While the episode is still fresh in my mind, I wanted to expound upon that which I enjoyed and did not care for as to this Victorian interpretation
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Let me preface this by saying I haven't see the ep yet. I suppose I'll eventually get around to it.
You've hit on exactly the thing that makes me so blah about Sherlock. If H%W are not Victorian gentlemen at heart and the best of friends as well, you have just another story.
If you make it so that their relationship only exists because of needy co-dependancy, you have nothing. This is the core aspect of the series which makes me unenthusiastic. Richard Roxburgh and Ian Hart had the same problem. Despite the fact that their Hound was beautifully filmed and very atmospheric, they acted as if they hated each other and worse, had no respect for each other, throughout the whole film and it completely missed out. By contrast,even though all the bickering got on my nerves, RDJ and JudeLaw had a firm grasp on that aspect of the characters.
Watson would never have been a jerk to a servant, because it simply wasn't done. Holmes would never be an over-the-top rude spoiled brat, because it simply wasn't done. No matter how entertaining those ideas are to present day 20-somethings, such things were just not done by gentlemen. If you don't get that, you don't have a handle on the real essence of Holmes and Watson as ACD wrote them, no matter how many little nods to canon you put in.
Stay on the soapbox ALL YOU WANT. Won't hear any complaints from me.
Personally, I think you hit the target in the center of the bullseye with the "needy co-dependency" comment. That is it, exactly with BBC Sherlock & John. It was, I must admit, very much toned down here than compared to series three, where their friendship was literally reduced to nothing but that co-dependency of two very disturbed individuals. If the special had been that bad, I would have thrown up my hands in disgust, but while there were instances of OOCness, at least it wasn't so overpowering anymore.
Watson would never have been a jerk to a servant, because it simply wasn't done.
Not only did they blast away Victorian ideals, that particular scene was done 100% purposefully to prove how wretched "heteronormative" men are, and how they deserved what they had coming. Because there was a whole deranged sub-plot surrounding a secret society of murderous suffragettes :/ Basically, women who were frustrated with their social status started killing their husbands dressed in wedding gowns (no subtext there, eh?) and SHERLOCK CONDONES THIS. No, he COMMENDS it. Because you feel wronged, or your husband tells you to go knit, then murder becomes justified for the "cause" you are fighting.
IMHO, that's nothing but vindication for extreme misogynists.
And I also agree with you, that's why I hated the (BBC?) version of HOUN with Roxborough/Hart. I found myself saying the same thing I did here - do the writers realize Holmes & Watson were actually friends? And you probably know the Ritchie movies are not my favorite, but I don't dislike them either. Not at all. I was literally getting antsy for SH 3 because maybe then we'll finally see a good Victorian adaptation again. And sorry, but the Moran /Moriarty in that movie were unbeatable, as was the plunging off the balcony scene in AGoS.
You've hit on exactly the thing that makes me so blah about Sherlock. If H%W are not Victorian gentlemen at heart and the best of friends as well, you have just another story.
If you make it so that their relationship only exists because of needy co-dependancy, you have nothing. This is the core aspect of the series which makes me unenthusiastic. Richard Roxburgh and Ian Hart had the same problem. Despite the fact that their Hound was beautifully filmed and very atmospheric, they acted as if they hated each other and worse, had no respect for each other, throughout the whole film and it completely missed out. By contrast,even though all the bickering got on my nerves, RDJ and JudeLaw had a firm grasp on that aspect of the characters.
Watson would never have been a jerk to a servant, because it simply wasn't done. Holmes would never be an over-the-top rude spoiled brat, because it simply wasn't done. No matter how entertaining those ideas are to present day 20-somethings, such things were just not done by gentlemen. If you don't get that, you don't have a handle on the real essence of Holmes and Watson as ACD wrote them, no matter how many little nods to canon you put in.
(ahem) climbing down off the soapbox now.
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Personally, I think you hit the target in the center of the bullseye with the "needy co-dependency" comment. That is it, exactly with BBC Sherlock & John. It was, I must admit, very much toned down here than compared to series three, where their friendship was literally reduced to nothing but that co-dependency of two very disturbed individuals. If the special had been that bad, I would have thrown up my hands in disgust, but while there were instances of OOCness, at least it wasn't so overpowering anymore.
Watson would never have been a jerk to a servant, because it simply wasn't done.
Not only did they blast away Victorian ideals, that particular scene was done 100% purposefully to prove how wretched "heteronormative" men are, and how they deserved what they had coming. Because there was a whole deranged sub-plot surrounding a secret society of murderous suffragettes :/ Basically, women who were frustrated with their social status started killing their husbands dressed in wedding gowns (no subtext there, eh?) and SHERLOCK CONDONES THIS. No, he COMMENDS it. Because you feel wronged, or your husband tells you to go knit, then murder becomes justified for the "cause" you are fighting.
IMHO, that's nothing but vindication for extreme misogynists.
And I also agree with you, that's why I hated the (BBC?) version of HOUN with Roxborough/Hart. I found myself saying the same thing I did here - do the writers realize Holmes & Watson were actually friends? And you probably know the Ritchie movies are not my favorite, but I don't dislike them either. Not at all. I was literally getting antsy for SH 3 because maybe then we'll finally see a good Victorian adaptation again. And sorry, but the Moran /Moriarty in that movie were unbeatable, as was the plunging off the balcony scene in AGoS.
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