Can We Talk About: Sherlock
So, I watched BBC Sherlock.
I didn't actually really know anything about this show going in. safety_caesars had suggested it, having been introduced by somebody else, and I was like, "hey, okay, sure." Becky has good taste, or at least terrible taste that's similar to mine (which obviously makes it good taste), and I like Sherlock Holmes-flavored things in general, so I certainly was interested - I wasn't boning for it, half because I didn't know shit about it and mostly because there's a fairly big activation energy to actually get me into something*, but I was interested and willing.
This show is fabulous. Or, was, since last night we watched the end of S2 and now have to wait in agony for, probably, another year.
Having recovered from the flailing agony that was tears and a jumbo bottle of wine last night, I have a lot of thoughts, actually. First up on the S2 finale, and then some idling thoughts on the series as a whole.
[SEASON TWO FINALE COMING UP. AKA, SPOILERS.]
So now, faced with the morning after, I am almost mad at the season finale - I even said to Becky, last night, that I was *almost* angry at it because it's such a dramatic cliffhanger, such a very big thing, a real obvious setup of conflict for the next season. You have a show that could be so fantastically about twists and turns and crime-solving and interpersonal relationships, that already has enough dramatic overload and conflict that you could run endless seasons without forcing the overly heart-breaking drama of Sherlock jumping off a building in front of John. It's huge. Almost too huge? I feel like - I want to think that it's overkill.
I mean! - fans of Criminal Minds will know that we just went through this same exact thing on that show, right?, someone has to pretend they're dead and leave their loved ones / friends / family / only real true companions behind, thinking they are dead, because it's for the best and for everyone's safety~!. Like, I just did this with Criminal Minds, which - while a freaking good show - isn't winning awards for being mindblowing. And Criminal Minds has been playing for like seven seasons or something, and it was a major plot point in a show with what, 20 eps per season…? So like… to get hit with the gigantic (fake) suicide and dramatic death scene at the end of season two of a six-ep-in-its-entirety show …it felt like a lot.
And I want to be critical of it. I kind of don't like deliberate big reveal drama intentionally painful heartrending bits on principle, in a vague sense. It's like - okay, I want to say "It's like using rape as a plot point in your terrible fanfiction to introduce obvious DRAMZ and get your ship together, because it's an easy conflict", only the rape comparison is a terrible comparison to make, and it's also not quite like that, so that isn't what I mean at all. I think what I mean is more like: It felt like emotional bait. I want to be like, dude, was that necessary? I want to be mad at it.
But I can't, not yet, because it was fucking well the fuck done.
I don't really cry at movies and TV shows, especially new ones**. In fact, speaking of Criminal Minds, the last time I teared up at a TV show was the fated Episode 100. (Those who know: Haley.) I kind of sit in silence a lot when my mind gets the fuck blown, but I'm not really a cryer.
So, I teared up at the end of Sherlock 2.03. I will admit it.
I want to be critical of it, but I can't because it worked.
I want to be mad that I "fell for it" - I want to feel like it was blatant emotional heart-string-playing - like it was deliberately effing with me. but I can't. It was that good.
And actually I don't really *WANT* to be mad at it because it was fucking fabulous and the show was fantastic, and my heart has been torn out of its socket, so maybe all of this is a lie and I don't even know what I'm saying any more. Right?
The scenes between Sherlock and John were mindblowingly well done, Moriarty is the most fabulous Fairy King villain I've seen in a show, and I think that's what makes it work. They went for the over-the-top bit and pretty much nailed it, where by 'it' I mean 'me, in the heart'.
The entire phone call, Sherlock trying to convince John that it was all a lie, asking John to keep his eyes on Sherlock, the hands thing: this is where I run out of words and resort to a;sldka;lsdkl;askdfffffffffffffffff because that's about how my heart feels about that.
When John is standing in front of that grave and he says, "I was so alone" ---
J.F.C.
I was so alone and I owe you so much. My fucking god.
I think maybe the most disappointing thing about the show is that there isn't more of it. Because now - if they're following the books I think Sherlock is gone for like, three years? And John gets married or something? Either way, the dynamic between Sherlock and John has, now, in canon, irrevocably changed. And that makes me sad, because their dynamic and chemistry and friendship was clearly awesome, and I'm sorry that after only six episodes it's now gone.
Maybe that's why I think I'm mad. Maybe that's why I feel like I should be upset.
(To end this on a slightly positive note I would like to say, Where is all the goddamn Molly fic that's going to come out of this, which it had better, fandom, I am looking at you. Because I want it now. Molly and Sherlock being secret platonic BFF BAMFs and somehow taking care of John and--- oh, fuck. First fanfic idea.
Because: MOLLY)
[General show discussion from this point on]
In terms of the show, I have just a few generic thoughts on it.
The first is that I absolutely love the actors that play Sherlock and John, and the chemistry they have on the screen. If you're a fan of those kinds of relationships that seriously toe the line of being canonically "more than friends" - okay, that's kind of not a good statement because Sherlock and John are obviously more than friends. More than just friends. They are friends, they are each other's single true and best friend; they are each other's The Friend: they share a connection that's ridiculously deep and feelings for each other that I'm not even sure I can put words to.
And I don't even mean that they're romantically/physically involved***. Now, I mean. Okay. If you can watch this show and not immediately want to go find the nearest fic that has Sherlock and John engaging in ridiculously hot pornographic sexytimes, well, please tell me how you did it. This is a ship I can pretty much climb aboard and build a home upon, alright? This ship is my gay lesbian dance party boat house in Mansfield Hill and it can carry up to twenty.
But you don't even have to go that far. Without even going there, there's such a fucking spark between the two characters, the way bit by bit they build a world around each other. It's fabulously done both by the actors and the writers, and god, it works. It works hard. It works amazingly and heart-stabbingly hard. The very first episode, at the very end, where John and Sherlock have just come out of this terrible thing, and they end up making each other laugh - John makes Sherlock laugh!, and Sherlock makes John laugh, and it's just like this gigantic amazing thing that happens: two people who badly need friends find each other and grow to be friends. Yes! (And the scene with Sherlock in the sheet. "Are you wearing pants?" "No." And they fucking crack up.)
It's just so obvious how much they, well, like each other. It's so amazingly positive and intimate. Everywhere. The tiniest things.
And I'll take a moment here to say that if you do want to take that extra step into shipping them harder than the post office please email me your porn as soon as you create it, if not sooner (send me your porn in retrograde!!!) because DAMN this pairing does something to my heart. The way they look at each other in the show was just. I would basically throw my hands in the air and look at Becky, and she would kind of just laugh at my dumb ass. Sometimes, we would make loud appreciative noises. Imagine it. No, don't. This is quite derailing. Anyway. If you like shows with this kind of BFF trust-playing, world-enveloping relationship in it, shows that carry a lot of the gay in them, well, do you have Netflix?
I find it not at all hard to believe that they are spectacularly in love with each other, on some spectacularly deep level that they don't even comprehend. Not. Hard. At. All. Go ahead and make your cock jokes, I'll wait.
So I adored that.
Now, I have to say it … I have to say it, even though I know this is based on some books, even though I know it's based on source canon and there are things you change and things that don't get changed (although we could examine that, too!), and I don't want to sound like I am wanting to replace an amazingly intimate M/M ship with M/F and drown the world in heterosexuality because - I'm not talking about shipping here - so don't think that, but I still have to say it: Where are the awesome ladies at?
There's Mrs. Hudson, who really is fucking amazeballs forever, but is definitely just a side character for amazing and comic relief. There's Molly, who after the finale becomes much more interesting (to me anyway), but during the series is either pitiable or forgettable. There's the lady cop who I think is Sally but I am not even sure (this is what it is like to watch a new show with me, sorry), the one who is kind of a dick - which I like in terms of characterization of ladies, somebody who is personally tough but without going over the in-your-face-ass-kicking line, somebody who doesn't have to be sweet because she's a lady, somebody who is maybe just a dick and calls Sherlock "freak" and is just sort of tough and distant, but I didn't like… I didn't like any of them (other than Mrs Hudson, who I would like to make a cup of Adult Tea and do some furious mad knitting with). The cop girl (I think Sally) was set up to not be likeable but there wasn't ever any sympathy for her, or development, or anything? I guess there isn't development for Lestrade either but I fucking liked him. I just wasn't interested in any of the ladies and I find that horribly disappointing.
And I hate when there are shows that don't have amazingly awesome ladies for me to adore and bang out words for. And I hate saying it because I really liked the show but it's still definitely something that I notice.
I guess The Woman (again whose name I totally don't remember yet, I am shit at this) was a good, cool, competent villain - if again revolving around the sex appeal thing, sure, but she was clever as fuck and I liked that. But she was a one-episode one-off. I want awesome recurring lady characters I can get excited about, too. Maybe Molly will get there. She seems damn important now.
So, even if you don't want to read the spoilers or anything, I do highly recommend you watch the show. It's very well done, incredibly entertaining, and the chemistry between the two main characters is exquisitely intimate. Now, I have summed up over 2K in a sentence and also used the word "exquisite". I'm done now.
So who would like to dive into this fandom and write (comfort) fic with me…??
*This is why I re-read and re-watch and re-play so many things: the undertaking of a new thing, book/game/movie/show/comic/other source material is strangely daunting to my head. I find it very comforting to re-read, or re-watch, or re-play things: I still enjoy them on the second (or third) (or fifteenth) time through, and it's relaxing to not have to pay all of my attention to it. "Comfort reading" is a very real thing in my world.
The amount of energy it can take to engage with something new is something I don't often have lying around for whatever reason, and I am really sometimes dumb my first time through a thing because I'm very easily distracted and if I'm not engaged it's going to take me a while to be able to remember who is who and why I should give fucks. Movies not so much: they're short; other canons, especially long ones, can be really overwhelming. The undertaking of a new thing with fannish expectations is even more overwhelming to my head, somehow (see for reference: Gundam Wing); and even more so on top of that if people have built any part of it up. I'm not entirely sure why it's so intimidating, why sometimes I would rather watch reruns than something new, but it's entirely true. Maybe it's because I feel like I have to get invested?
So like, if you have ever recced some canon/source material at me and been like, dude, Sev, you need to read/watch this and I haven't jumped into it right away, this is why: and I am sorry. Sometimes I physically need someone to drag me in over that hill. It isn't that I'm not interested. It's just my brainspace.
(I like how I say "I want to talk about BBC Sherlock" and then I spend just as many words navel-gazing about myself. Awesome. I've got the best blogging style ever.)
**(Somewhat contradictorily, I am more likely to cry at moving scenes in books I've read a thousand times, or shows I've seen before, or even games I've already played, even though I know what's coming.)
*** God, I'm never even sure how to write this. "Romantically involved" seems silly since so many relationships really don't match up with a cultural definition of "romance", right? And "physically involved" doesn't necessarily mean intimacy. And both of them can in some ways belittle the amazing connection that you can have with a friend like that, which can go beyond intimacy (or boning). Askldjalksdj how do I words
This entry was originally posted at http://seventhe.dreamwidth.org/298900.html, which has
comments. Comment there (with OpenID) or here, it's all good.
I didn't actually really know anything about this show going in. safety_caesars had suggested it, having been introduced by somebody else, and I was like, "hey, okay, sure." Becky has good taste, or at least terrible taste that's similar to mine (which obviously makes it good taste), and I like Sherlock Holmes-flavored things in general, so I certainly was interested - I wasn't boning for it, half because I didn't know shit about it and mostly because there's a fairly big activation energy to actually get me into something*, but I was interested and willing.
This show is fabulous. Or, was, since last night we watched the end of S2 and now have to wait in agony for, probably, another year.
Having recovered from the flailing agony that was tears and a jumbo bottle of wine last night, I have a lot of thoughts, actually. First up on the S2 finale, and then some idling thoughts on the series as a whole.
[SEASON TWO FINALE COMING UP. AKA, SPOILERS.]
So now, faced with the morning after, I am almost mad at the season finale - I even said to Becky, last night, that I was *almost* angry at it because it's such a dramatic cliffhanger, such a very big thing, a real obvious setup of conflict for the next season. You have a show that could be so fantastically about twists and turns and crime-solving and interpersonal relationships, that already has enough dramatic overload and conflict that you could run endless seasons without forcing the overly heart-breaking drama of Sherlock jumping off a building in front of John. It's huge. Almost too huge? I feel like - I want to think that it's overkill.
I mean! - fans of Criminal Minds will know that we just went through this same exact thing on that show, right?, someone has to pretend they're dead and leave their loved ones / friends / family / only real true companions behind, thinking they are dead, because it's for the best and for everyone's safety~!. Like, I just did this with Criminal Minds, which - while a freaking good show - isn't winning awards for being mindblowing. And Criminal Minds has been playing for like seven seasons or something, and it was a major plot point in a show with what, 20 eps per season…? So like… to get hit with the gigantic (fake) suicide and dramatic death scene at the end of season two of a six-ep-in-its-entirety show …it felt like a lot.
And I want to be critical of it. I kind of don't like deliberate big reveal drama intentionally painful heartrending bits on principle, in a vague sense. It's like - okay, I want to say "It's like using rape as a plot point in your terrible fanfiction to introduce obvious DRAMZ and get your ship together, because it's an easy conflict", only the rape comparison is a terrible comparison to make, and it's also not quite like that, so that isn't what I mean at all. I think what I mean is more like: It felt like emotional bait. I want to be like, dude, was that necessary? I want to be mad at it.
But I can't, not yet, because it was fucking well the fuck done.
I don't really cry at movies and TV shows, especially new ones**. In fact, speaking of Criminal Minds, the last time I teared up at a TV show was the fated Episode 100. (Those who know: Haley.) I kind of sit in silence a lot when my mind gets the fuck blown, but I'm not really a cryer.
So, I teared up at the end of Sherlock 2.03. I will admit it.
I want to be critical of it, but I can't because it worked.
I want to be mad that I "fell for it" - I want to feel like it was blatant emotional heart-string-playing - like it was deliberately effing with me. but I can't. It was that good.
And actually I don't really *WANT* to be mad at it because it was fucking fabulous and the show was fantastic, and my heart has been torn out of its socket, so maybe all of this is a lie and I don't even know what I'm saying any more. Right?
The scenes between Sherlock and John were mindblowingly well done, Moriarty is the most fabulous Fairy King villain I've seen in a show, and I think that's what makes it work. They went for the over-the-top bit and pretty much nailed it, where by 'it' I mean 'me, in the heart'.
The entire phone call, Sherlock trying to convince John that it was all a lie, asking John to keep his eyes on Sherlock, the hands thing: this is where I run out of words and resort to a;sldka;lsdkl;askdfffffffffffffffff because that's about how my heart feels about that.
When John is standing in front of that grave and he says, "I was so alone" ---
J.F.C.
I was so alone and I owe you so much. My fucking god.
I think maybe the most disappointing thing about the show is that there isn't more of it. Because now - if they're following the books I think Sherlock is gone for like, three years? And John gets married or something? Either way, the dynamic between Sherlock and John has, now, in canon, irrevocably changed. And that makes me sad, because their dynamic and chemistry and friendship was clearly awesome, and I'm sorry that after only six episodes it's now gone.
Maybe that's why I think I'm mad. Maybe that's why I feel like I should be upset.
(To end this on a slightly positive note I would like to say, Where is all the goddamn Molly fic that's going to come out of this, which it had better, fandom, I am looking at you. Because I want it now. Molly and Sherlock being secret platonic BFF BAMFs and somehow taking care of John and--- oh, fuck. First fanfic idea.
Because: MOLLY)
[General show discussion from this point on]
In terms of the show, I have just a few generic thoughts on it.
The first is that I absolutely love the actors that play Sherlock and John, and the chemistry they have on the screen. If you're a fan of those kinds of relationships that seriously toe the line of being canonically "more than friends" - okay, that's kind of not a good statement because Sherlock and John are obviously more than friends. More than just friends. They are friends, they are each other's single true and best friend; they are each other's The Friend: they share a connection that's ridiculously deep and feelings for each other that I'm not even sure I can put words to.
And I don't even mean that they're romantically/physically involved***. Now, I mean. Okay. If you can watch this show and not immediately want to go find the nearest fic that has Sherlock and John engaging in ridiculously hot pornographic sexytimes, well, please tell me how you did it. This is a ship I can pretty much climb aboard and build a home upon, alright? This ship is my gay lesbian dance party boat house in Mansfield Hill and it can carry up to twenty.
But you don't even have to go that far. Without even going there, there's such a fucking spark between the two characters, the way bit by bit they build a world around each other. It's fabulously done both by the actors and the writers, and god, it works. It works hard. It works amazingly and heart-stabbingly hard. The very first episode, at the very end, where John and Sherlock have just come out of this terrible thing, and they end up making each other laugh - John makes Sherlock laugh!, and Sherlock makes John laugh, and it's just like this gigantic amazing thing that happens: two people who badly need friends find each other and grow to be friends. Yes! (And the scene with Sherlock in the sheet. "Are you wearing pants?" "No." And they fucking crack up.)
It's just so obvious how much they, well, like each other. It's so amazingly positive and intimate. Everywhere. The tiniest things.
And I'll take a moment here to say that if you do want to take that extra step into shipping them harder than the post office please email me your porn as soon as you create it, if not sooner (send me your porn in retrograde!!!) because DAMN this pairing does something to my heart. The way they look at each other in the show was just. I would basically throw my hands in the air and look at Becky, and she would kind of just laugh at my dumb ass. Sometimes, we would make loud appreciative noises. Imagine it. No, don't. This is quite derailing. Anyway. If you like shows with this kind of BFF trust-playing, world-enveloping relationship in it, shows that carry a lot of the gay in them, well, do you have Netflix?
I find it not at all hard to believe that they are spectacularly in love with each other, on some spectacularly deep level that they don't even comprehend. Not. Hard. At. All. Go ahead and make your cock jokes, I'll wait.
So I adored that.
Now, I have to say it … I have to say it, even though I know this is based on some books, even though I know it's based on source canon and there are things you change and things that don't get changed (although we could examine that, too!), and I don't want to sound like I am wanting to replace an amazingly intimate M/M ship with M/F and drown the world in heterosexuality because - I'm not talking about shipping here - so don't think that, but I still have to say it: Where are the awesome ladies at?
There's Mrs. Hudson, who really is fucking amazeballs forever, but is definitely just a side character for amazing and comic relief. There's Molly, who after the finale becomes much more interesting (to me anyway), but during the series is either pitiable or forgettable. There's the lady cop who I think is Sally but I am not even sure (this is what it is like to watch a new show with me, sorry), the one who is kind of a dick - which I like in terms of characterization of ladies, somebody who is personally tough but without going over the in-your-face-ass-kicking line, somebody who doesn't have to be sweet because she's a lady, somebody who is maybe just a dick and calls Sherlock "freak" and is just sort of tough and distant, but I didn't like… I didn't like any of them (other than Mrs Hudson, who I would like to make a cup of Adult Tea and do some furious mad knitting with). The cop girl (I think Sally) was set up to not be likeable but there wasn't ever any sympathy for her, or development, or anything? I guess there isn't development for Lestrade either but I fucking liked him. I just wasn't interested in any of the ladies and I find that horribly disappointing.
And I hate when there are shows that don't have amazingly awesome ladies for me to adore and bang out words for. And I hate saying it because I really liked the show but it's still definitely something that I notice.
I guess The Woman (again whose name I totally don't remember yet, I am shit at this) was a good, cool, competent villain - if again revolving around the sex appeal thing, sure, but she was clever as fuck and I liked that. But she was a one-episode one-off. I want awesome recurring lady characters I can get excited about, too. Maybe Molly will get there. She seems damn important now.
So, even if you don't want to read the spoilers or anything, I do highly recommend you watch the show. It's very well done, incredibly entertaining, and the chemistry between the two main characters is exquisitely intimate. Now, I have summed up over 2K in a sentence and also used the word "exquisite". I'm done now.
So who would like to dive into this fandom and write (comfort) fic with me…??
*This is why I re-read and re-watch and re-play so many things: the undertaking of a new thing, book/game/movie/show/comic/other source material is strangely daunting to my head. I find it very comforting to re-read, or re-watch, or re-play things: I still enjoy them on the second (or third) (or fifteenth) time through, and it's relaxing to not have to pay all of my attention to it. "Comfort reading" is a very real thing in my world.
The amount of energy it can take to engage with something new is something I don't often have lying around for whatever reason, and I am really sometimes dumb my first time through a thing because I'm very easily distracted and if I'm not engaged it's going to take me a while to be able to remember who is who and why I should give fucks. Movies not so much: they're short; other canons, especially long ones, can be really overwhelming. The undertaking of a new thing with fannish expectations is even more overwhelming to my head, somehow (see for reference: Gundam Wing); and even more so on top of that if people have built any part of it up. I'm not entirely sure why it's so intimidating, why sometimes I would rather watch reruns than something new, but it's entirely true. Maybe it's because I feel like I have to get invested?
So like, if you have ever recced some canon/source material at me and been like, dude, Sev, you need to read/watch this and I haven't jumped into it right away, this is why: and I am sorry. Sometimes I physically need someone to drag me in over that hill. It isn't that I'm not interested. It's just my brainspace.
(I like how I say "I want to talk about BBC Sherlock" and then I spend just as many words navel-gazing about myself. Awesome. I've got the best blogging style ever.)
**(Somewhat contradictorily, I am more likely to cry at moving scenes in books I've read a thousand times, or shows I've seen before, or even games I've already played, even though I know what's coming.)
*** God, I'm never even sure how to write this. "Romantically involved" seems silly since so many relationships really don't match up with a cultural definition of "romance", right? And "physically involved" doesn't necessarily mean intimacy. And both of them can in some ways belittle the amazing connection that you can have with a friend like that, which can go beyond intimacy (or boning). Askldjalksdj how do I words
This entry was originally posted at http://seventhe.dreamwidth.org/298900.html, which has
comments. Comment there (with OpenID) or here, it's all good.