I finally caught up with the Christmas special on BBC i-Player before it expired. I liked the show’s version of the 19th century Holmes and wondered if the physival similarity between Cumberbatch’s old Holmes and Jeremy Brett was deliberate. I also thought the dialogue was as witty as usual. I particularly lied Watson’s ‘I’m an Army Doctor, I could break every bone in your body and name them while I was dong it’.
I think the hat choice scene was a callout to Brett, because Brett wore a Homburg or whatever the hell that is, not a deerstalker.
Oh hey, you can watch this on your Apple TV with the PBS app now. I did it that way for free. I had to register, but not actually pay for anything.
It’s available on all the PBS channels I believe, Amazon and Roku too.
I thought the hair style looked very similar too.
I believe Season 4 is premiering this Sunday evening. Zap2It tells me my cable provider is airing it on a couple different channels, but the TiVO at lunch showed nothing “upcoming” so I’m kind of confused. I’ve never been able to TiVO this show (the Christmas Special didn’t record either) so I think I’ll contact my cable co and get a definitive answer, but for everyone that can reliably watch BBC stuff, enjoy!
Ooh, thanks for the heads-up. My local PBS station is airing it at 9:00 Sunday night. Check your local listings!
I was going to tell you where to go @Scotch_Lufkin because I assumed is was the real BBC and not us in the states, but it is in the States! Now I’m excited too.
Well, that episode was pretty disappointing.
(major spoilers ahead!)
[spoiler]The way they handled Mary was always super strange. She got introduced fairly abruptly, then suddenly she’s a spy, then she’s no longer a spy, then she’s pregnant. Oh now she’s dead.
I wish Sherlock would just focus on solving interesting cases. This James Bond-esque stuff is pretty awful.[/spoiler]
I wasn’t disappointed, but yeah, so much, so quickly. Hyperkinetic in a couple of senses. The hasty rush down the checklist from banter to serious dialogue to action, etc. bothered me this time around.
(Following on from LMN8R’s spoiler)
[SPOILER]Yeah, they really put Rosamund/Mary’s plots on fast forward. I’ve liked what they’ve been doing with the character, but “Oh, also: doomed” kind of came out of left field.
Also, her death scene was way over the top, and I’m not sure I trust the show vis-a-vis her actual status. If they were putting it on to throw off an as-yet-unseen audience, OK, but of course if that’s the case, then sheesh, really?[/SPOILER]
Has anybody heard of the fairly recent Russian Sherlock miniseries? If you can bear subtitles it’s all on Youtube, and worth watching.
spoiler regarding ending:
super agent mary would have certain had her wits about her to come to the aquarium armed or do something better to block the shot than jump out comically like that
Oh good, they led with my least favorite story-line. Count me as a member of the disappointed crowd too.
My half-hearted attempt to justify: Sherlock in his usual manner didn’t exactly give specifics about why Mary needed to show up, did he? Also, parent sleep deprivation can destroy wits.
Hey, Barcode, thank you for the heads-up!
I had not heard of it before, but I have just finished with the first episode, and I thought it was excellent.
Link here to the first episode.
After six years I am finally caught up with Sherlock and can read this thread!
I had a bit of a hard time warming up to the series, since on the one hand it constantly tips its hat to Conan Doyle while with the other hand giving classic Holmes the finger. Plus it’s so damn hyperactive - everyone from the writer to the director to the actors act like they have to keep up a breakneck pace every single second or the world will end.
Eventually I realized the show is the TV equivalent of the sort of people who are simultaneously annoying and charming. They talk nonstop, they make terrible puns and jokes nobody laughs at, they confabulate obviously untrue stories about themselves, they basically act like a toddler saying “Look at me, look at me, look at me” every single moment of their lives. At some point you face a choice: either walk away, or just give into it and admire how brightly their animal spirits burn. Once I surrendered to Sherlock’s animal spirits somewhere in season 2, I learned to find it all quite entertaining, elite assassin nurses and all.
The “mysteries” are terrible though, with the most recent episode being a prime example. The initial teaser mystery is very silly: someone decides to dress up as a car seat and then just happens to die from a seizure and then a week later is randomly rammed by a drunk driver.
Now that much I can, well not swallow, but at least chew; some of Conan Doyle’s stories contain similar absurdities. But then come the real non-sequiturs. For, as it turns out, no reason at all, the scene of the crime also happens to be the location of an unrelated Sherlock Holmes-worthy crime. Then we find out that hey, this random other crime also happens to involve Mary. The chances of all this happening in Mr. Whatsisname’s country estate at essentially the same time are 1/(some number greater than the number of elementary particles in the universe.) But the episode plows straight on, seemingly oblivious to the utter absurdity of it all. Then in the end the episode disappoints by falling back on the oldest, lamest device of TV mysteries: introducing a completely superfluous character at the start just so they can be whodunit in the end.
But here’s the thing: the show is really very good at what might be called Sorkin’s Tactic. Say something very fast with enough confidence and have the other characters act impressed, and the audience will think it’s clever, even if what’s said is banal or trivial or nonsensical. Throw a whole lot of things at the audience very fast and have the characters act impressed and the audience will think it’s goddamn brilliant. The joy of Sherlock is seeing just how fast they can fling the blarney.
Plus, as someone said upthread, the actors and the relationships are great. Like most modern versions of the Holmes-Watson relationship it’s not Conan Doyle’s at all, but rather Rex Stout’s superior Nero Wolfe-Archie Goodwin relationship. This is fine by me, because I like seeing the Great Detective called on his bullshit (but makes me a little sad, because now this dynamic has become attached to Holmes-Watson, the chance of us ever getting a truly outstanding TV Nero Wolfe is greatly reduced.) And of course Freeman and HumorousMispellingMeme are excellent.
Still, something needs to be done about the absurdities of this episode. So let’s fix it. This much might actually happen: Mary isn’t actually dead. She, with the assistance of John and Mycroft, faked her own death to keep her safe and teach that rascal Sherlock a lesson about faking deaths. She is now living with John in the guise of his TOTALLY UNRELATED WINK WINK bus flirtation, utilizing her accent and wig skills.
To really fix it we need to go a bit further: It wasn’t just Mary’s death that was faked, but rather all of it - AJ, the broken busts, everything. It was all set up by Mycroft and Mary to fool Sherlock (this also includes a murder, mind you, but hey, Mycroft and Mary have plenty of blood on their hands already.) As a bonus, this provides an excuse for the lameness of the secretary being behind it all - she was just one of Mycroft’s pawns in the deception.
This is of course silly and over the top. I think it would fit in wonderfully.
EDIT: Alternately, it’s twins. It’s always twins.
I’m very much on board with your theory. It’s the only way to explain how cheesy Mary’s final words were. Otherwise we might as well just give up on the show because frankly that episode was rubbish.
Unfortunately, I read an article regarding fan theories regarding the latest episode, debunked by Moffat. Mary is truly dead and this was their intention since she was introduced. They wanted Sherlock and poor John to deal with the cost of Sherlock’s hubris. Its meant to be the underlying theme for this season.
Of course that could all be smoke screen, its not like thats never happened before but I think he is being straight up on this one.
heres the article: http://www.blastr.com/2017-1-2/sherlock-showrunner-steven-moffat-season-4-premiere-shocker It goes without saying that within the story there are serious spoilers for the first episode
Was it just me or did the bus flirtation lady look a LOT like Zooey Deschanel with a different hair color (part of it was the trademark bangs). I actually had to look up the imdb page for the episode to make sure it wasn’t her.
While I think it really happened, it may be useful to reach across the BBC and remember law #1 for Doctor Who fans: Moffat lies.