the one about pilots
This peach I am currently consuming is rather sub-par. Bleh. Let's move right along to what will hopefully be a concise entry detailing
WHY I LOVE PILOT EPISODES: example SHERLOCK "A Study in Pink"
I really love watching pilot episodes. Sometimes they are not great (eg. New Girl) and following episodes greatly out-do them. Sometimes they are amazing. But they are always interesting. I'm not a film/tv historian/critic/educated in tv/film-ness, but I find it intriguing to watch what the writers/director does with the pilot because it shows (usually) what they intend the show to be like. And then the network/whathaveyou decides what they want. For example, with JAG, the pilot is based around the whole procedure of solving the case. You even get the court case, not just the finding of the clues so that they can apply to take the case to court. After the pilot in season one, it's far more based around fact finding rather than having the day in court. Even the lead female character was cut from the pilot, and antagonistic female lead was written for every episode post-pilot. (I kind of wish they'd kept Kate rather than put Meg in tbh). That was rather telling of the dynamics tv in the 90s was supposed to have.
BUT ANYWAY moving on from JAG.
(Ugh why are these grapes kind of gross too?)
A Study in Pink is pretty much an amazing unaired pilot that was made into an extended version for the first episode of Sherlock. I'm actually kind of glad for Moffatt and co. that they did get the opportunity to re-write and extend/elaborate on their original script, because while the pilot is great it is still not quite at the level of the aired script. Particular words and phrases aren't found in the aired version, and it's pretty obvious why they'd been dropped/changed if you carefully watch both versions. It basically reinforces my "no piece of writing is perfect, everything is a draft" belief. The direction is obviously different (different directors) and the lighting is different, which is kind of weird because after you've seen Cumberbatch lit so that he looks SO WHITE OMG it's a bit disconcerting to see him with A Skin Colour Almost, the wardrobe is different (Watson, particularly, looks far better in the pilot tbh). Obviously locations/technology/blah are different but those are mostly due to less money to use for the pilot rather than A Quite Good BBC Budget for the aired episodes.
Martin Freeman gives almost bizarrely very nearly the exact same performance in both versions. I don't really find this too surprising, because Freeman just embodies John. (And it's not exactly like he's not played The Every-Man character before). Rupert Graves is also very similar with his portrayal of Lestrade. Cumberbatch on the other hand, appears not to have quite nailed how he wants Sherlock to be in the pilot. Even with (more or less) the same dialogue, he plays Sherlock in the pilot as a far more relateable, less obviously abraisive man. There's just that tiny bit of Benedict showing through in Sherlock that makes it different: his accent, the pitch of his voice, how he moves, how quickly he is to smile/basically actually having facial expressions more often is more himself and not actually the character. In the aired episodes though, he's nailed Sherlock and just is Sherlock the way Martin is John.
(As kind of an odd sidenote, and this is possibly because I get too think-y about things (thanks university I'm so glad you've trained my brain this way) but it seems in the pilot that Freeman and Cumberbatch are playing John and Sherlock as though they're in their late 20s but then in the aired episodes they're playing them a bit older, perhaps early thirties. I can't pinpoint exactly what it is that makes me get this impression, honestly it's probably John's lack of Old Man Sweaters and Sherlock wearing skinny jeans in one scene, but idk.)
Sherlock really would've turned out quite different if the direction the pilot was in was continued with. Not entirely worse, but certainly different. And that's why I like pilots so much - they offer another interpretation.
SUCCESS I did not just end up ranting about how marvellous Benedict Cumberbatch is (mostly) and/or how he should only ever wear black or dark purple or dark green shirts and er things.
WHY I LOVE PILOT EPISODES: example SHERLOCK "A Study in Pink"
I really love watching pilot episodes. Sometimes they are not great (eg. New Girl) and following episodes greatly out-do them. Sometimes they are amazing. But they are always interesting. I'm not a film/tv historian/critic/educated in tv/film-ness, but I find it intriguing to watch what the writers/director does with the pilot because it shows (usually) what they intend the show to be like. And then the network/whathaveyou decides what they want. For example, with JAG, the pilot is based around the whole procedure of solving the case. You even get the court case, not just the finding of the clues so that they can apply to take the case to court. After the pilot in season one, it's far more based around fact finding rather than having the day in court. Even the lead female character was cut from the pilot, and antagonistic female lead was written for every episode post-pilot. (I kind of wish they'd kept Kate rather than put Meg in tbh). That was rather telling of the dynamics tv in the 90s was supposed to have.
BUT ANYWAY moving on from JAG.
(Ugh why are these grapes kind of gross too?)
A Study in Pink is pretty much an amazing unaired pilot that was made into an extended version for the first episode of Sherlock. I'm actually kind of glad for Moffatt and co. that they did get the opportunity to re-write and extend/elaborate on their original script, because while the pilot is great it is still not quite at the level of the aired script. Particular words and phrases aren't found in the aired version, and it's pretty obvious why they'd been dropped/changed if you carefully watch both versions. It basically reinforces my "no piece of writing is perfect, everything is a draft" belief. The direction is obviously different (different directors) and the lighting is different, which is kind of weird because after you've seen Cumberbatch lit so that he looks SO WHITE OMG it's a bit disconcerting to see him with A Skin Colour Almost, the wardrobe is different (Watson, particularly, looks far better in the pilot tbh). Obviously locations/technology/blah are different but those are mostly due to less money to use for the pilot rather than A Quite Good BBC Budget for the aired episodes.
Martin Freeman gives almost bizarrely very nearly the exact same performance in both versions. I don't really find this too surprising, because Freeman just embodies John. (And it's not exactly like he's not played The Every-Man character before). Rupert Graves is also very similar with his portrayal of Lestrade. Cumberbatch on the other hand, appears not to have quite nailed how he wants Sherlock to be in the pilot. Even with (more or less) the same dialogue, he plays Sherlock in the pilot as a far more relateable, less obviously abraisive man. There's just that tiny bit of Benedict showing through in Sherlock that makes it different: his accent, the pitch of his voice, how he moves, how quickly he is to smile/basically actually having facial expressions more often is more himself and not actually the character. In the aired episodes though, he's nailed Sherlock and just is Sherlock the way Martin is John.
(As kind of an odd sidenote, and this is possibly because I get too think-y about things (thanks university I'm so glad you've trained my brain this way) but it seems in the pilot that Freeman and Cumberbatch are playing John and Sherlock as though they're in their late 20s but then in the aired episodes they're playing them a bit older, perhaps early thirties. I can't pinpoint exactly what it is that makes me get this impression, honestly it's probably John's lack of Old Man Sweaters and Sherlock wearing skinny jeans in one scene, but idk.)
Sherlock really would've turned out quite different if the direction the pilot was in was continued with. Not entirely worse, but certainly different. And that's why I like pilots so much - they offer another interpretation.
SUCCESS I did not just end up ranting about how marvellous Benedict Cumberbatch is (mostly) and/or how he should only ever wear black or dark purple or dark green shirts and er things.