Oh, thank God I'm not the only one. I was cringing through the whole thing and hoping I wasn't just overreacting - I really did go in intending to give it the full benefit of the doubt but....you basically said it. I think I'll just ignore everything after S2 exists from now on. *puts fingers in ears*
I was literally in a state of stupefaction for the first ten or so minutes, it was just that bad. Couldn't even muster up the enthusiasm to get angry with Gatiss' treatment of the canonical Holmes, much less the way he twisted the characterization of his own creation. Unless something monumental changes (I continue to cling stupidly to the hope either John or Sherlock is in a coma after TGG and everything after that has been a dream) then I'm done.
Only watching S4 E2 to determine whether it can pull itself up by the bootstraps now that this atrocious excuse for Mary has been disposed of.
I couldn't bring myself to care enough to watch it. From what I'm hearing from people who have a clue what good drama is, I made the right choice, although the fangush is pretty impressive.
I have no idea why I even bothered, considering how I felt about the ending of HLV, and the decline of S3 into soap opera territory. Now, somehow, they've managed to squeeze James Bond into this soap opera about a detective who believes himself to be so much cleverer than he is >:|
John can just go and proverbial himself right now, to be honest, because you know what, I am getting so sick of this 'All the shit has happened and I'm going to blame Sherlock' bollocks. I get it; he's lost his wife. He's grieving. But I really, really wanted to have something better than that; blaming Sherlock for her demise. A lot of outlets have stated that it's Sherlock's arrogance that got Mary killed. Forgive me, but from where I was standing, it was Mary deciding to jump in front of Sherlock of her own free will that got her fucking killed. Much like the whole 'She shot me but saved me' thing in the last series when in fact, what was happening on the screen was Sherlock flatlining and only fighting his way back to protect John. I just hate it when people twist these things around
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Your comments about John really hit the center of the bulls eye. Part of what annoyed me about S3 was this tripe about John only being attracted to Sherlock (and I mean that in the platonic relationship sense) was due to a flaw in the character that made him some emotional thrill seeker. I found that bothered me worse than the alterations they've made to Holmes' characterization because John Watson, in any incarnation, is loyalty personified. In the books, he has an intellectual interest that grows into a mutual friendship - there was never any indication of PTSD or thrill seeking, and I think they added the latter to the detriment of the character and the show on the whole.
The lack of true, self-sacrificing friendship that has been replaced by an addiction to thrill seeking went a long way in distorting John in the context of this series. I cannot suspend belief enough to be convinced a man who killed for his friend in ASiP is somehow just in it for shits-and-giggles, and that he's now having a hissy fit because his wife threw
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My guess is that John was too perfect and the writers wanted to demystify him, but it was clumsily done and inconsistent to his character and I understand what you say about their relationship after all this ugliness (blaming Sherlock for Mary's death I can sort of understand in a moment of pain when you need to blame someone tangible, but reproaching him he broke his vow? Ha, ha, NOPE).
I'm not happy with Sherlock's OOCness, but what they have done to John... you're right, it doesn't feel like John Watson anymore.
Okay, it has been brought to my attention that the cheating subplot might be a ruse, shown in a misguiding way, in which John actually plays the double agent and there's no real cheating involved. It's very possible but it still doesn't save this trainwreck of an episode.
Thank you so much for this post. Urgh. I had to pause every two minutes because it looked like everyone and everything was moving as fast as a caffeinated squirrel. But anything I could understand was... errr... ugly as fuck. I don't think Sherlock was on drugs during the episode, but the writers definitely seemed to be.
What the heck did they do with Watson's character. What. The heck.
Bonus: "Gabrielle Ashdown" Urgh. I'm SO done with the references to TPLoSH.
Oh, the pacing was awful, wasn't it? And it certainly did not have the intended effect, unless we were supposed to wonder if Sherlock's mental mental facilities are collapsing. Because intelligent was the last thing he came off as, but he does have Narcissistic Prig mastered to perfection. Or perhaps that's just the writers own ego coming through.
BTW, you have NO IDEA how much I hate TPLoSH and how sick I am of the fannish squeeing over it just because Gatiss thinks its the greatest adaptation ever. It wasn't. Murder By Decree was But I am even more disgusted with all this stupid Baring-Gould and other non canonical references this series is littered with, of which it appears we are about to get more of.
Hello. I just wanted to thank you for writing down pretty much everything I think about this appalling mess of an episode and then some. Kudos to you as well as autumnatmidnite! PS: Also I think I've seen your comments on Saiyuki posts, a loooong time ago. It's very nice to see a fellow fan here :D
After much thinking and some meta reading, I've reached the conclusion that the John cheating thing has to be some subplot where he plays double agent or something and there's not factual cheating involved. It's the only thing that would make a little bit of sense. But still, the disappointment... even if half of this chapter were just planned to misguide the audience and things were not what they seemed, it has been so poorly executed that I'm not going to be able to get over it. Dammit.
Oooooh, yes, it's probable, Saiyuki is one of my most beloved fandoms! Yes, it's definitely nice to see a fellow fan! *glomps you again*
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Oh, thank God I'm not the only one. I was cringing through the whole thing and hoping I wasn't just overreacting - I really did go in intending to give it the full benefit of the doubt but....you basically said it. I think I'll just ignore everything after S2 exists from now on. *puts fingers in ears*
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Only watching S4 E2 to determine whether it can pull itself up by the bootstraps now that this atrocious excuse for Mary has been disposed of.
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The lack of true, self-sacrificing friendship that has been replaced by an addiction to thrill seeking went a long way in distorting John in the context of this series. I cannot suspend belief enough to be convinced a man who killed for his friend in ASiP is somehow just in it for shits-and-giggles, and that he's now having a hissy fit because his wife threw ( ... )
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All of it.
My guess is that John was too perfect and the writers wanted to demystify him, but it was clumsily done and inconsistent to his character and I understand what you say about their relationship after all this ugliness (blaming Sherlock for Mary's death I can sort of understand in a moment of pain when you need to blame someone tangible, but reproaching him he broke his vow? Ha, ha, NOPE).
I'm not happy with Sherlock's OOCness, but what they have done to John... you're right, it doesn't feel like John Watson anymore.
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What the heck did they do with Watson's character. What. The heck.
Bonus: "Gabrielle Ashdown" Urgh. I'm SO done with the references to TPLoSH.
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BTW, you have NO IDEA how much I hate TPLoSH and how sick I am of the fannish squeeing over it just because Gatiss thinks its the greatest adaptation ever. It wasn't. Murder By Decree was But I am even more disgusted with all this stupid Baring-Gould and other non canonical references this series is littered with, of which it appears we are about to get more of.
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But oh God, what did you say? Baring-Gould?? Baring-frigging-Gould?
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PS: Also I think I've seen your comments on Saiyuki posts, a loooong time ago. It's very nice to see a fellow fan here :D
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After much thinking and some meta reading, I've reached the conclusion that the John cheating thing has to be some subplot where he plays double agent or something and there's not factual cheating involved. It's the only thing that would make a little bit of sense. But still, the disappointment... even if half of this chapter were just planned to misguide the audience and things were not what they seemed, it has been so poorly executed that I'm not going to be able to get over it. Dammit.
Oooooh, yes, it's probable, Saiyuki is one of my most beloved fandoms! Yes, it's definitely nice to see a fellow fan! *glomps you again*
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