Let's Talk January: Thoughts on Sherlock!

[mithen]

aegyptae_liber asked me for my thoughts about Sherlock, Johnlock, Mary, the latest series and thoughts about the future. Pull up a chair and have some tea, we might be here a while.

First, let me get this out of the way: there was a lot of stuff I didn't like about Series Three of Sherlock, but I'm not terribly interested in dwelling on them (I always prefer to focus on what I enjoyed).



In brief, I think the fundamental problem I had with the series was that, as the creators explicitly stated, it was less a detective show than a show about a detective. A key part of a detective show is the detective explaining things, unraveling things, making things clearer. In this series, Sherlock explained very little, starting with the fact that he never gives a definitive answer to how he survived his fall. In The Final Vow, Sherlock stands in silence while Magnusson explains his whole scheme to John and us. That's not the role of the antagonist in a detective show--if the antagonist is explaining their plan, it's an action movie, and the protagonist just needs to stop the antagonist by any means necessary. The detective genre is all about the protagonist explaining and solving, and Sherlock stops doing that at key points (not everywhere--I thought he did wonderfully in Sign of Three, for example). Part of the reason John says "I don't understand" and then "I still don't understand" is that Sherlock isn't explaining, he's not playing his "proper role" in a detective drama. John has to rely on the unreliable statements of a megalomaniac, and that's not how it's supposed to go.

But basically what this means is I have to decide if I can stomach an action drama about a detective or if I can't accept leaving the detective genre behind a bit. As an action drama about a detective there was quite a lot I liked about it!

But to start with, a Brief History of Mithen and Johnlock. I have always kind of resisted shipping Holmes and Watson--not because it feels blasphemous, but because "classic" versions didn't fit what I need in an OTP. The Rathbone/Burt dynamic (which is I assume where I got my first impressions) has Watson as comic bumbler and legit dumb, which I found frustrating rather than endearing. And I was always painfully aware that in the canon, Holmes and Watson do not end up together the rest of their lives--Holmes retires to Sussex to keep bees and doesn't see Watson for years and years, and ends the case concluding that they'll probably never see each other again. Unacceptable.

So I started watching Sherlock during the Series 2 hiatus almost reluctantly. I'd liked Freeman in Hobbit and was curious to see how he played Watson. And being on Tumblr meant there was no avoiding Sherlock, it's omnipresent, so I kind of wanted to find out what the fuss was about. Add to that a husband who's apparently very into Holmes (something I did not know until I said I might be interested in watching it and he jumped at the chance) and okay, I guessed I would give it a try.

As with so many of my OTPs, I didn't ship it immediately, despite (maybe because?) I knew it was the Juggernaut Ship to End All Ships. I adored John from the moment he looked out at us and said "Nothing ever happens to me," but I was slow to warm up to Cumberbatch's Holmes--I liked him very much in the abstract, but I just didn't see that much real affection for John, not the kind I like. When we finished "A Study in Pink" my husband said, "So, do you ship it?" and I said, "Eh, I see that John's willing to kill for Sherlock, but I don't see much affection in return." When we finished "The Great Game" he said "Now do you ship it?" and I said "Mmm, I see John is willing to die for Sherlock, and that's very nice, but I just don't know if Sherlock is willing to do the same. I know Sherlock is going to 'die' at the end of 'Reichenbach Fall,' but he does it to stop Moriarty, not to save John. I just...don't know if John means that much to him, honestly."

So we finished "Reichenbach Fall," and my husband turned to me and said "Now do you--" And I said "SHUT UP I'M CRYING TOO HARD AND I HAVE TO RUN OFF AND WRITE FANFIC OK BYE."

So Series 1 was really heavily tilted toward John caring more for Sherlock than vice versa, and to be honest Series 3 tilts a little too far in the other direction for me, but on the other hand it is lovely to see Sherlock being open to pain and heartbreak and love, to the point of re-starting his own heart because John needs him to be alive (I found that much, much more moving than killing someone for John, and really the high point of the series for me). And then there's the actual last (and first and only) vow that Sherlock makes in "The Sign of Three," that no matter what, he will be there for John and Mary. That means they're together until the end, there will never be a permanent rift between them, they will never drift apart and go their separate ways. It is a wedding vow of sorts--an unconventional one, but Sherlock is not exactly about the conventions. And I'll always be able to hold that in my heart, and that means the world to me.

As you can guess, I adored "The Sign of Three." And not just for the hug and the speech and the unbearable, almost alien beauty of Sherlock's face as it sank in that John has told him he loves him, that John has said he's his best friend (I think I watched that scene like 12 times so far, you can see the world re-arranging itself around him, he's someone's best friend), I think it also had the tightest and most interesting case (please don't get me started on how blackmail is not going to work for long if the proof is all in your mind, or the stupidity of taunting an armed man while telling him his wife will never be safe while you're alive because of the information in your squishy squishy head). I had a hard time with "Empty Hearse" because I did want a more affectionate reunion, and I have a terrible squick about addiction so parts of "His Last Vow" were almost unwatchable for me--like, when John started going into the crack den I stood up and said "I saw this scene in the Granada version and I'm leaving now" and my husband had to talk me down. And I've been talking with aegyptae_liber about the fact that I hate hate hate that John and Sherlock use addiction metaphors to talk about John's relationship with Sherlock (John in his blog for The Empty Hearse, Sherlock in His Final Vow), and that's been hard for me to get around; characters who see their relationship as something they can't stop even if they want to are a big do not want with me. But oddly enough, it's Mary Morstan's character who's helped me deal with this.

First off, I liked Mary very much. I thought she was funny and interesting and clearly fond of Sherlock and very in love with John. And the amazing scene where John confronts her over her past was incredibly gripping. For me, what this take on Mary does is completely knock John's neat rationalizations about himself out from under him and throw him into dangerous new territory.

John Watson wants to believe that he is a man who wants peace and quiet and a calm domestic life. He wants to frame his relationship with Sherlock Holmes as "oh, I get dragged off into danger by this amazing force of nature, this East Wind, but it's not me doing it." Mary Morstan was supposed to become part of a nice stable triangle for him, where he could be tugged back and forth between Exciting Dangerous Sherlock and Nice Domestic Mary, and keep telling himself he really wants the quiet life.

Except he finds out that what drew him to her was his intuition and gift for seeking out and being attracted to dangerous, manipulative people (but only dangerous manipulative people who are capable of loving him deeply, I will add--he doesn't seem eager to jump into bed with Mycroft or Moriarty). In that scene he is angry at Mary for lying, yes, but he is so clearly even more angry at himself for not being able to love safety, for craving danger. "Why is everything always my fault!?" he storms, and Mary and Sherlock look at each other and know him better than he knows himself.

The reason this helps me with that addiction metaphor I dislike is that when John points at Mary and says to Sherlock, "But she wasn't supposed to be like that," what he is saying in part is "So you are telling me that what I feel for her is actually the same thing as what I feel for you?" It's not addiction, it's passion (sexual or not, your choice), and John Watson is not a man who deals well with passion in his own heart, he wants it to be a danger that breaks in on him from outside, not a force that drives him from inside.

I'll be curious to see how/if they deal with this in Series 4. I'll be honest here, I don't see Mary living long enough to have her baby, and although I like her character just fine, I think that's for the best for the narrative. How John and Sherlock deal with that grief, and how John re-calibrates his relationship with Sherlock in the wake of that loss...they'd be interesting, but wrenching, to watch, and probably would deserve more time than the show has (assuming they continue to have cases at all…). I wouldn't necessarily be averse to her turning out to be more villainous, but I kind of like the way she's balanced right now--a dangerous woman who's given up her life of danger to enter the medical field, the kind of woman (as we see at the beginning of His Last Vow) that as in canon "folk in grief come to like birds to a lighthouse."

As for the elephant in the room (lol) about Series 4...I'd most like to see a take like Asimov's "Foundation" series for Moriarty, that he somehow set up a series of deathtraps and schemes before he died, coded with triggers to set them in motion. Videos of Moriarty from beyond the grave taunting Sherlock--and how exactly do you defeat an adversary who will never know he's defeated, where is the triumph in that? I'm also fine with someone using footage of him to lure Sherlock out, and heck, I'd even go for the twin brother theory, that's fine too. The only things I wouldn't like are A. It's actually really Moriarty and he didn't die and B. It's Mycroft or Sherlock creating a red herring to save Sherlock from having to go, both of which seem cheap or shady.

OK, thank you for bearing with me, that was...a lot of thoughts!

Comments

[mekare]

Oh I really want to get my teeth into this post but will have to wait until TOMORROW evening - which is blessedly exam-free.

[mithen]

Ooooh, I am looking forward to your thoughts! I think this post came off as more negative than I actually feel--it's funny, with the Jackson films I often nitpick and dislike lots of the little details but end up loving the whole; with Sherlock I ended up loving lots of the little moments to death but was very ambivalent about the series as a whole. But I will still be desperately waiting for the next series with vast anticipation!

[alltoseek]

I finally got over my hate for S3, so I won't burden you with it. I like and agree with much of your take on it.

Basically S3 was all about fanfic: crack, fluff, angst/UST. There you go. Not surprisingly, fandom went for the fluff most, and the UST!angst next. Crack not really being a good look for canon.

My biggest disappointment was the uneven development of Sherlock. We knew the series was about his character's development, but in this season he's all over the map. It's harder to get a decent fix on his character now than it was at the end of S2. Plus his rampant stupidity, as you noticed: He stops detecting. Even when he does his findings tend to take him by surprise *g*


My idea for the Moriarty vid was Mary setting it up to bring Sherlock back. Returning the favour, so to speak *g* All these tumblrites were all upset that the airport scene wasn't more emotional and I'm all like, dude, BAMF!Mary and BAMF!John are going to follow Sherlock to Serbia to get him out of trouble; there's no real separation, of course they're not worked up about it. But then Mary found a quicker way, which was good cause the NHS doesn't have prenatal clinics in Serbia :D

I expect we'll see more of her backstory. She'll either be related to Sholto's tragedy (AGRA) or Moriarty's network. Which may or may not lead to her death, but since she's fridged in the original I wouldn't be surprised to find her killed off here too. If the baby survives she'll have too tho'. Fanficcers write the most ridiculous kid!fic where having a baby doesn't slow John or Sherlock down a bit, but I can't see the creators doing that. Unless they're keen on Mrs "Just this once I'm your landlady not your babysitter" Hudson, I dunno.

But 221B's just not right without John in it, so I expect he'll be back pretty quick, most likely sans Mary. Which is pretty much the same reason ACD offed her.

[mithen]

Unlike the Jackson LotR movies, where I dislike a LOT of little details and yet end up loving the overall thing to death, I have the opposite reaction to this series of Sherlock: lots of little moments I liked, but the overall series just felt so far off in terms of tone.

My newer working theory is that they've stepped sideways and switched to a noir tone rather than the deductive detective approach. It's got it all: a femme fatale with secrets who draws the protagonist in, a thickening plot that the protagonist can't manage to keep ahead of, he's reduced to reacting and hoping it'll work out, an explicit (frankly overly-explicit) rejection of the idea of heroes. Sherlock's final speech before shooting CAM is pure noir, right down to the snappy "Merry Christmas!" To cite TV Tropes for convenience: "The tone and outlook of Film Noir must be bleak, defeatist, and pessimistic — it always suggests a sliminess beyond what it can show. Nobody gets what they want, and everyone gets what's coming to them. . . . The double-cross and cigarette smoking are mandatory. Complicated plots are further convoluted by Flashbacks and Flash Forwards. . . . Film Noir works are often low on exposition to heighten tension, keeping the audience guessing until the final unraveling. The conclusion takes place in the closing moments, ties up all the loose ends, answers many (if not all) of the major questions and keeps the morally ambiguous theme of the work intact."

It's...not really what I signed up for with Sherlock Holmes, but I'm willing to wait and see if S4 shifts back to the style I prefer, I guess.

[alltoseek]

OK, I've got a new genre for HLV: noir. So it's angsty, usty, dark/noir!fic. Okey-doke.

But they forgot to wrap up the loose ends. Even without the Moriarty teaser.

Yes, here's to hoping S4 is more Sherlock-y than "Let's see what we can get away with this time!" but since the general audience seems to be eating up what Mofftiss are serving I am not holding my breath.