The Final Problem, or, Sherlock's Last Bow...

[autumnatmidnite]

Last night, I finally found the time to give TFP a proper watch. From the fragments I saw when it originally aired, it made me angry over what this once great program had devolved into, but I think, having genuinely given it a chance, can say it was not half as torturous as was TST, and I am not angry with it anymore. Just sad. Grieving, really.

Comments

1/2 Because I can't control myself when I'm ranting

[lauand]

I don't feel as betrayed as you because Sherlock Holmes hasn't been such an important character for my childhood. I mean, I liked Basil Rathbone's movies for some reason when I was a really small kid and I utterly, utterly loved Miyazaki's cartoons. Miyazaki is the best portraying villains as endearing human beings, by the way, even if it clashes with Sir ACD's canon and, well, they were actually dogs. But I tried reading A Study in Scarlet and the Hound of the Baskervilles when I was a teenager and I didn't really like them. So the canon is not as important to me as it is to you.

But I still feel cheated by this whole season, it goes against everything they had built in the first two seasons and it's immensely cheap in my eyes, full of dramatic twists whose whole point is being dramatic twists. If a dramatic twist is not part of the story but an empty resource to touch my emotions, it won't work on me.

The introduction of Eurus was rushed, she was given unlimited mindfuckery powers and then got turned into a little girl who just wanted some love. No. Just no. Also, I'm not against the whole new take on Moriarty, but you can't make the next villain exactly as histrionic and overdone because, seriously, what are the odds? And even if it were possible, story-telling doesn't work like that. I can't keep on buying the same bullshit when it's so out the norm.

2/2 Because I can't control myself when I'm ranting

[lauand]

If I'm into fandom it's because I'm interested in the slash. But, for me, that's what fandom, and not canon, is for. I already knew there would be no Jonhlock resolution, that's perfectly fine. I'm not disappointed in it. I'm actually much more disappointed by the "okay, have a consolation prize with this Mary-conducted epilogue depicting their lives together after all this mess". No. That was patronizing and unnecesary (pretty much like the whole The Abominable Bride episode: patronizing and unnecesary). Because I don't ask of this show or, actually, any show, to give me what I want because I want it. What I ask of any professional show is A MINIMUM OF CONSISTENCY. I've seen second rate soap operas more faithful to their characters than this season. Okay, no, I haven't because I can't stand second rate soap operas (which is the whole point of comparing this show to them), but still. So, like you, it's not about me being bitter about not getting my Johnlock, because I don't need any Johnlock in canon. But I do need a certain bond between the characters, a certain connection. I loved Johnlock because they worked together (I mean, not that they were coworkers, just that they fit), because I could see and understand how they were especial and important to each other, how they gave each other something they hadn't even known they needed, something nobody else could give them because nobody else understood. And I'm not talking about romantic feelings, I'm talking about just personalities that click together. About people being lonely without knowing it or understanding why that would be bad because they are actually strong and independent. They were like that at first. And the fact that their relationship bordered the unhealthiness at times was actually in their favor, because it was interesting to see how they would cope with that, if they would be able to evolve to find a balance or, if not, what the breaking point would be; but if you take that and turn an unhealthy relationship into even more unhealthy and ugly and then just declare it okay and normalize it because they have been hurt and they just hug and it magically solves itself and they are working together (this time as coworkers) again without addressing all that unbalance, you are not telling a story about characters and relationships, you are just trying to twist my emotions the easy way and I won't stand for it because everything screams CHEEEEEEEAP to me and that takes me out of a story at the speed of light.

So, so far, I'm just ignoring this season total, complete, absolutely, because it just doesn't compute. I'm not sure if I'll be able to watch this season again (maybe I will, to see if I can find a redeeming point somewhere), but I can assure you that it won't become part of my headcanon because, to be honest, I don't like any of the characters anymore and I don't buy any of their relationships, they don't fit together anymore.

(Also, ohmygod, what they did to Mycroft... he's like the biggest idiot ever in this episode, being played for a fool every five minutes whenever he's not pissing his pants. No, just no.)

So, I don't even want to go near fix-it fics because there's no fix for this. I'm just going to keep on reading well written, well thought-out, well built fics that either have been written before this mess, or they ignore it just as completely as I do, and maybe I'll choose my favorite to turn it into my particular Sherlock BBC canon and that is that.