Resurfacing
Scandal in Belgravia has been watched. I was planning to disappear from fandom until I had caught up on the entire season, but here I am with thoughts. And I've only watched it once, so while I'm sure everyone has dissected it to pieces by now, my thoughts will be vague and half-formed.
So. That was fanfiction, right? I'm afraid I can't think of it as anything else. I mean, the whole gang gathered at a Christmas party? Sex and nudity and kink purely for the purposes of obsessing over Sherlock's sexuality? BAMF Mrs. Hudson and John failing at relationships and...I can't even write out that passcode to the phone, because I still can't believe it ever made it past the first draft. It's like the writers took everything that fans said they liked about season one, turned those things up to 11, and called it a script. They just seemed to be trying so hard to write the best fanfic ever, with as many fancy camera effects as they could think of. And the results were...disorienting.
By the way, thank you, Harry Potter, for helping me develop the skill of completely ignoring whatever happened at the end of that episode. I remember Sherlock staring out of a window, reading a text, and then the last two minutes are a blank. Actually, I feel a bit like Sherlock, conveniently deleting the parts I found most ridiculous.
Something that might have helped (other than a halfway decently written female character) was more John Watson. The episode was just crammed full of geniuses being silly and dramatic, and I think a healthy dose of John would have brought things back down to earth. In fact, the scenes in which he featured were probably my favorite scenes.
So yeah. Fanfiction. Over the top, uneven, and well-acted fanfiction. Wasn't expecting to say this, but I hope they tone it down for Hound of the Baskervilles.
ETA: After sitting on it for a couple of days, I think I have better wording for what bugged me about the episode. Much of it felt more like fan pandering than intelligent writing to me. Which is not to say I didn't enjoy it, because I did, it was great fun and had a bunch of great S/J moments, but I hope they've gotten that out of their system so they can start focusing on what works for the story instead of what will make fans happy.
So. That was fanfiction, right? I'm afraid I can't think of it as anything else. I mean, the whole gang gathered at a Christmas party? Sex and nudity and kink purely for the purposes of obsessing over Sherlock's sexuality? BAMF Mrs. Hudson and John failing at relationships and...I can't even write out that passcode to the phone, because I still can't believe it ever made it past the first draft. It's like the writers took everything that fans said they liked about season one, turned those things up to 11, and called it a script. They just seemed to be trying so hard to write the best fanfic ever, with as many fancy camera effects as they could think of. And the results were...disorienting.
By the way, thank you, Harry Potter, for helping me develop the skill of completely ignoring whatever happened at the end of that episode. I remember Sherlock staring out of a window, reading a text, and then the last two minutes are a blank. Actually, I feel a bit like Sherlock, conveniently deleting the parts I found most ridiculous.
Something that might have helped (other than a halfway decently written female character) was more John Watson. The episode was just crammed full of geniuses being silly and dramatic, and I think a healthy dose of John would have brought things back down to earth. In fact, the scenes in which he featured were probably my favorite scenes.
So yeah. Fanfiction. Over the top, uneven, and well-acted fanfiction. Wasn't expecting to say this, but I hope they tone it down for Hound of the Baskervilles.
ETA: After sitting on it for a couple of days, I think I have better wording for what bugged me about the episode. Much of it felt more like fan pandering than intelligent writing to me. Which is not to say I didn't enjoy it, because I did, it was great fun and had a bunch of great S/J moments, but I hope they've gotten that out of their system so they can start focusing on what works for the story instead of what will make fans happy.