Sherlock Special, Where It's Sometimes 1895

[tardis_stowaway]

OMG, I forgot how intense it feels to get New Sherlock after a hiatus.  It's hard to even sort out what my reaction to the content of the show is because the whole time I'm watching it there's a part of my brain excitedly repeating "IT'S BACK!  NEW EPISODE!  IT'S BACK!  NEW EPISODE!", which gets distracting.  Here are my thoughts as best I can get

Comments

[wendymr]

There were parts of the Victorian storyline I enjoyed; some of it was certainly humorous and a lot of fun, especially Mrs Hudson complaining about never being given anything interesting to say. I also loved Watson pointing out the distinction between a civilian doctor and an army doctor - now that's John. Loved it.

Much less fond of Moffat, via Sherlock, lecturing women on feminism, and not at all fond of the KKK hats. And the flip-flop between 1895 and 2014 or whenever it's supposed to be was a confused mess, IMO. But then, unfortunately, I'm one of those who loathed HLV, so there's not much that can redeem that one for me.

But, oh! We got Mycroft and Greg side by side and actually talking to each other!

[tardis_stowaway]

Mrs. Hudson was excellent. And I too loved John explaining the difference between civilian and army doctors.

The more I think about the way the secret society of women was presented, the less I like it. *sigh*

I'm interested in your perspective on the KKK hats. I've seen some people (Americans, I think) on tumblr arguing that lots of other less-awful secret societies have used similar pointy hoods (true, but not necessarily relevant to how modern viewers perceive the costume design) and that people outside the US aren't necessarily going to associate those pointy hoods with the KKK. I'm skeptical of the latter claim, but I'm American and thus don't really know how others see those robes.

But, oh! We got Mycroft and Greg side by side and actually talking to each other!

Ha, yes! I don't even ship Mycroft/Lestrade, but I was happy to see that because I knew it would make a lot of other friends happy. I saw someone point out that Mycroft is literally carrying a torch for Greg in the graveyard scene, which amuses me.

[sylvansafekeepe]

I'm sort of undecided on the KKK outfits. I mean, yes, they're offensive. But the Klan are the bad guys in 'The Five Orange Pips', which *did* influence this episode, so I wasn't particularly (or at all, really) surprised to see the pointy hoods.

There are certainly more tasteful ways that it could have been done, though.

[wendymr]

That makes it worse - there's no way the pointy hoods were accidental, in that case. And they had them worn by women. Monstrous Regiment is clearly on the mild side of the intended implication.

[sylvansafekeepe]

Good point.

I guess I'm just a bit uncertain as to whether I think it was an intentional association by Moffat, as opposed to him just being clueless, if that makes sense.

To be perfectly honest, 'Moffat is frequently criticized for his treatment of women' is about the extent of my knowledge on the topic -- it's not something that I follow closely, especially since I don't really watch Dr Who.

[tardis_stowaway]

I'm certain the association was intentional in that Moffat was certainly invoking the imagery of the KKK on purpose as a way of nodding to the Five Orange Pips. I don't know if he was consciously trying to say "this secret society of women is like the Klan"; I suspect what he was going for was simply a gotcha moment where viewers would see the robes, make assumptions about the sort of people under them, and then be surprised.

But it doesn't take a PhD in feminist media studies to figure out that if you show a bunch of women's rights activists in Klan-style robes, you are tacitly equating the two groups. Someone in the writing and production team should have noticed that and asked if that was really what they wanted to imply. Even a decision based on cluelessness sends a message. I sincerely doubt that it would have occurred to the writers to portray a group of people they considered unambiguously heroic and worthy of respect in the same way.