Meanderings and Sherlock

[westernredcedar]

I'm having a weird, emotional night due to various goings-on in RL. All fine, just has me a bit off-kilter and so I'm in the mood to feel some solid footing under me here. How about spouting forth about Sherlock, Season 3? That's all very concrete and fun! Therefore:


Sherlock. For the record again, I cannot interpret the show as anything other than the story of two people finding their perfect life partner and falling in love, and oddly (odd, due to the nature of the plot of this season, what with the marriage and all) my feelings on this matter have not changed.

I loved that there was nothing in this season that veered me off this reading of the show, even Mary. In fact, Mary, who I really enjoyed as a character, seems to understand that she is a third in a previously existing marriage, and she seems okay with that. Which, yeah, made me really appreciate the writing, because that is hard to pull off. And that made me need to go re-read Basingstoke's Yes Yes Yes again for the many-ith time, because a glorious balanced three-person relationship between them all is something I can only like if really handled perfectly, as in that fic. And I liked how it was handled here. Amazing!

I adored the second episode. I may have to watch it again as soon as I finish writing this. It is possible the "Madonna/Sherlock Holmes" game is my favorite scene in any of the episodes ever, because that tension of love and confusion between them is so perfectly present. There is a moment when John falls off the chair and has to use Sherlock's knee to raise himself back up, and it's so lush with love, with that touch that can't go any further. Gah! Honestly, since I've been so into Torchwood lately, I keep imagining Jack Harkness meeting John and Sherlock together and being crazy frustrated by the 21st century repression that keeps them apart. Heh.

I even enjoyed the mystery plot in episode two, an element that I found lacking in the other two episodes, which is actually quite pathetic for a mystery program.

I was pleased with some of the development of Molly's character in episode 2. My favorite moment for her is at the end when she does not leave the wedding and follow Sherlock, when you see her tempted and then have the strength to resist and be her strong self. I really identified with her in that moment, and appreciated how real it was. (versus the rather insulting Sherlock clone boyfriend plot she had to deal with in ep 1. I cringed at that choice.)

Something I have mixed feelings about is Sherlock's drug use. At the start of ep 3 I actually shouted out loud at the TV when I realized that John was about to find Sherlock amongst all the heroin users (which I figured out moments before it happened, I'm slow...), especially after the end of ep 2, when Sherlock was so alone. This was an opportunity for the plot to be intense and fascinating, dealing with Sherlock the addict who has now fallen off the wagon and has no real reason to take care of himself. I was excited to finally see this element of his character being explored. And then...it went nowhere and was never mentioned again. And that made me mad, as if Sherlock is so amazingly brilliant that he can strategically use heroin for a case and be fine, no consequences, even with his history. So, I liked the idea, loved a couple of the scenes, and hated the result.

Elements I did not appreciate were mostly present in Eps 1 and 3.
1. Mystery: I missed the detailed mystery plots. Even the Magnuson plot in ep 3 did not do it for me- too broad and confusing. Just have someone murdered and try to solve it, please. A few things were not even consistent, like Magnuson having Smallwood's "letters" in the beginning, and then having no paperwork whatsoever being the big reveal at the end?? Maybe I missed something, but it seemed poorly thought out.
2. Protesting too much: I was frustrated that after creating such an emotional connection between John and Sherlock in Reichenbach, it was necessary for John to revisit the "I'm not gay," piece again in this season. I had hoped that John's character had grown beyond needing to do that.
3. Character consistency: I liked the John's mustache joke once in ep 1, but felt that Sherlock figured out how deeply he had screwed up during the fake French waiter scene, so repeating the joke over and over made him really look like an ass, and took me out of his character. I felt similarly about how Sherlock handled the end of the bomb on the train scare. I think after John had been so honest, he would be more respectful of his dear friend, not laugh, etc. I did not like these character inconsistencies in that episode. At all.
4. Motorbike chases, etc. I mean, why? And with Mary? And they're supposed to be somehow reading a GPS or something as they go? Like, down a bunch of stairs? Sigh.

There's more to talk about I'm sure...like the awesome Holmes parents! It feels good to do a little bit of a download though, scattered as it may be. Now, back to working on some fic writing. Oh, and sleep. Hurrah!

*hugs*

Comments

[bk7brokemybrain.livejournal.com]

The GPS was in Sherlock's head. *nods* And I think those letters in Magnusson's pocket were fake. He said he sometimes sends out for something if he needs it, but those letters would have been thirty years old, and we know he's Danish minimalist and nothing is stored on-site, lol, so therefore, I think he just used props to keep up the fiction of his vaults.
Sharing excitement with Mary is a good way to show what she's made of. She's no trembling violet, so that would have helped Sherlock like her as much as Mary likes him.

Appledore - I love that name. Who is the Potter fan? I'd say Gatiss. Dore as in Dumbledore, as in bumblebee, to represent a hive, cells full of treasure, and to continue the bee theme (as when Janine said she was buying, essentially, Sherlock's retirement cottage in Sussex Downs, complete with hives). And apple for the forbidden knowledge.
I adored when Sherlock said he hates Magnusson because he preys on people who are different. Right there I felt like Sherlock finally identified with The Different, perhaps as asexual. He certainly had touched a nerve.

For the first time in the shows, I had a few moments when Martin and Ben seemed like they were acting and not channeling the characters. Mostly it was Martin, surprisingly, as he is usually so effortlessly excellent. It must have been the writing. When he was warning Mycroft, who was pressed up against the door jamb, to shut up because his brother might break him, that felt off, forced. In the bomb scene Martin also seemed false here and there. Benedict managed to stay inside the lines, even if he made some weird choices, but it must have been the writing stretching their ability to find the characters they'd known all along. The bomb scene was quite a stretch with Sherlock compressing time for his own expediency and forcing feelings out of John so they could just get back to working together, already. It was still very touching, if giddy.
Overall, I don't care. It was awesome, in that I was literally awed at times, so I'm just happy to be here in their presence again. There were a million ways the writers could have played it, this was just one way, and that's what fanfic is for.

Yes, my absolute favorite ten minutes of the entire series is the stag night. I could cry with happiness for that. Mostly, it was the repeated message that Sherlock was getting that relationships change everything and he is screwed that hurt so much. Mrs. Hudson's chief bridesmaid left, John is leaving, men don't call. When Tessa tells a drunken Sherlock how her ghost never called and Sherlock was so upset and empathetic for her (that FACE), my heart broke for him. And I laughed very hard. With what someone dubbed 'Silence is not My Division' Lestrade yelling in the cell wrapping up the perfect night of OOC-ness, I could have died happy right then.
"Am I the current King of England?" will reign as my favorite all-time line, I think. Ben delivered that perfectly.
The Knee Touch - that had to have been improvised by Martin to save the take after he fell a little too far forward. That is the only time they ever stepped on each other's dialog, when Benedict starts to improvise with him, but then quickly reverts to script. Was that wonderfully intuitive of Martin to go there, or what? He came up with the perfect gay-questioning thing for John to say. "I don't mind." GUH. I can practically feel his bony hand on Sherlock's knee. Actually, that kind of happened to me on the subway once - I got knocked over and braced myself by grabbing the knee/thigh of a very handsome man, and bracing myself against it. Very nice, if embarrassing. ;) So I know how awkward that feels, and how sensuous.

[bk7brokemybrain.livejournal.com]

Can we talk about goldfish?
Yenta!Sherlock has learned a thing or two about loneliness while he was away, and intercedes on his brother's behalf to convince him to get a friend. How lovely is it to see them alone, and witnessing their culture of two? Adorable and touching.
So Mycroft took his advice to heart and is getting in shape to go after someone. I'm going to generalize and say no straight man in such reasonable shape as Mycroft was already in would care that much about his body. Therefore, I postulate that he is gay and going after Lestrade, the only other main character not paired off or off-limits. Of course, now that Molly's engagement is broken, perhaps we could see a nice, angsty love triangle form, as Greg has obviously looked at Molly before. God, I'd love to see what Mycroft courting an oblivious Greg would look like.
I don't mind Molly finding an ersatz Sherlock. I think I would have minded more if she'd gone through with it, since Tom was obviously only attractive on the surface, and Molly is made of more complex stuff. Hell, I actually wrote that fanfic already for Holmestice, in which she falls for Martin Crieff for all the same reasons, but she stays because Martin is a substantial person worth her love.

Mary - I still like her. I don't like the baby. Too soon, and too much danger. I keep wondering at what point they will kill off John's wife - and now his child - to allow him to move back to Baker street. Now it would be horribly cruel to kill a child, so it looks like we'll have kidlock coming.
Funny how they are diluting the character of Moran and doing The Empty house in stages. Lord Moran, Mary as a skilled shooter, the facade houses with the 'dummy', but also blowing up the house across from 221B back in S1. I thought for sure that's how there was going to be an empty house in central London when they needed it. Fascinating how they are morphing the old plots.
They jumped into Sherlock's relationship with Janine so fast I was utterly shocked, wondering for a bit if he was doing this to shock John and get his attention back, or possibly as an experiment to see what all the fuss is about. Those kisses at the door were so fucking hot because of the awkwardness and coolness on Sherlock's part, and a bit because John could barely contain himself. So, even though I was expecting that very development, I was as addled as John until I realized who Janine was. Good job, writers! Also, bonus points for John's apparent inconvenient reaction to seeing a sexual Sherlock. Not gay? Hmm.

Yeah, drug use. Hmm. There were other ways to go about showing Magnussen a pressure point, so it was definitely Sherlock having a pity party and using for himself. He came up dirty, otherwise I'd say that maybe he was faking it, but no. Sad. But he did go through detox in hospital for months, so maybe that's how he got through it and how he'll stay clean now.

God, so many thoughts.

Oh! The Mustache of Misery. You know, it was really a very interesting character device. Mrs Hudson, Mary and Sherlock all had strong opinions about it, and it was used as a way for these people to exert and reveal the depth of their relationships with John. Mary suffered with it, but she wasn't as established with John as the other two. Mrs H told him right off about it, mother-style, and John respected her opinion. And Sherlock? Wow. That line, "Well, we'll have to get rid of that." That was so intimate a thing to say, such a powerful glimpse of the possessiveness Sherlock feels for John, it made me gasp and shiver a bit to hear it. The mustache is such a personal thing, to have people fighting over it, fighting over John himself, exerting control over him and watching him yield to their desires... I'll be in my bunk.

[westernredcedar.livejournal.com]

Hahahahahahahahaha! You addict.
But look, I'm replying at last! I'll do my best to hit some of your points, but know I'm totally loving your massive thought dump. Hurrah!
Overall, I don't care. It was awesome, in that I was literally awed at times, so I'm just happy to be here in their presence again. There were a million ways the writers could have played it, this was just one way, and that's what fanfic is for.
Indeed. Though I had many problems with the way some things were handled, I overall enjoyed the series still and adore the story of these two men. The fodder for fic was huge and lovely. (God, I haven't searched out awkward Sherlock sex with Janine fic, yet, but I think I might need to, for the sheer lunacy of that whole thing, and for some more John reaction to the whole debacle). Also, your paragraph-long explanation above of why Mystrade makes perfect sense via new canon fitness!Mycroft is full of wisdom. Get writing, m'dear! ;)
I was also disappointed with the baby plot. The three of them are such a cool team, in a messed up "we all love each other in complex and unexplainable ways" way, and I could see taking that relationship and making something work for the next series. But with a baby...sigh. No. I'm not exactly sure what the point was of the pregnancy either, except maybe to make a reason John would give her second chance in ep3? Which is a pathetic narrative reason to make a baby, dear writers.
I loved Sherlock's initial response to the mustache, too. Awesome, because you knew, instantly, that John was taking that thing off. It was the repetition and making it into a comedy bit, instead of just that intimate moment, that bugged me.
I hope you enjoyed your bunk! I'll rewatch sometime in the near future and I imagine have more to add...

[bk7brokemybrain.livejournal.com]

So, since I last dumped my thoughts on you, I have been edumacated by some metas I read about how and why Gatiss and Moffat have been intending The Gay between John and Sherlock this whole time, and it's coming down the pike, prob by series 5. Here's a link to the meta http://archiveofourown.org/works/1151012
It's amazing, and I feel so happy to have so much proof shoved down my throat, but even if you discounted half of the evidence as stretching it a bit and wishful thinking, that leave another half that seems to make it so obvious.
I was happily assuming that Sherlock was asexual after S3. Now, I'm not so sure. There is a branching tree of links in the metas that lead to other links, and I'd recommend you read them all, because they are varied and thorough. Some are visual clues, many are subtextual, others are inferred proofs based on missing things, and random things in the script. Btw, according to these metas, every single thing about the writing that I mentioned above was weird for a reason, that reason being that it was a clue. John Watson DOES have an international reputation, tyvm, but it was written almost as a subtext code of denial of what both men had been proclaiming about themselves all along. I don't want to come off sounding like a newly inducted cult member, but I'm so happy that I'm practically giddy.
So yeah. Sherlock never slept with Janine. Could be because he was asexual, or because he's gay. After reading the metas, I'm going with the latter.
But that makes me wonder about the Mystrade happening ever, if they have plans for Sherlock and John. Might be too much gay for one show, and both brothers! Or, it could be a red herring. Make people think that exact thing: that we would never get two gay relationships among the main characters.
One of the biggest arguments for the gay is the fact that Moffat is a lying liar who lies, and makes his characters lie about themselves, too. John is not gay. Sherlock is a sociopath. Mycroft is not lonely. Caring is not an advantage. So if Moffat keeps telling us for no good reason that Sherlock is straight even though he's shown to be asexual or celibate, and everyone who ever knew him made comments about his gayness from the first episode, that counts as a red flag big lie to me. Deny, deny, deny, keep the great game going until the big reveal.
Also, Gatiss loves 'The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes' in which Sherlock is gay. All the massive subtext and revealing themes throughout the show are not merely queer-baiting, they are breadcrumbs. They are doing their own Great Game of subtext and having a ball with it and letting us play along.
And since we are in the 21St century, this is the last chance they will get to make gay subtext relevant, and a gay relationship titillating in any way. Very soon, it will not matter, so it's now or never for a dramatic coming together of these two.

Oh, the baby. The metas address this and Mary. Basically, it serves the arc. Could go a few ways, but basically, it was a good way to keep John trapped and with Mary for the time being until little Sherly is born. Then, it will be very important for John to choose to leave Mary and choose to go to Sherlock, as opposed to John being at loose ends once his wife dies and then falling into bed with a convenient flatmate. No, they'd want to ratchet up the tension as much as possible. Some say Mycroft and Sherlock are plotting to make Mary leave for her iniquity, her lies and for murdering Sherlock, leaving the baby behind. Or maybe she will get up to some old tricks and get herself killed. Watching Sherlock with John's child, loving all parts of John, might be the sexiest frickin thing I might ever see, especially with how Cumberbatch would do it. And you thought John looked fondly at Sherlock when he was hugging Mrs H? He might just have to throw him against a wall and kiss him breathless after seeing him feed her a bottle. We shall see.

[westernredcedar.livejournal.com]

Are you trying to kill me? I need to go to sleep!! *happily trundles off to read piles of meta*
Thanks, hon! ;)

[bk7brokemybrain.livejournal.com]

Ha. Enjoy! Once you have been converted, we can both don the ritual garb of oatmeal jumper and deerstalker cap, rock in the corner and incant pleas to the Almighty Moftiss to hasten Teh Incipient Gay Tiems.

[westernredcedar.livejournal.com]

You'll be pleased to know I've donned the oatmeal jumper. Actually, really I have today, for work, but now it is also symbolic of all the lovely glaringly obvious symbolism I now completely see and feel like an amateur for having missed before. I'M SOLD! And I was up until 2 am. Whee!

[bk7brokemybrain.livejournal.com]

AWESOME. Here, have a toaster for joining.
And I was up until 2 am. Welcome to my world. Hee. I am ridiculously pleased that someone else got caught up in this, not just me. It's a revelation.
I know how you feel about feeling funny about having missed all this. I think subconsciously I was feeling and processing the messages (the ones I could recognize, anyway), but so little was making sense. I am especially fascinated by the incontrovertible lighting, music, scenic design, clothing and color choices, how so many people were in on it. I think it's 221BeeMIne who is the photographer who loves to analyze and fangirl over the Director of Photography and Cinematography on Sherlock and how much symbolism of the subconscious was portrayed in eps 1 and 2, especially. The entire Underground metaphor was amazing and beautifully done, especially when Sherlock is descending into an empty Underground, trains shooting out of and around his iris (oh, hello, fetishized eye-freckle) and the map of the system projected on him. EVERYONE on this shoot is perpetrating the symbolism through their particular medium.

Which leads me to wonder: which actors know of the plan? Like J.K. Rowling taking Rickman aside and filling him in on the endgame, did Moffat and Gatiss take Martin and Ben aside and tell them the ultimate goal? Just Ben? Did they tell anyone? If they waited to tell anyone, have they told them now? I am reminded of the story of Ben Hur in which Charlton Heston was not let into the 'joke' that his costars were playing it gay around him, loading the film with gay subtext and innuendo. Maybe Ben was clued in, so he could subtly play the part of repressed attraction and fascination and love from the beginning, and let Martin make his own decisions?
I just saw a S1 promo shot of the two in front of the smiley face. EVEN THEN, from before the release, John is looking at the camera, Sherlock is looking at John. As ever. Because he is the most beautiful thing.
People are complaining that in TEH they dragged out the old 'I'm not GAY!" trope again, but I think Martin played it perfectly stridently. The closer you are to losing, the louder you yell. John is already defeated, and he doesn't even know Sherlock is alive yet. He's not even angsting about marrying Mary with Sherlock back in the picture because, regardless of his feelings, he doesn't think Sherlock is at all available. So tell yourself the Big Lie, and tell everyone else, and maybe they'll stop reminding you of those thoughts you keep having.

[bk7brokemybrain.livejournal.com]

This is too delicious.
I haven't been able to get the music from the shows out of my head. The orchestral stuff is one thing, it repeats themes from previous series like Irene's theme which stands for sexuality, but the pop music with lyrics is another because it has lyrics. And the lyrics are very interesting.

"Oh What A Night" is a great, fun wedding song, yes. But I adore how, when Sherlock is folding up the sheet music for his tender, emotional love waltz, and slipping it into the envelope marked Dr and Mrs Watson, the lyrics we hear are Why'd it take so long to see the light? Seemed so wrong, but now it seems so right.
Ouchie.

What's really been bothering me is the meaning of the music choice used for The Reunion. "Donde Estas Yolanda?" by Pink Martini is not something that blends in tone with Sherlock and John at all being a hot, sultry, passionate Latin dance piece. Although, in keeping with the lonesome dancer theme that is Sherlock dancing alone or not at all throughout ep2 (even though he loves to dance), when John jumps Sherlock he is essentially dancing with him for several steps, walking Sherlock backward (John is leading!) until they fall into a passionate pile of feels on the floor. So, hot and Latin = ersatz sex.
I found a translation of the lyrics and oh, boy. If taken from John's POV (and I think we should given how it cuts in when John jumps Sherlock), it gets very meaningful. Generally, it's about a man who had a passionate moment with a woman and has been searching for her ever since. http://lyricstranslate.com/en/donde-estas-yolanda-where-are-you-yolanda.html Here's the end of the song:

If someday I was to find you
I wouldn't know what to do
and I think I will go crazy
if I never see you again.

Where are you, where are you, Yolanda ?
What happened, What happened, Yolanda ?
I looked for you, I looked for you, Yolanda
and you're not there, you're not there, Yolanda.

And what does Yolanda mean? It's part French (not unlike Sherlock himself) and means Violet. The color of gay men everywhere.

Thank you! I'll be here all week.

[bk7brokemybrain.livejournal.com]

That sexy Sherlock-with-John's-baby thing I mentioned? This clip from Parade's End should convince you that it is something we need to see. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFU9lzmrk5Q
Watch that and imagine John Watson watching from the doorway, and then imagine what would happen next.

[westernredcedar.livejournal.com]

Yep. That's sexy parenting.
*nodnod*

[bk7brokemybrain.livejournal.com]

One more piece of evidence that Mycroft is gay: I kept thinking there's one more thing, there's one more thing....
His workout clothes. In keeping with the theme of Sherlock's repressed obsession and attraction to the soldier, we see Sholto and the guards wearing military trousers with the red stripe down their legs. Phallic much? *eye roll* Anyhew, what is Mycroft wearing so randomly? Dark spandex tracksuit, all solid except for a wide red stripe down each leg. Yep. He likes men, according to the code laid out in this series. It's gunna be Lestrade! Whether he get him or not remains to be seen.

[magnetic-pole.livejournal.com]

Fun to read through your thoughts here, C.

I liked the John's mustache joke once in ep 1, but felt that Sherlock figured out how deeply he had screwed up during the fake French waiter scene, so repeating the joke over and over made him really look like an ass, and took me out of his character. I felt similarly about how Sherlock handled the end of the bomb on the train scare.

I had very much the same reaction but am now wondering if perhaps this is one of those boy things I don't understand--badly timed, inappropriate humor to defuse an emotional situation? I don't know. I'm totally aware this version of Sherlock can be a jerk--it's one of the reasons why I haven't written for this fandom--but that doesn't seem like the kind of jerk he's been in the past.

Motorbike chases, etc. I mean, why?

*sigh* I know. When they did the first, slick, pseudo-Bond version of the fall, I rolled my eyes a bit, because it's NOT THAT FAR OFF, show.

And that made me mad, as if Sherlock is so amazingly brilliant that he can strategically use heroin for a case and be fine, no consequences, even with his history. So, I liked the idea, loved a couple of the scenes, and hated the result.

Yeah. They don't seem to be into consequences in general, do they? I think I'm fundamentally confused by the filming and the acting and the sheer attention to detail that's evident throughout. The production values all lead me to think that this is one genre-- character-driven drama--but really it's another--a superhero flick on the small screen produced with a bit more subtlety than you'd usually expect. I just winced when the flophouse scene began because that wasn't going anywhere good.

I miss the mystery plots, too.

I'm looking forward to your fic! I'm not quite sure where fic is going to go here--as I think I said to rotaryphones the other day, I suspect some of the inconsistencies will actually be a boon for fandom in the long run, after folks have been able to forget or rationalize the parts that don't fit in with their view of the characters. I'm not sure what will happen with the Sherlock/John relationship, though--in a weird way, that relationship seemed open to multiple readings before and now seems curiously flat. I have a hard time reading Sherlock as anything but pining and feel totally adrift from John. Hm.... M.

[westernredcedar.livejournal.com]

Aww, thanks for more thinky thoughts. As usual we are of much the same mind on this one. I still loved the series and enjoyed watching, but I have frustrations that I wish I didn't have to have.
Your comments on the genre-confusion are especially apt, I think. I'm watching for one thing, so when the show gives me another I get confused. But I love the characters so much that I forgive the show and try to make sense of it, and that's why I end up reading massive amounts of fic to try and sort of the confusion! It's funny that the two fandoms pulling on me outside of HP right now (Sherlock and Torchwood) are both shows with really serious genre-confusion. (Torchwood's even worse! Is it a satire? A soap opera? A goofy sci-fi romp? A bleak harsh existential drama? etc.) But I think you are right- the super-hero elements really pull me out of the story when I'm watching for the characters and the mysteries. I realize now this feeling goes all the way back to that run over the rooftops in A Study in Pink. I guess I want my heroes human in this case, not super-human.
In regards the Sherlock/John relationship, I agree that we were not given the chance to see yet how this new dynamic will play out, especially once there is a baby (you can see above in my response to bk7 for my frustrations on that score- and I'll add, as a tired parent in RL, the idea that I have to think about a kid while watching one of my favorite escapist shows makes me very grumpy). One of the writing cheats I did not appreciate in ep3 was the indication that John did not speak to Mary for a month after learning about her past. Well, what happened during that month? Did Sherlock try to fill back in as his partner? Where was John living? How did this all fall out amongst this fragile triangle of humans? Seems pretty important. But the show skipped all that. Again, as you say, probably a boon for fandom because of these flaws, but still...
*hug*