we didn't meet because of fate, but rather probability

[frith_in_thorns]

Soooo, yesterday evening I sat down to type up some of my November fic, and put Elementary on in the background because I had been meaning to get around to watching it. And then I accidentally most of the aired episodes, and barely any typing up. Oops

Comments

[cerberusia]

I haven't been able to get into Elementary yet - I've been putting off trying it because from what I've seen on tumblr, their Holmes is missing most of what made Sherlock a compelling character for me - the US one's just too nice. But I guess that's what the Christmas vac's for~ (er, that and reading 4 books of the Iliad in Greek, 3 of the Aeneid in Latin and doing assorted language revision. Erk).

I watched Merlin for 2 and a half seasons, and when I accidentally switched on Merlin two weeks ago, I had to turn it off within the minute because THAT DIALOGUE. THAT DIALOGUE. It started out good in seasons 1 and 2 - aimed at children but with some fun for adults, without pretension and jolly good fun. What happened?

[frith_in_thorns]

See, though, having the main character be a Genius Asshole Straight White Guy isn't really a draw for me at all. Becuase Conan Doyle's Holmes isn't like that -- he's eccentric, and brusque, but he is actually quite nice to people. I think the interpretation of him as just having zero empathy for anyone and trampling on everyone around him in his quest for the ~truth~ is quite a recent one, made more popular by things like House and now Moffat's show. I like that Elementary isn't following that trend, because I think it makes for a much more interesting character.

As for Merlin... ahahaha. I think it decided to take itself seriously without actually bothering to change any of the things that mean you can't take it seriously, however hard you try. Although I very much love the Tiny Valley Of A Hundred Names *gg*

[cerberusia]

Aww, your icon! ♥

Yeah, the added sharpness which a lot of people didn't like was the thing I personally really liked about the change from ACD to BBC (trust me to do a thing like that XD). Because the way I see it, Sherlock is not only clever, he's frighteningly, fiendishly clever, enough to need cocaine to stop his brain from eating itself. And here he is, surrounded by all these people whose brains don't work like his and can't keep up, and it's nice to feel superior at first, but after a while it's just so frustrating. The world isn't built to accommodate people that clever, he's surrounded by people who can never challenge him, and he is alone and frustrated and pissed off. I found it a very compelling and believable portrait of a modern Holmes (and apparently had more thoughts about this than I realised, oops

[veleda_k]

he's eccentric, and brusque, but he is actually quite nice to people

Yes! Original Holmes cared about many of his clients, and he was friendly with the Yard. And he wasn't particularly arrogant. He knew he was smart, but he didn't think there was anything especially amazing about what he did. To him, his observations really were very simple.

Sometimes condescending, yes. An asshole, no.

[frith_in_thorns]

Exactly! And he's shown as having loads of friends of various degrees of closeness in completely random places. Holmes finds people and the wealth of human experience endlessly fascinating. Moffat's Sherlock appears to consider them boring and beneath him.

ETA: I remembered a blog post (and blog!) that I think you might like: Paging Doctor Sherlock House