Jon Foster Mobile Web Design
Black Holes and Revelations
Don Quixote (Wordsworth Classics)
The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God
The Book of Dave: A Revelation of the Recent Past and the Distant Future
Elect the Dead
The Simpsons Movie [2007]
The film itself is primarily Homer-centred, with the head of The Simpsons family seemingly consigning Springfield to certain doom when he dumps his waste where he shouldn’t. But, in the true spirit of the show, the plot takes a relative back seat to the antics of America’s first family. And it’s those antics that offer the film’s gold. As you’d hope, it boasts several laugh-out-loud moments, from visual gags (the rock and hard place being a favourite) through to the by-now infamous Spider-pig. There’s not quite enough material to keep the chuckle counter going for the full duration of The Simpsons Movie, and the criticism that it’s effectively three episodes strung together has some truth to it. But you’d still be hard-pushed to complain for one key reason: The Simpsons Movie is grand entertainment, with plenty of rewatch potential. So while you can add us to the queue of people who wanted more Mr Burns, and while it doesn’t quite measure up to some of the show’s best episodes, The Simpsons Movie still delivers, and does it with some quality. And Spider-pig is a work of genius…—Jon Foster The Exploding Detective
Shaun Udal - My Turn to Spin: The Incredible Story of a Cult Cricketer
Have I Got News For You - Best Of The Guests - Vol. 2 [1990]
Spaced - Definitive Collectors' Edition
The second series finds the gang at 23 Meteor Street a little older, but definitely none the wiser. Tim's career is hampered by severe hang-ups over The Phantom Menace. Daisy's career is just plain non-existent. There is still a spark of sexual tension between them, but it's overshadowed by Brian and Twist getting it on. Propelling the seven-episode series arc is the threat of Marsha discovering that none of the relationships are what they seem, Mike's increasing jealousy and a new love interest for Tim. That's the basis for a never-ending stream of in-jokes and references that easily match the quality of the first series. Tim has a Return of the Jediflashback, then déjà vu in reliving the end of The Empire Strikes Back. There are spoofs of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Robocop, The Sixth Senseand comedy rival The Royle Family. There are guest spots from Bill Bailey, Peter (voice of Darth Maul) Serafinowicz and The League of Gentlemen's Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith. Every episode is packed with highlights, but this series' guaranteed geek pant-wetting moments have to be the mock gun battles, slagging off Babylon 5and learning that "The second rule of Robot Club is: no smoking." Jessica Stevenson won a British Comedy Award for this year. It deserved a whole lot more. —Paul Tonks On the DVD:This three-disc collector's edition contains all the extras from the previous DVD releases, plus a host of brand new features including music promos, cast interviews, and an in-depth and specially filmed documentary featuring interviews with cast members including Simon Pegg, Jessica Stevenson, Nick Frost, cameo actors (Bill Bailey, David Walliams, Mark Gatiss, Reece Shearsmith) and journalists. It also includes a tour made by Simon, Jessica and Edgar of different show locations with clips of archive footage from the very first programmes Simon and Jess appeared in together. The Kraken Wakes
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