Okay, go watch the new trailer if you haven’t, then return to us, thank you. Done? Great. Let us begin our great work.
6. The Blind Banker
This one’s a breeze! Not only did it suffer from coming right on the heels of the glorious “A Study in Pink,” it was also just…gross. Lackluster and Orientalist, really, which is why Benedict and I chose to ax it after our crofter’s cottage retreat. I’ll never forget how he finally admitted we needed to make a change.
“Nicole,” he said, “I ALSO don’t like the idea that we’re reinforcing the idea that if you’ve asked a young female coworker out a billion times, and she keeps saying no, and then quits her job and doesn’t tell you why, you should go looking for her.”
“Right! Right.”
“Like, okay, maybe she’s running from a Chinese smuggling organization, or maybe you just created a hostile work environment.”
“Do we really know that he asked her out a bunch, though? Maybe it was just this one time?”
“How many times would it take, Nicole?”
“Maybe she’s not ready yet. It’s only been….thirty years.”
(several paragraphs of deep, penetrating glances excised here for space)
*
5. The Hounds of Baskerville
This episode is fine. There is nothing glaringly wrong with this episode, and some moments of good cheer. I have never understood the case made by those who place it under “The Blind Banker.” I particularly enjoyed the sequence in which Sherlock figures out the stalwart military man’s override code is “Maggie” as in “Thatcher” after glancing over his bookshelves for five seconds.
Although, right, I personally would feel better if high-ranking British military officers had to have, like, at least an eight-digit alpha-numeric password to access classified CIA files? I mean, last time I checked, Five Guys forced me to toss a number into my password in order to store my order (no raw onions, pls.)
This episode’s low moments include the dumb-looking CGI monster dog, and also that we keep thinking Mycroft will show up but doesn’t, because Mycroft is the best. Mark Gatiss’ Mycroft and Andrew Scott’s Moriarty = two great gay actors playing fascinating gay roles, which helps make up for some of the hurr-hurr stuff Moffatt tries to do. I want Mark Gatiss to be in every episode. DO you remember when he told Mrs. Hudson to shut up?
“Apologies.” (thin smile)
*
4. The Great Game
Again, a good episode. I enjoyed the art thing. Other highlights: the pips on the phone, and Sherlock not knowing that the Earth revolves around the sun. This is something I use a lot now, when I fuck something up. “It was garbage night, and now we’re swimming in kitty litter.”
“It is not RELEVANT to the WORK.”
Now, of the little puzzles that Sherlock has to solve in this episode, my favourite was Carl Powers, because I will take aaaaaaaaaaany glimpse into Young Sherlock (I said this on Twitter, but where is our Muppet Babies-esque Sherlock prequel? Everyone goes teenager for these sorts of things, but I want an eerily-early potty-trained Sherlock fighting with Mycroft 24/7.)
Things that weren’t as great: The Golem, probably. That…was a curious choice. And the Mycroft subplot, although, again, a welcome excuse to see him, was a little dull.
It all fades away, though, when cast in the shining sun of Sherlock and Moriarty and Watson by the pool. I enjoyed Moriarty being perfect ALWAYS. Isn’t he fantastic? Isn’t he menacing? “THAT’S WHAT PEOPLE DOOOOO.” To this day, when I watch that episode (I have watched each episode probably….twelve times?) I have to immediately watch the first three minutes of s2 in order to make sure everyone lives.
Let’s think about this as one of the top four episodes, instead of one of the bottom three?
*
Then it becomes…challenging. I must now enter my mind palace.
Can it be done, these next three? It’s not as simple as it sounds, because now I must in my heart allow my feminism and my fandom to duke it out, and there can only be one victor. I have had a series of conversations with my nearest and dearest these last few days, and I think that you can tell a lot about a person via their top three Sherlock rankings. My husband thinks that it’s got to be “Reichenbach Fall” on top, followed by “A Study in Pink,” with “Scandal in Belgravia” bringing up the rear. I disagree, but while writing this, I did swap two rankings.
The mind is ever-evolving.
*
Let’s start by discussing “A Study in Pink,” because when I pit “Reichenbach” and “Scandal” against each other, I become very upset, because I don’t think “A Study in Pink” deserves to be only the third-best episode. “A Study in Pink” does, like, 40% of the heavy lifting for the rest of the series. Pilots (we are leaving the un-aired original pilot out of our rankings, but it’s a DVD extra in the first season, I believe) are always horrible, they usually seem tremendously inferior to the rest of the show, and it’s rarely their fault. “A Study in Pink” avoids almost all the pitfalls of its species, while still managing to do the “oh, hi, I’m John, are we living together, then? Who’s our landlady? Oh, the police call you in on things? You’re DREADFULLY clever” mechanics we can’t possibly do without.
The cab driver is chilling. Chilling and perfect. Really, my only tiny concern with “A Study in Pink” is Sherlock’s little “but I have to know if I chose the right pill!” hissy fit when John takes out the cabbie, because, um, GO TO THE LAB and have the pill with your fingerprints on it tested for poison, numbnuts.
But, no, it’s just a fabulous, fabulous episode, and I can find very little fault with it.
*
And now we come to “The Reichenbach Fall.”
“Reichenbach” is one of the best television episodes of anything, ever, which is hard for me to say, because my least favourite thing in the WORLD, and every fucking show does it (it’s essentially 75% of Rockford Files episodes) is to say “oh, you know what would be exciting and edgy and different? Let’s have everyone think our hero is actually an ANTIHERO, for a whole episode, and he’ll be disgraced and his friends will slowly distance themselves and then we’ll see him squirm.”
I hate it. HATE it. But when it’s ninety minutes, it seems like less of a cheap gag, and it was honestly worth it to me to see Moriarty give Sherlock that “haHA” face when he’s pretending to cower in front of him and the tabloid lady is doing her “YOU repel MEEE” rejoinder.
SIDEBAR FOR STRIDENT FEMINIST RANT:
Women are always the worsttttttttt on this show! If I see a picture of Sally Donovan, I want to strangle her. I would never, ever complain about Lestrade, because Rupert Graves is the MOST, but maybe we could have gender-swapped Lestrade and Donovan, so the female POC got to be the friend and ally whose mind is slowly poisoned against Sherlock by a wily and jealous white dude? Anderson is perfect and loathsome, I just get really uncomfortable about how much I hate Sally Donovan, and I choose to blame Moffatt for missing an opportunity to do something more interesting. And then, again, our gullible journalist friend!
The weird subplot with all the international assassins was also unnecessary.
It’s still an incredible episode, it swung for the fences, and that panoramic shot with Moriarty playing “Staying Alive” on the roof and then AND THEN when he shoots himself because Sherlock is going to chew each of his veins until he squeaks? I love it.
*
I actually have to think that my husband putting “A Scandal in Belgravia” in the third spot is a bit of a victory for constantly bombarding your male oppressor with strident feminist rants, because all of my objections to “Scandal” are political in nature. Shall I enumerate them?
It is actually my favourite episode, and this becomes more apparent to me as I make my own case against it:
1. Irene is ultimately outwitted by Sherlock, a decision which is somehow less progressive than that made by Conan Doyle in the 3rd century A.D.
2. She is not outwitted in a true battle of wits, she is outwitted because of womanly emotions.
3. I mean, too, you can see how they work overtime to prevent Sherlock ever losing a fair fight to her (except for the big one). She DRUGGED and BEAT HIM to get her phone back the first time, for heaven’s sake.
4. I also just cannot cannot cannot abide “brainy is the new sexy,” only partly because a young man once said to me “you’re sexy because you’re so smart” at an almost unbelievably ill-timed moment and now I have to lift weights three days a week so that if I ever see him again I can cleanly rip his head from his neck and then do wall slams with it.
5. He doesn’t just outwit her, he has to save her, too. So, not only does he get to win, he gets to be the hero, too. If he’d outwitted her, and she wound up dead, that’s some character-building complexity.
No, that’s basically the feminist case, here. But I love it, I love every moment of it. The Christmas interlude where Molly Hooper tells him what a bag of dicks he is, and he makes his little apology-kiss. Irene’s CLOTHES. Irene’s femme-y henchwoman who yearns for her. Oh, right:
6. It’s ridiculous that Irene is ostensibly mostly drawn to women and she doesn’t make out ONCE with her henchwoman.
But Mycroft, guys, Mycroft getting his “YA BURNT” text message from Moriarty and then just sitting there, grimly, at his desk. The Coventry thing in general, just…so good. When the Americans rough up Mrs. Hudson, and Sherlock lets it off the leash for a few minutes to fuck the CIA guy up. And, then, the payoff final scene when everyone is happy and he tosses the phone up in the air…gets me every time, even as I resent it.
So, then, a decision must be made.
*
1(c) The Reichenbach Fall
1(b) A Study in Pink
1(a) A Scandal in Belgravia
(leaps off roof of St Bartholmew’s Hospital with arms outstretched; nothing a woman does should be criticized)
Tags: beauty, benedict cumberbatch, christian brown I will block your ip if you come on this post to talk shit about sherlock, sherlock, television, this is my blog and no one can stop me except mallory and she shows me exquisite condescension
It is no exaggeration to say that the anticipation of this post today (with foreknowledge from Nicole’s Twitter) made the prospect of going to work tolerable. OK NOW TO READ.
YEP LIVED UP TO EXPECTATIONS.
I understand your feminist argument against Scandal, but it’s the one I most repeatedly come back to. And seriously, Hound of the Baskervilles is what bores me to tears EVERY TIME even with Bandicoot Cheekbones in it, so I’d rank that last.
I CANNOT WAIT FOR JANUARY FIRST, NICOLE. I AM SO EXCITED. (er, hello NSA and FBI, I most definitely meant January 19. I would never troll shady websites for BBC shows the day they’re aired.)
I have STILL not been able to get through Hound, and I have tried multiple times. Zzzzzzz.
I feel like…I understand why the choices were made the way they were; after thinking about it for Way Too Long, Hound of the Baskervilles really is hard to update without serious modifications (technology kind of ruins it all). But those modifications also took away everything I love about the original: the gothic atmosphere, the fish-out-of-water thing with Watson, the knowing someone you’re there to protect could die at any moment, and you’re only the second-best person to stop it, and you’re all alone…
I get why the update was done the way it was. I just wish it hadn’t been necessary.
Let’s just all read that gender flipped slash Sophia linked to last week eff our canon oppressors.
(No but seriously I’m re-watching series 1 and 2 in advance of the 19th. MJoy is advocating skipping the “bad” episodes, but I’ll probably end up watching them while toddler is napping because oh god cheekbones and wit.)
I stayed up late last night reading that link. I’ve now had some very confused dreams and thoughts about Sherlock all day. Not sure if I can ever watch Sherlock the same way.
“oh, hi, I’m John, are we living together, then? Who’s our landlady? Oh, the police call you in on things? You’re DREADFULLY clever”
PLEASE WRITE AN ENTIRE EPISODE OF SHERLOCK USING ONLY THIS STYLE OF EXPOSITORY DIALOGUE
No mention of the Moriarty crown jewels dance-off to the Rossini overture?! That was the highlight of the episode for me. Especially considering it wasn’t even part of the script- he just made up his own little demented dance while preparing to smash a bunch of glass.
Sidenote, I need a looping video of Moriarty drawling “and honey, you should see me in a crown” in that weird American accent.
HIS ACCENT! Man, so that tripped me up for a really long time but apparently it’s a middle class Dublin accent which is just fascinating to me.
Hahahaha this is hilarious to me, I’m Irish and people from that part of Dublin (D4, if you’re wondering) take a LOT of shit for having supposedly American accents. I always thought it was just generically ‘posh’ but the fact that it reads as genuinely American to not-Irish peeps is kind of great, and gives me great ammunition against my lovely cousins from that part of the world.
It does sound kind of American to this American! But there’s these these random hints of not being an entirely American accent that was driving me nuts when I originally watched. [I’m generally terrible with identifying the finer nuances of different accents.]
I honestly took it as a sign of Andrew Scott’s commitment to his craft that he decided to use that accent for his character, but after some quick reading I’m wondering if that’s just his accent.
My spouse is from Mt Merrion & everyone who hears I married an Irishman is all ‘ohhh, he must have a sexy accent, lucky you!’ and I’m all ‘yeah. not.’ (not that I’m not lucky.)
Ohh there are so, so, so many not sexy Irish accents. Like, there are maybe three to four out of the whole country that I personally think are nice sounding (Donegal, Cavan, North Cork) and so many more are cringe inducing (I’m looking at you Kerry!) (Even though Michael Fassbender is from Kerry, but he’s from EAST Kerry, it’s different).
I didn’t know I had so many feelings about this! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ocWVgmkUSk) <— example of a decidedly non sexy Irish accent. (Sorry about the annoying long link)
I know some folks from Kerry (I spent a summer or so playing gaelic football) and as mentioned before, I’m terrible with accents so I didn’t think there was anything distinctly different about theirs!
TANGENT:
Also, I didn’t know Michael Fassbender is Irish, but he makes my ladyparts all swoony so I had to look up an interview to hear his normal accent. And then I came across this interview of McAvoy and Fassbender being interviewed for XMen and now I don’t know if I want to sleep with them or if I want them to sleep with each other.
Why are you limiting this to a twosome? Think, rkfire, think!
That occurred to me after I wrote and fixed the html code in that comment, but I don’t know if I’d be able to handle that! I would probably pass out after a few glorious minutes..
My MIL is from North Cork, so my main opinion on that accent is “please, please, you’ve lived in south Dublin for almost 60 years, can’t you try a little to be easier for your American grandsons to understand you? Just on the phone, at least?”
A *lot* of Irish accents sound vaguely American to me. That particular accent sounds more American than most in a ‘faking an American accent’ sort of way, but the rhythms of other Irish accents have fooled me before (if only for a few minutes). It’s kinda fun but then leaves me wondering why, if I’m so easily led into thinking I’m hearing an American talking, I still have so many problems understanding Irish people.
That post is fantastic. Thanks!
Sidenote, I need a looping video of Moriarty drawling “and honey, you should see me in a crown” in that weird American accent.
I just want you to know that this made me chortle.
wait but NICOLE if she DIED then it would just be another WOMAN DIES SO MAN’S CHARACTER ARC CAN BE FURTHER STEEPED IN COMPLEXITY
feminist conundrum!!!!
We have to cut him in half. It’s the only way to know.
Sherlock in the series is more or less a sociopath so I don’t imagine he would be terribly bothered
My husband loves A Scandal in Belgravia so much that he now refers to it as The Episode.
Thumbs up for your husband and your screen name
Thanks! I’m a big fan of both. 😉
I am amazed when people like A Scandal in Belgravia. I hate it. HATED it. Not as much as The Blind Banker but still. I don’t know why the people who make Sherlock Holmes adaptions seem to dislike the original Irene so much, because she is perfect. She’s smart, and cunning, and down-to-earth and practical and all of her brilliant outthinking of Sherlock is done entirely with the purpose of getting people to just leave her the hell alone to live her life in peace, which she does once she outwits them all. Instead we get some saucy dominatrix mastermind who seems addicted to drama and takes her clothes off at inappropriate times for Reasons and falls in love with Sherlock and then needs him to save her.
Even Elementary, much as I love it, couldn’t do a proper Irene. I love the character, but all she has in common with the original Irene is the name.
Also, I miss Donna, etc. *waves appropriately supportive pitchfork*
Yessss. Hated it. Making her into a mostly-gay sex worker who falls hopelessly in love with the male hero is basically the most Moffatty thing Moffat could possibly do to a female character and FLAMES. FLAMES ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE. Why is this man allowed to infiltrate everything I love and fill it with gross privileged white cis man fappery?
And I love YOU for THIS. Burning! Heaving! Breathless! Heaving breaths!
I love you for using the phrasing “mostly gay” which is my most favorite way to describe myself and, well, nearly everyone I like.
valid valid valid
I love you for this.
And here I thought I was the only one.
I am so happy you posted this, I thought I was all alone in this camp. THANK YOU.
But Elementary’s version of Irene is one of the best parts! I think the most fundamental part of that character is that she can outwit Sherlock, which that version handily did.
I love her too! I just wish she had had another name, because if all they’re going to keep from the original is that she’s smart they might as well make her a new character. Elementary seems to do a generally good job with female characters. I wish we’d get more Miss Hudson.
Definitely more Miss Hudson. And more Clyde!
I was so excited for Scandal in Belgravia, even though my friend warned me about all of the un-progressive stuff, because seeing confident men cowed by pretty ladies is yes, but I was just… so put off by the way they handled Adler. For all that she was primarily gay, there was a whole lot of male gaze going on in the way she was written and filmed.
(Maybe I’m imagining things, but the camera seemed to objectify her rather than letting her be in control of her sexuality–did anyone else feel that way? Am I making things up? I just remember feeling that that was not how a dominatrix ought to be filmed.)
So yes. I hated it also.
JUSTICE HAS BEEN DONE.
I did NOT like the way they made Irene Adler love Sherlock so much that it was her undoing. It’s basically a reversal of everything that was cool about her in the book – she was the only one to ever outwit him (he should never have been able to get her password, and I never read her as sloppily sentimental) and in this she’s so attracted to him – sexually, even though she’s a lesbian, not just intellectually… I like the way BC acted Sherlock’s feelings towards her, but almost everything else about it is wrong.
COME AT ME BRO.
I try to justify Irene in my head, like, well, she sort of won because she made Sherlock care enough about her to trek to the Middle East and infiltrate a bunch of terrorists, but I know I’m bullshitting myself. She just ain’t a feminist character and that’s that. I still think the episode is fun enough to transcend how she’s written and I’m holding out hopes for Molly being the woman this show finally treats right.
I’m not convinced he didn’t talk Molly into letting him kill and wear her as a woman-suit to escape notice. We’ll find out!
I have super confident spoilers as to how he survived that and I am so giddy about them and I want to be like THIS IS HOW but then I’m like “KEEP IT UNDER YOUR HAT.”
A-hem. This is a show by Moffat, Molly will be lucky to make it out without being referred to as a Clever Girl and being replaced by a velociraptor/the girl who plays Clara.
Thanks for your restraint. I can’t stand spoilers. Cuz they spoil things!
🙂
My dream version of Belgravia is just like, 3 minutes longer, where Irene lured Sherlock to the Middle East so he could stick his junk into his savior complex and then ALL THE LIGHTS ARE ON IT’S A TRAP IRENE LEAVES, CACKLING INTO THE NIGHT, and Sherlock shows up at the beginning of Baskerville having had to hitch a ride home to England on a dolphin. The dolphin was just as big of a bag of dicks as Sherlock. Then Sherlock was about to understand the concept of empathy, but the dolphin kicked him to the white cilffs of Dover and fucked off while Sherlock comically slid down to the beach, groaning like a Looney Tunes character.
Clicking the thumbs-up until my index finger breaks.
This fixed everything and I love you. I really kept expecting some kind of PSYCH SHE’S THE GENIUS AFTER ALL moment at the end, which would have been cool and opened the door to bring her back again for some more sexy pseudo-adversary. But no… she just… is in love. The dumbest.
OMG DYING.
That would be great, but my dream version of “Scandal in Belgravia” would be half an hour shorter overall (as well as, now, incorporating your improved ending). Way too much of Irene in and out of Sherlock’s life and strange gambits and emotional reactions from Sherlock that can’t quite be parsed. Too many changes of direction. Granted, this is a problem with all the episodes, which is why I maintain that they need to be no more than an hour long each. They are so overwrought.
But I love the moment in this episode in which John interrupts that silence with “HAMISH.”
Oh, and the unqualified first spot would go to the version of “Scandal in Belgravia” that Benedict and I wrote together and made more progressive and involved pushups and horses.
This is Rupert Graves related: Has anyone seen the early 2000’s remake of The Forsythe Saga? It’s great, and Rupert Graves is great, and Damien Lewis is even better.
LET’S ALSO TALK ABOUT MAURICE
CAN WE NEVER STOP TALKING ABOUT MAURICE
I love Maurice so much that whenever I hear Tchaikovsky’s 6th symphony, I think, “Oh, there’s the Maurice music.” And then I daydream about Rupert Graves.
YYESSSSSS. I’m due for a rewatch of that, actually. I love that series so much. Although not quite as much as Duchess of Duke Street, but that’s for another thread.
That was actually my first exposure to Damien Lewis, and it later made watching Homeland a weird experience. Soames!!!
Mine was Dreamcatcher, and I think that is why I have such a soft spot for that movie. Damn you, Damian Lewis!
Damien Lewis was in a short lived series called “Life” and was marvelous. The show started out pretty good but then devolved into a mess. Instead of his partner in practical police clothes the first season, the second season, they put her in form fitting pants and heeled boots…f’rinstance. Yet he came out of it intact.
However, nothing can top the spittle-flecked fury of Soames.
I LOVED that show. Everybody was so good in it. I do need to watch the second season though.
*clears throat gently*
Watch it, you little cockroach.
I think it’s best if we all imagine this like the Key and Peele Excessive Celebration Sketch. How close can I get to [REDACTED] before I’m banned?
The “brainy is the new sexy” thing is a tangled mess. For someone as old as the hills, like me, you lived through a time where the conventional wisdom was that smart women repel men. Or maybe just the “right” men, because I for one always found brains attractive. So, you know, you want to be encouraging. Also, it’s different if one has had daughters. (Yes, I can expound on the value of a dollar AND on why my daughter is both the smartest and the sexiest woman in the world, except for her sister. But I don’t watch football.)
But many women these days appear to want intellectual pursuits to be a refuge away from the pressures of sexuality, and thus a comment to the effect of “You’re really sexy when you talk about Lie Algebras and group homology” (And yes, that’s something I’ve wanted to say, but didn’t) is not generally welcome.
Let me clarify: I had just removed my clothes.
Ouch! Ok, that’s different territory than what I was thinking.
He deserves a horrible public shaming and THEN death.
Am I the only one who liked Hound of the Baskervilles? It had some brilliantly funny moments, and also Russell Tovey, who is a treat, ears and all.
And up until the last few minutes, I didn’t like The Great Game that much. So I’d switch those two.
I am right with you, however, on the loving and not wanting to love Belgravia. Because yes Bad For Feminism, but OMG SO GOOD. (Somebody find that “liking things that are problematic” tumblr post and pass it around, okay?)
Anyway, my own ranking is
6)Blind banker (like i think i’ve only watched this one 6 times or so, and always because i’m showing the series to someone else for the first time so we have to watch them all)
5)Great game (golem? that crying old lady? the rest of it? nope.)
4) Baskervilles (honestly i’d argue for a top 4. I have a friend who’s creeped out by Moriarty so she loves this one.)
3) Study in Pink (go find and watch the original pilot, it’s worth it to see how much a thing can improve)
2) Belgravia (I wish I could quit you)
1) Reichenbach (Mostly because of the use of music? And absolutely everything Moriarty does – It’s on DVD!)
BASKERVILLE HAD VACATION!LESTRADE.
Okay, mad ups to Vacation!Lestrade and his light tan and jovial good spirits.
IS THAT WHY YOU’RE CALLING YOURSELF GREG?!
best moment
My friend calls him Summer Fun Lestrade and it’s the greatest thing.
I love Hounds of Baskerville! Russell Tovey is great, watching Sherlock unravel a little is great, John pulling rank and getting them into the building is great… The plot is not as good as some of the other episodes, but I love watching it.
I like watching it too! Showing Sherlock freaking out a bit, solidifying his friendship with John… it’s a great set-up for Reichenbach. Plus I love the “Well, that was tedious” beginning and of course the shot of The Frustrated British Government:
I loved Hounds of Baskerville because I am a big fan of horror and I thought it ticked off the standard tropes beautifully. I’ve found that people who aren’t fans of classic horror movies don’t like Hound and people who are, do.
Nicole you’re so right about the pilot- so much of what I like about later, dickish Sherlock episodes is grandfathered in from the pilot, AUUGGGGHHH.
But Baskerville edges out the Great Game for me because it gave us this masterpiece:
Oh my god it’s the Shai-Hulud.
This one is my favorite:
WHAT IS THIS PERFECTION
I linked the picture to the original tumblrer(?) who put it together! SHE’S BRILLIANT
I am 40% excited to watch actual new Sherlock episodes, 40% excited for Nicole’s coverage of it and 20% still holding out for Nicole to magically take over all of my favorite TV shows and/or rewrite them here, expository dialogue optional.
I would watch that panoramic shot of Moriarty on the roof playing “Staying Alive” over and over again. And MAYBE I HAVE.
I can never pick favorites of *anything*, so kudos to you for even attempting it. That’s about all I can reasonably say at this point because most of my energy is being spent alternately avoiding and reloading my Tumblr dash for Season 3 crap. And maybe re-reading some of my favorite fics. I wish the BBC would realize that humans weren’t made to deal with this sort of tension and anticipation. Jesus.
I loved this show, and then I hated this show, and I actually haven’t watched Riechenbach Fall (first because my best friend died and I didn’t think I could handle it, and then because I got grumpy at the show in general), but damn if I probably won’t watch the new season when it’s on.
If you’re thinking about watching Reichenbach in the next few weeks before season 3 airs, it’s brilliant but really incredibly heartbreaking at the end. If you haven’t spoiled yourself for what exactly happens, and what Sherlock and John say and do in the last few scenes, possibly do so before watching?
I don’t want to watch Reichenbach Fall until I can immediately watch the following episode where everything gets worked out (I mean, to the extent that it will be worked out).
Oh, Nicole, sometimes I think we’re the same person. Or that I am in a coma, and just dream I am you. Because I would rank the Sherlock episodes Exactly. The. Same. For the same reasons. You are the only person I would willingly cede Benedict to…because I know that you love him like I do. But you do it better. (also, the comment about not trolling for the episode on 1/1 made me laugh out loud).
I’m really glad you mentioned the Sally Donovan thing, because the character of Sally Donovan pretty much encapsulates why I’m profoundly uncomfortable with Moffat’s Sherlock. It’s like, she has every reason to be suspicious of Sherlock or to just plain not like him, she and Sherlock are cruel to each other, but the show just completely vilifies Sally. It’s part and parcel of how anyone whose life doesn’t revolve around Sherlock or who doesn’t admire/appreciate him is THE WORST EVER ZOMG .
I don’t know if I’m explaining it right, but it’s gross to watch. Moffat’s Sherlock is a straight up asshole who behaves rather inappropriately about and around crime scenes, and is inconsiderate of others at best and outright cruel at worst, but the narrative of the show seems to want me to think he’s totally awesome. I ended up bouncing off the show because I disliked the Sherlock characterization so much, but my discomfort started from the very first time Sally Donovan appeared.
I still maintain that Sherlock mostly butchers Conan Doyle’s stories, and if it didn’t have Cumberbatch and Freeman in it, no one would watch it.
I agree with a lot of what you’re saying but I really only like Scandal if I pretend the last few minutes didn’t happen. The conclusion shows exactly what’s wrong with how Moffat writes female characters.
How do you feel about how Sherlock and John, anytime someone assumes they’re a couple, are like NOPE NOPE NO GAYS HERE. I mean, I’m not saying that every show in which two characters have sexual tension has to make them a couple, but sometimes the way this show handles it is too much for me. Like why would that be so bad, why do you have to deny this possibility so very very strenuously?
This article was super fun to read! When the new episodes air, can we have an open thread here to discuss?
“No homo” is literally the lowest form of humor. Imagining Moffat scrolling through fanfiction and muttering about the tragic corruption of the noble virtues of manly love is all that sustains me.
Hahaha. I love the idea that me reading Sherlock/John slash fic is infuriating the Moff.
I guess it’s some kind of progress that you can now have two male characters on TV that everyone assumes are a couple, instead of the bog standard male / female dichotomy.
THIS IS SO CLOSE TO MY RANKING! I think I put Reichenbach above Pink, but that’s it. And those top three are just unassailable. Such good TV. I judge myself a lot for having Scandal at the top of my list since Irene is just a barrel of problems, but I think it’s still the best because it’s the most character-driven, daily (this is how they all spend their holidays), familial (the Holmes bros), and complete. AND IRENE AND JOHN’S CONVERSATION. And Sherlock and Mycroft in the morgue. And the pirate line. The pirate line is the only reason to keep watching after Mycroft says the line about the dominatrix that brought a nation to its knees (this is a good time to shout “THE END!!!” and turn off your TV.) I can’t wait to see you reboot it. The crofter’s cottage version will be perfect.
A Study in Pink is my favorite, mostly because I love Martin Freeman more than Bendiman Cootersnatch. I may have watched the end of that episode, when Watson is a giant badass, more than *ahem* a few times.
It’s a bit disappointing that he hasn’t yet been written up as being the badass he was set up to be in Study in Pink. He shoots the cabbie without hesitation in that episode but then gets captured and tied up in both subsequent episodes? Not to mention in Great Game he can’t shoot the Golem character?
If I’ve got to be the one to say it, fine, but the TV show’s version of Moriarty is awful. So much ACTING, like somebody took late-period Al Pacino’s soul and injected it into Giovanni Ribisi.
The Sherlock Holmes shows turned out to be a lot like the faux-SNL shows that cropped up however many years ago – everybody expected the pedigreed version (Sherlock / Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) to be the superior one, but the “lowbrow” version (Elementary / 30 Rock) turned out to be better shows. Go figure.
THANK YOU. For the comment about Moriarty, I mean. I don’t think Andrew Scott is a good actor. I’m rather embarrassed for him. So much overacting, so many tricks and voices and facial expressions thrown in there as if to say, “I’m blowing your MINDS right now, aren’t I?”
For the rest, I will say there is a lot I dislike about BBC “Sherlock” (episodes too long, too many plot holes, poor writing of women), but I still love it deeply overall and am really excited for January 1st I mean 19th. And, for the record, my episode rank goes:
1. Study in Pink
2. Unaired pilot
3. Hounds
4. Reichenbach
5. The Great Game
6. The Blind Banker
Whoa, whoa, wait, this show that everyone’s been obsessing about constantly for the last couple YEARS only has six episodes TOTAL? I had no idea. Christ, no wonder the fandom is so rabid. It’s like the wait between Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix.
Hahahahaha! Ha haha…
a-heh-heh…. *sob*
yes only 6
It is slightly obscene how much I love this show… and Benadryl Crackersnaps. Like, I am an adult woman who has a tumblr dedicated to how much I love Sherlock. I’m not going to lose my mind over it, but yeah, my love grows deep for this show. And could not agree more about Scandal. My heart loves it if only for blessing us with the scarf gif, but as soon as I think too much about the ending I start rolling my eyes (Irene could’ve saved herself, surely!) I think I’d go with your husband’s ranking on this, but only because there can’t be a three-way tie for first.
this is a totally valid criticism and everything but i still want to shake people by the shoulders and shout "HAVE YOU READ THE SPECKLED BAND" at them whenever it is raised.
Hahaha. I love the idea that me reading Sherlock/John slash fic is infuriating the Moff.
YES, I want to see a young Holmes. In fact, when I first heard there was going to be a new Sherlock series called “Elementary,” I almost cried when I found out it was not, in fact, a version where a grade-school Holmes develops his sleuthing skills on the playground.
Interesting take. I see what you mean, but it just didn't ring true for me. The way he emphasizes words unnecessarily and screws up his face into various expressions that don't approximate any emotion I recognize… for example, the way he looks and sounds when he says, "I will … BURN the HEARRRT! out of you."
Maybe I just have a thing about Andrew Scott. (I.e., that "I don't like him" thing.) I know that his scene from "Angels in America" during the National Theatre 50th anniversary broadcast brought a lot of people to tears, but I was completely bored by it. Judi Dench's "Send in the Clowns" is what floored me. As a child of the '70s, I've always detested that song, but she brought things out in it that I didn't know where there. Anyway, just so you know I do like some things. 🙂
Huh? Could you elaborate pls? I've never heard that opinion before.
Nicole, can you work a mention of Sherlock or Cumberbatch into a story every day until Series 3 airs? Even oblique allusions count. We could have fun finding them. 😉
That being said, I’m curious, since you’re a fellow Cumberbatch Connoisseur: as much as I love your take on Cumby as sexy, romantic hero, have you noticed how bro-oriented he is? As literate and expressive as he seems, he’s also actually a bit of a daredevil (skydiving makes him “horny”) and seems to love hanging out with the dudes and bro-ing it up–in a cultured, British fashion, of course. I like your version just a tiny bit better than the real-life one. Maybe I just like my men more ladylike or something, but the more I learn about him, the less romantic he seems. Great guy, fascinating actor, lovable, but really more of a guy’s guy than a ladies’ man.
I give you props for being willing to choose favorites. Have not seen any of the S2 eps in over 2 years I’d be hard pressed. Id have to say TBB would be in the bottom slot and ASiB number one (I feel the feminist argument but this is ART) and ASiP as number two. I’m tied with Hounds and The Fall for third. I guess is have to say The Fall in third for pure genius. And making me believe Sherlock was really dead and it was over and breaking my heart. So that puts us as Hounds in fourth and TGG at fifth but those last two just don’t feel fair. Gee thanks a lot. Great analysis tho and thanks for touching on Donovan. Undervalued and vilified yes, but she called it like she saw it, ‘One of these days we will be standing around a body and he will be the one who put it there. Because he’s a psychopath.’ Let’s be honest, we all think this is more than plausible.