Sherlock
So... I am now completely confused about what my feelings for this episode actually are. On one hand I really, really enjoyed myself while watching it, but one the other hand, looking back on it I find myself second guessing it and worrying about whether or not certain elements were Fail! or Jolly Good!.
I still haven't watched the last episode of the last season, so have no real thoughts on our Irish criminal consultant (sorry
laeria). However, I have many thoughts about our Miss Adler, mostly involving that whip to be honest but that is neither here nor there, except that it sort of is. I was... shall we say dubious when I heard that this incarnation of Irene Adler was to be a dominatrix. I'm still not entirely convinced that the thoughts behind it didn't just run along the lines of: 'We can give her a whip! And have lots of pictures of her being sexy in high heels and very little else. Actually, lets literally have her naked, with heels on. All dominatrices wear really high heels right? Also we will be able to crack out some fairly dreadful puns. See what I did there... cause she's got a whip... never mind.' But at the same time we also get to see her in a vulnerable state with out the make up and heels, and guess what? That vulnerability is just as much of an act as the original look was. We still haven't seen the 'real' Irene Adler and I kind of love that. Also, I'm not going to lie, her beating Sherlock with that whip was pretty damn hot.
Although speaking of that bit, I wouldn't exactly class drugging someone, then beating them up as mentally outclassing them. And while I understand that there is a massive difference between the impact that the hero being beaten in a short story and the hero being beaten in one third of the season has, I would still have liked to see Irene come out on top of the Holmes boys. (In my head canon the whole beheading thing was something her and Sherlock cooked up together, weird as the whole thing is.)
As for the boys... here I find the whole thing, just... argh! Cause I know what I saw, I saw this complicated relationship where two people care for each other, laugh with each other and are generally messed up together. They are in many senses of the word: a couple. But one of them is possibly a virgin and probably asexual and is still getting the hang of friendship and also easily distracted by shiny minds. While the other one is jealous of said shiny mind, but doesn't really understand why because, well, he's straight and that's that, end of story, and what ever his string of girlfriends might say his flat mate is just his good friend who is a boy, not his boyfriend who he'll look after come hell or high water or the possible death of said shiny mind, because he isn't gay. At which point Irene tries yet again to explain that sexuality doesn't always have to be a binary thing.
So that's what I saw, I'm just worried that the show runners might be going for more of the 'Gay? Oh you are a funny little fan girl.' *wink wink nudge nudge* that they had in the first episode of the first series.
So confusing!
Although, that aside, I'm pretty sure that this was a genuinely great bit of telly. Unlike, the first episode of the first season (which I am going to keep harking back to because it is the only previous episode that I have watched in full) Sherlock was genuinely about ten steps ahead of me at every turn. Which is pretty much how it should be. There was some great character stuff. The relationship between Mycroft and Sherlock was wonderfully fleshed out, both stood behind glass wondering what all these strange human emotions are. Loved it!
So, I'm definitely looking forward to next week.
We also watched Treasure Island.
It was also pretty darn good. Interestingly, I read the original Treasure Island book for the first time this summer when I also read my first Sherlock Holmes book, which included a 'Scandal in Bohemia'. How's that for coincidence?
I think that this adaptation is very well done so far. They've done a good job of complicating the original text in a couple of ways, adding interesting character flaws and fleshing out relationships in a way that worked. I particularly liked the scenes with Silver's wife/lover, especially as this then meant that the episode actually passed the Bechdel Test when she went to hole up in Jim's mother's inn. Jim also gets to be a lot less straight laced than he is in the book, stealing the full map when they land instead of telling the rest of the 'good' crew about Silver's betrayal because the squire has bumped him down from share of the treasure to cabin boy wages. You also get to see just how clever Silver's plan is, there is an incident when he organises the death of the first mate's best friend in such a way that makes it look as if it is the squire's negligence that caused his death, this then leads to the demotion of the first mate and the promotion of Silver's man.
All in all looking forward to the next episode.
I still haven't watched the last episode of the last season, so have no real thoughts on our Irish criminal consultant (sorry
laeria). However, I have many thoughts about our Miss Adler, mostly involving that whip to be honest but that is neither here nor there, except that it sort of is. I was... shall we say dubious when I heard that this incarnation of Irene Adler was to be a dominatrix. I'm still not entirely convinced that the thoughts behind it didn't just run along the lines of: 'We can give her a whip! And have lots of pictures of her being sexy in high heels and very little else. Actually, lets literally have her naked, with heels on. All dominatrices wear really high heels right? Also we will be able to crack out some fairly dreadful puns. See what I did there... cause she's got a whip... never mind.' But at the same time we also get to see her in a vulnerable state with out the make up and heels, and guess what? That vulnerability is just as much of an act as the original look was. We still haven't seen the 'real' Irene Adler and I kind of love that. Also, I'm not going to lie, her beating Sherlock with that whip was pretty damn hot.
Although speaking of that bit, I wouldn't exactly class drugging someone, then beating them up as mentally outclassing them. And while I understand that there is a massive difference between the impact that the hero being beaten in a short story and the hero being beaten in one third of the season has, I would still have liked to see Irene come out on top of the Holmes boys. (In my head canon the whole beheading thing was something her and Sherlock cooked up together, weird as the whole thing is.)
As for the boys... here I find the whole thing, just... argh! Cause I know what I saw, I saw this complicated relationship where two people care for each other, laugh with each other and are generally messed up together. They are in many senses of the word: a couple. But one of them is possibly a virgin and probably asexual and is still getting the hang of friendship and also easily distracted by shiny minds. While the other one is jealous of said shiny mind, but doesn't really understand why because, well, he's straight and that's that, end of story, and what ever his string of girlfriends might say his flat mate is just his good friend who is a boy, not his boyfriend who he'll look after come hell or high water or the possible death of said shiny mind, because he isn't gay. At which point Irene tries yet again to explain that sexuality doesn't always have to be a binary thing.
So that's what I saw, I'm just worried that the show runners might be going for more of the 'Gay? Oh you are a funny little fan girl.' *wink wink nudge nudge* that they had in the first episode of the first series.
So confusing!
Although, that aside, I'm pretty sure that this was a genuinely great bit of telly. Unlike, the first episode of the first season (which I am going to keep harking back to because it is the only previous episode that I have watched in full) Sherlock was genuinely about ten steps ahead of me at every turn. Which is pretty much how it should be. There was some great character stuff. The relationship between Mycroft and Sherlock was wonderfully fleshed out, both stood behind glass wondering what all these strange human emotions are. Loved it!
So, I'm definitely looking forward to next week.
We also watched Treasure Island.
It was also pretty darn good. Interestingly, I read the original Treasure Island book for the first time this summer when I also read my first Sherlock Holmes book, which included a 'Scandal in Bohemia'. How's that for coincidence?
I think that this adaptation is very well done so far. They've done a good job of complicating the original text in a couple of ways, adding interesting character flaws and fleshing out relationships in a way that worked. I particularly liked the scenes with Silver's wife/lover, especially as this then meant that the episode actually passed the Bechdel Test when she went to hole up in Jim's mother's inn. Jim also gets to be a lot less straight laced than he is in the book, stealing the full map when they land instead of telling the rest of the 'good' crew about Silver's betrayal because the squire has bumped him down from share of the treasure to cabin boy wages. You also get to see just how clever Silver's plan is, there is an incident when he organises the death of the first mate's best friend in such a way that makes it look as if it is the squire's negligence that caused his death, this then leads to the demotion of the first mate and the promotion of Silver's man.
All in all looking forward to the next episode.