Sherlock

[kostgard]

Jan 2, 2016 16:12:13 GMT -4 Martini Girl said:

I liked it better than season 3.
Some random observations WITH SPOILERS!:

1. Martin Freeman is still the better actor in this series. Cumberbatch dialed it back and didn't seem to be perpetually winking at the audience this time, for which I'm grateful. He seemed more at ease this time (compared to series 3). My favorite scenes were still Freeman/Cumberbatch talking.

2. I really hate Andrew Scott. Like really hate him. If he was a main character in series 4, I think I'd pass. I think his over-the-top antics are out of sync with the rest of the cast, and I truly don't understand why fans love him so much. (Aside- I hated him in Spectre too). He makes me twitch. I'm so glad Moriarty is DEAD! Dead, dead, dead!

3. As for Mycroft in the fat suit: In the original canon, Mycroft is morbidly obese. This didn't bother me.

4. I'm confused to the part Mary plays in the Victorian story. She kept saying Mycroft was the smarter brother (also in canon) and she trusted him more (that's why she was working for him), but all of this was done in Sherlock's mind palace. Does season 4 pick up with Mary in cahoots with Mycroft? I still don't trust her, and the huge problem I had with season 3 was her story arc. It didn't make sense, as I always believed Mycroft would have known that Mary was a spy, and the fact that she didn't have a past beyond 5 years should have been a dangerous red flag to him, yet he let her be around his beloved brother- even after she tried to kill him. So many questions!

5. Mofatt and Gatiss are never subtle, so does season 4 take us into a conspiracy.... led by women? Does this mean Mary is the ultimate big bad? Or is it Irene Adler? Or both? In the end, does Mycroft die like Redbeard? Does Sherlock spend the entire series high as a kite? These are questions I need answered!

I guess we'll know in a years' time.

I agree about Freeman and had similar thoughts last night. I've always thought Watson was the harder role, and Freeman has always nailed it.

I know Mycroft is heavy in the stories (and has been a running theme in the series with Mycroft fighting with his weight) but I'm just at my saturation point with the ridiculous-looking fat suits/makeup.

I'm also waiting for Mary to go evil or something too. Right now she's a little too perfect and just as smart as the Holmes brothers. Yet she has this very dark past everyone has agreed to sweep under the rug. It feels like she's a gun waiting to go off.

[tszuj]

I wish they'd just done a straight Victorian story and not faffed around with all the, dream/mind palace nonsense.

[Malle Babbe]

Jan 2, 2016 14:58:32 GMT -4 sugarhigh said:

My favorite bit was Sherlock mansplaining feminism to a bunch of women in purple KKK robes. What a shitshow.

I liked it up until this point. The orange seeds were a reference to the Five Pips case, in which the KKK is involved. Gee, Moffat, how do you REALLY feel about your female audience members and critics who watch your show despite your rendering of female characters?

That and I doubt he'd think well of an American writer waxing rhapsodic about the IRA?

I would have liked it better had it just been all set in the 1800s, it was neat to watch how they adapted the Sherlock-verse to the ACD setting (note the deer trophy where the cowskull-headphones thing is, and the skull litho where the skull silkscreen print is in the 21st century apartment.

That and the adhering to the lighting indoor scenes with the level of light that would have been available in the late 1800s.

[kostgard]

I, uh, flew to England and watch the first episode of season four, so I'll be kinda vague since I'm not sure if it is done airing on the East coast.

Not bad overalll, but it reminded me why Sherlock kinda lost me last season. This show used to be pure fun for me, and it's not so fun anymore. It's gotten much heavier, and with the events of this episode and current state of relationships, it won't be fun again for a while.

[Martini Girl]

co-sign.

It's getting bad reviews in England, and I can see why. Gatis is just trying to be so-so clever, and he's not. The whole Mary story line was poorly designed from the beginning and they really had no place to go with it.

If - like me - you believe Mycroft and Sherlock are superior intellects, then the episode falls flat from a logical standpoint. So.many.plot.holes!!

Even more disappointing, Martin really didn't have anything to do, and the bus interaction seemed out of place for his character. I also felt like they shoehorned Molly into a couple of scenes that really made no sense.

So disappointed.

[Ladybug]

I have a love/hate relationship with this show. I love when Sherlock and Watson are bantering and solving crimes. I have always hated the Mary storyline and her relationships with the two male leads. So, I was rooting for bus lady. I was happy about the ending, even though the plot made little sense. I just really hope we are done with that character.

[kostgard]

That is exactly what this show has been missing - the fun banter between Sherlock and John while they try to solve a case. That leads to my complicated feelings about Mary. I like her as a character, but I hate what her presence in this show did to the dynamic (and even with her gone, that's not going back to the way it was since John is now a widower and single father and blames Sherlock). I get that she kinda helped bridge the gap after Sherlock "died" and came back, but they would have found their way back without her, I think. And I get that she's pretty close to a female version of Sherlock, so it makes sense that John would have been drawn to her, but...meh. It just never quite worked for me. She was also a little too perfect sometimes. A Mary Sue/fifth wheel that sort of just threw the balance off. But I do admire the work that Amanda Abbington did, and realize that the fans made her job pretty awkward and thankless (and apparently she and Martin Freeman broke up right before they filmed this, so...awkward).

I also kinda wish that she had died purely because her past caught up with her. That was always a strong possibility. I wouldn't mind if it was Sherlock's arrogance that drove it so John would have a reason to hate him, but I didn't dig that she basically took a bullet for Sherlock.

I'm of two minds on John's chippie from the bus. On the one hand, he is extremely loyal, so this seems weird. On the other hand, he's always had an eye for the ladies, the exhaustion of parenthood may have left him feeling unsexy, and when Sherlock and Mary (who again, was lady Sherlock) teamed up like they had been on the case, John was the odd man out, and maybe he was feeling lonely. But I wonder if there isn't more to this lady, like she's some sort of plant. Was it a clue that when John saw her at the bus stop, there was a poster on the bus shelter with Toby Jones on it, who is playing this season's big baddie?

I'm not sure we've seen the last of her. I just hope she doesn't speak much. God, her voice was like Bubble from AbFab. I can see why John stuck to texting her.

I wish we could see Molly at her job again, not just being sad. And hook her up with Lastrade already.

[Deleted]

Watched it too and was torn as well. I kind of wish they could go back to solving crimes that have nothing to do with them or their loved ones. It really is too heavy for its own good and for what it intended to be in the first two seasons. The banter between Sherlock and John while being amazed at Sherlock's intelligence during the crime solving was what made the show and they took that away when they introduced Mary like that. This new development won't change that at all.

[technicolor]

It must be a balancing act for the showrunners. I can well imagine that they want to change things up and keeping John and Sherlock in one kind of dynamic might seem static and boring from a writer's point of view. OTOH, Cumberbatch and Freeman having such nice rapport together made the show in the first place. Another problem is that it's spaced out so much between seasons, but who could expect this turn of events? I can't think of another series where the leads had this kind of career explosion afterwards. It must be hella difficult to schedule things at all at this point, particularly with Cumberbatch. Obviously the actors are loyal and want to keep doing it as long as the showrunners are motivated, but perhaps the show has run its course now.

[Martini Girl]

But it seems like the showrunners are going out of their way to make seasons 3 & 4 the antipathy of seasons 1 & 2. Am I the only one who thought Martin was almost an afterthought in this past episode? For me, he's always been the reason I really loved the show. He's consistently great as Watson, and Gatiss just kind of shit on his character last season and the first episode of this season. (While letting Sherlock play wink-wink with the fanbase).

I have nothing against Amanda, but Mary was a horribly conceived character. A female-esque Sherlock.... who really, really loved living a humdrum life with Watson, then playing three-way detective with Sherlock and John after being a top-notch assassin for years. I never bought it. I also never believed that Sherlock would just forgive and protect her after she tried to kill him, then threaten him if he told John. It just seemed so out of character for him.

Apparently Toby Jones is the big bad this season. I hope they do something worthwhile with his character, and they knock off 90% of the smug. And I want Cumberbatch to have a lightness with the character again. He just seems so over it at this point.