Tag: agreed

If you could pick one fanfiction for someone from the cast/crew of Sherlock to read, which fic would you pick, and which person would have to read it?

thelanding:

yorkiepug:

Both Moff and Gatiss should read The Progress of Sherlock Holmes

They can see how you really write these characters and Mary in a believable way.

Then they can follow it up by reading The Burning Heart and see how they could have written post S2 so much better then they did.

Then I’d have them read Never Turn Your Back to the Sea so they could learn how to fix a mess and make a decent s5

Two Years

thememacat:

thememacat:

Think back to our last hiatus, to how it felt for us between seasons 2 and 3. That was two hellishly long years. Real life went on (and on and on) and as real people we grew and changed and moved on from the various traumatic events in our lives.

Now consider this: (breaking into the fictional world just a bit), we knew that whole time we were waiting that Sherlock was alive. We didn’t know how he did it, but we did at least have the assurance he had survived his fall from the rooftop.

Poor John Watson was not privy to such assurances. He honestly thought Sherlock was DEAD. Gone forever, ended in a pool of blood on the pavement at his very feet. If any of us had seen what he saw that day, and then lived out those two hellishly long years without any hope of the nightmare ending, we might have given Sherlock a whole lot more than a split lip and a bloody nose upon his return. Speaking for myself, I would have found forgiveness for such a stunt almost impossible – and I consider myself a very forgiving person.

There would not be enough days left in eternity for Sherlock to apologize to John for what he put him through, and he has yet to even get started! 

Reblogging this from 3 years ago. Still holds true, despite what came after.

hello may i ask you something? so after reading these scripts it’s obvious how much martin added to the character. but i feel “that thing” isn’t there in s4 anymore? like he has given up? I don’t know if this question makes sense but, they do they get scripts at once? did he already know by the time they filmed TST how badly fucked up is going to be TFP? because his performance is different for the entire season not only for TFP. basically I’m saying that IF he knew how they gonna butcher 1/2

a-candle-for-sherlock:

sussexbound:

2/2 his character, it would make sense. He would be like, fuck you and your shenanigans, I won’t bother anymore. But if he didn’t know (hasn’t got the TFP script yet) why was his acting so – I don’t want to use the word “bad” because he is amazing actor under all circumstances, but – unusual? Like he didn’t even know what will happen yet and he has already given up? this is probably complicated, I just want to know, if in your opinion, he was aware from the start of s4 johnlock won’t be canon?

Here’s my understanding of how things went down for Season 4.  Mark Gatiss or Steven Moffat (I’m sorry, I can’t remember which one now), did mention in an interview that they pitched the 4th Season to Ben and Martin to get them to agree to do it.  Essentially that means that they gave them a high level overview of the stories they wanted to tell that season, and the kinds of content that the actors could expect.  Based on that pitch both Martin and Ben agreed to do a fourth season.  

They got all the actual scripts extremely late, this season.  Ben mentioned in an interview that he was two or three days away from starting filming on Sherlock, and still hadn’t received the script for TST, that he was actively reaching out to Mofftiss asking for it.  They also seemed to be getting scripts for the following episodes no earlier than a week before they were set to start filming.  So, writing was rushed, I’m assuming.  This gives me the impression that Mark and Steven just sort of procrastinated, and sat on their laurels, and then had to rush to put something out at the last minute.

As for johnlock becoming canon, here’s the thing.  I think it’s become pretty evident that it was never intended to become canon.  I mean the writers never intended it to be.  Mark Gatiss stated plainly, on three different occasions post-S3 that they had never had any intention of making John and Sherlock a couple and never would.  Mark Gatiss stated that he enjoys playing with homoerotic subtext, and that he finds that more satisfying than explicit queer relationships.  This is probably partially due to his age, and background, but there it is.

Martin has a long history of adding homoerotic subtext to his characters.  You see it in The Hobbit.  You even catch hints of it in Fargo.  I think it’s a Martin thing.  It’s Martin who called Sherlock ‘the gayest show on television’ back in 2010.  I think that when Martin read those scripts he saw a love story, and he played it that way, and Ben responded, and they played beautifully off one another and here we are…  And there was homoerotic subtext in the scripts, and there were romantic tropes used, and I think that read was a fair one, and that the directors, and the editors, and the production designers, and the show runner (Mark) just went along with it.  It was a team effort.  It was a joint decision.  And then the BBC picked up that the audience was picking up on this, that people were ‘shipping’ it, and they chose to market to it.  

As far as John’s character being ‘weird’ in Season 4.  I think part of it was just the plot direction.  John’s character was taken in some very weird directions in Season 4, and as an actor Martin can have a dialogue with the director or the writers, on the day, about his character’s motivations, and he can debate, he can even improvise a little.  But in the end the director and show runner have the final say.  I also know that Martin is one of those actors who gives a director multiple different takes on a scene, and that gives the director and the editor choices.  I have a feeling that, for whatever reason, the takes that they chose to keep this season were the ones with the least amount of homoromantic tension to them.

Why?  Well, that I don’t know.  I suspect it had something to do with the writers becoming aware that their audience had picked up on the homoerotic subtext, the romantic tropes, etc., and were expecting a certain outcome, and they decided to wrench back control, because they never wanted to take it there.  In their mind they were just ‘having fun’ with the homoeroticism.

So anyway, I hope that answers your question.  It’s a complicated, and many-layered issue, and I do personally feel that if they never intended to go there, they should have dialled way back on how much they played to it, and they definitely shouldn’t have been okay with the BBC playing so strongly to that in their promo (especially for S4).  The ‘I love you’ trailer, and the ‘Sherlock is in love, but with who?’ promo was clearly designed to pique the interest and expectations of their queer audience.  And I think that people are right to question that.  Personally I feel it was just done to keep the widest number of people satisfied and interested for the longest period of time, because that’s how you keep making money, and that is the very definition of media queerbaiting, so…  More than a bit ‘not good’ in my opinion.

All. Of. This.

(And I thought Martin’s acting was fantastic as ever in s4, maybe even better. But his character wasn’t given much joy, or tenderness, or hope to work with till the very end, and the lack of that is felt. The radiance of the last moments shows what could have been.)

byebyefrost:

Tbh it’s quite clear the writers didn’t really know what they were doing. They remind me of the first times I experimented with cooking with spices. I kept adding this and that, just for the thrill of it, and sometimes the meal was delicious… but others it was inedible.

skulls-and-tea:

skulls-and-tea:

in the interest of my own mental well-being, i would rather spend the psychological and cognitive energy that would be required to “play a game” on preparing myself for the disappointing possibility that there’s nothing else forthcoming, that’s just how my defensive pessimism rolls

a.) this doesn’t make me dumb, ignorant, or lazy, or less of a fan

b.) this doesn’t mean i deride anyone who has more energy and cognitive bandwidth for this stuff than i do and i love yall and wish you luck

Struggling Through to The End

recentlyfolded:

random-nexus:

vulgarweed:

destinationtoast:

shinysherlock:

Is this The End for Sherlock? It certainly feels like it. That ending, while lovely in so many ways, felt a little tacked on and there were so many circles that they attempted to close that I would be surprised if this was *not* the last episode ever.

Was it a great episode?

No.

Did I expect a great episode?

No.

I’m afraid this show broke my storyteller heart back in The Empty Hearse. The shift in tone from TRF to TEH, the utterly disappointing reunion of John and Sherlock, the ridiculous non-explanation we got for how Sherlock survived the fall, the “fan service” that came a little too close to mocking–all that made me feel betrayed and unsure. “Betrayed” sounds like overstating, and s1 and s2 were not 100% absolute perfection, of course, but truly, I no longer trusted the writers to do right by the characterization and story they had set up in the first two series.

I tried to have hope. And TSOT was lovely. So many great things in there, Sherlock learning how to navigate his heart, and, at that point, I was all for Mary.

Then HLV happened.

When Mary shot Sherlock I thought–well, I thought many things, but after I calmed down, I thought, “Oh. So that’s what’s more important then. Things don’t need to make sense. Things just need to get Big Reactions.”

This is not my favorite kind of storytelling. But this continued through s4. Plot over character. Hell, not even plot, just Big Scenes. Some of the Big Scenes were great and I loved them. Some of them didn’t make a lick of sense.

So, since TEH, I feel like I have completely lowered my expectations and just looked for bits to like. This line here. This scene there. Because I had no belief that it would all hold together, that the narrative and characterization would be consistent.

This is a sad little way to approach something I used to love. Like going from whole milk to 2% or something, idk. I kept compromising. “Well, if there’s just one scene that could be interpreted this way” or “if they just don’t kill the baby then that’ll be okay.”

So, in TFP, when John and Sherlock jumped out from a second-story window and there was no mention of injuries sustained, I rolled with it.

When they retconned the entire series from the beginning by having Moriarty meet Euros five years ago, I rolled with it.

When they threw a rope down to a man *chained* to the bottom of a well, I rolled with it.

When they chose to have Eurus force these three to go through all her complicated tests rather than just have her “hypnotize” or “reprogram” John, to whom she had TONS of access, I rolled with it.

When they tacked on the cheesy Mary narration over the ending montage, I rolled with it.

When they…. Well. I could go on and on. But the reason I rolled with it all? Because my expectations were so low. I had been trained to overlook a lot by this point, to sift through a lot of dirt to find a tiny gem or two.

And they did actually do a few things I truly enjoyed in TFP.

John and Sherlock working as a team again–the trust, the banter, the love, the adventure. I had missed that terribly. Mycroft, so much Mycroft insight and development. The scenes with Moriarty (but not the reaction gif bits) just because I did miss him, damn it. And Sherlock’s great big heart being as much an asset as his great big brain.

And one more very important thing, a thing that makes it possible for me to keep writing in this particular Sherlock Holmes universe–

They left the door open. Lots of doors, actually. So we can keep on filling in the gaps, fixing the parts that need fixing, and making our own meaning.

Yes to so much of this!  TEH broke a lot of my expectations about what kinds of rules Moftiss’s storytelling would follow (or break).  And I’ve been adjusting and readjusting my expectations ever since.  And finding the joy in the bits and pieces that I do love, of which there are many, rather than hoping for a brilliant whole.  I know many fans flat out love S3 and/or S4 – and that’s awesome!  I’m delighted and eager to share their squee about many things.  But in reflecting on the balance of probability my own emotional responses, TEH is where things started to fall apart for me, and it’s been a slow descent from there (with a few exceptions – loved TSoT!).  

Eurus’s (I still don’t know how to spell her name – online research suggests both spellings are acceptable for the Greek god, but I’m finding more “Eurus” and I’m tired of just calling her “the other one” all the time) brainwashing powers still irritate me more than everything else as a whole other level of rule breaking.  But yeah.  Mostly, This wasn’t far off from what I predicted, in terms of amount of sense it made, or what the authors chose to highlight.  And I’m trying to just make “it is what it is” my motto and continue finding squee in all the good stuff, and reading/writing fic as needed. As you said, there are so many doors open! 🙂 

TEH is still my least favorite episode. I dislike it way more than anything this series, for pretty much exactly those reasons.

So much agreement with both of you lovelies, and I think – if nothing else – maybe their ‘It is what it is’ was a good thing to give us right now, because that’s what we’re having to say about all of this, since we have no other choices that are easy to live with.  Since it’s been full of the really awesome and, unfortunately lately, the really disappointing. 

It is what it is. 

*sigh/headshake*

Me too, yeah, all of that. The things I enjoyed in s3 and increasingly through s4 were reduced to snippets. “Here’s a good bit” became the best I could think as the show lost all narrative coherence. 

Even with the actors this happened. I loved, early on, how BC embodied Sherlock. But along the way in TEH it became “oh look, here he’s doing his French waiter bit” or “look, here he’s doing that drunk staggery bit that they cut when they remade the pilot into SIP” and finally every time he talked with baby!Eurus “oh great, here he is doing his Martin Creiff.” I can’t help but feel that to keep him, the writers had to keep giving him more and more of what he wanted, which, as much as I can put together from things he’s said, was to go on playing Christopher Tietjens in everything…with a side helping of his scrunch-faced action Khan. 

Part of me wants to snark and say look, the fans finally got their Doctor Who/Sherlock crossover with a magic godlike creature of unlimited power working magic. Another part wants to boggle at what sort of miserable twisted fucks think that torture is the way to conduct psychotherapy and…heal people? At the very least, the rug pull was that they changed genres of the whole show to horror and we failed to notice. 

I do think that going to the DW model of a wholly different crew on each ep was instrumental in eroding our sense of watching one cohesive show. Basically, the early consistency, especially in Paul McGuigan as director, gave us a false sense of coherence, especially in cinematographic style. In fact, which one of the directors was it who admitted that their focus was to remake the show into something of their own? Can’t remember but the comment stuck with me as one of my fears and one that turned out to be realized. In any case, I think this sense of oneupmanship did nothing to help out the second half of the show eps and simply magnified the writers’ fascination with Big Moments as opposed to well-crafted storytelling. 

In the end, I think that we bent over backwards to try to stay engaged with the increasingly bombastic and pretentious twaddle that they were feeding us. At this point, I can only look at what appears to be the end of the show with a sigh of relief. Maybe now someone will be able to get the backing to make a Sherlock Holmes modernization.