The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
PBS "Sherlock Holmes" Updated for the 21st century
Front-Ranger:
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.
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on January 23, 2014, 03:14:27 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.
--- End quote ---
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!
SaraB:
I've only seen the first of the new series. Looking forward to the others which I've recorded.
delalluvia:
Oops. Thanks for reminding me (goes back to read the rest of the New Yorker review)
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
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.
delalluvia:
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
:-* :-*
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