BBC Sherlock
I really like talking about all the reasons why I don't like things. I like to criticize and dissect. Usually this is a sign of my underlying love. I only bother to analyze things that I really care about, so if I have nothing to say about a movie or TV show it's usually because I don't give half a damn about it.
Except when I really, really love something to the point that I have no criticism. Then, I'm often too busy rolling on the floor and frothing in fangirl glee to say anything.
Such it is with A Scandal in Belgravia. It... it's just... it's so... *froths*
It's everything I wanted the American movie to be. Holmes's brilliance, which is masterfully written to keep the viewer feeling like an idiot next to Holmes even as everything is perfectly explained. The plot twists, which tie everything together even as they throw the viewer off balance. The homoeroticism, which is handled honestly and beautifully instead of taking refuge in audacity like Game of Shadows. IRENE ADLER.
And now, in contrast to my earlier point about my brevity concerning perfect things, allow me to wax lyrical for a moment about Irene Adler.
It is not at all an exaggeration to say that Lara Pulver is my favorite Irene Adler ever. She is even better than in the original story because she is no longer restrained by the norms and expectations of Doyle's time. In A Scandal in Bohemia, she knows what Holmes is up to but is forced into playing his game due to societal expectations. In Belgravia, she is free to meet Sherlock on the frontlines, wearing her "battle dress."
The decision to make Adler a dominatrix was an interesting one. It raised the stakes of the original photos (in Doyle's story, they were much more innocent and probably would not have even been scandalous in present day). It also made me nervous, because I'm used to American TV, where dommes and kinky people in general are only ever present to either titillate viewers or to shame women and kinksters. Now, I'm not claiming that there was nothing titillating about Adler's nude scene (God knows I was not, ahem, unaffected), but for once I actually believed two very important things that no American show has ever convinced me of concerning a dominatrix. One, that she actually got off on exerting power and causing pain. And two, that the show writers respected her as a character.
My oooonly quibble with her (which is, by the way, something of a SPOILER), is Holmes's final revelation - namely, that Adler was attracted to him, and that it compromised her judgement. Which wouldn't have been a problem in itself if Adler had not been portrayed as (and identified herself as) a lesbian. So now we have a gay woman undone by her unexpected infatuation with a man, a trope that I loathe wholeheartedly.
But I would have been willing to overlook many, many more faults than that for this show, because it is OMG AWESOME I CAN'T EVEN YOU GUYS IT'S JUST *froth froth froth*
ETA: Okay, the more I think about it, the more I recognize the serious, serious sexism going on in this episode. I still enjoyed the hell out of watching this version of Adler, but my squee was premature and poorly-though-out.
Except when I really, really love something to the point that I have no criticism. Then, I'm often too busy rolling on the floor and frothing in fangirl glee to say anything.
Such it is with A Scandal in Belgravia. It... it's just... it's so... *froths*
It's everything I wanted the American movie to be. Holmes's brilliance, which is masterfully written to keep the viewer feeling like an idiot next to Holmes even as everything is perfectly explained. The plot twists, which tie everything together even as they throw the viewer off balance. The homoeroticism, which is handled honestly and beautifully instead of taking refuge in audacity like Game of Shadows. IRENE ADLER.
And now, in contrast to my earlier point about my brevity concerning perfect things, allow me to wax lyrical for a moment about Irene Adler.
It is not at all an exaggeration to say that Lara Pulver is my favorite Irene Adler ever. She is even better than in the original story because she is no longer restrained by the norms and expectations of Doyle's time. In A Scandal in Bohemia, she knows what Holmes is up to but is forced into playing his game due to societal expectations. In Belgravia, she is free to meet Sherlock on the frontlines, wearing her "battle dress."
The decision to make Adler a dominatrix was an interesting one. It raised the stakes of the original photos (in Doyle's story, they were much more innocent and probably would not have even been scandalous in present day). It also made me nervous, because I'm used to American TV, where dommes and kinky people in general are only ever present to either titillate viewers or to shame women and kinksters. Now, I'm not claiming that there was nothing titillating about Adler's nude scene (God knows I was not, ahem, unaffected), but for once I actually believed two very important things that no American show has ever convinced me of concerning a dominatrix. One, that she actually got off on exerting power and causing pain. And two, that the show writers respected her as a character.
My oooonly quibble with her (which is, by the way, something of a SPOILER), is Holmes's final revelation - namely, that Adler was attracted to him, and that it compromised her judgement. Which wouldn't have been a problem in itself if Adler had not been portrayed as (and identified herself as) a lesbian. So now we have a gay woman undone by her unexpected infatuation with a man, a trope that I loathe wholeheartedly.
But I would have been willing to overlook many, many more faults than that for this show, because it is OMG AWESOME I CAN'T EVEN YOU GUYS IT'S JUST *froth froth froth*
ETA: Okay, the more I think about it, the more I recognize the serious, serious sexism going on in this episode. I still enjoyed the hell out of watching this version of Adler, but my squee was premature and poorly-though-out.