A Scandal in Belgravia: my initial thoughts
So I have this thing that I insist on paying for the tv and movies I watch if at all possible. And right now I have only enough money for groceries and gas until my next paycheque, so I swore off tv until the end of March, when I will be more flush.
But after spending most of Friday and Saturday trolling the Johnlock tag on Tumblr, my resistance gave out and I finally downloaded "A Scandal in Belgravia".
It might be because I spent the previous hour immersed in fangirling, but I feel like Moffat and Gatiss have stepped up their game. I'm a big Sherlock Holmes fan, but I didn't find series 1 of Sherlock that compelling. "A Scandal in Belgravia" had me laughing out loud and repeatedly thinking how happy I was that it was so damn long: I didn't want it to end. I still found Moriarty uninspiring, but fortunately he wasn't in most of it (thought the saved by a phone call bit at the beginning to be a little anti-climactic - very Doctor Who - but it made sense once I realized it was how they were introducing Irene). I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't more John (and sad that he insisted on denying that he and Sherlock were a couple), but Irene was a convincing and engaging character to watch instead. I especially liked John's scenes with her. "Could you put something on, please? Anything at all... napkin." In S1 I felt like they made John out to be a bit too much of a buffoon, but I feel like in this episode they played up his ballsy side a bit more.
Still not sure how I feel about Moffat's portrayal of women. They all seem so one-dimensional. And what's his thing with Louboutins? He has both River Song and Irene Adler wear them, with the red soles (and pointy, pointy... fallic? heels) displayed prominently for the camera.
There were some nice touches, like the foreshadowing that NOBODY DISSES MRS. HUDSON, but the camera work was a bit confusing: In the scene near the end with Irene, Mycroft and Sherlock, half the shots have Irene on the left and the other half have her on the right, making it difficult to tell where the people are sitting in the room.
Will almost certainly watch "The Hounds of Baskerville" today.
Oh yeah, what the hell does "Vatican cameos" mean?