Author Topic: PBS "Sherlock Holmes" Updated for the 21st century  (Read 256881 times)

Offline delalluvia

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Re: PBS "Sherlock Holmes" Updated for the 21st century
« Reply #310 on: February 01, 2014, 02:22:45 am »
OK, I've rewatched the 2nd episode of the 3rd season "A Sign of Three" and I can say this is, so far, my most favorite episode.  ;D

It is exhausting to watch though as so much is going on.


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Sherlock has learned in his 2 years gone that he values his friendships, such that he has.  And so he is attempting to be more human, to reach out more and he is trying hard to understand the emotions of people around him even as he realizes that he may not always be successful and much of the success he does have is due to John.  He even reaches out more and more to his brother.

So though Sherlock knows now how much values John, he's not quite sure how much John values him - until John announces his impending marriage and asks him to be his best man.

The episode shows Sherlock going into overdrive, emotionally and rationally, trying in his manic way to live up to his role as John's best man - and surprisingly to him his role as John's best friend - at his wedding.  

With hysterical results.

The episode is a crazy quilt of pre-wedding adventures, mystery, emotional rollercoasters and revelations in short, exactly the sort of wedding Sherlock would preside over.  It's exhausting because Sherlock is a narcissist of sorts, and the wedding reception monologue veers crazily between Sherlock wanting attention, but having to keep pushing the attention back to John and his bride.

And at the end, unable to help himself, Sherlock includes himself in their marriage, by making his own vow.

The episode has everything, laughter, intrigue, sadness, joy, friendship and love.

And it even has a little homoerotic bit - if you take it that way, and I do.  ;D  At one point, John is falling out of his seat, and he reaches over to Sherlock who is sitting across from him and props himself up awkwardly - his hand staying longer than necessary - on Sherlock's knee.  Sherlock looks at him.  John takes his hand off, starts to fall again, puts his hand back on to balance himself, then hurriedly raises his hand again, holding it up as if to say 'Nothing personal'.  Sherlock's only reaction is to say, "I don't mind."  :-*

And I did like the jab they did at Madonna.  :laugh:

Incredibly enjoyable episode.  You see how not only Sherlock has grown, but the people he calls closest, do support him very loyally, no matter what.  You even find out about the executed husband of Mrs. Hudson and who exactly he was and why he was executed.  Mrs. Hudson used to be quite the party girl, apparently.  :)

So it's a fan's dream, and I can see Moffat and Gattis wanting to please fans by showing Sherlock actually growing and warming up.  During the break between seasons, many many fans were very open in their desire to see emotional growth and said quite clearly that if Sherlock didn't when he returned, then the show was going to be boring and static with his unchanging character.

So they had to walk a thin line.  Canon was deviated from incredibly.  In the stories, Sherlock never showed up at all for John's weddings, and he never talked personal matters with John.  So it is strange to see this Sherlock not only friendly with John's wife, but helping out with the wedding plans.

I am interested to see where they take this.    
« Last Edit: February 01, 2014, 03:33:05 pm by delalluvia »

Offline Meryl

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Re: PBS "Sherlock Holmes" Updated for the 21st century
« Reply #311 on: February 01, 2014, 08:28:30 am »
Thanks, del, that was a great commentary on the episode.  I loved it, too, though I think they have to be careful about catering to the fans in that way.  I'm kind of hoping they rein it in and get back to more serious sleuthing.  I do like how they've made Mary a team player and not an obstacle, though.  She's a great addition, and it's clear her real life partnershiip with Martin helps with the chemistry.  :)
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Offline delalluvia

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Re: PBS "Sherlock Holmes" Updated for the 21st century
« Reply #312 on: February 01, 2014, 12:29:45 pm »
Thanks, del, that was a great commentary on the episode.  I loved it, too, though I think they have to be careful about catering to the fans in that way.  I'm kind of hoping they rein it in and get back to more serious sleuthing.  I do like how they've made Mary a team player and not an obstacle, though.  She's a great addition, and it's clear her real life partnershiip with Martin helps with the chemistry.  :)

Yes, the chemistry is great.  And her addition is better than I could have hoped for.  They did it very well, so that she is not the third wheel or ball and chain. 

I agree, they need to get back into the murders and mysteries.

Offline delalluvia

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Re: PBS "Sherlock Holmes" Updated for the 21st century
« Reply #313 on: February 03, 2014, 03:02:21 am »
OK, last episode of the season was crazy good.

This season has been spectacular.  The best of the three seasons.

I will have to give it more viewings before I post my review but I am amused at some of the fan's reactions.



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I think many were upset about the resolution of the Season 2 cliffhanger.  They wanted real emotion and now, that the truth is out, they feel cheated.

I wonder if they're the same fans who are now complaining that Sherlock is TOO emotional?

Then there are those fans who liked Sherlock when he was being all dark and dangerous talking trash to Moriarty about 'being on the side of angels' but "not being one", but then got upset when he proved it.

You can't please everyone.

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: PBS "Sherlock Holmes" Updated for the 21st century
« Reply #314 on: February 03, 2014, 11:50:44 am »
I don't know much about fans' reactions. Heck, I don't even know about my OWN reactions. One trivial thing...I liked the display of skin by Sherlock!!  ::)

I just wonder what someone just starting to watch this series must think about these latest episodes. Each one seems to be a full-length movie! Very disturbing and wild...too much for me at that late hour of the night! Last night at the season closer, I laughed, I cried, I scratched my head...crazy!!
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Re: PBS "Sherlock Holmes" Updated for the 21st century
« Reply #315 on: February 06, 2014, 04:11:41 pm »
Here's a pretty good wrapup of the latest season by Carmen: http://www.smittenbybritain.com/the-humanizing-of-sherlock-holmes/

Quite a few spoilers but leaves important things out so you still have a reason for watching.
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Re: PBS "Sherlock Holmes" Updated for the 21st century
« Reply #316 on: February 08, 2014, 10:14:01 pm »
I read the first half which covered the first episode. ...
The part that blew my mind was when she said that Sherlock was not just a buddy story or a romance but the story of a "god and a mortal." Wow.

Okay, now I read the second half of the story. (thanks again, friend Jeff, for pointing out this wonderful review!) Sentences that lept out for me were:

"...their conversation feels as if it were taking place not merely between two men but between two different species, or possibly between a mountain and a shrub..."

Remind you of something?

and...

"It's a rare attempt to make visible something that we take for granted: a new kind of cognition, inflected by passion, that allows strangers to think out loud, solving mysteries together."

Wow!
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Offline SaraB

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Re: PBS "Sherlock Holmes" Updated for the 21st century
« Reply #317 on: February 09, 2014, 09:55:07 am »
I've only seen the first of the new series. Looking forward to the others which I've recorded.

Offline delalluvia

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Re: PBS "Sherlock Holmes" Updated for the 21st century
« Reply #318 on: February 09, 2014, 03:57:10 pm »
Oops.  Thanks for reminding me (goes back to read the rest of the New Yorker review)


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I love the article.  Emily does get that Moffat has made this show a character study.  "It's show about a detective, not a detective show" as he put it.

but the subject of the show is not so much Sherlock’s deductions as this relationship, which is itself a kind of mystery

And I certainly agree with the following.  People have been complaining about the gay references in this series, accusing the writers of "queer baiting" as the term goes. They claim that men can be close and not have it be homoerotic - which of course is true.  But not in this case.  Sherlock and John's relationship is beyond the norm.  It's something more than just two men who are friends.

In the 2nd season episode, the word 'love' is finally out.  John acknowledges it first in asking Sherlock to be his best man and later, Sherlock proclaims it openly in his best man's speech.  Of course, one can take it as just normal expressive language ("I love you, bro!"), but in the case of Sherlock, as the audience later learns, Sherlock is really really serious when he claims something.  He takes a vow, he means it.  He swears to protect someone no matter what, he means it.  So obviously, when he says he loves John most in all the world, he means that, too and not just as a polite platitude.  

So they are more than friends.  Much more.  And that's because Sherlock's mental state is beyond normal.  Moffat says Sherlock is just an ordinary guy with a big big brain, but what makes us who and what we are?  Our brains do.  So Sherlock's massive intellect shapes who he is and since his gifts are so rare, he is far from 'normal'.

Sherlock and Watson are best friends, certainly. They’re also chaste boyfriends, as well as a captain and his first mate. Mostly, though, they’re a god and a mortal, mutually besotted—the most impossible love affair of all.

Emily says "captain and first mate" as a homage to Star Trek, but even Star Trek may owe its close male relationships to Sherlock Holmes.  The 2nd episode of the 3rd season likened their relationship to a commanding officer and his subaltern as a new character in John's life appears.  One to whom John also very much admires.  Sherlock refers to that dear military friend of John's (of whom he seems to be slightly jealous) as John's "previous" commanding officer.  John is no slouch.  He immediately catches on as Sherlock corrects himself.  

"You said 'previous'. That implies I have a new commanding officer.  I don't."

Caught out, Sherlock sheepishly concedes.

In one flashback, the two sit on a London park bench, framed by dark trees, as Watson struggles to reassure Holmes that their relationship won’t change. The shot emphasizes the impossibility of their kinship: Watson is half the size of Holmes; as he slumps, the cadaverous Holmes sits up rigidly, so that their conversation feels as if it were taking place not merely between two men but between two different species, or possibly between a mountain and a shrub. Then Watson turns, and finds that Holmes has disappeared.

I find that more like a god and his worshipper.  He has come down to visit where his worshipper reassures him that he has not forsaken him.  Then he disappears without any sign that he has taken his worshippers word to heart.

It seems Emily didn't stop to watch the last episode before she wrote her review.  I would like to know what she thought of the last episode.
« Last Edit: February 10, 2014, 01:15:03 am by delalluvia »

Offline delalluvia

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Why Sherlock Holmes and John Watson should just get it on already
« Reply #319 on: March 04, 2014, 08:59:15 pm »
OK, yeah, they have a guy friendship, but c'mon, how many straight guys have THIS close a friendship?  ;)

http://www.zimbio.com/Beyond+the+Tube/articles/9M5l28-2hfx/Evidence+Sherlock+Holmes+John+Watson+Get+Already

 :-* :-*