The British T.V. Thread

[kostgard]

Jan 2, 2012 22:23:28 GMT -4 Carolina said:

Jan 2, 2012 18:46:44 GMT -4 kostgard said:

But I'm less disappointed about that than I am about the ending. I wanted Irene to really and truly win, like the original Irene. I liked that Sherlock was able to save Mycroft's ass a bit by handing the phone and the info over to him, but the whole point of Irene was that she beat Sherlock Holmes. And the original didn't develop a crush on him, she was married to someone else and in the end happily left with her husband (indicating that she was only keeping the incriminating photos of the king as leverage to make sure that he never bothered her again) and she didn't need to be saved by him. Maybe this was about making the characters less asexual/Victorian, but it just didn't quite work for me.

See, in this version I wanted Irene to end up in prison with the key thrown away or with her head lopped off because, IMO, she had it coming. In the original, all she had were some compromising photos of the prince of Bohemia whereas in this version she was sharing state secrets of the anti-terrorist variety with Moriarity. Bitch deserved her fate, not for Sherlock Holmes to rescue her.

Yeah, I can see that too. Ideally, I would have liked Irene like the original Irene -- honestly just trying to protect herself (and not gathering info in order to blackmail an assload of money out of the British government) and left town after out-smarting Sherlock Holmes. But they made her a criminal. While I wouldn't have minded if she got caught later (like, say, by the same group of terrorists) she still should have defeated Sherlock.

Instead she was undone because she apparently had spent the previous six months texting Sherlock about anything and everything (practically begging for a response) and doodling "Mrs. Irene Holmes" all over everything.

Okay, I'm gonna stop beating that drum. I just think I would have liked the storyline a lot more if Irene hadn't developed a crush on Sherlock.


As for the little girls -- their grandmother was obviously one of the dead bodies on the plane. I'll have to go back and watch again, but I think they either said their grandmother's body had disappeared or was replaced by someone who wasn't their grandmother (I'm leaning towards "disappeared" because why would they steal one dead body for their plane and replace it with another? I think she was just gone - like the guy who insisted that the ashes in his urn weren't human remains). Then one little girl asked what happens after you die, and Sherlock came back with that "they take you into a room and throw you in a big fire" line.

[Carolina]

Jan 2, 2012 22:58:16 GMT -4 kostgard said:

Ideally, I would have liked Irene like the original Irene -- honestly just trying to protect herself (and not gathering info in order to blackmail an assload of money out of the British government) and left town after out-smarting Sherlock Holmes. But they made her a criminal.

Completely agree. In fact, I think making her a criminal is one of the few missteps this show has made. What I've always liked about is that while they've adapted it for the 21st century and re-jigged the stories, the major characters are still the characters that Arthur Conan Doyle wrote. This Irene Adler is not ACD's Irene Adler.

While I wouldn't have minded if she got caught later (like, say, by the same group of terrorists) she still should have defeated Sherlock.

If they had to make Irene a criminal like they did, that would've been a much better ending than the one they went with.

Instead she was undone because she apparently had spent the previous six months texting Sherlock about anything and everything (practically begging for a response) and doodling "Mrs. Irene Holmes" all over everything.

Yeah, that was really lame. I kept expecting her to have a fiance show up like in the original since they kept focusing on that giant diamond apparently non-engagement ring she was wearing.

[kostgard]

Shifting gears -- I like that we got more Mycroft in this episode, because I'm pretty curious about the Holmes family dynamic. There have been some comments about "upsetting Mum" or whatever, but I get the feeling that something happened to make Sherlock resent Mycroft, and it isn't just the usual sibling rivalry.

Has anyone seen "Young Sherlock Holmes"? Came out some time in the 80s. In one part Sherlock is drugged and he has a flashback to his family, where his mother is crying and his father is very angry, and tells Sherlock something like "This is all your fault." I don't know if that was canon or not, but it felt like Mr. Holmes was up to no good doing something, and Sherlock, unable to let go when he's got a mystery, found out and it tore the family apart.

I wonder if they'll do something similar with this version. Maybe Sherlock found out something about Pa Holmes he shouldn't have. Hell, maybe Mycroft did -- ACD said that Mycroft was actually better at observation and deduction than Sherlock, but he just didn't have the same passion for it. Maybe Mycroft did the snooping and the result turned him off snooping for the rest of his life.

[MrsCatHead]

I think this is going to be one of those shows where I care about the characters but not the case/plot too much. Kind of like Firefly.

Did anyone else get really tired of the cheesy dominatrix innuendo?

ETA: Tumblr!

ETAA: Angry feminist

ETA yet again: I forgot to mention, does anyone else like the music? I LOVE it. It fits perfectly. Regarding the first season, I noticed that poor John never got to finish his food in restaurants/cafes. The first time, when his cane was delivered back to him, I was thinking, "What about his food? Why didn't the guy bring his food to him as well?"

[Malle Babbe]

Has anyone seen "Young Sherlock Holmes"? Came out some time in the 80s. In one part Sherlock is drugged and he has a flashback to his family, where his mother is crying and his father is very angry, and tells Sherlock something like "This is all your fault." I don't know if that was canon or not, but it felt like Mr. Holmes was up to no good doing something, and Sherlock, unable to let go when he's got a mystery, found out and it tore the family apart.

I love that movie and remember that scene. I have one weird theory that this particular version of Sherlock Holmes was actually a feral child found in the woods near the Holmes estate, and he was brought in by Ma and Pa Holmes (since someone had to put pants on the poor thing) and Mycroft got stuck with being the older sibling role model. It would go a long way towards explaining his not grasping the whole idea that while we do eat dead things, we should not store edible dead things with the non-edible dead things. That, and the whole not catching social cues and but being able to home in on physical details.

Completely random fact: the stained glass window hallucination scene was one of the first major movie effects done by Pixar. In 1985, no less.

I will give Moffat one thing; I was waiting for a scene in which Irene walks into a room of all our characters, and all of the guys get so fascinated with her that all of the other female characters get ignored/tuned out. You know, because they aren't sexy and fun like Irene is, and that's funny!!!

At least I didn't get that, and I am grateful. I did like the scenes between Sherlock and Mycroft on their whole social estrangement issues.

[kanding]

I just finished the first season of The Hour by the BBC. Incredible! I was breathless the last half hour, and just when I thought they were wrapping things up, they blew me away in the final two minutes.

Great, great television!

[Deleted]

Jan 7, 2012 18:14:06 GMT -4 kanding said:

I just finished the first season of The Hour by the BBC. Incredible! I was breathless the last half hour, and just when I thought they were wrapping things up, they blew me away in the final two minutes.

Great, great television!

Oh, good. I downloaded The Hour and Black Mirror at the same time and was so gobsmacked by the awesomeness of the latter that I forgot all about the former.

[chiquita]

I watched The Hour when they ran it on BBC America. I had mixed feelings. Each episode seemed to move at a snail's pace, but then some major thing would happen near the end, so I'd tune in the following week. I agree that the ending was really strong and unexpected.

[Deleted]

Last night's "The Hour" marathon paid off but the UK convention of six episodes per series could've been circumvented with tighter storytelling. The ease with which the performers fully-inhabited their roles was what drew me in and kept me watching, despite the implausibility of much of the gender politics.

[MrsCatHead]

finally watching the last season of Misfits. If I didn't love Kelly, I'd love her now.

"oi, Hitler!" <head butt> "Why you gotta be such a dick?"