Sherlock: The Empty Hearse
Jan. 2nd, 2014 07:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkitMostly I liked it a lot, and even when I found myself saying "Really, show? Really???" it was almost always with affection rather than irritation.
Mark Gatiss wrote this one, so we got lots of Mycroft, which suits me fine. The best bit in the whole episode, I think, was the game-playing scene between Sherlock and Mycroft at 221B, which tells us so much about Mycroft himself, and Sherlock and Mycroft's relationship, without being obvious but without flinching away from the emotion, either. The characters flinch away, but the scene doesn't.
The same cannot be said, alas, for John ahd Sherlock's relationship. It frustrated me that the two of them never got to have a real emotional moment, a reckoning of everything that's between them. The show flinched. It was afraid to make Sherlock look sentimental (even though, oddly, it wasn't afraid of that where Molly is concerned), so it made him look like even more of a dick than usual. Seriously, if I were John I could forgive Sherlock faking his own death before I could forgive what he did on the train: humiliating John by making him vulnerable and afraid when Sherlock was neither, and forcing him into a confession of feelings when Sherlock confessed nothing. They could just as easily have had Sherlock discover the off switch after their conversation, or better yet have John notice it because Sherlock is too distracted and upset. But instead we got manipulative!Sherlock, and yet that wasn't supposed to matter, everything was supposed to be okay now. All the issues were ducked. And unfortunately this kind of flinching away characterized the whole episode. Every emotional moment between John and Sherlock was interrupted, thrown off course by inappropriate humor or violence or something. I did really like the moment at the restaurant when Sherlock starts to realize that his little surprise isn't actually funny, that John is shocked and distressed--but then John physically attacks Sherlock and it's played for humor and the emotion is lost.
The choice not to reveal how Sherlock faked his death, at least not yet, is . . . interesting. It feels like a cheat, in the sense that I'm not sure Moffat and Gatiss actually know how Sherlock did it. On the other hand, I enjoyed seeing the scenarios played out and revealed as absurd (also, Sherlock and Moriarty kissing! which is totally plausible for most of their dynamic last season), but even though Anderson was an asshole I'm not sure I liked seeing his obsession and breakdown played for laughs. For the moment, I think I choose to believe John's (half-serious?) suggestion that Sherlock really was dead and came back from the dead because John needed him to. It makes as much sense as anything else, and all the people who think they knew Sherlock was alive just have false memories.
Mary Morstan was very likable: smart, gutsy, full of common sense. I remain utterly opposed to John marrying her or anyone who isn't Sherlock (and, seriously, can anyone think that John with Sherlock in his life is marriage material?), but I like her as herself. I'm not sure I buy that Sherlock would like her, though, given that he's been jealous of all John's previous, much less serious relationships to the point of sabotaging them.
Creepy man at the end was creepy. He seems to have a Moriarty-like obsession, which may not be a good storytelling choice given that we had the real thing last season. But I'm definitely curious about where this is going.
ETA: I've been thinking about that odd bit where Mary tells John each patient's complaint before sending them in to see him. At first I thought she was being gossippy and it made me like her less, but on reflection, I think she's supposed to be deducing each patient's problem. That would explain what's otherwise a kind of pointless sequence of Mary saying the problem, then John treating the problem, and would also parallel both Sherlock's attempt to replace John with Molly and Molly's new Sherlock-clone boyfriend. And if Mary has Sherlock-like qualities (she also works out the code in the phone message), then John's wanting to marry her ("so soon" as Mrs. Hudson says) makes more sense as a rebound/recapturing of his intense connection to Sherlock.
Mark Gatiss wrote this one, so we got lots of Mycroft, which suits me fine. The best bit in the whole episode, I think, was the game-playing scene between Sherlock and Mycroft at 221B, which tells us so much about Mycroft himself, and Sherlock and Mycroft's relationship, without being obvious but without flinching away from the emotion, either. The characters flinch away, but the scene doesn't.
The same cannot be said, alas, for John ahd Sherlock's relationship. It frustrated me that the two of them never got to have a real emotional moment, a reckoning of everything that's between them. The show flinched. It was afraid to make Sherlock look sentimental (even though, oddly, it wasn't afraid of that where Molly is concerned), so it made him look like even more of a dick than usual. Seriously, if I were John I could forgive Sherlock faking his own death before I could forgive what he did on the train: humiliating John by making him vulnerable and afraid when Sherlock was neither, and forcing him into a confession of feelings when Sherlock confessed nothing. They could just as easily have had Sherlock discover the off switch after their conversation, or better yet have John notice it because Sherlock is too distracted and upset. But instead we got manipulative!Sherlock, and yet that wasn't supposed to matter, everything was supposed to be okay now. All the issues were ducked. And unfortunately this kind of flinching away characterized the whole episode. Every emotional moment between John and Sherlock was interrupted, thrown off course by inappropriate humor or violence or something. I did really like the moment at the restaurant when Sherlock starts to realize that his little surprise isn't actually funny, that John is shocked and distressed--but then John physically attacks Sherlock and it's played for humor and the emotion is lost.
The choice not to reveal how Sherlock faked his death, at least not yet, is . . . interesting. It feels like a cheat, in the sense that I'm not sure Moffat and Gatiss actually know how Sherlock did it. On the other hand, I enjoyed seeing the scenarios played out and revealed as absurd (also, Sherlock and Moriarty kissing! which is totally plausible for most of their dynamic last season), but even though Anderson was an asshole I'm not sure I liked seeing his obsession and breakdown played for laughs. For the moment, I think I choose to believe John's (half-serious?) suggestion that Sherlock really was dead and came back from the dead because John needed him to. It makes as much sense as anything else, and all the people who think they knew Sherlock was alive just have false memories.
Mary Morstan was very likable: smart, gutsy, full of common sense. I remain utterly opposed to John marrying her or anyone who isn't Sherlock (and, seriously, can anyone think that John with Sherlock in his life is marriage material?), but I like her as herself. I'm not sure I buy that Sherlock would like her, though, given that he's been jealous of all John's previous, much less serious relationships to the point of sabotaging them.
Creepy man at the end was creepy. He seems to have a Moriarty-like obsession, which may not be a good storytelling choice given that we had the real thing last season. But I'm definitely curious about where this is going.
ETA: I've been thinking about that odd bit where Mary tells John each patient's complaint before sending them in to see him. At first I thought she was being gossippy and it made me like her less, but on reflection, I think she's supposed to be deducing each patient's problem. That would explain what's otherwise a kind of pointless sequence of Mary saying the problem, then John treating the problem, and would also parallel both Sherlock's attempt to replace John with Molly and Molly's new Sherlock-clone boyfriend. And if Mary has Sherlock-like qualities (she also works out the code in the phone message), then John's wanting to marry her ("so soon" as Mrs. Hudson says) makes more sense as a rebound/recapturing of his intense connection to Sherlock.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-03 05:33 am (UTC)I actually didn't think the announcing the diagnosis was that strange. Most doctors I go to here have the nurse take all the symptoms and write them down--it's a tad weird, but I assume it saves time? But I like your interpretation much better!!!
no subject
Date: 2014-01-03 06:24 pm (UTC)I get the impression, from things other people have said, that that's the US system, and that in the UK someone in Mary's position (is she a nurse or is she the office receptionist?) wouldn't know why the patient was coming in.
Also, I hate having to tell my symptoms to the nurse (or often not even a nurse, I don't think), especially when I'm standing at the damn front desk of the clinic without any privacy.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-03 06:49 pm (UTC)My favorite one was when G. was getting his appendix out. We had a good dozen people come through the pre op and every single one asked us at least once whether he was allergic against anything. I mean, I get that that's serious, but by the like 7th, it was getting almost funny.
Yeah, coming from a country obsessed esp with medical privacy, the question by random people along the way to the doctor is...annoying!
no subject
Date: 2014-01-03 06:08 am (UTC)I enjoyed it though; comments on my post. I don't think we know how Sherlock survived yet either, but it must have been something with fewer complexities to go wrong.
That's interesting about Mary deducing patients' complaints. Normally a practice nurse wouldn't know here unless they were involved in the treatment. One of the words Sherlock "saw" for Mary was clever so maybe John unconsciously looked for someone with Sherlock's qualities without his obliviousness.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-03 06:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-03 10:59 pm (UTC)Bingo. I dislike how the humor is mixed into the drama. So much of it feels like a wink and a nod -- "look how clever we are" -- and impedes, rather than gets to the heart of character.