milarvela:

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milarvela:

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Pursuant to the discussion about writing and Sherlock and Stephen Thompson’s role in it all that’s happening on this thread over here, I am going to celebrate Friday by doing a bit of a core dump about plotting.

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Wow, this is great background on story vs plot and how that plays out for us in Sherlock. I think that your observation of this in Doctor Who is an excellent explanation for why some of us find that show so frustrating, and frustrating in a way that undermined what we found enthralling in Sherlock’s s1-2.

I will note that s3 was also when Sherlock shifted to the Doctor Who mode of different directors (and the same stable Moffat was working with in DW) for each ep, each of them admittedly working to put their own spin on the show and its characters. By itself, not a cause but indicative of and surely a contributor to the move away from plot as the major show mode.

This made me wonder what Aristoteles/Forster thought about “it was all a dream” as an ending to a story. There seem to be quite a few Sherlock fans who have embraced that as a theory. Sure, it doesn’t matter what happens and how crazy everything is if it’s a dream but shouldn’t it at least be made clear to the audience when something is not meant to be real? And it would hardly be a fitting solution to a mystery show. But of course some Sherlock fans think that we are supposed to solve the mystery and the answer is that someone is dreaming, or it’s all MP. To me it sounds like the easiest way out and something all great sleuths would laugh at but who knows.

I mean, I feel like the only thing making Mofftiss writing worse would be if they ended up saying that what happened in the last few episodes wasn’t real.  They’d be admitting they failed at writing all of them if they suddenly decided to do s5 and, say, have Sherlock wake up at a hospital after the fall/the shooting. It’s not like Benedict’s some sort of Patrick Duffy or whatever. I don’t know much about what is “allowed” in modern shows but I’m wondering if it would be thought clever or just cheating their audience. They made TAB already and have had MP scenes. If they don’t need to make up an excuse to reintroduce an actor, what legit excuses could they possibly have to make half of their episodes not reality? What excuses do shows use? Yes, Sherlock fell/was shot and is now in coma sounds reasonable but why would they need to do it? For so many episodes?

@milarvela
The problem with this theory is that lots and lots of people are sure that it is nothing more but just an excuse for “poor” writing, plot holes, inconsistencies/contradictions of S4.
But, first of all, this idea appeared not out of nowhere and not as the best explanation that would cover all the fuckiness of the latest episodes. It’s been built on huge amount of facts: visual, textual, subtextual.

It doesn’t necessarily has to be something like “and then he wakes up and it turns out that everything was a dream”. As for me (and some other people), I see perfect metaphorical sense in S4 if I apply Sherlock’s POV here. I don’t need to do any difficult mind gymnastics, it’s hiding right below the surface level.
I, personally, don’t like the idea of “waking up”, because, though it’s possible to “explain” visually/textually, the majority of the audience won’t buy it. If the explanation of HOW and, more importantly, WHY isn’t convincing enough, it’ll be a disaster.

If they used dream logic (like disappearing blood or people, or repeated scenes and lots of mirroring), hired the same actors (the girl from ASiB as the girl on the plane), used the same physical objects, created something that begs for attention (glowing skull), wrote something that makes absolutely beautiful sense metaphorically (especially Eurus) ACCIDENTALLY and there won’t be any outcome, I’ll be laughing like crazy.

This idea (of extended mind palace) has.never.been and will.never.be just an “excuse” for their “poor” writing. Personally, no matter what resolution is coming (if there IS any), this reading will be my favorite for being the most convincing and deep in its importance.

By the way, is there something wrong with believing that we’re, as an audience, have to solve a mystery to understand what’s going on? I’ve always thought that “Sherlock” is practically made for that. Of course, the writers went out of control a little bit if S4 is indeed a mystery for the audience.

If it turns out that S4 has to be taken at face value and it is what it is, I’ll accept that Mofftiss are actually shitty writers, and I’ll be wondering till the end of my days how was it possible to film something so deep and beautiful metaphorically.. by accident.

But for me, Sherlock’s inner understanding of himself hasn’t ended with TAB. The motifs of being “deep” (deep waters) and “high” (I’m lost in a sky) are stretching through S4. Here we’re faced with his worst fears (especially about John), his low self-esteem (and we know that deep inside, in his MP, he thinks of himself poorly, remember HLV), his struggles between brain and heart, mind and sentiment. There’s been a lot of amazing posts analysing Eurus as Sherlock’s inner part. Again, it doesn’t make me do any weird mind gymnastics, it’s right below the surface, and if it’s true and the writers will be able to explain how and why they did it, I’ll be glad.
@monikakrasnorada made a series of posts analysing the increasing amount of time Sherlock spent in his MP from S1 to TAB. In TAB it’s become almost impossible to distinguish Sherlock’s mind palace from reality. There’s a lot to think about.

To sum up: I hope there IS some logical resolution, logical and convincing for the audience (because, if they were ready for post-TFP backlash, as they said, I don’t think they would do it without any plans for future, but who knows). I hope there is something more than “waking up” from a dream, because 90% of their audience won’t believe that it’s been planned, they will label it as an excuse for the plot holes.
How can it be explained, why we’re dealing with Sherlock’s POV, but not in show’s reality, who the hell knows.
Sorry for long comment.

I don’t think it’s deep or beautiful, metaphorically or otherwise. The sharks are
unintentionally funny, Sherlock’s orange and stupid, the tale of the merchant fails because it’s about Mary but for some reason Sherlock is telling it like it’s about him, John’s ugly (literally in TLD), angry and violent, Eurus is ridiculous, and Mycroft hiding her for decades would require mind gymnastics beyond my capacities. Not to mention how tasteless the whole dogboy thing is and what it does to earlier episodes.

I don’t know when the idea made its first appearance but it became popular after TAB when even the most eager Johnlockers started to doubt the idea that John had a plan and was secretly in love with Sherlock.

But I do agree that very few people would believe they’d been planning a wakening all along. Most people wouldn’t believe it no matter what. The more they would try to explain it, the worse it would look for them, I think. Which they wouldn’t do anyway, because they didn’t intend TFP or anything else in S4 to be a dream. It was the ending of the show for now, no cliffhanger to ponder, just what they undoubtedly thought was a beautiful and deep tribute to the boys uttered by Mary.

Didn’t they say someplace that they aren’t nearly as clever as some fans think?

And let’s not forget that they gave Smith bad teeth because it’s supposed to symbolise the character’s evilness or something.