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Sherlock S4 so far
Will reply to comments later, sorry - I’m off to see Cursed Child for the fourth time again! With ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mywitch! YAYYYYY!
I’m not in Sherlock fandom but I’m sort of fandom-adjacent; I’ve read a bit of fanfic, and I have enough friends who’re in the fandom and enough awareness of fandom at large to have a (very) vague idea about it and its reactions. And I’ve caught up so I wanted to post this before the last episode airs. Now as ever you’re welcome to disagree; I’ve got dear dear RL friends who are also fans I disagree with on some stuff I’m a lot more invested in :D
Although I imagine the real disagreement will come from the shortly-forthcoming post about queerbaiting and Epic Friendship, because it will involve defending Cursed Child :P
Please to not spoil the next episode, I know nothing!
They FUCKING fridged her. Of course they did. It’s so fucking boring and predictable as well as enraging; rewatch The Price and see how perfectly Mary’s death, and John holding her, fits in amidst the clips. Ugh.
I like Moffat and Gatiss’ writing; and although Moffat has a weakness for a certain type of strong snarky woman, I don’t think it’s any more than an archetype he enjoys, which most writers have. Molly, Irene, Mrs Hudson, Amy, and Clara are all very different from each other. They are trying on the feminism front, I think.
And yet. We keep ending up with stuff like, because the format of the English detective story requires the detective explaining it all to a room full of suspects/characters, Sherlock lecturing a roomful of silent women on the importance of feminism. Or a dead woman in a room of FOUR men who will always get to live - did anyone else flash back to A Hole In The World and Fred’s hospital scene? - because Lestrade or Mycroft getting murdered to shock and change our heroes would be a price too high. Feminism is not as important as reaching for the schlockiest, easiest trope. And then the villain chides our hero, in a way that comes off as chiding the audience, for being insufficiently evolved. No, you’re right, I should’ve predicted the introduction of a new Main Woman, to go with our three Main Men.
I am excited for a wicked Holmes sister to outwit and battle with the brothers, don’t get me wrong. Just, argh. Sherlock keeps introducing wicked, non-conformist women and then humiliating them and/or killing them off.
I liked John’s line about “we did see it coming… but it was fun”. I hated that they took Sherlock in that direction - Holmes is violent but he doesn’t win that way - so since actual consequences are a pipe dream I’ll at least take that line. I do wish for consequences, even Doylist ones rather than like legal, Watsonian (ha!) ones. (Doylist = outside the narrative/from the author, Watsonian = inside the narrative/from the characters or narrator. Why is Amy Pond a kissogram? So she can make money and for fun. Or for plot twist and male gaze.) Mary’s death by shooting could easily have been thematically connected to Sherlock’s murder of last series’ villain: think of Tara’s death and its connection to Willow’s crimes.
I imagine it was enormously satisfying to write Sherlock taking down Jimmy Savile. (He was a British TV personality and radio host, who was knighted and massively involved in philanthropy, especially hospitals and especially children’s wards. After his death a vast number of allegations of sexual assault, most of it against children, came out. During his lifetime accusers were ignored or disbelieved. I can’t imagine many viewers outside the UK know about this huge scandal but it’s an unmistakeable allusion for us. I don’t know what I think about that; it seems a bit cheap, even self-indulgent - maybe it’s inappropriate to vent rage in this way. On the other hand, Savile died without facing justice at all and I can imagine it being kind of great to watch his avatar get arrested. The self-indulgence seems less given that the entrapment is acknowledged and it’s not a gunning-him-down-righteously thing: he’s going to prison.
Speaking of very specifically British references: “never knowingly undercliched”, ahaha! I adored Abbington’s delivery and the reference was perfectly middle-class. Very appropriate for Mary’s role as Mary.
Oh Mary. :((( I never loved you as I have other spy girls becoming real girls, but you were an honourable addition to the pantheon and I’ll most certainly miss you.
mywitch! YAYYYYY!I’m not in Sherlock fandom but I’m sort of fandom-adjacent; I’ve read a bit of fanfic, and I have enough friends who’re in the fandom and enough awareness of fandom at large to have a (very) vague idea about it and its reactions. And I’ve caught up so I wanted to post this before the last episode airs. Now as ever you’re welcome to disagree; I’ve got dear dear RL friends who are also fans I disagree with on some stuff I’m a lot more invested in :D
Although I imagine the real disagreement will come from the shortly-forthcoming post about queerbaiting and Epic Friendship, because it will involve defending Cursed Child :P
Please to not spoil the next episode, I know nothing!
They FUCKING fridged her. Of course they did. It’s so fucking boring and predictable as well as enraging; rewatch The Price and see how perfectly Mary’s death, and John holding her, fits in amidst the clips. Ugh.
I like Moffat and Gatiss’ writing; and although Moffat has a weakness for a certain type of strong snarky woman, I don’t think it’s any more than an archetype he enjoys, which most writers have. Molly, Irene, Mrs Hudson, Amy, and Clara are all very different from each other. They are trying on the feminism front, I think.
And yet. We keep ending up with stuff like, because the format of the English detective story requires the detective explaining it all to a room full of suspects/characters, Sherlock lecturing a roomful of silent women on the importance of feminism. Or a dead woman in a room of FOUR men who will always get to live - did anyone else flash back to A Hole In The World and Fred’s hospital scene? - because Lestrade or Mycroft getting murdered to shock and change our heroes would be a price too high. Feminism is not as important as reaching for the schlockiest, easiest trope. And then the villain chides our hero, in a way that comes off as chiding the audience, for being insufficiently evolved. No, you’re right, I should’ve predicted the introduction of a new Main Woman, to go with our three Main Men.
I am excited for a wicked Holmes sister to outwit and battle with the brothers, don’t get me wrong. Just, argh. Sherlock keeps introducing wicked, non-conformist women and then humiliating them and/or killing them off.
I liked John’s line about “we did see it coming… but it was fun”. I hated that they took Sherlock in that direction - Holmes is violent but he doesn’t win that way - so since actual consequences are a pipe dream I’ll at least take that line. I do wish for consequences, even Doylist ones rather than like legal, Watsonian (ha!) ones. (Doylist = outside the narrative/from the author, Watsonian = inside the narrative/from the characters or narrator. Why is Amy Pond a kissogram? So she can make money and for fun. Or for plot twist and male gaze.) Mary’s death by shooting could easily have been thematically connected to Sherlock’s murder of last series’ villain: think of Tara’s death and its connection to Willow’s crimes.
I imagine it was enormously satisfying to write Sherlock taking down Jimmy Savile. (He was a British TV personality and radio host, who was knighted and massively involved in philanthropy, especially hospitals and especially children’s wards. After his death a vast number of allegations of sexual assault, most of it against children, came out. During his lifetime accusers were ignored or disbelieved. I can’t imagine many viewers outside the UK know about this huge scandal but it’s an unmistakeable allusion for us. I don’t know what I think about that; it seems a bit cheap, even self-indulgent - maybe it’s inappropriate to vent rage in this way. On the other hand, Savile died without facing justice at all and I can imagine it being kind of great to watch his avatar get arrested. The self-indulgence seems less given that the entrapment is acknowledged and it’s not a gunning-him-down-righteously thing: he’s going to prison.
Speaking of very specifically British references: “never knowingly undercliched”, ahaha! I adored Abbington’s delivery and the reference was perfectly middle-class. Very appropriate for Mary’s role as Mary.
Oh Mary. :((( I never loved you as I have other spy girls becoming real girls, but you were an honourable addition to the pantheon and I’ll most certainly miss you.