So, if we take the creators at their word, the show was hap hazard, driven by a low financial budget, one of the main goals of the endeavour was to develop Mary Morstan’s character out of a client/barely thought about wife in canon into a troubled assassin in need of a redemption arc, and to introduce a new character into the Holmesian universe that will create chaos, make Sherlock a good man, and undermine most plot points in the preceding episodes/character developments? OK! But the overall result was the crucifixion of John Watson, reducing him to a violent, cheating, unwise, angry man and to reduce Sherlock Holmes into an emotional wreck, losing all agency, and, sadly, his sheer joy of life that has always propelled him into people’s hearts. The two historic heros effectively destroyed and for what? Nothing in BBC Sherlock, outside of these two characters, is worthy of that sacrifice. You can’t wipe that slate clean with a final montage and voice over.
I do think it’s over folks for this pastiche. And in all honesty it should be.
Tag: sherlocked commentary
Like honestly this stuff from Sue has got me just trembling with rage again, for the first time since S4 ended. Like somehow that ‘of course we’ll be needing two rooms’ comment in ASiP should have keyed the entire bloody audience in to the fact that Sherlock and John are straight as an arrow (someone really should have told Martin and Ben, tbh, ‘cause they were under the impression that they were making the “gayest show on television”–oops), and we are all a bunch of raving, bullying lunatics if we somehow interpreted the piles of not only subtextual, but also blatant, textual queer references in episodes 2 – 9 as meaning that Sherlock and John were queer, and then were upset and proceeded to question the queerbaiting in those episodes, as well as the BBC’s S4 marketing campaign, and demand answers?
Sweet person or not, that’s just a shitty and completely insensitive way of thinking, imo.
John and Sherlock later in the same episode: “are you single? Do you have a boyfriend?” “Girlfriends aren’t my are.”
Should have tried harder if you wanted us to think they were straight.
Honestly, if they didn’t want to make “that show,” totally fine. But when you admit you out queer subtext in the show for funsies don’t insult and shut down your fans for daring to ask about it
The thing that’s upseting me the most is: we’re not the ones bullying someone. DEFINITELY NOT!
Can someone direct me toward a post or two that talk about what Moftiss and them said at the con this weekend? Everyone on my dash seems to be talking about it, but I haven’t actually seen what was said anywhere.
Thanks in hopeful advance! 🙂
There you go 😀
^ *fist bump*
Moffat at Sherlocked USA Drinks Reception
Something I thought was very strange was the fact Moffat said he doesn’t understand why so many people think BBC Sherlock is over. I mentioned that the ending Montage of S4 made it seem like a good place to end a series – that it felt like it was a purposeful ending. He scoffed, not at all understanding that TFP could wrap up the entire show. It’s like he just didn’t *get* it. To me, it’s obvious why viewers could see a comfortable ending there and absurd that he doesn’t see it.
I felt like our roles were switched. I argued that the Montage in TFP felt like an ending, he argued that it’s not the intention of that moment at all.
Make of that what you will, i feel like i sometimes slip into an AU while at this con.
I am going go with my gut feeling that OUR BOYS have both decided not to come back. Aside from the butchering of Freeman’s character, I just remember Ben commenting in the bonus footage for TAB, that when they first told him the idea, he said he thought they had ‘lost the plot’. Can you imagine what he thought of S4? He’s not there, is he? Moffat is desperate for the party to not be over. It’s just too bad he crapped on his lead actors for some badly-written girl power.
Totally agree @tendergingergirl ,good points.
Why? ACD glossed over it because she was a mistake and he was wise enough to recognise that fact.
and what about John’s grief, when Sherlock died (twiece)?
oh FFS exploring heterosexual grief (in an adaptation of something where he barely noticed she’d gone)? There’s a crying need for that!
People that are still using “They’re clearly joking” as an excuse for glib responses from Mofftiss–you don’t get it. The time for glib is over, and it’s definitely past time to stop treating fans like uninformed targets for personal amusement.
Sherlocked secrets Ssshhhhh
First day of Sherlocked LA, and lots of interesting tidbits! Got to do one of those meet and greet over wine deals, where we got to ask questions. I asked Mark if he was going for an “unreliable narrator” thing with the set things changing within episodes, e.g. The 221 hallway light. He was surprised and said he hadn’t noticed it, and no it was just a mistake. He said any differences were just mistakes. Someone asked him about the lighting if the skull picture, and he said it was a lightbox behind the pic, and that in some scenes it was just too bright so they dimmed it in post. So absolutely no meaning behind it, and he seemed quite sincere about that and even commented that people read too much into things like that, and that they don’t aim for that (meaning subtle meta meanings). Later I brought the same thing up to Arwen, and he said one of the lights had gotten broken and they couldn’t find an identical one, so they just threw a similar one up. Then he explained that there were 2 sets for the stairs, split by the landing, so that’s why you see both different lights in the same scene. Really kind of sad about all the meta we make up that is absolutely not there at all.
The saddest thing is that they don’t care about continuity at all? I mean meta or not, even if you don’t hide stuff in your background PLEASE make it look coherent and the same set even if it isn’t. Good lord.
Remember the comment Moffat made about “Hell mend you” if you didn’t catch the clues in Series Three? Remember him repeating Sherlock’s line “You see but you do not observe” when asked about possible hints or holes?
EVERY TIME, and I do mean every time, a new meta piece was highly circulated, it hurt my heart. I stopped reading meta, and I stopped believing in anything like tj*c very soon after S3.
That’s not because I thought the theories were impossible, but because I suspected Mofftiss were either cowards or not as talented as we thought, or both.
Remember, this was a detective show about the powers of acute observation.
You don’t produce sloppy continuity mistakes like that in this kind of show, just as you don’t have characters using 21st century slang or showing obvious Velcro closures in Downton Abbey.
And it may have started as their own little AU fanfic, but is became a very well-paid, long-term, highly-promoted source of income for a lot of people at a major television network.
Can’t find that prop lamp again? You have TWO YEARS between each series – you could MAKE one that looks enough like it to be passable.
Can’t find your way out of the corner you’ve written yourself into into? GET AN OUTSIDE OPINION OR THREE.
Step up, or get someone to help you who will.
Nicely
As always, I’m on the periphery of conversation, but I overhear that Moffatt described Mary as having shot Sherlock nicely. That’s a relief, because I thought it was a savage, cold blood attempt on his life. But it was nice, so I worried needlessly.
I wonder if that is a consideration in sentencing a convicted nice shooter? “Your Honour, she shot him at close range and blasted his hepatic artery open, but she was pregnant, and she was very polite about it, and she wore this really interesting black beanie, so it was a nice shooting. I recommend a suspended sentence and some booties for the new baby.”
It opens up a whole new genre of assault and homicide, doesn’t it?
To shoot someone nicely.
To stab someone nicely.
To run over someone nicely.
To burn someone’s house down nicely.
To throw someone under a bus nicely.
Or have I misunderstood? Is shooting someone nicely subtext for we forgot what happened in the other series, so we just took a guess and filled the rest in with approximations?
John beat and kicked the shit out of Sherlock nicely.
The most interesting tidbit from Arwel at Sherlocked USA
So here’s something I thought was incredibly interesting. Maybe everyone knows this already, but I’m going to say it anyways.
I asked Arwel at the drinks reception if there was some set design or symbol he incorporated into Sherlock that he thought no one had caught or cared about enough.
He gave a delightful answer.
He talked about how he repeatedly used the concept “Information is Power” in His Last Vow because it is exactly Magnussen’s threat. I nodded and mentioned that lovely billboard in HLV. He went even farther to say he’s created his own design to better illustrate the idea. He put the letter “i” and encircled it, like a power button. He said that symbol directly emphasizes “information is power”, like Magnussen and the core problem of HLV – but I quickly pointed out that I’ve seen that symbol in Sherlock, but NOT just in HLV. I told him I saw him put it in The Six Thatchers, too. He seemed surprised that I knew he used that symbol, and that I knew it was in S4.
So if anyone wants to take a look through S4 for more “i” power buttons, you might find some delicious meta there
But elephants are supposed to mean nothing at all, right? Hehe.
Exactly. He knows what those elephants mean. He picked out that “elephant glass” in TFP and put that elephant figurine in John’s flat. He created “information is the power to change 1895” on that billboard. He created that Speckled Blonde poster in ASIB for Papa’s Bubble Bath. None of these things are accidents.
What he *clearly* didn’t expect was some rando at the reception who knew exactly where he put his secret symbols. I said this months ago but yesterday confirmed it for me – Arwel (and maybe others) have genuinely no clue how MANY of us have noticed this stuff. There are tens of thousands of us on this site alone, and people who bridge between Tumblr and other social media sites. I know my stuff goes to Instagram, Reddit, and Twitter because I’ve seen it cycle back to me. Do they seriously not know how connected and devoted the Sherlock fandom is? Who do they think goes to their conventions? There may be only 1,000 people here, but as soon as someone says something interesting, tens of thousands of people are exposed to it online within minutes… because of us.
Guys, I don’t care what you believe at this point about the show, I really don’t. I’m not going to argue with anyone about this because I’ve got better things to do. But there are symbols in this show put there purposefully. This isn’t arguable. What I’ve been trying to do for the last 18 months is figure out what symbols matter and what they mean, and debate them with open-minded individuals. As far as I’m concerned, the time to complain is over. I’ve been very relaxed, letting anyone drag me or my posts for months now, while we threw a collective temper tantrum. So please, if you don’t want to read meta or have any hope for a vision in this show, don’t follow me. No hard feelings, I totally get it. But I’m not going to indulge anyone in debate over whether or not there are hidden symbols/meaning in BBC Sherlock, or whether or not you personally despise the people associated with this show.
Asking Sue the Big Question
Our round table with Sue was like 6 of us, so we really could talk about whatever we wanted. And yes, I went there. I respectfully said “you know that some people are very upset that the series didn’t end …. gayer. With John and Sherlock together.” She replied that she never meant to make that show, they always knew the direction of the show: that the key line is in episode one when Mrs. Hudson asks if they’ll be needing two rooms, they answer that of course they’ll need two rooms (indicating they are straight). They make the show for the world, for the 99.something percent that watch that aren’t even aware of the controversy. If people need to vent and be angry, that’s fine, she’s okay with that, although she doesn’t read it as much as she used to. However, she doesn’t like when people DEMAND answers to questions, which is like bullying.
She was charming and smart, we also talked about being a woman in the industry, how she got her start, just general stuff. She’s extremely likable.
Sherlock Fandom Archive 