"Sherlock" BBC series.

[Doctor Damage]

Great posts, Doctor Strange and Chasseur. Good tonic for a modern age in which everyone wants to "belong" to something, either so they can feel better about themselves or so they can exclude or persecute others. When we start dividing ourselves up into corporations or groups, or factions or religions, then we become easier to control and direct.

Regarding Holmes and gender/sex: Edward is correct. Holmes was asexual, as Watson states on many occasions in the written works, and even his attraction to "The Woman" was explained as a primarily intellectual atttraction. I read these last year (again) so it's fresh in my mind. What fans might do under the heading of "fan fiction" is up to them and the canon is strong enough to survive almost any re-telling or re-visioning.

 

[Gin&Tonics]

I agree with the assertion that cannonically, Holmes is essentially asexual. He is described by Watson on more than one occasion as being akin to a human calculating machine who finds emotional attachments and romance distracting and primarily uninteresting. I think there are some little sparks of romantic interest between Holmes and certain characters, certain ladies which 'turn his head' so to speak in the course of the canon, but ultimately he lives for his work. One interpretation, perhaps, is that Holmes chooses not to pursue certain romantic entanglements he might have partially out of a sense of selflessness on his part; he knows such entanglements would likely end up placing any lady with whom he became involved in serious peril in many respects, would cloud his incisive reason, and would force her very often to suffer for the sake of his work, and there is too much of the heroic and the chivalrous in Sherlock Holmes to allow that.

I think several of my esteemed fellow members have quite hit the nail on the head. It aggravates me that people seem to think that two men cannot possibly have a very close relationship without being gay. Nothing could be further from the truth; indeed, in my opinion one of the most endearing aspects of the Holmes stories is the deep and abiding friendship between Watson and Holmes and the mutual admiration they have for one another. There's nothing the least bloody bit sexual or gay about it, nor should there need to be. As it is written, "There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother," and "As iron sharpens iron, so one man's countenance sharpens another." This constant insistence on, "Oh they're really close, they must be gay" just completely cheapens and denigrates that.

Of course fan writers can write whatever they like, that is their right, just as it's my right to despise and decry it.

 

[vintage68]

Benedict Cumberbatch has said that he approaches the character of Holmes as a man with Asperger's Syndrome, or someone who is sociopathic.

Mark Gatiss (the creator of the show) says that both Holmes and Mycroft see relationships as a weakness:

"I wish I was half as clever, but I'm glad I'm not detached like him," Gatiss said. "'The Ice Man' as Moriarty calls him. He and Sherlock have both clearly decided that they mustn't get involved with human relationships. They perceive them as weaknesses."

 

[vintage68]

Anyway...a quick question for fans in the UK: why are there so few episodes in a season? Three? Seems rather brief to me.

Here is an interview with Steven Moffat where he explains the three episode format:


"[The format has] worked for us," agreed Moffat, in an interview with The Huffington Post. "That will always be the case.

"It will probably extend the life of the show, because everybody gets to do other things. It's not like Doctor Who, which is 24-hour-a-day slavery as long as you're involved in it. That's why people have to escape [that show]."

Moffat argued that a shorter run of episodes gives Sherlock "its pace and intensity".

"If we now went to a Doctor Who-style series [of 13 episodes] - which we could have done - those episodes would be a bit pale compared to the ones we do now," he suggested.

"I don't think we could go the other route now. It didn't go that [three-episode] route because of my commitment to Doctor Who - it was Ben Stephenson of the BBC, the head of drama. He suggested Sherlock should be an event-status television program."

The series would lose its "event status" if the quantity of episodes was increased, Moffat added.

"Sherlock arrives back like a rock star into the amphitheatre [but] it can't do that every week," he said. "It can do that three times every 18 months."

A third series of Sherlock is expected to begin filming in early 2013.

 

[Kirk H.]

I agree with the assertion that cannonically, Holmes is essentially asexual. He is described by Watson on more than one occasion as being akin to a human calculating machine who finds emotional attachments and romance distracting and primarily uninteresting. I think there are some little sparks of romantic interest between Holmes and certain characters, certain ladies which 'turn his head' so to speak in the course of the canon, but ultimately he lives for his work. One interpretation, perhaps, is that Holmes chooses not to pursue certain romantic entanglements he might have partially out of a sense of selflessness on his part; he knows such entanglements would likely end up placing any lady with whom he became involved in serious peril in many respects, would cloud his incisive reason, and would force her very often to suffer for the sake of his work, and there is too much of the heroic and the chivalrous in Sherlock Holmes to allow that.

I think several of my esteemed fellow members have quite hit the nail on the head. It aggravates me that people seem to think that two men cannot possibly have a very close relationship without being gay. Nothing could be further from the truth; indeed, in my opinion one of the most endearing aspects of the Holmes stories is the deep and abiding friendship between Watson and Holmes and the mutual admiration they have for one another. There's nothing the least bloody bit sexual or gay about it, nor should there need to be. As it is written, "There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother," and "As iron sharpens iron, so one man's countenance sharpens another." This constant insistence on, "Oh they're really close, they must be gay" just completely cheapens and denigrates that.

Of course fan writers can write whatever they like, that is their right, just as it's my right to despise and decry it.

Very well put G&T

 

[Edward]

I haven't seen the series yet but I think if the go from pipe smoking to nicotine patches the little extra gayness won't make spoil the fun. In fact there are many internet memes and tumblr blog from teenage girls who LOVE to see a gay sherlock. I don't know what's their interest there but...

Fair point. The teen girl thing.... it's the same as them going daft over gay or straight effeminate boyband poppets: the object of their affections is non-aggressive, disinterested, and ultimately unthreatening.

Benedict Cumberbatch has said that he approaches the character of Holmes as a man with Asperger's Syndrome, or someone who is sociopathic.

Which is absolutely spot on, IMO. Someone with that sort of condition will focus no details and observations to a degree that allows them to see theings many of us will miss.

Mark Gatiss (the creator of the show) says that both Holmes and Mycroft see relationships as a weakness:

"I wish I was half as clever, but I'm glad I'm not detached like him," Gatiss said. "'The Ice Man' as Moriarty calls him. He and Sherlock have both clearly decided that they mustn't get involved with human relationships. They perceive them as weaknesses."

And this is spot on. I love this Holmes. Selfless goody-goodies bore me. Arrogant, socially disordered people with genius are much more fun. He does often remind me of Spock suppressing his weak, human side.

 

[dhermann1]

I keep giving this show 30 second trials, and it always makes me switch the channel. Just now Sherlock is trying to figure out somebody's password, and BRILLIANTLY figures it out in five seconds. Then he goes into the computer and it spews all this LURID jazzy visual garbage at him, complete with all these silly squeeks and buzzes. Puhleeze, how 1988.

 

[Chasseur]

I enjoyed the first season, but this second season is a bit too gimmicky and not particularly interesting...

I am not sure of what value a Hound of the Baskervilles story is when Holmes is with Watson the whole time. In this episode it seems Mark Freeman's Watson was regulated to a modern version the old bumbling comic relief Nigel Bruce Watson from the Rathburn films.
Also, all the time the show spends with cell phone texting (or should I say mobile? ) and him figuring out passwords with lots of special effects is rather tedious...

 

[Doctor Strange]

As somebody who's already seen the entire second season, let me say that IMHO "Baskerville" was by far the weakest of the three episodes. (Coincidentally, I thought the second episode of the first season was also the weakest of those three.)

Yes, the series leans on its modern-tech gimmicks quite a bit, which may make this "current-day" telling look pretty dated in ten or fifteen years. But it gets the Holmes/Watson character interaction so splendidly right that it's an instant classic that will always be treasured. And for an example of how wrong the whole thing could have gone, let's wait and see next season's Holmes-in-modern-NYC series from CBS with Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu, which I predict will be lame at best and godawful at worst!

 

[Edward]

As somebody who's already seen the entire second season, let me say that IMHO "Baskerville" was by far the weakest of the three episodes. (Coincidentally, I thought the second episode of the first season was also the weakest of those three.)

Yes, the series leans on its modern-tech gimmicks quite a bit, which may make this "current-day" telling look pretty dated in ten or fifteen years. But it gets the Holmes/Watson character interaction so splendidly right that it's an instant classic that will always be treasured. And for an example of how wrong the whole thing could have gone, let's wait and see next season's Holmes-in-modern-NYC series from CBS with Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu, which I predict will be lame at best and godawful at worst!

I'm intrigued to see that US version, but I fear it will be a car crash. It's probably one that would require a gay Holmes and Watson - if they are both hetereosexual characters, there's always the danger it'll start to fall back on the old sexual tension thing. Not a bad thing in and of itself (The X-Files managed it well for a long time before it jumped the shark), but there's only so far you can deviate from the source material before you start to think "well, what's the point, why not just do something new?" I do think the version at hand here works so well precisely because they have changed the timeframe only, while keeping the rest true to the source. FWIW, my considered opinion is that for all the modernisation, Cumberbatch and Freeman are by far the truest to the books of any version I have seen.

 

[Feraud]

let's wait and see next season's Holmes-in-modern-NYC series from CBS with Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu, which I predict will be lame at best and godawful at worst!

Is it April 1st. because you have got to be pulling our legs Doc!

 

[Doctor Strange]

Alas, it's legit:

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/05/13/cbs-series-sherlock-holmes/

Addendum: Detailed description of the show from today's A.V. Club report on next season's CBS schedule... Aargh! It's much worse than I was expecting!

Elementary stars Jonny Lee Miller as detective Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Liu as Dr. Joan Watson in a modern-day drama about a crime-solving duo that cracks the NYPD’s most impossible cases. Following his fall from grace in London and a stint in rehab, eccentric Sherlock escapes to Manhattan where his wealthy father forces him to live with his worst nightmare, a sober companion, Dr. Watson. A successful surgeon until she lost a patient and her license three years ago, Watson views her current job as another opportunity to help people, as well as paying a penance. However, the restless Sherlock is nothing like her previous clients. He informs her that none of her expertise as an addiction specialist applies to him, and he’s devised his own post-rehab regimen, resuming his work as a police consultant in New York City. Watson has no choice but to accompany her irascible new charge on his jobs. But Sherlock finds her medical background helpful, and Watson realizes she has a knack for playing investigator. Sherlock’s police contact, Capt. Tobias “Toby” Gregson (Aidan Quinn), knows from previous experience working with Scotland Yard that Sherlock is brilliant at closing cases, and welcomes him as part of the team. With the mischievous Sherlock Holmes now running free in New York solving crimes, it’s simple deduction that he’s going to need someone to keep him grounded, and it’s elementary that it’s a job for Watson.

 

[vintage68]

Dr. Joan Watson..... oh dear

 

[Feraud]

Following his fall from grace in London and a stint in rehab, eccentric Sherlock escapes to Manhattan where his wealthy father forces him to live with his worst nightmare, a sober companion, Dr. Watson.

Oh Lord this sounds like the plot to a potential Ryan Reynolds/Katherine Heigl romcom.. just awful.

 

[Chasseur]

That is one of the worst pitches for a TV show I've heard in quite some time. This following part is particularly painful:

With the mischievous Sherlock Holmes now running free in New York solving crimes, it’s simple deduction that he’s going to need someone to keep him grounded, and it’s elementary that it’s a job for Watson.

Perhaps up there with Joe Penny's Samurai:
[video=youtube;XRdaucW8D7g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRdaucW8D7g[/video]

 

[Feraud]

The language in the pitch is so bad and obvious to the direction they are heading they may as well call the characters Sherlock Handsome and Dr. Foxy and get it over with.
I can assume his own "post rehab regimen" will include carefully measured body shots off hot models' bellies at some hip club in the Meat Packing District?

It looks like Joe Penny's The Samurai couldn't compete with Lee Van Cleef's The Master?

 

[Chasseur]

It looks like Joe Penny's The Samurai couldn't compete with Lee Van Cleef's The Master?

Well as bad as The Master was at least it managed a season, Samurai never made it past the pilot... Also the Master has Sho Kosugi!

 

[Edward]

There are two shows I'd love to see out of sheer curiosity - one of which I've only ever seen clips, the other not at all. They are After MASH and Walter. The former was a sequel to the obvious that ran (I think) one season; the latter followed Radar O'Reilly post-Korea, and only ever got as far as the pilot. Both wholly unnecessary and, it seems to me, more attempts to cash in on a successful brand than any artistic merit, but I'd still be intrigued to see them.

 

[Gin&Tonics]

Does CBS stand for Crap Broadcasting Syndicate? Oh man, let's hope that horrible farce never gets off the ground. And seriously, of all the people they could have picked to play a character named "Joan Watson" they pick Lucy Liu? Seriously? How many asian females have you ever met named "Joan Watson". Honestly, who comes up with this tripe?

 

[Richard Warren]

My wife really enjoys the Holmes/Watson remake that comes on Thursday nights (for some reason called the Big Bang something or other). I personalty think the blonde chick is a little too bulked up and that they need to speed up the crime part.