Sherlock 1x02
The second episode of Moffat's Sherlock is called The Blind Banker. And unfortunately it disappoints. It's not written by either Moffat or Gatiss, but by Stephen Thomson.
The episode is an attempt at the typical Victorian Gothic Exotica. There is, however, a huge, unavoidable problem with the original Victorian Gothic Exotica, especally when the focus is the Far East, which is blatant racism and xenophobia (not to mention the nonsensicality). Sadly, the modernisation of the genre has, in this instance, not been able to dispense with those elements in any satisfactory way. We still have the Scary Secret Chinese Brotherhood. The pacing isn't as good as in the first episode, and neither are the humour, character interactions or plot. It's slow, Holmes keep stumbling around without realising the obvious things, you have nonsensical plot elements, Watson keeps getting into trouble and Holmes doesn't hear a word he says to him (in a way that is probably supposed to be funny, but isn't). In this ep, Holmes is merely annoying, whereas in the first episode he was awesome and entertaining and somehow very believable. The relationship between Holmes and Watson is baffling -- we don't really get why Watson wants to hang out with Holmes (and vice versa), like we did in the first instalment. While the first ep left me stunned and hungry for more, this left me unsatisfied and disappointed, and vaguely disturbed.
If they really wanted to go for Victorian Gothic Exotica, it would have been far more interesting (and entertaining) to see a modern twist on it where the focus is on the American West, like in The Five Orange Pips or The Dancing Men. But that would probably have been far too unbelievable for a modern audience, while the Far East version is apparently still believable -- which only goes to prove that the Far East is still seen as enigmatic and dangerous, while the American West is (these days) cool and epic and familiar.
The next (and last) episode was penned by Gatiss, so I'm keeping my hopes up for that one.
The episode is an attempt at the typical Victorian Gothic Exotica. There is, however, a huge, unavoidable problem with the original Victorian Gothic Exotica, especally when the focus is the Far East, which is blatant racism and xenophobia (not to mention the nonsensicality). Sadly, the modernisation of the genre has, in this instance, not been able to dispense with those elements in any satisfactory way. We still have the Scary Secret Chinese Brotherhood. The pacing isn't as good as in the first episode, and neither are the humour, character interactions or plot. It's slow, Holmes keep stumbling around without realising the obvious things, you have nonsensical plot elements, Watson keeps getting into trouble and Holmes doesn't hear a word he says to him (in a way that is probably supposed to be funny, but isn't). In this ep, Holmes is merely annoying, whereas in the first episode he was awesome and entertaining and somehow very believable. The relationship between Holmes and Watson is baffling -- we don't really get why Watson wants to hang out with Holmes (and vice versa), like we did in the first instalment. While the first ep left me stunned and hungry for more, this left me unsatisfied and disappointed, and vaguely disturbed.
If they really wanted to go for Victorian Gothic Exotica, it would have been far more interesting (and entertaining) to see a modern twist on it where the focus is on the American West, like in The Five Orange Pips or The Dancing Men. But that would probably have been far too unbelievable for a modern audience, while the Far East version is apparently still believable -- which only goes to prove that the Far East is still seen as enigmatic and dangerous, while the American West is (these days) cool and epic and familiar.
The next (and last) episode was penned by Gatiss, so I'm keeping my hopes up for that one.