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nausicaa83Last Sherlock entry for this season. A season that lasted one week and a half. And now we're back on hiatus. Oh joy.
Spoiler-free review, I think it was the best episode of this season, even considering it came after an episode I loved. But it had its problems. Although I think the huge problem always boils down to the fact that it's just three episodes every two years, and it's really showing.
Let's go backwards like Sherlock, then. ;) I didn't like the final surprise. I adore Andrew Scott. I think he's one of the best actors who've ever graced this earth, and I absolutely adore his Moriarty. But this is literally beating a dead horse. He had his fantastic arc, he had his psychopathic, perfect death scene, it all made sense. And now they turned him into a terminator that never dies. It's not intriguing when villains do that, it's annoying. And it shows lack of imagination on the writers' part.
I thought Magnusson was a fantastic villain. The fact that he wasn't, strictly speaking, a villain was what made him the perfect new opponent. He doesn't have an evil plan, a vendetta, an obsession with Sherlock, he's just conducting his business. He's a real world villain. And he was creepy and disgusting in a completely different way from Moriarty. They spent an entire episode telling me they can write different villains, and then they erased it all and went back to square one. This is the Jekyll tv series all over again: a bloody fantastic series completely ruined by the ending, where they wanted to go for the big plot twist at all costs, even when it negated everything we had just seen.
Speaking of Magnusson, the Mind Palace scene was brilliant. Although in that moment I knew what Sherlock was going to do. It was what I would have done as well, it didn't come as a surprise. I loved that this season, although it suffered from being very disjointed, had a common thread, Sherlock's immense love for John. I think it was ruined by him going away for exactly four minutes. We all knew he wasn't going to die in Eastern Europe, otherwise the show would be called John, but it felt like it ruined the pathos of that last goodbye, having him hop off the plane right away. Although, to be fair, it would have just been the beginning of TEH all over again in two years time, so maybe they were right in cutting it short.
I just wish it didn't always resolve in Sherlock's sacrifice for John. I'd like to see John take a more active role. In 9 episodes he's been kidnapped half of the time, to the point that I didn't laugh when CAM called him a damsel in distress, because that's exactly what he is. He serves the passive role of being Sherlock's (and now Mary's) pressure point. His only usefulness in being with Sherlock in the final scene is being the carrier of the gun. Even without physically humilating him, CAM had already made his point, John didn't even need to be in the scene for Sherlock's act to make sense. This was the rooftop of Barts all over again, but this time it was a metaphorical sniper.
Backwards again! It must be Elementary's fault, but I found the drug aspect of the episode rushed. I'm no expert, but I'm not sure one could bounce up and down like that with no consequences. Loved Molly speaking her mind, although I wonder what was the meaning of her engagement if they were always going to cancel it.
Speaking of which, my favourite scene has to be the Mind Palace one. Besides getting very strong Paradox Series vibes (crazy strong), I found every detail incredibly interesting. Why is Molly the face of Sherlock's medical knowledge? Shouldn't it be John? And loved the staircases and final cell, with Moriarty. Lots of meta right there just waiting to be written. Although I find the idea that he could fight back blood loss and resulting heart failure with sheer force of mind ridicolous, it was still a very beautiful scene. And they got us with Redbeard, didn't they? :D
In many ways I think this was Sherlock and Mycroft's season. From the weird kinky torture sequence to Mycroft seeing his baby brother when he looks at Sherlock, I loved everything, even the cheesiest parts. And we got a lot more details about Mommy and Daddy Holmes.
I got a bit confused with the timeline. Sherlock comes back in November 2013. Mary says that she wants to get married in May. Then she says that they haven't seen Sherlock for a month (and the fact that we can't see her pregnant belly confirms the episode takes place for the first part in July). Then we skip to December, and Mary is super pregnant, and she says John hasn't spoken with her since. Wow. That was a very assholish thing to do, John. Like, top level douchebag. She lied because she was ex-CIA, it's not that weird, and considering John's a soldier, he should be the first to understand that some secrets cannot be revealed. Or maybe just have a bit of empathy for the woman he's supposed to love.
Backwards a little more, loved Janine. Still a classical Moffat woman, but I liked her interactions with Sherlock when they were both sincere about it. At least when Sherlock said that he was using her for a case, he was exactly the same douchebag from TEH. Coherence, yay!
I loved the scene when Mary reveals herself unknowingly to John. Loved the setting, cinematography, everything. And the acting. Holy shit, John's face. That scene, and John's "why is she like that" in Baker Street felt a lot like a punch in the stomach.
And at least now it makes sense why we never actually got to see how Sherlock did his magic trick. Because now they have to explain to us how Moriarty did it, and so see you next time with all your questions. My money is back on tiny Sherlock in a robot, AND tiny Jim in another robot.
In a way, I am glad I was so spectacularly wrong about Mary's death at the end of this episode. I like her character and hope that she'll come back as a Crime Fighting Hero. What I don't like is that she's still pregnant when we last saw her. So it could mean she gets back in two years time, just to be killed in childbirth, per sort-of-canon, or just offed by Moriarty. Or maybe she just takes the baby and leaves when her daughter's life is threatened. My bet on "Mary dies" is sadly still on the table.
What else? On one hand I wish the final goodbye would have been a tiny bit longer, considering they spent a third of this season with Sherlock and John shouting from the rooftops how much they love each other, and then when Sherlock was going to his death we're back in season one where we express our feelings by looks and humming. Not that much coherence there, guys.
After all I thought this was the weakest cliffhanger ever. Sherlock isn't dead but won't tell John and goes off into the sunset? 10/10. Moriarty's here, there's a bomb and snipers, how are we going to get out of this pool alive? 10/10. Sherlock is going to his death, although he won't because he's the main character, and we're all sad for four minutes because apparently Mycroft has the power to call him back with a phonecall when a dead terrorist airs a recorded tape on every tv in England? 3/10, try again. At least this time we won't suffer through the inevitable disappointing resolve. Moriarty gets a call, gets bored, walks out. Sherlock is a manipulative douchebag, there wasn't really any reason to lie to John since he never explained why, we're all good anyway. At least this time it's either Moriarty who got out of the robot, or Moran (because I refuse to accept that that was Moran, who had no lines and no purpose, thank you very much) trying to lure Sherlock out to plant a bullet in his head. Also in my mind Moran is still played by Richard Armitage and he's a sniper from the army. La-la-la-la I can't hear you!
And can we give Amanda Abbington all the awards, please? She was the best thing out of this season. I wish we'd actually got to know something more about her, details, anything, besides her old job's description, but she still managed to convey so much more about Mary with just her acting. Bloody amazing.
I think the problem and best feature of Sherlock is that it works because of its cast. Have anyone else playing the main characters, and the script would fail. Martin Freeman's acting tells so much more about John than what is actually said on screen. Same for all the others.
So yep, brilliant plot and villain, loved the interactions between Sherlock and Mary, loved how they confirmed John's love for dangerous things, even when it was used quite weakly to justify his love for Mary. It went all the way back to Mycroft's "you miss the war", it finally gave a pattern of unity to the whole series. In a hole in the ground there lived three happy psychopaths.
I'll download the 1080p version tomorrow, and then do a re-watching. It'll probably change my opinions slightly, how it always happens, but I think at the core this is what I got from this season. ^^
And now it's back to fanfics! \o/
Spoiler-free review, I think it was the best episode of this season, even considering it came after an episode I loved. But it had its problems. Although I think the huge problem always boils down to the fact that it's just three episodes every two years, and it's really showing.
Let's go backwards like Sherlock, then. ;) I didn't like the final surprise. I adore Andrew Scott. I think he's one of the best actors who've ever graced this earth, and I absolutely adore his Moriarty. But this is literally beating a dead horse. He had his fantastic arc, he had his psychopathic, perfect death scene, it all made sense. And now they turned him into a terminator that never dies. It's not intriguing when villains do that, it's annoying. And it shows lack of imagination on the writers' part.
I thought Magnusson was a fantastic villain. The fact that he wasn't, strictly speaking, a villain was what made him the perfect new opponent. He doesn't have an evil plan, a vendetta, an obsession with Sherlock, he's just conducting his business. He's a real world villain. And he was creepy and disgusting in a completely different way from Moriarty. They spent an entire episode telling me they can write different villains, and then they erased it all and went back to square one. This is the Jekyll tv series all over again: a bloody fantastic series completely ruined by the ending, where they wanted to go for the big plot twist at all costs, even when it negated everything we had just seen.
Speaking of Magnusson, the Mind Palace scene was brilliant. Although in that moment I knew what Sherlock was going to do. It was what I would have done as well, it didn't come as a surprise. I loved that this season, although it suffered from being very disjointed, had a common thread, Sherlock's immense love for John. I think it was ruined by him going away for exactly four minutes. We all knew he wasn't going to die in Eastern Europe, otherwise the show would be called John, but it felt like it ruined the pathos of that last goodbye, having him hop off the plane right away. Although, to be fair, it would have just been the beginning of TEH all over again in two years time, so maybe they were right in cutting it short.
I just wish it didn't always resolve in Sherlock's sacrifice for John. I'd like to see John take a more active role. In 9 episodes he's been kidnapped half of the time, to the point that I didn't laugh when CAM called him a damsel in distress, because that's exactly what he is. He serves the passive role of being Sherlock's (and now Mary's) pressure point. His only usefulness in being with Sherlock in the final scene is being the carrier of the gun. Even without physically humilating him, CAM had already made his point, John didn't even need to be in the scene for Sherlock's act to make sense. This was the rooftop of Barts all over again, but this time it was a metaphorical sniper.
Backwards again! It must be Elementary's fault, but I found the drug aspect of the episode rushed. I'm no expert, but I'm not sure one could bounce up and down like that with no consequences. Loved Molly speaking her mind, although I wonder what was the meaning of her engagement if they were always going to cancel it.
Speaking of which, my favourite scene has to be the Mind Palace one. Besides getting very strong Paradox Series vibes (crazy strong), I found every detail incredibly interesting. Why is Molly the face of Sherlock's medical knowledge? Shouldn't it be John? And loved the staircases and final cell, with Moriarty. Lots of meta right there just waiting to be written. Although I find the idea that he could fight back blood loss and resulting heart failure with sheer force of mind ridicolous, it was still a very beautiful scene. And they got us with Redbeard, didn't they? :D
In many ways I think this was Sherlock and Mycroft's season. From the weird kinky torture sequence to Mycroft seeing his baby brother when he looks at Sherlock, I loved everything, even the cheesiest parts. And we got a lot more details about Mommy and Daddy Holmes.
I got a bit confused with the timeline. Sherlock comes back in November 2013. Mary says that she wants to get married in May. Then she says that they haven't seen Sherlock for a month (and the fact that we can't see her pregnant belly confirms the episode takes place for the first part in July). Then we skip to December, and Mary is super pregnant, and she says John hasn't spoken with her since. Wow. That was a very assholish thing to do, John. Like, top level douchebag. She lied because she was ex-CIA, it's not that weird, and considering John's a soldier, he should be the first to understand that some secrets cannot be revealed. Or maybe just have a bit of empathy for the woman he's supposed to love.
Backwards a little more, loved Janine. Still a classical Moffat woman, but I liked her interactions with Sherlock when they were both sincere about it. At least when Sherlock said that he was using her for a case, he was exactly the same douchebag from TEH. Coherence, yay!
I loved the scene when Mary reveals herself unknowingly to John. Loved the setting, cinematography, everything. And the acting. Holy shit, John's face. That scene, and John's "why is she like that" in Baker Street felt a lot like a punch in the stomach.
And at least now it makes sense why we never actually got to see how Sherlock did his magic trick. Because now they have to explain to us how Moriarty did it, and so see you next time with all your questions. My money is back on tiny Sherlock in a robot, AND tiny Jim in another robot.
In a way, I am glad I was so spectacularly wrong about Mary's death at the end of this episode. I like her character and hope that she'll come back as a Crime Fighting Hero. What I don't like is that she's still pregnant when we last saw her. So it could mean she gets back in two years time, just to be killed in childbirth, per sort-of-canon, or just offed by Moriarty. Or maybe she just takes the baby and leaves when her daughter's life is threatened. My bet on "Mary dies" is sadly still on the table.
What else? On one hand I wish the final goodbye would have been a tiny bit longer, considering they spent a third of this season with Sherlock and John shouting from the rooftops how much they love each other, and then when Sherlock was going to his death we're back in season one where we express our feelings by looks and humming. Not that much coherence there, guys.
After all I thought this was the weakest cliffhanger ever. Sherlock isn't dead but won't tell John and goes off into the sunset? 10/10. Moriarty's here, there's a bomb and snipers, how are we going to get out of this pool alive? 10/10. Sherlock is going to his death, although he won't because he's the main character, and we're all sad for four minutes because apparently Mycroft has the power to call him back with a phonecall when a dead terrorist airs a recorded tape on every tv in England? 3/10, try again. At least this time we won't suffer through the inevitable disappointing resolve. Moriarty gets a call, gets bored, walks out. Sherlock is a manipulative douchebag, there wasn't really any reason to lie to John since he never explained why, we're all good anyway. At least this time it's either Moriarty who got out of the robot, or Moran (because I refuse to accept that that was Moran, who had no lines and no purpose, thank you very much) trying to lure Sherlock out to plant a bullet in his head. Also in my mind Moran is still played by Richard Armitage and he's a sniper from the army. La-la-la-la I can't hear you!
And can we give Amanda Abbington all the awards, please? She was the best thing out of this season. I wish we'd actually got to know something more about her, details, anything, besides her old job's description, but she still managed to convey so much more about Mary with just her acting. Bloody amazing.
I think the problem and best feature of Sherlock is that it works because of its cast. Have anyone else playing the main characters, and the script would fail. Martin Freeman's acting tells so much more about John than what is actually said on screen. Same for all the others.
So yep, brilliant plot and villain, loved the interactions between Sherlock and Mary, loved how they confirmed John's love for dangerous things, even when it was used quite weakly to justify his love for Mary. It went all the way back to Mycroft's "you miss the war", it finally gave a pattern of unity to the whole series. In a hole in the ground there lived three happy psychopaths.
I'll download the 1080p version tomorrow, and then do a re-watching. It'll probably change my opinions slightly, how it always happens, but I think at the core this is what I got from this season. ^^
And now it's back to fanfics! \o/
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Date: 2014-01-13 12:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 12:10 pm (UTC)I think you've contributed to my immune system with the equivalent of like a week of vitamins. (As per laughter=health.)
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Date: 2014-01-13 12:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 02:13 pm (UTC)That's like pure sex. I'm having hot flushes just by looking at that gif.
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Date: 2014-01-13 04:49 pm (UTC)I've taken this hairdo as the means to restore the balance in the Universe after the moustache.
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Date: 2014-01-13 05:24 pm (UTC)