Comments | sevenswells: Sherlock 3x03, His Last Vow -- episode review

sevenswells

Sherlock 3x03, His Last Vow -- episode review

Jan 15, 2014 10:55

Finally, this is my "His Last Vow" review, full of swearing and spoilers. Anyone is welcome to debate it, because if I missed something I want to know and I want to understand what the fuck was going on in this episode.

( Last warning: SPOILERS for His Last Vow (also lots and lots of swearing) )

meh, doctor who, episode review, meta, i'm too old for this shit, bitching, his last vow, sherlock holmes

Comments 12

epistolic January 15 2014, 11:37:43 UTC

Wow. To be honest - I really enjoyed the episode as I was watching; I felt like it was a great return to the original style of season 1, it wasn't all campy like Empty Hearse, and it felt good that Mary was different to the typical portrayal of her as the epitome of domesticity. But now that you've pointed out all these plot holes, they're glaring at me, and I can see that beneath all the polish and prettifying, there are some huge problems with the way this ep was written. Wow.

sevenswells January 16 2014, 09:43:48 UTC

And that's what I got from only one watch too, if I watch it again I'm pretty sure I can find even more. Plot holes don't matter to me as long as there's sufficient emotion (Reichenbach has MASSIVE plot holes but I couldn't think about them through my tears) but in this case the plot holes undermined the emotion because it felt the drama happened for no reason ( ... )

falling_voices January 15 2014, 17:05:51 UTC

THIS IS WHY BLACKMAILERS ACTUALLY NEED REAL MATERIAL TO BLACKMAIL WITH

Ding ding ding ding.

The plot completely fell apart at that point. That's probably my biggest beef with this episode - Moffat pulled an ASiB again and only used the actual, original story for the first half hour or so, and only as a foundation for his own shitty intrigue. It was just plain bad mystery writing, imo.

sevenswells January 16 2014, 09:49:05 UTC

Yep. Nothing else to add.

adena_kaiba January 15 2014, 18:21:09 UTC

( ... )

sevenswells January 16 2014, 09:58:30 UTC

Dude, believe me when I say I can find even more illogical shit if I bothered to watch the episode again.
As for me, I'm all out of anger, I've spent it all on Moffat's run of Doctor Who, now I'm just sad that he's done the same bullshit writing on Sherlock too :(

*counter-attack hug!*

therese_chan January 15 2014, 23:12:00 UTC

I don't think there's anything here I don't agree on. I'm so sick and tired of Moffat and his stupid writing. It really feels like it's getting worse. This made no sense at all and just ugh, no!

sevenswells January 16 2014, 10:01:23 UTC

Thanks, I'm actually relieved to know that I'm not the only one who found this episode was badly written. I'm not judging the people who enjoyed it, I just don't understand.

marta_bee January 17 2014, 13:19:07 UTC

On the whole how-can-CAM-blackmail-without-evidence thing, I suppose that should have bothered me more than it did. The fact that it did seem so plausible to me (and still does) seems like it points to a breakdown in my critical thinking skills - a bit not good for someone with yours as a philosophy grad student under her belt. :-)

For what it's worth, I think it helps to think of CAM's victims as falling into two basic categories: people who are afraid of scandal (with or without justification), and people CAM can hurt because of the information he holds, not necessarily proof. Lady Smallwood falls into the first camp. She's not concerned about what a fair reading of the facts would do to her, but what the mere whiff of the story, to people who see the headline and never read the details, what that would do to her family. It's the threat of an accusation, coupled with her own guilt or fear about the shamefulness of the situation, that make her vulnerable. And we've already seen one good man brought down by a story in the press that ( ... )

marta_bee January 17 2014, 13:19:59 UTC

And, contd because LJ doesn't like long comments. All of which makes the last comment a bit ironic - seems I'm halfway to that blog post. ;-)

****************************

On why Sherlock had to assassinate CAM... well, this is why I find my breakdown in critical thought so embarrassing. I suspect, if Mycroft was in on this situation at all (a theory I like; there's simply no reason for the laptop to be at their parents' house otherwise), I don't think he intended it to go that far. Sherlock's job was probably to reconnaissance, to work out just what kind of threat CAM was. I can see Mycroft telling Sherlock to go in there, engage CAM in a battle of wits, get him to slip up and say something we can use to deal with him, because one you know just what kind of a threat he poses then you can abduct him or kill him or whatever. I don't think Sherlock was ever supposed to kill CAM himself, certainly not in such a sloppy, obvious way. He was supposed to fall back, tell Mycroft what he knew, and let Mycroft take it from there. But then ( ... )

marta_bee January 17 2014, 13:26:28 UTC

And while I'm on the topic, it's worth saying...

LJ icon notwithstanding, I'm just now getting into the Eleven years of Doctor Who. Or about to get there - I'm currently watching the specials that bridge Ten/Eleven. So I have barely met River Song and have not been exposed to the latest Moffat fuckery. So I'm not coming at this from that perspective. Perhaps if I was I'd be more frustrated, less inquisitively "let's-work-out-just-what-the-heck-is-going-on-here." If that makes sense.

Mainly I wanted to say: I understand your frustration and don't mean to undercut it; it's simply not where I'm starting from so my response is a bit less... well, frustrated, I guess? More constructive in the sense that I'm driven to construct something that makes sense to me, rather than just throw my hands up in sheer but well-earned irritation that this is happening yet again? So if my overlong comments are too much worldbuilding and rehabilitation, not enough righteous indignation (which may actually be the more appropriate path)... well, I'm cool ( ... )