Sherlock 3x01: The Empty Hearse

[istne_pieklo]

The two-year-long wait is finally over, and here's two Series 3! I must say I'm finding it a bit hard to put my thoughts and impressions into words here. I'd say I liked the episode overall, but I found it a bit... underwhelming? It's not necessarily a bad thing; at least it gives some food for thought and it's something I might want to rewatch

Comments

[zoicite]

The gifs I'd been seeing on Tumblr since last night had me bracing for another Baskerville. I, therefore, went in expecting to hate this episode and ended up mostly pleasantly surprised!

(I haaaaated a lot of the Sherlock character stuff in Baskerville. Not all of it, but a good percentage. The entire opening scene with the boredom and the cigarettes, Sherlock's explosion in the pub, and that damn mind palace scene. It's been two years and they still make me cringe when I think about them. At first I thought my issue in that episode was BC's acting (with the exception of the mind palace. You can't blame the actor for the mind palace), but after seeing some of the gifs for this ep, I started to wonder if it might be the way that Mark Gatiss writes the character that I dislike. Maybe not though. I liked most of the character stuff in this episode

[istne_pieklo]

I don't know, I always found all those things pretty IC for Sherlock (and God forbid I ever say anything against BC's acting; he's perfect XD) but the show does have writing issues. Like any show, I suppose... The mind palace is terrible though XDDD I do like those flashy bits when he thinks about something and they show maps and bits of the city, etc. But to call in mind palace and wave your hands about like your head really is an iPad or something is weird.
the motorcycle was a bit cheesy Yes! That's what I meant by too much "cool". How do you even stop a motorcycle like that? A part of me wanted it to run Sherlock over or at least make a wild turn just to make it look more realistic. I keep expecting the writers to arm Sherlock with a screwdriver any day now. XD
I kinda hate what they've done with Anderson Which part?))) Or all of it?
having seen enough of DW, I'd rather have Moffat restricted to 3-episode arcs! Haha, couldn't agree more! I really do think they're trying. F.ex. this episode definitely chose to forego the crime

[zoicite]

Hm. Now that I'm really thinking about it, I would find all of those things in Baskerville IC on paper as well, which has me back to thinking it's the execution that results in me disliking those scenes so much. (I wasn't trying to say that I thought it was bad acting in that episode, more just that the acting choices didn't necessarily work for me there.) Really, I think the turn-off for me is that Sherlock was so overly dramatic in those sections of that episode, which you're right, isn't OOC, but also isn't one of his character traits that I like in more than very small doses.

I really like the flashy bits with the text and maps, etc, in general, and I think they're effective and cool most of the time, but man, that mind palace scene. And every time I hear 'mind palace' all I can think about is that Stephen King book/movie Dreamcatcher. I don't even remember much about the book or the movie except that one of the characters locks himself away in his head and it's like this big office/warehouse in there with all kinds of files

[istne_pieklo]

Sherlock could be a bit (okay, a lot) ridiculous and dramatic in the books too, so I suppose it doesn't annoy me all that much. Combined with all the craziness modern people compared to 19th century people (I do think the world's become a lot crazier XD), it seems natural. But I have to say, I made that conclusion only after a couple of rewatches. The first time I saw Baskerville, the scene at the inn sort of annoyed me a bit. The bit with the cigarettes didn't annoy me b/c it kind of reminded me of myself when my wifi dies. XDDD
Except Sherlock's mind is a palace, so I imagine fancier files Haha, I love all the funny fanarts it spawns. Like the one where Sherlock is standing on the balcony of some castle and saying that he's a pretty princess and this is his mind palace XD
Lestrade's "you did this and it killed him" line at the start bothered me a bit This part doesn't bother me really (the mini-vid Many Happy Returns sort of lays ground for that too) because I can see it happening. I don't know about conspiracy theories, but it