when you like and where you like ;;
SPOILERZZZ
i feel like i need to make all kinds of bad puns about how awfully awful i feel. like i could tag this post 'still ill' or something, for all you smiths fans out there. but i think i'm sticking with illin' like a villain because, well.
THIS IS NOT WHAT I WANT TO TALK ABOUT THOUGH. I WANT TO TALK ABOUT ALL MY EXCITE RE: A SCANDAL IN BELGRAVIA!
so i've seen it a couple of times so far. might've been more, but i kept drifting in and out of consciousness, so i wasn't really paying too much attention. anyhow, i thought it was marvelous. obviously a few bits were problematic, and anyone who's seen it knows i am mainly talking about irene adler, but it was bound to happen. ngl, i applaud them for even going there, since her character is such a powder keg in holmes fandom, and they had to know that whatever they did, they were going to piss some people off. so, gutsy move, guys. we'll def get to her and what i thought about that, but there is SO MUCH MOAR to deal with.
firstly, let's talk about the visuals. i am such a visual person, and this episode had SO FREAKING MUCH going on. paul mcguigan sort of owns my heart a little bit. he also directed one of my favorite films ever, gangster no 1, which had tons of really gorgeous scenes shot one right after the other. i actually did like tbb from a visual standpoint (and i like euros lyn's work on doctor who and torchwood), but i didn't find it as sort of stunning as the rest of the series. a lot of it is actually surprisingly consistent, but i think there's a definite difference if you know what you are looking for. it's a lot to do with the lighting and the focus of the subjects within the frame, and indoor v outdoor shots. oh my god, my nerd is showing. suffice to say, i really loved the camerawork in asib although, like with everything else, i feel like some of it went a little far. for instance: i loved all the bits with the man in the car and the hiker. the swirly segue into the flashback was wonderful, as was sherlock and irene discussing the case. the back-and-forth from the livingroom to the the field really worked for me. on the other hand, sherlock's bed sort of rising up behind him was verging on the unbearably cheesy, and the bit with him walking to 221b to find mrs hudson being held hostage just reminded me horribly of the surprising adventures of sir digby chicken-ceasar. i couldn't take that seriously at all.
another thing that i've been constantly aware of ever since watching the director's commentary to hard candy is the way lighting and lighting changes are used as a visual shorthand for plot elements. so in the beginning (post-pool, i'll get to that), while they were flying high, lots of cozy domestic scenes and crimesolving, that was very cheerful and bright. i know they started shooting in spring (though what they actually shot when, idek), but these scenes really look like spring. there's a lightness that definitely fades over the course of the episode when things start getting super real. apart from one or two scenes, before they get to christmas, everything happens in the daytime. once they get to christmas, a lot more of the action starts taking place at night, until the denouement, which is exclusively nocturnal. what daytime scenes there are are generally much dimmer (i know it's meant to be winter, but from a few shots you can see it's very clearly not -- trees full of summer leaves when moriarty texts mycroft, for one), and most of them are much cooler as well. there's a greenish bluish filter they use, especially at the powerstation where john meets irene. with all sherlock's emphasis on color at the christmas party, i'm wondering if it's meant to recall the pool scene, a sort of coded reference to moriarty's hidden influence. only, they use it at the end too, in the cafe scene, so huh. a few scenes even echoed the lighting of the pilot, which i actually found really off-putting because dear lord i hate the pilot :( it's alright storytelling-wise (though i'm glad they decided to expand it) but on a technical level, i think it's a damn miracle it was picked up. a little detail i really liked, after a few viewings, is how at the beginning, all of the clients who came to baker street for a consult were there in the morning except the man with the urn and the two little girls. they were lit completely differently from everyone else which i didn't particularly notice the first time through, but once i knew how they were connected in the end, that tiny clue just blew me away.
just two more things, and then i'll start talking about plot/characters, i promise. first, i really like what they're doing with text this year. i feel like they've taken what could have easily been a hokey visual stunt and are using it really effectively. and second, the parallels they draw between sherlock and irene were perfect. the back-and-forth of her looking at surveillance photos of him on her phone while he looks at screencaps from her website, and later of them both preparing their disguises but ultimately, except for small details, meeting each other as they are (sherlock electing not to change his iconic wardrobe; irene appearing naked). and just that it so neatly echoes their back-and-forth throughout the entire episode. i can't deny that it was overtly flirtatious, but in such a liminal way that even i can't find fault with it. these are two people used to not only getting the last word, but earning it. the casting, as well, was a stroke of genius, since i think they even resemble each other a bit (tall, slim, pale, dark-haired, those fucking cheekbones). really well done.
okay, so let's talk about sherlock, and john, and sherlock and john. i love their relationship. i love the character development. i love the sense that time has elapsed and they have actually grown together. their easy domesticity is freaking heartwarming, their mutual affection for mrs hudson is glorious, and as for the rest, well. sherlock's desperation when they threaten to shoot john if he doesn't open irene's safe is palpable. you can practically see his mind whirling furiously. and john's need to protect sherlock at basically any cost is just...is just. he and mycroft have come a long way from s1, where they barely spoke to one another. now, they've developed their own relationship based on their shared need to keep sherlock safe. you guys, john is pretty much family by this point.
and can we just, okay. john and irene in the powerstation, hashing out their respective feelings for sherlock. whether or not she was being entirely disingenuous at that point, her reading of their relationship(s) articulated things better than pretty much anything else. it just rang so true. and then, the reveal of sherlock having watched and heard the whole thing (again, watch how the scene is shot. they're mostly face forward toward the camera, but occasionally they appear in profile, framed in black; that's sherlock watching them from wherever he's creeping), OH GOD, YES. i mean, what is he going to do with this information?
and finally, oh sherlock. i always felt like sherlock holmes, however much he protested, was a huge romantic. not necessarily where people were concerned (although a few of his cases made him seem less cold-hearted than he was usually portrayed...at least before the three garridebs, where his regard for watson is on display so overtly it hurts), but in a more general sense. mycroft really drove this point home at the end where he says sherlock has the mind of a scientist or a philosopher, but decides to be a detective (and before that, wanted to be a pirate! i lol'd and swooned in about equal measure). if that's not romance, at least in an aesthetic sense, i don't know what is. that being said, it makes me wonder what's implied (if anything) by his ruminating on irene at the end. when he repeats 'the woman'...unlike nearly everything else in this episode, that pinged me as suggestive/sexual, and i wonder if i'm the only one. we'll never know what happened after he rescued her (ugh, ugh, ugh, WHY) because they're the only ones who know and we'll never see her again (god willing. she was never meant to be more than a one-off) and he'll never say. so, fodder for fanfic, of course. but what were we meant to see? he's a closet romantic and she's The Only One. so.
mycroft.
fucking mycroft. he stole the episode. gatiss acted the hell out of that role, and if he does not appear more consistently throughout the rest of the series, i will be legit heartbroken. watching him choose between running the country and taking care of sherlock was just painful, the lengths he was willing to go to to protect and care for his brother continue to be astonishing although they probably shouldn't be by now, and the way that moriarty and, by proxy, irene know and use this to their considerable advantage just makes me want to hug him. the scene with the two of them in the morgue is beautiful; mycroft and sherlock in profile is one of the most striking images from the episode. the two of them on the airplane is fucking chilling, and for a minute i wondered where that was going. if it was going to be a war between sherlock's insatiable desire to know and mycroft's need for absolute control of any and every situation he's in. i wondered exactly what sacrifices he was and wasn't willing to make. but then, of course, it turned out not to be that at all. (and just as a side note, am i the only mythology nerd here, or did that plane remind anyone else of naglfar? idk, that was just the first thing that jumped to mind when i heard 'ship of the dead' or whatever.)
finally, him and john at the end. i just...i don't even know what to make of that. he has to know irene isn't dead. the only thing i can think is 1) he knows sherlock, 2) he knows john knows sherlock (oh dear, this is beginning to read like ulysses. i'll try to pull it back), 3) he wants to know john. basically: he knows sherlock would rather have to truth than platitudes and he knows john knows that. so it's a sort of test, i suppose. give john the choice between being kind and being honest, and what will he do where sherlock is concerned? what i liked about this was that the answer wasn't obvious. mycroft genuinely didn't know. and john, well. he nearly just told sherlock. you can see him deciding which version to go with, and then after he chooses the kinder lie he nearly tells sherlock the truth anyway. and sherlock knows it, obviously. he knows john is lying to him, which will please mycroft (well, actually i think either option would have pleased mycroft, but this one makes john into someone he feels he can count on). and he knows john would ultimately have given him the truth, despite the difficulties. so he doesn't actually have to say it. it's enough that he would have. in the end, it's really sherlock who is being kind. manipulative, but kind. i guess. in his own way.
OH MY GOD, I JUST HAVE ALL THE FEELINGS.
i also loved the small glimpses of minor characters. i love molly, as always. i love that she listens when people talk and builds portraits of their lives from probably tossed-off sentences. and it is quite a long way from 'sry i have no idea what your name is' to 'i thought you were going to spend the holidays with your sister'. god, i wish sherlock even remotely gave her the time of day, because she could be such an asset. she seems almost preternaturally observant, and she does it nearly invisibly. john sort of touches on this when he formulates his (needless) plan to collect the phone. if this isn't a plot point later, i shall be disappoint, son. and ngl, i kind of want to see her pushed to the breaking point and using her powers for evil.
i also loved lestrade ogling molly at christmas. i ship the two of them HARD. and since his marriage apparently isn't going to work out...
and mrs hudson. not enough good things can be said about mrs hudson. the fact that she and sherlock were pretty much trolling john after she was attacked is absolutely hilarious to me. i love their relationship. i love the lengths they will go to for each other. i love that they so clearly adore each other.
so.
finally, let's talk about irene adler.
my first quibble is y no godfrey norton? ugh, i loved them together. speaking of trolling, they certainly did it to holmes (hello mysterious stranger who we do not recognise at all! be the witness for our surprise wedding! thanks bro, now we're skipping town for good and it's all thanks to you! have this guinea or whatever!) god, they deserved each other! i suppose they gayed her up in this version, which is absolutely fine with me (although i cringed everytime i saw her fingernails), but then why didn't we see more of her girlfriend?
as for what we did see of irene, i mainly enjoyed her. she was clever, ruthless, kept her own best interests at the forefront (mostly), and she seemed to genuinely like playing the game. so we're coolsville. no, what got to me is that she wasn't allowed to have an unqualified win. that she only became a player in the game because of moriarty (though she did go to him first, so i suppose the initiative is hers) and that, in the end sherlock first set her up to fail, then came and rescued her. she didn't actually get away with anything. this is especially shitty, since her crowning moment of awesome was her standing over sherlock and telling him she wanted him to remember her as the woman who beat him. and he won't. sure, he might remember her as a fascinating challenge, as one of a kind (because hot damn does that man hate women). but he will also remember that, in the end, he got the better of her. and they will both always know that she owes him her life. that just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
but the thing that pissed me off most of all was sherlock's rant against sentiment which, i think, misses the point by quite a wide margin. i mean, that was a major element in the story. that was why irene succeeded, not what betrayed her in the end. she apparently had genuine feelings for the king and he threw her over like she was nothing because of their class disparities. she managed to keep the photograph hidden from him and his agents because she was motivated by something much more important (to her) than a desire for money or power and she couldn't afford to be careless. and holmes spends so much time trying to suss out her feelings about norton that he misses everything going on right in front of him until he is standing at the altar with them. because he does not understand sentiment as a motivator. he is trying to go about it logically and she is just trying to marry a good man and move on with her life. and in the end, she destroys the photograph of her own volition because she finds it unnecessary. i feel like this episode subverted that in a really nasty way that i was just not comfortable with at all. if i could only have one gripe about asib, that would be it.
overall, though, there was much more that i wholeheartedly enjoyed than didn't. so i can't wait for the next two, even though reichenbach is going to rip my heart to shreds and then not fix it for about a year and a half D:
christ on an aluminium crutch, that didn't half go on forever and beyond. i was not lying when i said i had ALL THE FEELINGS. and ugh, you guys. that may or may not be too coherent. i feel pretty drugged up and i have not even taken any cold medicine D:
i feel like i need to make all kinds of bad puns about how awfully awful i feel. like i could tag this post 'still ill' or something, for all you smiths fans out there. but i think i'm sticking with illin' like a villain because, well.
THIS IS NOT WHAT I WANT TO TALK ABOUT THOUGH. I WANT TO TALK ABOUT ALL MY EXCITE RE: A SCANDAL IN BELGRAVIA!
so i've seen it a couple of times so far. might've been more, but i kept drifting in and out of consciousness, so i wasn't really paying too much attention. anyhow, i thought it was marvelous. obviously a few bits were problematic, and anyone who's seen it knows i am mainly talking about irene adler, but it was bound to happen. ngl, i applaud them for even going there, since her character is such a powder keg in holmes fandom, and they had to know that whatever they did, they were going to piss some people off. so, gutsy move, guys. we'll def get to her and what i thought about that, but there is SO MUCH MOAR to deal with.
firstly, let's talk about the visuals. i am such a visual person, and this episode had SO FREAKING MUCH going on. paul mcguigan sort of owns my heart a little bit. he also directed one of my favorite films ever, gangster no 1, which had tons of really gorgeous scenes shot one right after the other. i actually did like tbb from a visual standpoint (and i like euros lyn's work on doctor who and torchwood), but i didn't find it as sort of stunning as the rest of the series. a lot of it is actually surprisingly consistent, but i think there's a definite difference if you know what you are looking for. it's a lot to do with the lighting and the focus of the subjects within the frame, and indoor v outdoor shots. oh my god, my nerd is showing. suffice to say, i really loved the camerawork in asib although, like with everything else, i feel like some of it went a little far. for instance: i loved all the bits with the man in the car and the hiker. the swirly segue into the flashback was wonderful, as was sherlock and irene discussing the case. the back-and-forth from the livingroom to the the field really worked for me. on the other hand, sherlock's bed sort of rising up behind him was verging on the unbearably cheesy, and the bit with him walking to 221b to find mrs hudson being held hostage just reminded me horribly of the surprising adventures of sir digby chicken-ceasar. i couldn't take that seriously at all.
another thing that i've been constantly aware of ever since watching the director's commentary to hard candy is the way lighting and lighting changes are used as a visual shorthand for plot elements. so in the beginning (post-pool, i'll get to that), while they were flying high, lots of cozy domestic scenes and crimesolving, that was very cheerful and bright. i know they started shooting in spring (though what they actually shot when, idek), but these scenes really look like spring. there's a lightness that definitely fades over the course of the episode when things start getting super real. apart from one or two scenes, before they get to christmas, everything happens in the daytime. once they get to christmas, a lot more of the action starts taking place at night, until the denouement, which is exclusively nocturnal. what daytime scenes there are are generally much dimmer (i know it's meant to be winter, but from a few shots you can see it's very clearly not -- trees full of summer leaves when moriarty texts mycroft, for one), and most of them are much cooler as well. there's a greenish bluish filter they use, especially at the powerstation where john meets irene. with all sherlock's emphasis on color at the christmas party, i'm wondering if it's meant to recall the pool scene, a sort of coded reference to moriarty's hidden influence. only, they use it at the end too, in the cafe scene, so huh. a few scenes even echoed the lighting of the pilot, which i actually found really off-putting because dear lord i hate the pilot :( it's alright storytelling-wise (though i'm glad they decided to expand it) but on a technical level, i think it's a damn miracle it was picked up. a little detail i really liked, after a few viewings, is how at the beginning, all of the clients who came to baker street for a consult were there in the morning except the man with the urn and the two little girls. they were lit completely differently from everyone else which i didn't particularly notice the first time through, but once i knew how they were connected in the end, that tiny clue just blew me away.
just two more things, and then i'll start talking about plot/characters, i promise. first, i really like what they're doing with text this year. i feel like they've taken what could have easily been a hokey visual stunt and are using it really effectively. and second, the parallels they draw between sherlock and irene were perfect. the back-and-forth of her looking at surveillance photos of him on her phone while he looks at screencaps from her website, and later of them both preparing their disguises but ultimately, except for small details, meeting each other as they are (sherlock electing not to change his iconic wardrobe; irene appearing naked). and just that it so neatly echoes their back-and-forth throughout the entire episode. i can't deny that it was overtly flirtatious, but in such a liminal way that even i can't find fault with it. these are two people used to not only getting the last word, but earning it. the casting, as well, was a stroke of genius, since i think they even resemble each other a bit (tall, slim, pale, dark-haired, those fucking cheekbones). really well done.
okay, so let's talk about sherlock, and john, and sherlock and john. i love their relationship. i love the character development. i love the sense that time has elapsed and they have actually grown together. their easy domesticity is freaking heartwarming, their mutual affection for mrs hudson is glorious, and as for the rest, well. sherlock's desperation when they threaten to shoot john if he doesn't open irene's safe is palpable. you can practically see his mind whirling furiously. and john's need to protect sherlock at basically any cost is just...is just. he and mycroft have come a long way from s1, where they barely spoke to one another. now, they've developed their own relationship based on their shared need to keep sherlock safe. you guys, john is pretty much family by this point.
and can we just, okay. john and irene in the powerstation, hashing out their respective feelings for sherlock. whether or not she was being entirely disingenuous at that point, her reading of their relationship(s) articulated things better than pretty much anything else. it just rang so true. and then, the reveal of sherlock having watched and heard the whole thing (again, watch how the scene is shot. they're mostly face forward toward the camera, but occasionally they appear in profile, framed in black; that's sherlock watching them from wherever he's creeping), OH GOD, YES. i mean, what is he going to do with this information?
and finally, oh sherlock. i always felt like sherlock holmes, however much he protested, was a huge romantic. not necessarily where people were concerned (although a few of his cases made him seem less cold-hearted than he was usually portrayed...at least before the three garridebs, where his regard for watson is on display so overtly it hurts), but in a more general sense. mycroft really drove this point home at the end where he says sherlock has the mind of a scientist or a philosopher, but decides to be a detective (and before that, wanted to be a pirate! i lol'd and swooned in about equal measure). if that's not romance, at least in an aesthetic sense, i don't know what is. that being said, it makes me wonder what's implied (if anything) by his ruminating on irene at the end. when he repeats 'the woman'...unlike nearly everything else in this episode, that pinged me as suggestive/sexual, and i wonder if i'm the only one. we'll never know what happened after he rescued her (ugh, ugh, ugh, WHY) because they're the only ones who know and we'll never see her again (god willing. she was never meant to be more than a one-off) and he'll never say. so, fodder for fanfic, of course. but what were we meant to see? he's a closet romantic and she's The Only One. so.
mycroft.
fucking mycroft. he stole the episode. gatiss acted the hell out of that role, and if he does not appear more consistently throughout the rest of the series, i will be legit heartbroken. watching him choose between running the country and taking care of sherlock was just painful, the lengths he was willing to go to to protect and care for his brother continue to be astonishing although they probably shouldn't be by now, and the way that moriarty and, by proxy, irene know and use this to their considerable advantage just makes me want to hug him. the scene with the two of them in the morgue is beautiful; mycroft and sherlock in profile is one of the most striking images from the episode. the two of them on the airplane is fucking chilling, and for a minute i wondered where that was going. if it was going to be a war between sherlock's insatiable desire to know and mycroft's need for absolute control of any and every situation he's in. i wondered exactly what sacrifices he was and wasn't willing to make. but then, of course, it turned out not to be that at all. (and just as a side note, am i the only mythology nerd here, or did that plane remind anyone else of naglfar? idk, that was just the first thing that jumped to mind when i heard 'ship of the dead' or whatever.)
finally, him and john at the end. i just...i don't even know what to make of that. he has to know irene isn't dead. the only thing i can think is 1) he knows sherlock, 2) he knows john knows sherlock (oh dear, this is beginning to read like ulysses. i'll try to pull it back), 3) he wants to know john. basically: he knows sherlock would rather have to truth than platitudes and he knows john knows that. so it's a sort of test, i suppose. give john the choice between being kind and being honest, and what will he do where sherlock is concerned? what i liked about this was that the answer wasn't obvious. mycroft genuinely didn't know. and john, well. he nearly just told sherlock. you can see him deciding which version to go with, and then after he chooses the kinder lie he nearly tells sherlock the truth anyway. and sherlock knows it, obviously. he knows john is lying to him, which will please mycroft (well, actually i think either option would have pleased mycroft, but this one makes john into someone he feels he can count on). and he knows john would ultimately have given him the truth, despite the difficulties. so he doesn't actually have to say it. it's enough that he would have. in the end, it's really sherlock who is being kind. manipulative, but kind. i guess. in his own way.
OH MY GOD, I JUST HAVE ALL THE FEELINGS.
i also loved the small glimpses of minor characters. i love molly, as always. i love that she listens when people talk and builds portraits of their lives from probably tossed-off sentences. and it is quite a long way from 'sry i have no idea what your name is' to 'i thought you were going to spend the holidays with your sister'. god, i wish sherlock even remotely gave her the time of day, because she could be such an asset. she seems almost preternaturally observant, and she does it nearly invisibly. john sort of touches on this when he formulates his (needless) plan to collect the phone. if this isn't a plot point later, i shall be disappoint, son. and ngl, i kind of want to see her pushed to the breaking point and using her powers for evil.
i also loved lestrade ogling molly at christmas. i ship the two of them HARD. and since his marriage apparently isn't going to work out...
and mrs hudson. not enough good things can be said about mrs hudson. the fact that she and sherlock were pretty much trolling john after she was attacked is absolutely hilarious to me. i love their relationship. i love the lengths they will go to for each other. i love that they so clearly adore each other.
so.
finally, let's talk about irene adler.
my first quibble is y no godfrey norton? ugh, i loved them together. speaking of trolling, they certainly did it to holmes (hello mysterious stranger who we do not recognise at all! be the witness for our surprise wedding! thanks bro, now we're skipping town for good and it's all thanks to you! have this guinea or whatever!) god, they deserved each other! i suppose they gayed her up in this version, which is absolutely fine with me (although i cringed everytime i saw her fingernails), but then why didn't we see more of her girlfriend?
as for what we did see of irene, i mainly enjoyed her. she was clever, ruthless, kept her own best interests at the forefront (mostly), and she seemed to genuinely like playing the game. so we're coolsville. no, what got to me is that she wasn't allowed to have an unqualified win. that she only became a player in the game because of moriarty (though she did go to him first, so i suppose the initiative is hers) and that, in the end sherlock first set her up to fail, then came and rescued her. she didn't actually get away with anything. this is especially shitty, since her crowning moment of awesome was her standing over sherlock and telling him she wanted him to remember her as the woman who beat him. and he won't. sure, he might remember her as a fascinating challenge, as one of a kind (because hot damn does that man hate women). but he will also remember that, in the end, he got the better of her. and they will both always know that she owes him her life. that just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
but the thing that pissed me off most of all was sherlock's rant against sentiment which, i think, misses the point by quite a wide margin. i mean, that was a major element in the story. that was why irene succeeded, not what betrayed her in the end. she apparently had genuine feelings for the king and he threw her over like she was nothing because of their class disparities. she managed to keep the photograph hidden from him and his agents because she was motivated by something much more important (to her) than a desire for money or power and she couldn't afford to be careless. and holmes spends so much time trying to suss out her feelings about norton that he misses everything going on right in front of him until he is standing at the altar with them. because he does not understand sentiment as a motivator. he is trying to go about it logically and she is just trying to marry a good man and move on with her life. and in the end, she destroys the photograph of her own volition because she finds it unnecessary. i feel like this episode subverted that in a really nasty way that i was just not comfortable with at all. if i could only have one gripe about asib, that would be it.
overall, though, there was much more that i wholeheartedly enjoyed than didn't. so i can't wait for the next two, even though reichenbach is going to rip my heart to shreds and then not fix it for about a year and a half D:
christ on an aluminium crutch, that didn't half go on forever and beyond. i was not lying when i said i had ALL THE FEELINGS. and ugh, you guys. that may or may not be too coherent. i feel pretty drugged up and i have not even taken any cold medicine D: