well, that didn't take long at all.

[pocochina]

I’ve been waiting for Elementary to disappoint me since I got into it, and sure enough, last night’s episode is not sitting well. I actually put this up on tumblr at first because it was going to be me venting quickly, but it turned into a whole ~thing and I'd ultimately rather discuss on journal, so.

Comments

[lokifan]

These two problems are quite likely unconscious coding for the same assumption: that people who are deviant - specifically in some way which society considers a moral failure, whether Sherlock’s addiction or the VOTW’s weight - are not to be believed when they ask for their needs to be considered.

QFT

[pocochina]

I really do like the show and think it does a good job on a lot of things overall, but this episode earned a solid Dude Not Cool.

[streussal]

The fatphobic stuff was the only part I actually noticed on my own, but wow good points.

One of the earlier weight centric comments was also pretty bizarre. Sherlock deduced that the blackmailer's partner must be fat because his code name was Henry VIII, "the fattest monarch in English history". But I mean. That's not what Henry VIII is best known for. I think most people would remember the six wives before "he was fat". I'd assume that the guy had been married at least three times.

[pocochina]

That's not what Henry VIII is best known for. I think most people would remember the six wives before "he was fat". I'd assume that the guy had been married at least three times.

That was bizarre, I agree.

It was surprising to see Sherlock be so mean-spirited toward other people, too. He's often oblivious and rude, or even abrasive in self-protectiveness over his hypersensitivity, but making cruel jokes at the expense of people who've done nothing to him was....jarring.

It felt like this trope I hate of writers using a character's social difficulties as an excuse to indulge in making hateful, bigoted jokes, for the audience to be amused at the target of the bigoted jokes rather than the character. As if, again, people with a non-normative window of what's comfortable for them are actually just LYING in order to GET AWAY with something.

[streussal]

writers using a character's social difficulties as an excuse to indulge in making hateful, bigoted jokes, for the audience to be amused at the target of the bigoted jokes

Yeah. Which is gross and also lazy writing. Especially since in other episodes, Joan has called him out on that shit. (His comment about how she must be PMSing, etc.) Not that it should be her job to call her out on these things.

[pocochina]

That's exactly the point of comparison I was thinking of, too. Because that line (a) had a characterization purpose in that Sherlock was being deliberately offensive because he resented needing a companion and (b) immediately got shot down, which turned the punch line around on him. The show can show characters using nasty stereotypes in the way that people do without tacitly endorsing that behavior, so the fact that it did so in this case was particularly aggravating.