'perhaps you can put away your harpoon?'
Round 2, "The Hounds of Baskerville."
This was a first for me, in watching the Sherlock series. In series 1, Moffat's "A Study in Pink" was excellent--hooked me on watching the show within a few minutes. "The Blind Banker": not as good, in plot, ideas, etc.--still: above average TV, and the performances remained brilliant. "The Great Game": Gatiss pulls off something uncommon--he blows Moffat out of the water; it's even better than the debut, it's in another galaxy, it's so perfect. And "A Study in Pink" was pretty damn perfect.
Series 2....The Moff Strikes Back
"A Scandal in Belgravia"--amazing. Now my co-favorite with "The Great Game." So intricate, so well played; I've already watched it five times, just so I could concentrate on individual aspects and weave them back into the whole that Moffat created. And watch the performances, and admire the direction.
"Hounds..." Problems. As far as the script, I'd place it as equal to "A Study in Pink": portions were obvious, even as they were supposed to be the mystery (the cabbie, the military lab). No real complaint from me: there are plenty of Doyle stories that aren't quite as superbly puzzling as they ought to be, if Holmes can out-think all of us......No, no problem with the script, which does a nice update on the original story and contains some really interesting bits. Problems? The acting and the direction, the latter, I suspect, most of all in regard to the former.
I actually like Tovey in this; I think he really comes off well as Henry. However.....Cumberbatch is way over the top in many scenes, and Freeman is either flat or follows him: the issue seems to be the comedy, which is played loudly and broadly (such as Holmes' search for tobacco) and ends up not being as funny as the lines actually are. This showed up in "Scandal," too: Cumberbatch overdoes the scene in which Mycroft steps on the sheet. However, the rest of that episode is beautifully played, in Cumberbatch's best understated, controlled style. In "Hounds".....way too many scenes that have the same overblown ACTING HAPPENING sense to them--and way too out of the character of the ultra-controlled Sherlock.
Still, an episode of Sherlock is better than no episode of Sherlock. But....*sadface* that, in this case, the script deserved so much better--just as, with "The Blind Banker," the performances deserved a better script.
This was a first for me, in watching the Sherlock series. In series 1, Moffat's "A Study in Pink" was excellent--hooked me on watching the show within a few minutes. "The Blind Banker": not as good, in plot, ideas, etc.--still: above average TV, and the performances remained brilliant. "The Great Game": Gatiss pulls off something uncommon--he blows Moffat out of the water; it's even better than the debut, it's in another galaxy, it's so perfect. And "A Study in Pink" was pretty damn perfect.
Series 2....The Moff Strikes Back
"A Scandal in Belgravia"--amazing. Now my co-favorite with "The Great Game." So intricate, so well played; I've already watched it five times, just so I could concentrate on individual aspects and weave them back into the whole that Moffat created. And watch the performances, and admire the direction.
"Hounds..." Problems. As far as the script, I'd place it as equal to "A Study in Pink": portions were obvious, even as they were supposed to be the mystery (the cabbie, the military lab). No real complaint from me: there are plenty of Doyle stories that aren't quite as superbly puzzling as they ought to be, if Holmes can out-think all of us......No, no problem with the script, which does a nice update on the original story and contains some really interesting bits. Problems? The acting and the direction, the latter, I suspect, most of all in regard to the former.
I actually like Tovey in this; I think he really comes off well as Henry. However.....Cumberbatch is way over the top in many scenes, and Freeman is either flat or follows him: the issue seems to be the comedy, which is played loudly and broadly (such as Holmes' search for tobacco) and ends up not being as funny as the lines actually are. This showed up in "Scandal," too: Cumberbatch overdoes the scene in which Mycroft steps on the sheet. However, the rest of that episode is beautifully played, in Cumberbatch's best understated, controlled style. In "Hounds".....way too many scenes that have the same overblown ACTING HAPPENING sense to them--and way too out of the character of the ultra-controlled Sherlock.
Still, an episode of Sherlock is better than no episode of Sherlock. But....*sadface* that, in this case, the script deserved so much better--just as, with "The Blind Banker," the performances deserved a better script.